Structural Equation Modeling approach to explore Urban Sprawl and its impact on Commuting outcomes in the U.S. Urbanized areas

There is insufficient evidence on how compactness affects auto ownership, travel distance, and congestion, affecting in turn commuting time. To address this gap, this study employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to account for both direct and indirect effects of compactness on commuting behavior. The objectives of this research are- (a) to assess compactness of U.S. urbanized areas using compactness/sprawl metrics; (b) to analyze commuting behavior using the American Community Survey (ACS) commuting data; (c) to find the impact of urban sprawl on commuting behavior considering the mediation effect of vehicle ownership, travel distance, and congestion. The study results help better understand the effect of compactness on commuting time controlling for the confounding variables. Additional outcomes of this research include determination of the strength and direction of impact of mediating variables on commuting time. The study findings would aid city planners and policymakers in developing long-term plans for sustainable and equitable transportation in urban areas

Numerical analysis of blade tip leakage flow and shroud heat transfer in gas turbine engines

One of the most critical components of gas turbine engines, rotor blade tip and casing, is exposed to high thermal load. It is a significant challenge to the designer to protect the turbine material from this severe situation. Leakage flow over the blade tip is also one of the important issues to improve the turbine performance. To understand the detailed phenomena and natures of the heat transfer on the turbine blade tip and casing in association with the tip leakage flow under actual turbine operating conditions, both steady and unsteady simulations have been conducted. A single stage gas turbine engine was modeled and simulated using commercial CFD solver ANSYS CFX R.11. The modeled turbine stage has 30 vanes and 60 blades with a pressure ratio of 3.2 and a rotational speed of 9500 rpm. The predicted isentropic Mach number and adiabatic wall temperature on the casing showed good agreement with available experimental data under the close operating condition. Through the steady simulations, the typical tip leakage flow structures and heat transfer rate distributions were analyzed. The tip leakage flow separates and recirculates just around the pressure side edge of the blade tip. This coverage of the recirculating flow results in low heat transfer rates on the tip surface. The leakage flow then reattaches on the tip surface beyond the flow separation zone. This flow reattachment has shown enhanced heat transfer rates on the tip. The leakage flow interaction with the reverse cross flow, induced by relative casing motion, is found to have significant effect on the casing heat transfer rate distribution. Critical region of high heat transfer rate on the casing exists near the blade tip leading edge and along the pressure side edge. Whereas near the suction side the heat transfer rates are relatively low due to the coverage of the reverse cross flow. The effects of the tip clearance heights and rotor rotating speeds were also investigated. The region of recirculating flow increases with the increase of clearance heights. The flow incidence changes and the casing relative motion is enhanced with higher rotation speeds. As a result, the high heat transfer rate regions have been changed with these two parameters. Unsteady simulations have been performed to investigate time dependent behaviors of the leakage flow structures and heat transfer on the rotor casing and blade tip. The effects of different time steps, number of sub iteration and number of rotor vane passing were firstly examined. The periodicity of the tip leakage flow and heat transfer rate distribution is observed for each vane passing. The relative change in the position of the vane and the vane trailing edge shock alters the inlet flow conditions of the rotor part. It results in the periodic variations of the leakage flow structures and heat transfer rate distributions. The higher heat transfer rates were observed at the region where the trailing edge shock reached. The maximum amplitude of the pressure fluctuation in the tip region is about 20% of the averaged rotor inlet pressure. The maximum amplitude of the heat transfer rate fluctuation on the blade tip, caused by the unsteady leakage flow variations, reaches up to about 25% of the mean heat transfer rate. The effects of tip clearance heights and rotor speeds have also been analyzed and compared one with respect to others. Same typical patterns of leakage flow structures and heat transfer rate distribution can be obtained in both steady and unsteady simulations. However, steady simulation underpredicted the highest heat transfer rate. Because it couldn't capture the critical local high heat transfer phenomena caused by the unsteady stator-rotor interaction

STRETCHING AND FLEXIBILITY: A RANGE OF MOTION FOR GAMES AND SPORTS

Flexibility is understood as the range of motion of a joint. Specifically, structured stretching exercises are used to improve flexibility. Exercising stretching is commonly practiced before any athletic activity takes place. To avoid sport injury, the range of motion is maintained, and muscle strength requires regular flexibility training. The present study, on the whole, reviews the respective literature sources. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to uphold the types and nature of stretching that produces the flexibility required for the performance of games and sports. Researchers collected scientific evidence through online databases: PubMed, Google Scholar, Google Advance Search and also searched sensibly via offline sources: recognized journals, articles, books, theses, and related literatures. After analyzing the stretching and flexibility in detail the authors suggested some specific stretchings that centered not just on flexibility but also on strength, balance and core stability. Through the discussion, the muscle is reported to be stretched properly, the underlying joints are made more flexible, and the range of motion is increased. Article visualizations

COMPARISON OF SIMPLE CHOICE VISUAL REACTION TIME BETWEEN ATHLETE AND SEDENTARY UNIVERSITY WOMEN STUDENTS

The purpose of this study was to compare the university women athletes and sedentary women students in respect of simple choice visual reaction time (SCVRT) of hands. Method: 40 university women students were randomly selected as subject and each group consisted of 20 students, and age ranged between 17 to 25 years. SCVRT of the subjects were tested of both the hands using the subject’s index figure. Reaction Time (RT) was measured five times of both the hands of the subjects and the first two digits of milliseconds of average of five trials were considered as the experimented RT data for the study. Audio-Visual Reaction (AVR) Timer machine was used to collect RT data. Result: Paired sample t-test of strong and weak hands of athletes and sedentary women university students together shows that strong hand mean = 18.28 ms, SD = 1.71 ms, and weak hand mean = 21.08 ms and SD = 2.17 ms, t(0.05)(39) = -8.84 and p = 0.00. Further, an independent sample t-test of both the hands between athletes and sedentary women students show that in the strong hand athletes mean = 17.95 ms and SD = 1.96 ms, and sedentary mean = 18.60 ms and SD = 1.39 ms, t(0.05)(38)= -1.21 and p = 0.23. Whereas, in the weak hand athletes mean = 20.70 ms and SD = 2.56 ms, and sedentary mean = 21.45 ms and SD = 1.67 ms; t(0.05)(38)= -1.10 and p = 0.28. Conclusion: It is concluded that among the university athletes and sedentary women students’ strong hand is faster than that of their weak hand in terms of simple choice visual reaction time, and athletes and sedentary women students’ strong and weak hand quickness is almost the same in the population. However, women athletes maintain little superiority over sedentary women students based on SCVRT quickness in both cases of strong and weak hand in the sample.  Article visualizations

An Assessment of Maximal Isometric Hand Grip Strength and Upper Body Explosive Strength and Endurance in Various Ball Sports

Background. Playing with the ball and using hand-arm strength and power are very crucial for ball game players. It takes arm force and endurance, as well as isometric hand grip strength, to accomplish ball-game skills. Study purpose. The aim of the study was to evaluate maximal isometric hand grip strength, arm and shoulder explosive strength, and endurance in basketball, handball, and volleyball athletes. Materials and methods. The study randomly selected 135 male athletes, including 45 basketball, 45 handball, and 45 volleyball players, aged 17 to 24, all competing at the inter-university level. Hand grip strength (HGS) for both dominant (DHGS) and non-dominant (NDHGS) hands was measured using a JAMAR hydraulic hand grip dynamometer. An over-the-head seated medicine ball throw (SMBT) test assessed explosive arm strength, while a push-up (PU) test evaluated muscular strength and endurance. Results. The F-values (F) (2, 132) of DHGS, NDHGS, SMBT, and PU tests among basketball, handball, and volleyball players were .499 (p = .608); 1.166 (p = .315); 5.595 (p = .005); and 10.339 (p = .000), respectively. The results indicated that no notable distinctions were observed in DHGS and NDHGS among athletes in the three sports. However, considerable differences were found in the SMBT and PU tests. Conclusions. The study concluded that basketball, handball, and volleyball players’ maximum isometric hand grip strength was nearly the same, but in both cases, the handball player's mean value was superior to others. Upper-body explosive power, muscular strength, and endurance showed distinct differences from one group to another

A Regional Drought Monitoring and Outlook System for South Asia

AbstractThe Regional Drought Monitoring and Outlook System (RDMOS) is an operational service which produces reliable drought indicators for the south Asia region with a specific focus on Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. The system incorporates climatic models with suitable Earth observation data and land surface models to produce drought indices—precipitation, temperature, soil moisture, evapotranspiration—and vegetation conditions at 10-day intervals for near realtime monitoring of droughts. The RDMOS also provides seasonal outlooks at four-month intervals to support drought management and preparedness processes

A Study in 3D Structure Detection Implementing Forward Camera Motion

In this thesis we have studied detection of 3D structures having a forward camera movement which has strong influence of translation along the optical axis of the camera. During the forward movement the camera might undergoes rotation and translation .We have used “Plane plus Parallax” algorithm to cancel out this unwanted rotation. The input to the algorithm is a sequence of frames aligned with respect to a certain planar surface. The algorithm gives three types of outputs. (i) Dense correspondence across all frames. (ii) Dense 3D structure relative to the planar surface. (ii) Focus of Expansion (FOE) in all frames with respect to reference frame. Camera calibration is not needed for this algorithm. We have applied this algorithm to real world images and synthetic images. In both cases the 3D structure information could be obtained clearly even for objects far from the reference plane. Our result shows the potential of the method in 3D reconstruction implementing ego-motion of a single [email protected] 00880168100631

A Study in 3D Structure Detection Implementing Forward Camera Motion

In this thesis we have studied detection of 3D structures having a forward camera movement which has strong influence of translation along the optical axis of the camera. During the forward movement the camera might undergoes rotation and translation .We have used “Plane plus Parallax” algorithm to cancel out this unwanted rotation. The input to the algorithm is a sequence of frames aligned with respect to a certain planar surface. The algorithm gives three types of outputs. (i) Dense correspondence across all frames. (ii) Dense 3D structure relative to the planar surface. (ii) Focus of Expansion (FOE) in all frames with respect to reference frame. Camera calibration is not needed for this algorithm. We have applied this algorithm to real world images and synthetic images. In both cases the 3D structure information could be obtained clearly even for objects far from the reference plane. Our result shows the potential of the method in 3D reconstruction implementing ego-motion of a single [email protected] 00880168100631

Serum iron and total iron binding capacity in severely malnourished children

Serum iron, total iron binding capacity and plasma protein of severely malnourished children of 12-59 months of age were compared with that of normal healthy children. Mean serum total protein and albumin level in normal children were 76.33 ± 0.51, 43.50 ± 0.38 gm/L respectively which was significantly higher (p<0.05) than that of malnourished children (64.39 ± 0.57, 30.17 ± 0.45 gm/L). But mean serum globulin level was (34.22 ± 0.27 gm/l) higher in malnourished children than that of normal children (32.83 ± 0.53 gm/L). The mean serum iron and transferrin saturation level were (78.72 ± 11.12 µg/dL, 23.38 ± 1.97%) significantly high (p<0.001) in severely malnourished children than in normal children, whereas serum TIBC had no significant difference between these two groups.