Lowering the Anxiety Level of the Participants of The First Baptist Church, Morganton, NC

This project was developed for the purpose of lowering the anxiety level of the participants of the First Baptist Church, Morganton, NC. It will be accomplished by providing a baseline awareness of their anxiety level and introducing tools to bring their baseline down. The tools used were Bible stories, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Family Systems Theory, and centering prayer. The tools were presented in the form of a Friday night and Saturday morning retreat. Data was collected in three different ways. The Beck Anxiety Inventory was used during the retreat to track baseline anxiety. An essay questionnaire was given a month after the retreat to gain progress and engagement. Finally, six months out from the retreat, a survey using a Likert scale of 1-10 was submitted by the participants. The conclusion was favorable and with some adjustments could be used, at least in part, with other groups

Counter-Restitution for Monetary Remedies in Equity

Equitable remedies are growing in importance as the remedies of choice for intellectual property and federal agency claims. The measure of monetary remedies in equity is founded in trust law, which provides that even a disloyal trustee is entitled to indemnity for expenses that benefit the trust. Based on this principle and case law on measuring intellectual property remedies, a defendant to a claim for a monetary remedy in equity has the opportunity to prove that the unjust enrichment established by the plaintiff should be reduced for unrelated revenues or beneficial expenses. Opponents of this right justify revenue disgorgement by the prejudicial nature of the defendant’s actions; an inexplicable distinction between restitution and disgorgement ; and the disputed authority of a court in equity to exact punitive remedies. The right to prove counter-restitution represents the traditional law in equity and when federal agencies seek gross disgorgement, they exceed the limited jurisdiction that the United States Supreme Court allows for their ancillary claims to injunctive relief

Using the local gyrokinetic code, GS2, to investigate global ITG modes in tokamaks. (I) s-α{\alpha} model with profile and flow shear effects

This paper combines results from a local gyrokinetic code with analytical theory to reconstruct the global eigenmode structure of the linearly unstable ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) mode with adiabatic electrons. The simulations presented here employ the s-${\alpha}$ tokamak equilibrium model. Local gyrokinetic calculations, using GS2 have been performed over a range of radial surfaces, x, and for ballooning phase angle, p, in the range -${\pi} {\leq} p {\leq\pi}$, to map out the complex local mode frequency, ${\Omega_0(x, p) = \omega_0(x, p) + i\gamma_0(x, p)}$. Assuming a quadratic radial profile for the drive, namely ${\eta_i = L_n/L_T}$, (holding constant all other equilibrium profiles such as safety factor, magnetic shear etc.), ${\Omega_0(x, p)}$ has a stationary point. The reconstructed global mode then sits on the outboard mid plane of the tokamak plasma, and is known as a conventional or isolated mode, with global growth rate, ${\gamma}$ ~ Max[${\gamma_0(x, p)}$], where ${\gamma_0(x, p)}$ is the local growth rate. Taking the radial variation in other equilibrium profiles (e.g safety factor q(x)) into account, removes the stationary point in ${\Omega_0(x, p)}$ and results in a mode that peaks slightly away from the outboard mid-plane with a reduced global growth rate. Finally, the influence of flow shear has also been investigated through a Doppler shift, ${\omega_0 \rightarrow \omega_0 + n\Omega^{\prime}x}$, where n is the toroidal mode number and ${\Omega^{\prime}}$ incorporates the effect of flow shear. The equilibrium profile variation introduces an asymmetry to the growth rate spectrum with respect to the sign of ${\Omega^{\prime}}$, consistent with recent global gyrokinetic calculations.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures and 1 tabl

Nano-scale superhydrophobicity: suppression of protein adsorption and promotion of flow-induced detachment

Wall adsorption is a common problem in microfluidic devices, particularly when proteins are used. Here we show how superhydrophobic surfaces can be used to reduce protein adsorption and to promote desorption. Hydrophobic surfaces, both smooth and having high surface roughness of varying length scales (to generate superhydrophobicity), were incubated in protein solution. The samples were then exposed to flow shear in a device designed to simulate a microfluidic environment. Results show that a similar amount of protein adsorbed onto smooth and nanometer-scale rough surfaces, although a greater amount was found to adsorb onto superhydrophobic surfaces with micrometer scale roughness. Exposure to flow shear removed a considerably larger proportion of adsorbed protein from the superhydrophobic surfaces than from the smooth ones, with almost all of the protein being removed from some nanoscale surfaces. This type of surface may therefore be useful in environments, such as microfluidics, where protein sticking is a problem and fluid flow is present. Possible mechanisms that explain the behaviour are discussed, including decreased contact between protein and surface and greater shear stress due to interfacial slip between the superhydrophobic surface and the liquid

Building bridges - some lessons from the Middle Ages on the long-term economic impact of bridges over the Thames

This study was inspired by the proposed Thames Gateway Bridge between Beckton and Woolwich and addresses the problem of calculating the long term economic impact of major capital projects, such as bridges. The study of medieval crossings of the Thames reveals that of 18 medieval bridges, only one was allowed to fall into neglect and disappear; the others, once built, remained, and were improved and enlarged and in most cases they or their successors are still present. The conclusion is that in the long term, perhaps the very long term, such capital projects rarely fail to be economically advantageous

Development of a nanomaterial bio-screening platform for neurological applications

Nanoparticle platforms are being intensively investigated for neurological applications. Current biological models used to identify clinically relevant materials have major limitations, e.g. technical/ethical issues with live animal experimentation, failure to replicate neural cell diversity, limited control over cellular stoichiometries and poor reproducibility. High-throughput neuro-mimetic screening systems are required to address these challenges. We describe an advanced multicellular neural model comprising the major non-neuronal/glial cells of the central nervous system (CNS), shown to account for ~99.5% of CNS nanoparticle uptake. This model offers critical advantages for neuro-nanomaterials testing while reducing animal use: one primary source and culture medium for all cell types, standardized biomolecular corona formation and defined/reproducible cellular stoichiometry. Using dynamic time-lapse imaging, we demonstrate in real-time that microglia (neural immune cells) dramatically limit particle uptake in other neural subtypes (paralleling post-mortem observations after nanoparticle injection in vivo), highlighting the utility of the system in predicting neural handling of biomaterials

The First Study of Injury Epidemiology in Cheerleading during the 2016/2017 Season in the United Kingdom.

In 2016, competitive cheerleading was granted provisional recognition as an Olympic sport thus allowing it to be considered for future games inclusion. Team England including the ‘all girl elite’ and ‘co-ed elite’ won gold and silver respectively at the ICU World Cheerleading Championships. The aim of this study was to report the prevalence and incidence of injury in cheerleaders during the 2016/2017 UK season. Following ethical approval from the Leeds Beckett University research ethics committee, 182 competitive (3.7 ± 1.8 years’ experience) cheerleaders (173 female, mean (±SD): age 21 ± 4 y, height 165 ± 7 cm, weight 64.7 ± 13.9 kg) provided electronic informed consent. Players completed a retrospective injury history questionnaire adapted from a football consensus statement on injury reporting (Fuller et al., 2006, Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 16(2), 83-92). Severity of injury was categorised using a time loss definition: slight (1-3 days), minor (4-7 days), moderate (1-4 weeks) and major (4 weeks plus). On average, cheerleaders engaged in ~5 hours training per week and ~3.4 competitions during the season. The one season prevalence of injury in this sample was 73%. A total of 226 injuries were reported. First time injuries (69%) were more common than recurrent injuries (31%). The maximum number of injuries reported by a single cheerleader was 5. The overall (competition and training) incidence of injury was 4.9/1000h. The majority (86%) of injuries occurred during training (4.76/1000h). Injuries to the ankle (11.9%), face (11.5%) and low back (10.2%) were the most common. Ligaments were the most commonly injured tissues (22.9% of all injuries). The most commonly reported mechanism of injury was during a stunting manoeuvre (54.9% of all injuries). Minor injuries were most common (61%), followed by moderate (21%) and major injuries (18%). This is the first study to report the prevalence and incidence of injury in cheerleading. Unlike many sports, the majority of injuries occur during training rather than competition. We suggest that this is mainly down to differences in exposure. On average, competitions last for 2.5 minutes. It may also be that cheerleaders are more aggressive in their training practices in order to perfect routines for competition, which may indicate fewer mistakes leading to injury occur on the day of competition. Prospective studies are required to develop this area of research