1,173 research outputs found
A study of acute respiratory disease in families exposed to different levels of Air pollution in the Great Salt Lake basin, Utah, 1971-1972 and 1972-1973.
The reported incidence of acute respiratory illness in families exposed to different concentrations of air pollution was studied during two consecutive school years. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of increased exposure to sulfur dioxide and suspended particulate matter. In each of four study communities, the mothers of approximately 250 white families were contacted biweekly to obtain information regarding the occurrence of respiratory symptoms in each family member. Annual mean ambient sulfur dioxide concentrations in one community for the three years included in the study (1971-1973) were well above the current air quality standard of 80 micrograms/m3, while in the other three communities the annual sulfur dioxide concentrations were much lower (usually less than 40 micrograms/m3). Suspended particulate matter concentrations in high sulfur dioxide community were close to the limit designated by the annual standard (75 micrograms/m3) but actual exposures in the four communities probably were not excessive. Regression analyses of the data collected showed inconsistent associations between illness rates and educational attainment of the head of household, crowding in the home, bronchitis in parents or smoking of parents. However, once the effects of these factors were removed the adjusted rates showed little association with community of residence. It was concluded that the higher concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the Utah atmosphere could not be the cause of increases in acute respiratory illness in the exposed populations
Masticatory muscle pain before, during, and after treatment with orthopedic protraction headgear: A pilot study
Protraction headgear has been used in conjunction with a palatal expansion appliance to correct Class III malocclusion with maxillary deficiency and/or mandibular prognathism. In general, 800 gm of orthopedic force is used to protract the maxilla, and 75% of this force is transmitted to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) area via the mandible. The effect of this heavy intermittent force on the TMJ has not been reported in the literature. The objectives of this study were to determine the level of masticatory muscle pain and EMG activity in patients treated with maxillary protraction headgear. Ten patients with skeletal Class III malocclusion whose treatment plan called for maxillary protraction headgear treatment participated in this study. Nocturnal masticatory muscle activity was determined using a portable electromyographic (EMG) recording device. Subjects wore the EMG device 14 nights before treatment, 14 nights during treatment, and 14 nights 1 month after active treatment. Masticatory muscle pain level was determined by muscle palpation, scored on a scale of 0 to 3 each period, according to the method of Gross and Gale. The examiner followed a sequence outlined by Burch to examine the masticatory muscles. Results showed no significant differences for masticatory muscle activities before, during, and after treatment. Only a few patients experienced level 1 masticatory pain during treatment. None of the patients experienced masticatory muscle pain 1 month after treatment. These results demonstrate no significant increase in masticatory muscle activity or muscle pain associated with orthopedic treatment using maxillary protraction headgear.published_or_final_versio
Combustion dynamics in steady compressible flows
We study the evolution of a reactive field advected by a one-dimensional
compressible velocity field and subject to an ignition-type nonlinearity. In
the limit of small molecular diffusivity the problem can be described by a
spatially discretized system, and this allows for an efficient numerical
simulation. If the initial field profile is supported in a region of size l <
lc one has quenching, i.e., flame extinction, where lc is a characteristic
length-scale depending on the system parameters (reacting time, molecular
diffusivity and velocity field). We derive an expression for lc in terms of
these parameters and relate our results to those obtained by other authors for
different flow settings.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Behavior of Ground Anchors for Taipei Sedimentary Soils
Seven ground anchors were installed for full scale field tests in Taipei Railway Underground Project. The soil at job site can generally be classified as silty clay or clayey silt. The length of the anchors was about 40 m each, including 23 m bond length. The borehole diameter was 125 mm and the designed borehole inclination was 26 degrees downward. Each of the anchors was expected to share approximately 300 to 400 kN of tie-back force to support the diaphragm wall during excavation. Investigation of the borehole inclination was carried out by using horizontal inclinometer. The distribution of skin friction along the bond anchorage was determined from strain gauges applied on the anchoring strands, and the tensile load was monitored by load cells. It was observed that the average borehole direction deviated with an angle of about 1.5 degrees. It has also been found that most of the design load was carried by the first 10 m of the bond length. For a nearest spacing of about 1.5 m between the anchors, the group effect and the stress interaction among them were negligible
Modeling Galactic Conformity with the Color-Halo Age Relation in the Illustris Simulation
Comparisons between observational surveys and galaxy formation models find
that the mass of dark matter haloes can largely explain galaxies' stellar mass.
However, it remains uncertain whether additional environmental variables,
generally referred to as assembly bias, are necessary to explain other galaxy
properties. We use the Illustris Simulation to investigate the role of assembly
bias in producing galactic conformity by considering 18,000 galaxies with
> . We find a significant signal of
galactic conformity: out to distances of about 10 Mpc, the mean red fraction of
galaxies around redder galaxies is higher than around bluer galaxies at fixed
stellar mass. Dark matter haloes exhibit an analogous conformity signal, in
which the fraction of haloes formed at earlier times (old haloes) is higher
around old haloes than around younger ones at fixed halo mass. A plausible
interpretation of galactic conformity can be given as a combination of the halo
conformity signal with the galaxy color-halo age relation: at fixed stellar
mass, particularly toward the low-mass end, Illustris' galaxy colors correlate
with halo age, with the reddest galaxies (often satellites) being
preferentially found in the oldest haloes. In fact, we can explain the galactic
conformity effect with a simple semi-empirical model, by assigning stellar mass
based on halo mass (abundance matching) and by assigning galaxy color based on
halo age (age matching). We investigate other interpretations for the galactic
conformity, particularly its dependence on the isolation criterion and on the
central-satellite information. Regarding comparison to observations, we
conclude that the adopted selection/isolation criteria, projection effects, and
stacking techniques can have a significant impact on the measured amplitude of
the conformity signal.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS (minor
revisions to match accepted version
Can Deflagration-Detonation-Transitions occur in Type Ia Supernovae?
The mechanism for deflagration-detonation-transition (DDT) by turbulent
preconditioning, suggested to explain the possible occurrence of delayed
detonations in Type Ia supernova explosions, is argued to be conceptually
inconsistent. It relies crucially on diffusive heat losses of the burned
material on macroscopic scales. Regardless of the amplitude of turbulent
velocity fluctuations, the typical gradient scale for temperature fluctuations
is shown to be the laminar flame width or smaller, rather than the factor of
thousand more required for a DDT. Furthermore, thermonuclear flames cannot be
fully quenched in regions much larger than the laminar flame width as a
consequence of their simple ``chemistry''. Possible alternative explosion
scenarios are briefly discussed.Comment: 8 pages, uses aastex; added references. Accepted by ApJ Letter
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Pre-defined and Optional Staging for the Deployment of Enterprise Systems: a case study and a framework
The effective deployment of enterprise systems has been a major challenge for many organisations. Customising the new system, changing business processes, and integrating multiple information sources are all difficult tasks. As such, they are typically done in carefully planned stages in a process known as phased implementation. Using ideas from Option Theory, this article critiques aspects of phased implementation. One customer relationship management (CRM) project and its phased implementation are described in detail and ten other enterprise system deployments are summarised as a basis for the observation that almost all deployment stages are pre-defined operational steps rather than decision points. However, Option Theory suggests that optional stages, to be used only when risk materialises, should be integral parts of project plans. Although such optional stages are often more valuable than pre-defined stages, the evidence presented in this article shows that they are only rarely utilised. Therefore, a simple framework is presented; it first identifies risks related to the deployment of enterprise systems, then identifies optional stages that can mitigate these risks, and finally compares the costs and benefits of both pre-defined and optional stages
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