The role of intercultural communication in recruiting and retaining student-athletes: A phenomenological study on understanding the sociocultural aspects of building non-revenue teams in intercollegiate sport

Recruiting and retaining student-athletes at NCAA Division I and II member institutions is difficult. However, the coaches of non-revenue-producing sport have developed communication measures to assist in successfully fielding teams of culturally unique individuals that build an ingroup culture to compete despite limiting factors. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the lived experience of non-revenue-producing sporting coaches’ intercultural communication methodical variations in interactions with student-athletes as each coach adapts exchanges to serve as relationship-building elements to balance cultural norms with the acceptance of unfamiliar cultural behaviors. Relevant themes emerged from the data gathered during participant interviews, which were used to structure the information and guide the research. The resulting analysis supported the assertion that non-revenue-producing sport coaches use adaptive measures to foster intercultural communication opportunities to create comfortable spaces for interactions in unfamiliar cultural situations, resulting in positive ingroup relationships that benefit the institution and the overall team culture

Unsteady Specific Work and Isentropic Efficiency of a Radial Turbine Driven by Pulsed Detonations

There has been longstanding government and industry interest in pressure-gain combustion for use in Brayton cycle based engines. Theoretically, pressure-gain combustion allows heat addition with reduced entropy loss. The pulsed detonation combustor (PDC) is a device that can provide such pressure-gain combustion and possibly replace typical steady deflagration combustors. The PDC is inherently unsteady, however, and comparisons with conventional steady deflagration combustors must be based upon time-integrated performance variables. In this study, the radial turbine of a Garrett automotive turbocharger was coupled directly to and driven, full admission, by a PDC in experiments fueled by hydrogen or ethylene. Data included pulsed cycle time histories of turbine inlet and exit temperature, pressure, velocity, mass flow, and enthalpy. The unsteady inlet flowfield showed momentary reverse flow, and thus unsteady accumulation and expulsion of mass and enthalpy within the device. The coupled turbine-driven compressor provided a time-resolved measure of turbine power. Peak power increased with PDC fill fraction, and duty cycle increased with PDC frequency. Cycle-averaged unsteady specific work increased with fueled fraction and frequency. An unsteady turbine efficiency formulation is proposed, including heat transfer effects, extensively weighted total pressure ratio, and ensemble averaging over multiple cycles. Turbine efficiency increased with frequency but was lower than the manufacturer reported conventional steady turbine efficiency

Use of Dimples to Suppress Boundary Layer Separation on a Low Pressure Turbine Blade

Flow separation on a low pressure turbine blade is explored at Reynolds numbers of 25k, 45k and 100k. Experimental data is collected in a low-speed, draw-down wind tunnel using a cascade of eight Pak-B blades. Flow is examined from measurements of blade surface pressures, boundary layer parameters, exit velocities, and total pressure losses across the blade. Two recessed dimple shapes are assessed for suppressing flow separation and associated losses. One dimple is spherical, and the second is asymmetric, formed from a full dimple spanwise half-filled. A single row of each dimple shape is tested at 50%, 55% and 65% axial chord. Symmetric dimples reduce separation losses by as much as 28%, while asymmetric dimples reduce losses by as much as 23%. A complementary three-dimensional computational study is conducted to visualize local flow structure. Computational analysis uses Gridgen v13.3 as a mesh generator, Fluent® v6.0 as a flow solver and FIELDVIEW© v8.0 for graphic display and analysis. Computational results for Pak-B blades at a Reynolds number of 25k indicate that both dimple shapes cause a span-wise vortex to rollup within the dimple and provide a localized pressure drop

The Use of Mobile Apps to Increase Physical Activity Level: A Systematic Review

Background: About 82% of the U.S. adult population owns a smartphone. More than half of that population downloaded a fitness or health app to increase the physical activity level. The current review included studies that have utilized mobile apps in conjunction with other intervention strategies to increase physical activity levels. Methods: The search was conducted in five electronic databases. Studies were included if they were randomized controlled trials, utilized mobile apps, physical activity was the primary outcome, written in English, and conducted between the years of 2007 and 2019. Results: Thirteen studies were included in the final review. Results indicated that multi-component interventions reported significant improvements in physical activity across all age groups. The most substantial behavior change effects were observed in interventions that combined apps with health coaching, individualized text messages, and self-monitoring component. The overall results indicated that 8 out of 13 included studies reported statistically significant improvement in physical activity level with mobile app utilization in multi-component interventions. Conclusion: This review suggests that mobile apps have the potential to effectively deliver physical activity interventions, by providing tailored-based approach, unlimited accessibility, and monitoring. Therefore, future studies must focus on the effective delivery of evidence-based physical activity interventions through mobile apps in various populations

How to Effectively Serve Your Department by Being an Influential Leader

For this workshop, we will invite Chairs to critically think about their role as a servant leader and how to pull six levers of influence to drive change. We will open the discussion with research and knowledge about the different types of leadership and concentrate on why influence is essential. Following the discussion, we will collaborate with Chairs in a consultative model on some influential servant leadership successes and challenges in a working session focused on generating practical next steps and workable solutions to the problems being faced

Water: Place. Experience. In Literature, Visual & Performing Arts

Kelly Richardson, Emily Morgan and Laura Dougherty will engage in a ten-week collaborative project with theatre and dance students. Drawing from students in these two performance disciplines, we will, as a group, develop a site specific theatre/dance performance responding to and inspired by the idea of access, sustainability, presence and absence of Water in the World. We have been accepted to present at the National Dance Education Organization conference in October, where we plan to take a pause. Our idea is that we use that pause to reflect on our process up to that point. For this presentation, we hope to reflect on the project, as whole, as well as the site specific performance at the Water Conference. In this presentation will we chart the process of site selection, generating meaning through theatre and dance, devising performance, the successes, failures, and potential future iterations of the work. We are interested in the generative space created by this reflection, and hope for response from performers and audience members alike

The Influence of Unsteadiness on the Analysis of Pressure Gain Combustion Devices

Pressure gain combustion (PGC) has been the object of scientific study for over a century due to its promise of improved thermodynamic efficiency. In many recent application concepts PGC is utilized as a component in an otherwise continuous, normally steady flow system, such as a gas turbine or ram jet engine. However, PGC is inherently unsteady. Failure to account for the effects of this periodic unsteadiness can lead to misunderstanding and errors in performance calculations. This paper seeks to provide some clarity by presenting a consistent method of thermodynamic cycle analysis for a device utilizing PGC technology. The incorporation of the unsteady PGC process into the conservation equations for a continuous flow device is presented. Most importantly, the appropriate method for computing the conservation of momentum is presented. It will be shown that proper, consistent analysis of cyclic conservation principles produces representative performance predictions

Mission analysis tool for turboelectric powered unmanned aircraft systems

This paper proposes an analytical model that calculates various flight parameters, such as peak maximum range for pre-determined configurations based on pre-built systems by the research group. The model serves as a tool to compare different turboelectric systems with respect to flight operability and assist in determining an optimal configuration for a select mission flight. This tool performs calculations with user inputs of leg type and altitudes, and battery specifications of capacity, voltage, and discharge rate. Calculations follow basic aerodynamic principles and relations to acquire other flight characteristics such as velocity, fuel burn, and rate of climb

Resolution of complex fluorescence spectra of lipids and nicotinic acetylcholine receptor by multivariate analysis reveals protein-mediated effects on the receptor's immediate lipid microenvironment

Analysis of fluorescent spectra from complex biological systems containing various fluorescent probes with overlapping emission bands is a challenging task. Valuable information can be extracted from the full spectra, however, by using multivariate analysis (MA) of measurements at different wavelengths. We applied MA to spectral data of purified Torpedo nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) protein reconstituted into liposomes made up of dioleoylphosphatidic acid (DOPA) and dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) doped with two extrinsic fluorescent probes (NBD-cholesterol/pyrene-PC). Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) was observed between the protein and pyrene-PC and between pyrene-PC and NBD-cholesterol, leading to overlapping emission bands. Partial least squares analysis was applied to fluorescence spectra of pyrene-PC in liposomes with different DOPC/DOPA ratios, generating a model that was tested by an internal validation (leave-one-out cross-validation) and was further used to predict the apparent lipid molar ratio in AChR-containing samples. The values predicted for DOPA, the lipid with the highest Tm, indicate that the protein exerts a rigidifying effect on its lipid microenvironment. A similar conclusion was reached from excimer formation of pyrene-PC, a collisional-dependent phenomenon. The excimer/monomer ratio (E/M) at different DOPC/DOPA molar ratios revealed the restricted diffusion of the probe in AChR-containing samples in comparison to pure lipid samples devoid of protein. FRET from the AChR (donor) to pyrene-PC (acceptor) as a function of temperature was found to increase with increasing temperature, suggesting a shorter distance between AChR and pyrene PC. Taken together, the results obtained by MA on complex spectra indicate that the AChR rigidifies its surrounding lipid and prefers DOPA rather than DOPC in its immediate microenvironment