British Christmas Decorations

Um my parents brought over a tradition form England. That um.. was one of the things they did at Christmas time to decorate the ceilings. And we loved as kids and looked forward to each Christmas when my folks would get out this special, uh kind of crate paper, decorations. These were just really really long strands of red crate paper that was twisted to make this really unique design to begin with. Then they would hang them from one corner to another, kind of crisscross, on the ceiling. And they would loop them in this crisscross from one corner to the other, so that there was these beautiful red loops hanging from the ceiling. Then they would go to the other corner and do it crisscross so there was loops hanging from that corner. And then in the middle, uh.. they had a big Christmas bell that opened up and flair out, and they would put that in the very middle of the ceilings right where the two decoration things crossed, so that it was right in the middle of that. And we just loved that as kids, and I can’t remember seeing anybody else. Friends and um.. we did have that many other family that came over from England, but that was something we loved every year

The British Tradition of Yorkshire Pudding

If you go. Gosh many generations, maybe 200 or 300 years ago, in England especially, yorkshires have been a part of their diner menu. It has been around for a long time. It is basically an English staple that goes with any main meal. Kind of across the social divide, not just the aristocracy, but just regular people loved yorkshire puddings! It is a very simple combination of… eggs mixed with salt to begin with, and then milk and flower added in. That is basically what it is. And to a consistency to where uh it rises in the oven and uh it really pops, it is baked in a muffin tin. It raises above the tin line. It is really just a fun thing to watch because they end up really big, and then kind of lose the balloon I guess effect and it goes down a bit, but then they are served with gravy. And so, My Mom and Dad being born in England and raised in England. That is one of the English dishes they brought from England. So, we had that all the time we grew up. People did not know what yorkshire puddings were if they weren’t form England. We grew to love yorkshire puddings! They went with all the holiday diner and Sunday meal. As we grew up, and I raised my kids, I loved to make yorkshire puddings. I kind of figure out, my mom didn’t have a recipe either. It depends on the consisted of the batter. You just mix it until it is super super good. You the then add it to a muffin tin you grease with Crisco or flower. Then you got to watch them puff up. Anyways, that is kind of how it became a tradition with my kids. They loved them. They love to poke a hole in the yorkshires and fill them with gravy

Brief Heterogeneous Inpatient Groups: A Process-Oriented Psychoeducational Model

In the U.S., we currently have an increase in admissions to psychiatric hospitals and a lack of research exploring inpatient group psychotherapy. Diagnostically homogeneous therapy groups outperform therapy groups with mixed symptoms, however, due to managed health care, psychiatric hospitals typically run brief duration, diagnostically heterogeneous groups. A review of the research literature was conducted in order to locate empirical studies that could offer treatment recommendations regarding how to facilitate brief duration, diagnostically heterogeneous inpatient psychotherapy groups. Although this review revealed little information about this specific type of group, common factors from inpatient studies were extracted. Based on a synthesis of these studies, a cross-sectional, process-oriented psychoeducational treatment model is suggested

Feijoada

[ When you time in Brazil, what was a common dish they did on holidays?] Um… there is this dish called Feijoada it is a dish… um… it is primarily rice and beans but also has a bunch of different cuts of meat. Um it is traditionally eaten on Sundays, holidays, time when people get together with family. It is eaten with a side of collard greens, and with this um mealy kind of stuff called farofa. Um made out of tapioca, and flour. It is made out of meat that is really really inexpensive because it was kind of like a special food for families that were poor in Brazil at the time. Recipe: Brown a whole pack of bacon Add a pork loin roast that is cut in bite sized bits Beef short ribs (2 pounds) Linguica sausage (1 pound) Beef chorizo (1 pound) 7 cans of black beans The juice of 1 orange 1 large onion minced 2 table spoons minced garlic Salt and pepper to taste First brown the bacon, onions and garlic. Once these ingredients are cooked through, add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low heat for 4-5 hours

Bridge Failure Rates, Consequences, and Predictive Trends

A database of United States bridge failures was used to ascertain the failure rate of bridge collapses for a sample population with associated rates by causes. By using the National Bridge Inventory bridge counts, the bridge population, from which the collapsed bridge came from, was determined. The average number of bridge collapses based on the sample population was approximately 1/4,700 annually. The geometric distribution was determined to be a valid model for the number of bridge failures per annum through multiple methods. Based on the data extrapolation and 95% confidence interval, the estimated average annual bridge collapse rate in the United States is between 87 and 222 with an expected value of 128. The database showed hazards that have caused bridges to collapse historically, throughout the United States. Conditional probabilities of collapse rate with consideration for the features under the structures were constructed. The most likely cause of collapse was determined to be hydraulic in nature when adjusting for the features under the structure. The collapse rate of hydraulic causes was unknown from past investigations; however, the value was determined to be an annual rate of 1.52E-4. Collapse rates were also quantifiably established for other causes. The consequences coupled with the rate of failure by cause were quantitatively evaluated. A benchmark, set by the United States Army Corps of Engineers interim guideline for dam safety, was used to show that bridge collapses within the United States are within a tolerable range comparing collapses to life loss. To enhance risk-based and data-driven approaches to bridge management systems in compliance with Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, efficacious bridge collapse data collection is examined for this investigation. Trends obtained from statistical analysis of existing data show 53% of collapsed bridges were structurally deficient prior to collapse, and a failure rate of structurally deficient bridges to be 1/1,100 annually. Age and structural deficiency are related, structural deficiency and collapse are related, and age at collapse is contingent on collapse cause. It was determined that deterioration-caused and overload-caused bridge collapses are age related, but hydraulic-caused and collision-caused bridge collapses are not. Based on the desired results, trends seen in existing collapse data, improved collection efforts and data fields of interest are assessed with recommendations for analytical methods and consequence assessment while maintaining concise data. A national repository of bridge collapses at the federal level is paramount for effective bridge collapse risk analysis. Currently, bridge failure data is incomplete and insufficient to enable in-depth lifetime data analysis for improved bridge preservation. However, the frequency of collapses is often enough for large amounts of data to be collected in relatively few years

Brazilian Carnival

[So being from the country Brazil, what is a large holiday that is in your country?] Definitely Carnival! [What do you do during Carnival?] So, during Carnival there is a lot of public parties, there is a lot of parades. Like a lot of people get costumes like really shiny and bright costumes. Those people go inside the parade. The people that do not go inside of the parade still party and have fun seeing the people there. Everyone has a kind of a costume. [When they party, what do they do?] Yeah, they eat a lot of food, but really there is just a lot of alcohol. It is the time people most… most drink alcohol. There is not any specific Carnival foods, but since it is a party there is always food. There is a lot of alcohol, it is what they usually do. There is specific Carnival songs, specific Carnival singers, there is a specific kind of like types of musics. This is what people listen to while they celebrate. Only the adults can buy alcohol legally, but sometimes teenagers get drinks. They don’t sell it, but some adults buy for them. Usually adults have it. Teenagers normally celebrate it without alcohol. [What is the age drinking is legal?] eighteen

Eighty Lashes

If you get caught drinking alcohol, you receive eighty lashes. It is an Islamic rule. It is in Sharia law basically. The punishment depends on the judge usually they… I guess it is getting easier these days. They aren’t as crazy as what they use to be. Right after the revolution, they were really strict. I guess as time goes on everybody gets softer. It still is not surprising to get lashes for drinking… if you get caught. When you get lashes, they tie your hands on a post in the court room basement. They tie your hands, there is an executioner, and the judge is there also. And uh… they have a… I think is made of maybe leather. They just lash you on the back eighty times. They hit your legs too, but most of it is on the back. I was caught when I was sixteen, I did not get lashes until I was nineteen. At first, they put me in detention, and then prison for a few days. We had our house deed used as a guarantee that I would come back to get my eighty lashes. We tried hiring a lawyer to fight back. My mom gave them our house deed to bail me out of prison. They had our house for three years, but then they threatened to evict my parents if I didn’t come get my lashes. During this time, I was doing my undergraduate in another city. It was during my midterms the next day, and my mom was calling me asking me to come back. Yeah, I came back and got my eighty lashes. The same night I got on the bus to make it back for my midterms. They were not gently on me. I was trying not to cry out in front of my mom, so the judge ordered the executioner to whip me harder. The judge was saying to the executioner “Go harder! Go harder! You will go to jail if you don’t whip him harder!”. The executioner was about my age. He was doing his military service working at the court house. The military is mandatory in Iran, you have no choice. The last twenty or thirty of them were just… really hard. The bus ride was horrible. It was a twelve-hour trip. I remember sitting like a crazy person in pain and agony. I was just… not a good night. Even my tee-shirt on my back would hurt. I just wanted to take my shirt off. I aced my midterms the next day though

Magnetically Retained Relief Valve

A pressure relief valve includes a housing having a fluid inlet and at least one fluid outlet. A first structure mounted in the housing and fixed in relation thereto is in magnetic attraction with a second structure coupled to a piston disposed in a portion of the housing. The piston defines a chamber disposed adjacent to the fluid outlet(s) throughout the piston's stroke. The piston includes a sealing element providing a sealing force to prevent flow through the valve. The sealing force is independent of the magnetic attraction force between the first and second structures

Cryogenic Piezoelectric Actuator

In this paper, PMN-PT single crystal piezoelectric stack actuators and flextensional actuators were designed, prototyped and characterized for space optics applications. Single crystal stack actuators with footprint of 10 mm x10 mm and the height of 50 mm were assembled using 10 mm x10mm x0.15mm PMN-PT plates. These actuators showed stroke > 65 - 85 microns at 150 V at room temperature, and > 30 microns stroke at 77 K. Flextensional actuators with dimension of 10mm x 5 mm x 7.6 mm showed stroke of >50 microns at room temperature at driving voltage of 150 V. A flextensional stack actuator with dimension of 10 mm x 5 mm x 47 mm showed stroke of approx. 285 microns at 150 V at room temperature and > 100 microns at 77K under driving of 150 V should be expected. The large cryogenic stroke and high precision of these actuators are promising for cryogenic optics applications

The relationship of femoral neck shaft angle and adiposity To greater trochanteric pain syndrome in women. A case control morphology and anthropometric study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if pelvic or hip width predisposed women to developing greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS). DESIGN: Prospective case control study. PARTICIPANTS: Four groups were included in the study: those gluteal tendon reconstructions (n=31, GTR), those with conservatively managed GTPS (n=29), those with hip osteoarthritis (n=20, OA) and 22 asymptomatic participants (ASC). METHODS: Anterior-posterior pelvic x-rays were evaluated for femoral neck shaft angle; acetabular index, and width at the lateral acetabulum, and the superior and lateral aspects of the greater trochanter. Body mass index, and waist, hip and greater trochanter girth were measured. Data were analysed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA; posthoc Scheffe analysis), then multivariate analysis. RESULTS: The GTR group had a lower femoral neck shaft angle than the other groups (p=0.007). The OR (95% CI) of having a neck shaft angle of less than 134°, relative to the ASC group: GTR=3.33 (1.26 to 8.85); GTPS=1.4 (0.52 to 3.75); OA=0.85 (0.28 to 2.61). The OR of GTR relative to GTPS was 2.4 (1.01 to 5.6). No group difference was found for acetabular or greater trochanter width. Greater trochanter girth produced the only anthropometric group difference (mean (95% CI) in cm) GTR=103.8 (100.3 to 107.3), GTPS=105.9 (100.2 to 111.6), OA=100.3 (97.7 to 103.9), ASC=99.1 (94.7 to 103.5), (ANOVA: p=0.036). Multivariate analysis confirmed adiposity is associated with GTPS. CONCLUSION: A lower neck shaft angle is a risk factor for, and adiposity is associated with, GTPS in women