Solar energy in the housing sector.

Thesis (M.S.B.A.

Recent advances in multidisciplinary optimization of rotorcraft

A joint activity involving NASA and Army researchers at NASA LaRC to develop optimization procedures to improve the rotor blade design process by integrating appropriate disciplines and accounting for all of the important interactions among the disciplines is described. The disciplines involved include rotor aerodynamics, rotor dynamics, rotor structures, airframe dynamics, and acoustics. The work is focused on combining these five key disciplines in an optimization procedure capable of designing a rotor system to satisfy multidisciplinary design requirements. Fundamental to the plan is a three-phased approach. In phase 1, the disciplines of blade dynamics, blade aerodynamics, and blade structure are closely coupled while acoustics and airframe dynamics are decoupled and are accounted for as effective constraints on the design for the first three disciplines. In phase 2, acoustics is integrated with the first three disciplines. Finally, in phase 3, airframe dynamics is integrated with the other four disciplines. Representative results from work performed to date are described. These include optimal placement of tuning masses for reduction of blade vibratory shear forces, integrated aerodynamic/dynamic optimization, and integrated aerodynamic/dynamic/structural optimization. Examples of validating procedures are described

Relationships Among Loneliness, Interpersonal Dependency, and Disordered Eating in Young Adults

Previous studies on loneliness and interpersonal dependency suggest a shared relation with eating disorders. Previous findings of the relation of interpersonal dependency with eating disorders may have misestimated the importance of interpersonal dependency by not including loneliness. Measures of loneliness, interpersonal dependency, and disordered eating (drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, body dissatisfaction) were given to 176 college students. Mediation models were used to test the relative influence of interpersonal dependency and loneliness on body dissatisfaction. Loneliness mediated the relation between interpersonal dependency and body dissatisfaction; no other mediation models could be tested

Do Exercise Motives Predict Obligatory Exercise?

Few studies have examined whether factors predicting obligatory exercise differ by gender. 303 participants completed the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire and the Reason for Exercise Inventory. All variables correlated significantly. However, the correlation between exercising for fitness and obligatory exercise was significantly stronger in women than men. In women, obligatory exercise was predicted by exercising to improve body tone, fitness, and to enhance mood; in men, obligatory exercise was predicted by exercising to improve body tone, enjoyment, and perceived attractiveness. Implications for treatment are discussed

Optically-induced lensing effect on a Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a moving lattice

We report the experimental observation of a lensing effect on a Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a moving 1D optical lattice. The effect of the periodic potential can be described by an effective mass dependent on the condensate quasi-momentum. By changing the velocity of the atoms in the frame of the optical lattice we induce a focusing of the condensate along the lattice direction. The experimental results are compared with the numerical predictions of an effective 1D theoretical model. Besides, a precise band spectroscopy of the system is carried out by looking at the real-space propagation of the atomic wavepacket in the optical lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; minor changes applied and typos corrected; a new paragraph added; some references updated; journal reference adde

Are rises in Electro-Magnetic Field in the human environment, interacting with multiple environmental pollutions, the tripping point for increases in neurological deaths in the Western World?

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Whilst humans evolved in the earth's Electro-Magnetic-Field (EMF) and sun-light, both being essential to life but too much sun and we burn. What happens if background EMF rise to critical levels, coinciding with increasing environmental pollutants? Two of the authors can look back over 50 clinical years and appreciate the profound changes in human morbidity across a range of disparate conditions – autoimmune diseases, asthma, earlier cancer incidence and reduced male sperm counts. In particular have been increased autism, dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and neurological diseases, such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Early Onset Dementia, Multiple System Atrophy and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. What might have caused these changes-whilst genetic factors are taken as given, multiple environmental pollutants are associated with neurological disease although the mechanisms are unclear. The pace of increased neurological deaths far exceeds any Gompertzian explanation - that because people are living longer they are more likely to develop more age-related problems such as neurological disease. Using WHO global mortality categories of Neurological Disease Deaths (NDD) and Alzheimer's and Dementia deaths (Alz), updated June 2018, together they constitute Total Neurological Mortality (TNM), to calculate mortality rates per million for people aged 55–74 and for the over-75's in twenty-one Western countries. Recent increases in American people aged over-75's rose 49% from 1989 to 2015 but US neurological deaths increased five-fold. In 1989 based on Age-Standardised-Deaths-Rates America USA was 17th at 324 pm but rising to 539 pm became second highest. Different environmental/occupational factors have been found to be associated with neuro-degenerative diseases, including background EMF. We briefly explore how levels of EMF interact upon the human body, which can be described as a natural antennae and provide new evidence that builds upon earlier research to propose the following hypothesis. Based upon recent and new evidence we hypothesise that a major contribution for the relative sudden upsurge in neurological morbidity in the Western world (1989–2015), is because of increased background EMF that has become the tipping point-impacting upon any genetic predisposition, increasing multiple-interactive pollutants, such as rises in petro-chemicals, hormone disrupting chemicals, industrial, agricultural and domestic chemicals. The unprecedented neurological death rates, all within just twenty-five years, demand a re-examination of long-term EMF safety related to the increasing background EMF on human health. We do not wish to 'stop the modern world’, only make it safer