Maximum Visibility Building Direction for Layered Manufacturing of Jewel Rings

Rapid prototyping is used in jewelry production since the introduction of Stereolithography Apparatus into the market. However, the building orientation is mainly decided by the experience of the operator rather than by any systematic analysis. A theory is therefore needed to analyze the best orientation of jewelry in rapid jewelry production. In this paper, a new orientation methodology is applied to jewel ring models to properly orient them for layer manufacturing. Jewel ring model built is then demonstrated to have better quality and less error. A case study is presented to illustrate the theory.The work described in this paper was supported by a grant from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No.: G-V617).Mechanical Engineerin

Impacts of talent development environments on athlete burnout: a self-determination perspective

Guided by Deci and Ryan’s (2000) self-determination theory, this survey study aimed to examine the effects of the talent development environmental factors on athlete burnout. Talented adolescent athletes (N = 691) filled out a survey form measuring the talent development environmental factors, needs satisfaction, and burnout. The findings showed that three talent environmental factors (i.e., long-term development focus, holistic quality preparation, and communication) were negative predictors of burnout via needs satisfaction. It was concluded that the three talent development environmental factors may be important for facilitating athletes’ needs satisfaction and preventing burnout

The roles of the talent development environment on athlete burnout: a qualitative study

Grounded on basic psychological needs theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), this qualitative study investigated the impacts of the talent development environmental factors on athlete burnout. Talented youth athletes with high and low burnout levels (n = 38; each group had 19 participants) were recruited to attend focus-group interviews. Thematic analysis led to five environmental themes: long-term development focus, holistic quality preparation, support network, communication, and alignment of expectations. Athletes with high burnout levels were likely to experience more detrimental and less conducive talent development environmental antecedents compared to those who were with low burnout levels. It was concluded that the talent development environmental factors are important antecedents for burnout prevention

Talent development environment and achievement goal adoption among Korean and Singaporean athletes: Does perceived competence matter?

The objectives of this study were twofold. The first was to compare differences in perceptions of the talent development environment, achievement goals, and perceived competence, in terms of an individual characteristic (i.e., gender), a cultural characteristic (i.e., country), and their interactions (i.e., gender by country). The second was to examine the moderating effects of perceived competence on the relationships between the talent development environment and achievement goals. Data were collected from 363 athletes in Singapore and 349 athletes in Korea. A series of MANOVAs and path analyses were employed for testing of the main hypotheses. First, in terms of the talent development environment, male athletes scored higher in long term development focus, communication, support network, and long term development fundamentals. Second, in terms of achievement goals and perceived competence, male athletes scored higher in competence and performance-approach goal, but female athletes scored higher in mastery-avoidance goal. While Singaporean athletes scored higher in perceived competence, mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance, Korean athletes scored higher in performance-avoidance. Lastly, the path analysis provided empirical evidence supporting the moderation effects of perceived competence on the relationships between the talent development environment and achievement goal adoption

Latent profile analysis of the physical self-description among Chinese Adolescents

The purposes of this study were to validate the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ-S) and examine the physical self-description profiles using Latent Profile Analysis with a Chinese sample. A total of 744 secondary school students in China took part in the study. While the results provided support for internal reliability and discriminant validity of the PSDQ-S, they indicated convergent validity required further testing. In addition, three distinct profiles were identified with unique physical self-concept and different levels of physical activity participation. The study showed the PDSQ-S is useful in differentiating groups of adolescents with different levels of physical self-concept

Quantifying similarity in animal vocal sequences: Which metric performs best?

1. Many animals communicate using sequences of discrete acoustic elements which can be complex, vary in their degree of stereotypy, and are potentially open-ended. Variation in sequences can provide important ecological, behavioural, or evolutionary information about the structure and connectivity of populations, mechanisms for vocal cultural evolution, and the underlying drivers responsible for these processes. Various mathematical techniques have been used to form a realistic approximation of sequence similarity for such tasks. 2. Here, we use both simulated and empirical datasets from animal vocal sequences (rock hyrax, Procavia capensis; humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae; bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus; and Carolina chickadee, Poecile carolinensis) to test which of eight sequence analysis metrics are more likely to reconstruct the information encoded in the sequences, and to test the fidelity of estimation of model parameters, when the sequences are assumed to conform to particular statistical models. 3. Results from the simulated data indicated that multiple metrics were equally successful in reconstructing the information encoded in the sequences of simulated individuals (Markov chains, n-gram models, repeat distribution, and edit distance), and data generated by different stochastic processes (entropy rate and n-grams). However, the string edit (Levenshtein) distance performed consistently and significantly better than all other tested metrics (including entropy, Markov chains, n-grams, mutual information) for all empirical datasets, despite being less commonly used in the field of animal acoustic communication. 4. The Levenshtein distance metric provides a robust analytical approach that should be considered in the comparison of animal acoustic sequences in preference to other commonly employed techniques (such as Markov chains, hidden Markov models, or Shannon entropy). The recent discovery that non-Markovian vocal sequences may be more common in animal communication than previously thought, provides a rich area for future research that requires non-Markovian based analysis techniques to investigate animal grammars and potentially the origin of human language.We thank Melinda Rekdahl, Todd Freeberg and his graduate students, Amiyaal Ilany, Elizabeth Hobson, and Jessica Crance for providing comments of on a previous version of this manuscript. We thank Mike Noad, Melinda Rekdahl, and Claire Garrigue for assistance with humpback whale song collection and initial categorisation of the song, Vincent Janik and Laela Sayigh for assistance with signature whistle collection, Todd Freeberg with chickadee recordings, and Eli Geffen and Amiyaal Ilany for assistance with hyrax song collection and analysis. E.C.G is supported by a Newton International Fellowship. Part of this work was conducted while E.C.G. was supported by a National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, AFSC, NMFS, NOAA. The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Marine Fisheries Service. We would also like to thank Randall Wells and the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program for the opportunity to record the Sarasota dolphins, where data were collected under a series of National Marine Fisheries Service Scientific Research Permits issued to Randall Wells. A.K. is supported by the Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund. Part of this work was conducted while A.K. was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, an Institute sponsored by the National Science Foundation through NSF Award #DBI-1300426, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.1243

Role of intestinal bitter sensing in enteroendocrine hormone secretion and metabolic control

Published: 27 September 2018The gastrointestinal tract stores ingested nutrients in the stomach which are then delivered to the small intestine at a controlled rate to optimize their digestion and absorption. The interaction of nutrients with the small and large intestine generates feedback that slows gastric emptying, induces satiation, and reduces postprandial glycemic excursions. The mechanisms underlying these nutrient-gut interactions are complex; it has only recently been appreciated that the gut has the capacity to detect intraluminal contents in much the same way as the tongue, via activation of specific G-protein-coupled receptors, and that ensuing signaling mechanisms modulate the release of an array of gut hormones that influence gastrointestinal motility, appetite and glycemia. Interestingly, evidence from preclinical models supports a functional link between intestinal bitter taste receptor (BTRs) and gastrointestinal hormone secretion, and the outcomes of recent studies indicate that stimulation of intestinal BTRs may be used to modulate gastrointestinal function, to diminish energy intake and limit postprandial blood glucose excursions in humans. This review summarizes current evidence about the expression and function of intestinal BTRs in relation to enteroendocrine hormone release and discusses the clinical implications of this pathway for the management of obesity and type 2 diabetes.Cong Xie, Xuyi Wang, Richard L. Young, Michael Horowitz, Christopher K. Rayner and Tongzhi W

Explaining the social gradient in smoking and cessation: the peril and promise of social mobility

Smoking in high-income countries is now concentrated in poor communities whose relatively high smoking prevalence is explained by greater uptake but above all by lower quit rates. Whilst a number of barriers to smoking cessation have been identified, this is the first paper to situate cessation itself as a classed and cultural practice. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in a working class community in the North of England between 2012 and 2015, I theorise smoking cessation as a symbolic practice in relation to the affective experience of class and social mobility. I show that ambivalence about upward mobility as separation and loss translated into ambivalence about smoking cessation. The reason for this was that the social gradient in smoking operated dynamically at the level of the individual life course i.e. smoking cessation followed upward mobility. A serious health problem was an appropriate reason to quit but older women continued to smoke despite serious health problems. This was linked to historical gender roles leading to women placing a low priority on their own health as well as the intergenerational reproduction of smoking through close affective links with smoking parents

Plasma endocannabinoid levels in lean, overweight, and obese humans: relationships to intestinal permeability markers, inflammation, and incretin secretion

First published February 13, 2018Intestinal production of endocannabinoid and oleoylethanolamide (OEA) is impaired in high-fat diet/obese rodents, leading to reduced satiety. Such diets also alter the intestinal microbiome in association with enhanced intestinal permeability and inflammation, however little is known of these effects in humans. This study aimed to: (i) evaluate effects of lipid on plasma anandamide (AEA), 2-arachidonyl-sn-glycerol (2-AG) and OEA in humans, and (ii) examine relationships with intestinal permeability, inflammation markers and incretin hormone secretion.20 lean, 18 overweight and 19 obese participants underwent intraduodenal Intralipid® infusion (2 kcal/min) with collection of endoscopic duodenal biopsies and blood. Plasma AEA, 2-AG, and OEA (HPLC/tandem mass spectrometry), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP) (multiplex), and duodenal expression of occludin, zona-occludin-1 (ZO-1), intestinal-alkaline-phosphatase (IAP), and toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) (RT-PCR), were assessed.Fasting plasma AEA was increased in obese, compared with lean and overweight (P<0.05), with no effect of BMI group or ID lipid infusion on plasma 2-AG or OEA. Duodenal expression of IAP and ZO-1 was reduced in obese, compared with lean (P<0.05), and these levels related negatively to plasma AEA (P<0.05). The iAUC for AEA was positively related to iAUC GIP (r=0.384, P=0.005).Obese individuals have increased plasma AEA and decreased duodenal expression of ZO-1 and IAP, in comparison to lean and overweight. The relationships between plasma AEA with duodenal ZO-1 and IAP, and GIP, suggest that altered endocannabinoid signalling may contribute to changes in intestinal permeability, inflammation and incretin release in human obesity.Tanya J. Little, Nada Cvijanovic, Nicholas V. DiPatrizio, Donovan A. Argueta, Christopher K. Rayner, X Christine Feinle-Bisset, and Richard L. Youn

Development of innovative tools for investigation of nutrient-gut interaction

The gastrointestinal tract is the key interface between the ingesta and the human body. There is wide recognition that the gastrointestinal response to nutrients or bioactive compounds, particularly the secretion of numerous hormones, is critical to the regulation of appetite, body weight and blood glucose. This concept has led to an increasing focus on "gut-based" strategies for the management of metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes and obesity. Understanding the underlying mechanisms and downstream effects of nutrient-gut interactions is fundamental to effective translation of this knowledge to clinical practice. To this end, an array of research tools and platforms have been developed to better understand the mechanisms of gut hormone secretion from enteroendocrine cells. This review discusses the evolution of in vitro and in vivo models and the integration of innovative techniques that will ultimately enable the development of novel therapies for metabolic diseases.Wei-Kun Huang, Cong Xie, Richard L Young, Jiang-Bo Zhao, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Karen L Jones ... et al