Foot pedal operated fluid type exercising device

A foot pedal operated exercising device is reported that contains a dynamometer formed of a pair of cylinders each containing a piston. The pistons are linked to each other. The upper portions of the two cylinders are joined together by a common opening to provide a common fluid reservoir and each piston is provided with a one way check valve to maintain an adequate supply of working fluid. Fluid from the driven cylinder is transmitted to the other cylinder through separate constant force spring biased valves each valve takes the predominant portion of the pressure drop thereby providing a constant force hydraulic dynamometer. A device is provided to determine the amount of movement of piston travel

Effects of ursodeoxycholic acid on synthesis of cholesterol and bile acids in healthy subjects

Background/Aims: Ursodeoxycholic acid ( UDCA) decreases biliary secretion of cholesterol and is therefore used for the dissolution of cholesterol gallstones. It remains unclear whether these changes in biliary cholesterol excretion are associated with changes in cholesterol synthesis and bile acid synthesis. We therefore studied the activities of rate-limiting enzymes of cholesterol synthesis and bile acid synthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutarylcoenzyme A reductase and cholesterol 7alpha-hydroxylase, respectively, in normal subjects during UDCA feeding. Methods: UDCA was given to 8 healthy volunteers ( 5 men, 3 women; age 24-44 years) in a single dose of 10-15 mg/kg body weight for 40 days. Before and during ( days 3, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40) UDCA treatment, urinary excretion of mevalonic acid and serum concentrations of 7alpha-hydroxy-4-cholesten-3-one (7alpha-HCO) were determined as markers of cholesterol and bile acid synthesis, respectively. The Wilcoxon signed rank test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis. Results: Cholesterol synthesis and serum lipid concentrations remained unchanged during UDCA treatment for 40 days. However, synthesis of bile acids increased during long-term treatment with UDCA as reflected by an increase in 7alpha-HCO serum concentrations from 39.7 +/- 21.3 ng/ml (median 32.8 ng/ml) before treatment to 64.0 +/- 30.4 ng/ml (median 77.5 ng/ml) at days 30-40 of UDCA treatment ( p < 0.05). Conclusions: UDCA treatment does not affect cholesterol synthesis in the liver, but does increase bile acid synthesis after prolonged treatment. This may represent a compensatory change following decreased absorption of endogenous bile acids as observed with UDCA therapy

Posed and spontaneous nonverbal vocalizations of positive emotions: Acoustic analysis and perceptual judgments

When experiencing different positive emotional states, like amusement or relief, we may produce nonverbal vocalizations such as laughs and sighs. In the current study, we describe the acoustic structure of posed and spontaneous nonverbal vocalizations of 14 different positive emotions, and test whether listeners (N =201) map the vocalizations to emotions. The results show that vocalizations of 13 different positive emotions were recognized at better-than-chance levels, but not vocalizations of being moved. Emotions varied in whether vocalizations were better recognized from spontaneous or posed expressions

Air improvement recommendations for the San Francisco Bay area The Stanford-Ames NASA/asee SummerFaculty Systems Design workshop Final report

Air pollution monitoring and pollutant source surveillance system, and effective regulations and enforcement means for San Francisco Bay are

Posed and spontaneous nonverbal vocalizations of positive emotions: Acoustic analysis and perceptual judgments

When experiencing different positive emotional states, like amusement or relief, we may produce nonverbal vocalizations such as laughs and sighs. In the current study, we describe the acoustic structure of posed and spontaneous nonverbal vocalizations of 14 different positive emotions, and test whether listeners (N =201) map the vocalizations to emotions. The results show that vocalizations of 13 different positive emotions were recognized at better-than-chance levels, but not vocalizations of being moved. Emotions varied in whether vocalizations were better recognized from spontaneous or posed expressions

Complex-shaped beam element and graph-based optimization of compliant mechanisms

Compliant mechanisms are designed to be intentionally flexible, providing hingeless mechanisms. This work contributes a complex-shaped beam element formulation in conjunction with the ground structure approach. We identify compliant mechanism design solutions by using evolutionary topology optimization and increase flexibility by using a parametrization concept based on graph theory. The new operators for evolutionary optimization are also explained and sample problems are used to address the question of how our contribution increases design solutions spac

Finite elements on degenerate meshes: inverse-type inequalities and applications

In this paper we obtain a range of inverse-type inequalities which are applicable to finite-element functions on general classes of meshes, including degenerate meshes obtained by anisotropic refinement. These are obtained for Sobolev norms of positive, zero and negative order. In contrast to classical inverse estimates, negative powers of the minimum mesh diameter are avoided. We give two applications of these estimates in the context of boundary elements: (i) to the analysis of quadrature error in discrete Galerkin methods and (ii) to the analysis of the panel clustering algorithm. Our results show that degeneracy in the meshes yields no degradation in the approximation properties of these method