Installation Press for Heat Set Inserts

3D printing has evolved from a slow, laborious process in the 1980s’s to a cutting- edge technology that is being used in industries such as aerospace and medical. Though the technology is relatively new in comparison to CNC machines and other items found in a typical machine shop, additive manufacturing is growing towards a multibillion-dollar industry. For this reason, many industries are turning to 3D printing for research and development tasking as well as just using it to supplement for parts until they have been manufactured through more traditional means. The downside of 3D printing is that it is commonly done with types of thermoplastics, and issue arises when there is a need for threaded parts. 3D printing is advanced enough to do this; however, if a part requires a fastener to thread and unthread numerous times, the plastic will wear and lead to the stripping of the threads. Heat set inserts provide a solution to this problem. Heat set inserts are a type of threaded insert that provides the ability to specifically implement threads into a 3D printed part. This is achieved by heating the insert with a soldering iron and placing it into a slightly undersized hole. The heat of the insert melts the plastic as it is pressed into the hole, and the cooling of the plastic secures and locks it into place. These inserts can be done by hand; however, it is difficult to keep the insert aligned with the hole, and misalignment of an insert can result in the scrapping of a part. Therefore, the scope of this report is to design, test, and fabricate a device that will allow heat set inserts to be installed to thermoplastics easily and accurately. This device should be similar to that of a drill press and will control horizontal motion and run out while providing adjustable vertical motion. A combination of 3D printed materials and standard components will be used to develop the prototype

Kia tūhono i te taiao e ngā toi anō : re-connecting with the natural world via experiential multi-disciplinary assemblages : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

This exegesis looks to support an inspired line of critical inquiry and music praxis through an indigenous lens. This is to enable and reaffirm holistic re-connecting to the natural world via multi-media assemblage centralising music composition, geo-placement, indigenous protocols and narratives. I acknowledge the privilege of being offered this opportunity to explore, compose and assemble. I use this opportunity to recognise and redress my own disconnection from Te Taiao (the natural environment) and exploit this transformative opportunity to innovate artistically and holistically. As the Post-COVID, un-settled hue continues to hover over us daily, I am compelled to be ever more mindful and present; mindful of environment, tohu (signs), breath, people, movements and moments in my day. I also take this opportunity to challenge New Zealand education music pedagogies. Currently, the most favoured instruction in New Zealand is by learning to read and comprehend western music theory. My intent here does not aim to disparage western music theory, but to augment and supplement the potentials of current western music pedagogies by acknowledging and activating iwi taketake composition techniques and encouraging a "cultural resetting" with our natural environment. I suggest that investigation and application of indigenous knowledge systems (including connection to the natural world) in music praxis, and considerations in general, could encourage holistic benefits of associative, cognitive potentials within New Zealand's modernity. And as the original muse for ancient humanity, the answers can surely be found in nature - we just need to listen

Catatonia in Older Adult Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

Catatonia has been described in children with intellectual disabilities (IDs). These are the first three published cases of catatonia in adults older than 50 years of age with IDs. They were followed using the KANNER scale and, in one case, creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) monitoring. Case 1 is a 67-year-old Caucasian who probably had been having intermittent episodes of undiagnosed catatonia withdrawal for many years. His episodes of agitation and withdrawal behavior responded to lorazepam up to 8 mg/day. Case 2 is a 63-year-old Caucasian male who had probably had undiagnosed catatonic episodes since age 25. An agitation episode that rated 88 on Part 2 of the KANNER scale ended within minutes after he received 1 mg of intramuscular lorazepam. He had no symptom relapses for 4 years after getting stable oral lorazepam doses (3-8.5 mg/day). Case 3 is a 55-year-old African-American male with severe ID and bradycardia (with a pacemaker). He had been institutionalized since age 22 and his undiagnosed catatonic episodes appeared to have been intermittently present for at least the last ten years. As he became tolerant and experienced symptom relapse, oral lorazepam was slowly increased (1.5-18 mg/day). Electroconvulsive therapy was ruled out due to his pacemaker

Hydrodynamic interactions and Brownian forces in colloidal suspensions: Coarse-graining over time and length-scales

We describe in detail how to implement a coarse-grained hybrid Molecular Dynamics and Stochastic Rotation Dynamics simulation technique that captures the combined effects of Brownian and hydrodynamic forces in colloidal suspensions. The importance of carefully tuning the simulation parameters to correctly resolve the multiple time and length-scales of this problem is emphasized. We systematically analyze how our coarse-graining scheme resolves dimensionless hydrodynamic numbers such as the Reynolds number, the Schmidt number, the Mach number, the Knudsen number, and the Peclet number. The many Brownian and hydrodynamic time-scales can be telescoped together to maximize computational efficiency while still correctly resolving the physically relevant physical processes. We also show how to control a number of numerical artifacts, such as finite size effects and solvent induced attractive depletion interactions. When all these considerations are properly taken into account, the measured colloidal velocity auto-correlation functions and related self diffusion and friction coefficients compare quantitatively with theoretical calculations. By contrast, these calculations demonstrate that, notwithstanding its seductive simplicity, the basic Langevin equation does a remarkably poor job of capturing the decay rate of the velocity auto-correlation function in the colloidal regime, strongly underestimating it at short times and strongly overestimating it at long times. Finally, we discuss in detail how to map the parameters of our method onto physical systems, and from this extract more general lessons that may be relevant for other coarse-graining schemes such as Lattice Boltzmann or Dissipative Particle Dynamics.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure

Engagement in agriculture protects against food insecurity and malnutrition in peri-urban Nepal

BACKGROUND: Urbanization is occurring rapidly in many low- and middle-income countries, which may affect households’ livelihoods, diet, and food security and nutritional outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of our study was to explore whether agricultural activity amongst a peri-urban population in Nepal was associated with better or worse food household security, household and maternal dietary diversity, and nutritional outcomes for children and women. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey administered to 344 mother-child pairs in Bhaktapur district, Nepal, including data on household agricultural practices, livestock ownership, food security, dietary diversity and expenditures, anthropometric measurements of children (aged 5–6 years old), maternal body mass index (BMI), and maternal anemia. Multivariable adjusted and unadjusted odds ratios (AOR and OR respectively) were calculated using logistic regression. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that in this sample, cultivation of land was associated with a lower odds of child stunting (AOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.33,0.93) and household food insecurity (AOR 0.33, 95% CI 0.18, 0.63), but not low (or high) maternal BMI or anemia. Livestock ownership (mostly chickens) was associated with lower of food insecurity (AOR 0.34, 95% CI 0.16, 0.73) but not with nutrition outcomes. Women in farming households were significantly more likely to eat green leafy vegetables than women in non-farming households, and children living in households that grew vegetables had a lower odds of stunting than children in households that cultivated land but did not grow vegetables (AOR 0.49, 95% CI 0.25, 0.98). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that households involved in cultivation of land in peri-urban Bhaktapur had lower odds of children's stunting and of food insecurity than non-cultivating households – and that vegetable consumption is higher among those households. Given Nepal's rapid urbanization rate, more attention is needed to the potential role of peri-urban agriculture in shaping diets and nutrition.Funding was provided by the USAID Feed the Future Security Innovation Lab for Nutrition - Asia [award number AIDOAA-l-10-00005] through a sub-contract to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; and by the GC Rieber Foundation.https://academic.oup.com/cdn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cdn/nzy078/5154906Accepted manuscrip

Polarization aberrations in next-generation giant segmented mirror telescopes (GSMTs) I. Effect on the coronagraphic performance

Next-generation large segmented mirror telescopes are expected to perform direct imaging and characterization of Earth-like rocky planets, which requires contrast limits of $10^{-7}$ to $10^{-8}$ at wavelengths from I to J band. One critical aspect affecting the raw on-sky contrast are polarization aberrations arising from the reflection from the telescope's mirror surfaces and instrument optics. We simulate the polarization aberrations and estimate their effect on the achievable contrast for three next-generation ground-based large segmented mirror telescopes. We performed ray-tracing in Zemax and computed the polarization aberrations and Jones pupil maps using the polarization ray-tracing algorithm. The impact of these aberrations on the contrast is estimated by propagating the Jones pupil maps through a set of idealized coronagraphs using hcipy, a physical optics-based simulation framework. The optical modeling of the giant segmented mirror telescopes (GSMTs) shows that polarization aberrations create significant leakage through a coronagraphic system. The dominant aberration is retardance defocus, which originates from the steep angles on the primary and secondary mirrors. The retardance defocus limits the contrast to $10^{-5}$ to $10^{-4}$ at 1 $\lambda/D$ at visible wavelengths, and $10^{-5}$ to $10^{-6}$ at infrared wavelengths. The simulations also show that the coating plays a major role in determining the strength of the aberrations. Polarization aberrations will need to be considered during the design of high-contrast imaging instruments for the next generation of extremely large telescopes. This can be achieved either through compensation optics, robust coronagraphs, specialized coatings, calibration, and data analysis approaches or by incorporating polarimetry with high-contrast imaging to measure these effects.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, Accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. aa45651-2

Physical and mental health comorbidity is common in people with multiple sclerosis: nationally representative cross-sectional population database analysis

<b>Background</b> Comorbidity in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is associated with worse health and higher mortality. This study aims to describe clinician recorded comorbidities in people with MS. <p></p> <b>Methods</b> 39 comorbidities in 3826 people with MS aged ≥25 years were compared against 1,268,859 controls. Results were analysed by age, gender, and socioeconomic status, with unadjusted and adjusted Odds Ratios (ORs) calculated using logistic regression. <p></p> <b>Results</b> People with MS were more likely to have one (OR 2.44; 95% CI 2.26-2.64), two (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.38-1.62), three (OR 1.86; 95% CI 1.69-2.04), four or more (OR 1.61; 95% CI 1.47-1.77) non-MS chronic conditions than controls, and greater mental health comorbidity (OR 2.94; 95% CI 2.75-3.14), which increased as the number of physical comorbidities rose. Cardiovascular conditions, including atrial fibrillation (OR 0.49; 95% CI 0.36-0.67), chronic kidney disease (OR 0.51; 95% CI 0.40-0.65), heart failure (OR 0.62; 95% CI 0.45-0.85), coronary heart disease (OR 0.64; 95% CI 0.52-0.71), and hypertension (OR 0.65; 95% CI 0.59-0.72) were significantly less common in people with MS. <p></p> <b>Conclusion</b> People with MS have excess multiple chronic conditions, with associated increased mental health comorbidity. The low recorded cardiovascular comorbidity warrants further investigation