Poly Pelletizer: Recycled Pet Pellets From Water Bottles

Plastic water bottles comprise a large amount of waste worldwide. The goal of the Poly Pelletizer project is to create a system that will turn water bottles into polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pellets compatible with extruders to produce 3-D printer lament, along with other recycling applications.The system promotes a sustainable solution to plastic pollution by giving manufactures, particularly in developing nations, the means to produce their own bulk materials using waste plastic. Shrinking industrial recycling processes to a workbench scale gives individuals the ability to convert excess bottles into seemingly limitless products. The system works by using a dual heating and pressure system to both evenly mix and melt the plastic before pushing the resin through a die. The Poly Pelletizer successfully created pellets using various mixtures of virgin PET and shredded water bottles

Have We Observed the Higgs (Imposter)?

We interpret the new particle at the Large Hadron Collider as a CP-even scalar and investigate its electroweak quantum number. Assuming an unbroken custodial invariance as suggested by precision electroweak measurements, only four possibilities are allowed if the scalar decays to pairs of gauge bosons, as exemplified by a dilaton/radion, a non-dilatonic electroweak singlet scalar, an electroweak doublet scalar, and electroweak triplet scalars. We show that current LHC data already strongly disfavor both the dilatonic and non-dilatonic singlet imposters. On the other hand, a generic Higgs doublet give excellent fits to the measured event rates of the newly observed scalar resonance, while the Standard Model Higgs boson gives a slightly worse overall fit due to the lack signal in the tau tau channel. The triplet imposter exhibits some tension with the data. The global fit indicates the enhancement in the diphoton channel could be attributed to an enhanced partial decay width, while the production rates are consistent with the Standard Model expectations. We emphasize that more precise measurements of the ratio of event rates in the WW over ZZ channels, as well as the event rates in b bbar and tau tau channels, are needed to further distinguish the Higgs doublet from the triplet imposter.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures; v2: updated with most recent public data as of August 7. A generic Higgs doublet now gives the best fit to data, while the triplet imposter exhibits some tensio

Metabolic Costs of Blood Flow Restriction Training Under Moderate Load to Failure

This research focused on the metabolic costs associated with squatting to failure and squatting to failure with blood flow restriction cuffs. Each individual training program lasted a total of three weeks; consisting of two training days per week. Two groups were used for this study; proximal occlusion of legs and non-occluded legs. The occlusion group left the cuffs on until their final set was complete and pressure was maintained at 140 mmHg. The final session was monitored by a metabolic cart which recorded oxygen consumption levels throughout the workout. Oxygen consumption levels can be used to estimate aerobic costs, which can be combined with anaerobic cost estimates to produce a total metabolic cost profile for this squatting to failure program

Effect of peripheral defocus on axial eye growth and modulation of refractive error in hyperopes

Hyperopia is a known risk factor for the development of strabismus and amblyopia. In addition to visual consequences there is a growing body of evidence that uncorrected hyperopia may have a negative impact on educational attainment and visuocognitive and visuomotor skills. Currently, hyperopia receives much less attention from research than myopia even though the impact of moderate to high levels of hyperopia especially in one eye (anisohyperopia) can lead to amblyopia if not corrected fully at a young age. Hyperopia occurs as a consequence of insufficient ocular growth and a failure to emmetropise in childhood with the majority of hyperopic refractive errors resulting from an eye that is too short for its refractive power. In anisohyperopia it is unclear why one eye may remain hyperopic while the fellow eye grows towards an emmetropic state. Studies on animals have suggested that manipulating peripheral defocus through an optical means while simultaneously providing correct axial focus can either discourage or encourage axial eye growth to effectively treat myopia or hyperopia, respectively. Recent research has established that progression of myopia and axial eye growth can be significantly reduced in children and adolescents through the use of bifocal or multifocal contact lenses. These contact lenses while correcting the distance central myopia impose simultaneous myopic defocus. In recent years there has been a great deal of interest in delaying progression of myopia (short-sightedness) by slowing eye growth using a particular type of contact lens termed a centre-distance multifocal design. There have been encouraging results in this area to date. The proposed study here would explore the use of centre-near multifocal design contact lenses to encourage eye growth, thereby reducing hyperopia. There are three elements to the programme of research: 1. The natural progression of axial eye growth and refractive error will be measured in spectacle wearing hyperopic and anisohyperopic subjects aged between 5 and <19 years. In other words, the natural growth of the eye will be followed without intervention 2. As a paired eye control study anisohyperopes aged between 8 and <16 years will be fitted with a centre-near multifocal design contact lens in their more hyperopic eye and a single vision contact lens in the fellow eye if required. The progression of axial eye growth and refractive error will be measured and compared 3. Subjects aged between 8 and <16 years with similar levels of hyperopia in each eye will be fitted with centre-near multifocal design contact lenses in each eye. The progression of axial eye growth and refractive error will be measured and compared to subjects in the natural progression study. The objectives of the study are to: • Understand the natural progression of axial eye growth and refractive error in hyperopes and anisohyperopes • Establish if axial eye growth and refractive error can be modified using centre-near multifocal design contact lenses in hyperopes and anisohyperopes to improve visual outcome

An Architectural Design to Address the Impact of Adaptations on Intrusion Detection Systems

Many self-adaptive, autonomous systems rely on component technologies to report anomalies to planning processes that can choose adaptations. What if the analysis technologies themselves need to be adapted? We consider an intrusion detection system (IDS) supported by two component technologies that assist its decision making: a neural network that finds security anomalies and an attack graph that informs the IDS about system states of interest. The IDS’s purpose is to send alerts regarding security anomalies. Planning processes respond to alerts by selecting mitigation strategies. Mitigations are imposed system-wide and can result in adaptations to the analysis technology, such as the IDS. Thus, without adaptation it may reach a state of stagnation in its detection quality. In this paper, we describe an architectural design for an adaptive layer that works directly with an IDS. We examine two use cases involving different mitigation strategies and their impact on the IDS’s supporting components

Transport and communications in industrial mobility: The UK experience with particular reference to Scotland and Northern Ireland

Induced interregional industrial mobility has been at the heart of UK regional policy almost from the beginning. A fundamental difference of opinion has emerged recently over the extent to which mobility is affected by transport and communications considerations and, a cognate point, the proper role of infrastructure in regional policy. According to one line of reasoning, distance costs for most types of industry have largely lost whatever locational significance they may once have had, infrastructural expenditure in regional policy. According to one line of reasoning, distance costs for most types of industry have largely lost whatever locational significance they may once have had, infrastructural expenditure is essentially permissive rather than stimulatory, and historical deficiencies in the peripheral areas' stock of transport capital have, with possibly a few more or less trifling exceptions, been eliminated. Others hold that migrant-generators attach a great deal of significance to the adequacy of the transport and communications facilities in potential destination areas, a state of affairs insufficiently recognised heretofore by regional policymakers with the result that transport and communications infrastructure in the official 'areas for expansion' has been in chronically short supply. Not only is the issue sketched here highly topical, it has strong political overtones. Its exploration is the purpose of this study. Three hypotheses, bases upon commonsense and previous work in the field, are set forth in order to focus the research effort. It is postulated first that good transport and communication systems are essential to the success of most interregional industrial movements, secondly that private distance costs are not an important constraint on interregional industrial mobility for most types of manufacturing industry, and thirdly that the quality of intra-firm communications and organisational flexibility can often be more critical to the long-term viability of industrial migrants than distance costs. In essence, the study comprises an appraisal of relevant economic theory, a detailed look at the evolution of regional policy in Great Britain and Northern Ireland focussing on the role assigned to transport and communications, a selective evaluation of previous UK research on industrial mobility, an original analysis of industrial survey questionnaires sent out in 1960 under the auspices of the Toothill Committee, an examination of postwar industrial migrant flows to Scotland and NI, extensive analyses of the transport and communications cost data from the 1963 Censes of Production distinguishing between the UK as a whole and its Scottish and NI members, and six case studies of postwar industrial migration to Scotland. That private transport costs have been much more of a constraint on postwar interregional industrial mobility than generally realized is the most important single conclusion to emerge from the study. In contrast to this unexpected verdict, ample support is presented for the other two hypotheses suggesting that potential migrant-generators may exaggerate the adverse transport cost implications of a peripheral location while underestimating the significance of non-cost communications considerations. It is also concluded that existing theory is of remarkably little value in pragmatic terms, that transport and communications were virtually ignored by regional policymakers between 1934 when policy began and 1963, that the emphasis upon improved infrastructure by successive governments both nationally and in NI since about 1963 has not been misplaced, that the integration of regional with transport and communications policies has not yet gone as far as it should, that scope remains for further expenditure on transport and communications in pursuance of regional objectives, and that more research is needed on a host of germane topics

Incentive-compatible mechanisms for norm monitoring in open multi-agent systems (Extended abstract)

We consider the problem of detecting norm violations in open multi-agent systems (MAS). In this extended abstract, we outline the approach of [Alechina et al., 2018], and show how, using ideas from scrip systems, we can design mechanisms where the agents comprising the MAS are incen-tivised to monitor the actions of other agents for norm violation

A case study of colliding tornadic storms

Abstract only availableTornadoes occur frequently across the United States each year, causing millions of dollars in damage. Meteorologists are constantly searching for new and improved methods for predicting these weather phenomenons's in order to increase public awareness and warning times. In this case study, one event was found in which two storm cells collided and produced a tornado over the Kansas City, Missouri area, causing an extensive amount of damage. The goals of this study is to first determine what caused the collision between the two storm cells, secondly, whether the collision between the two storm cells increased the intensity of the tornado using NSSL/SPC (National Severe Storms Laboratory/ Storm Prediction Center) meteorologist Stephen F. Corfidi's “vector approach.” A method that involves the use of mathematics to find the mean of the wind directions throughout the cloud layers in the storms and also the location of the low-level jet. Radar imagery was also used in determining the location, time, intensity, and other details of the two storm cells. It is our hope, that the completion of this study will produce results that are conducive to the development of more innovative methods for forecasting this type of event.Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participatio