Strategies for Clinical Management of Hypertension: Understanding Community Perspectives

Survey analysis of hypertensive patients in an outpatient family medicine practice aimed at efficiently improving clinical management and health literacy.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1261/thumbnail.jp

Designing Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring Systems Suitable for Harsh Environments

Research into wind turbine condition monitoring is continually receiving greater attention due to the potential benefits from condition monitoring systems (CMS). These benefits can only be realised with high reliability of the condition monitoring system itself. This paper discusses how CMS reliability can be increased, by introducing four types of robustness and how to design the CMS to meet these requirements. The paper uses a case study CMS installation to illustrate the design requirements, and lessons learned from the installation process

Database management for high resolution condition monitoring of wind turbines

Wind turbine condition monitoring (CM) is an area of research which has been receiving a large amount of attention in the recent years. This has been influenced mainly by the recent uptake of wind farms being installed around the country. Operational and maintenance expertise in the area of wind turbine CM is therefore seen to be of growing importance but is yet to be well established in the industry due to its unverified economic benefits. The majority of the research which can be found in the literature has been based on simulation or test rig data, often due to the lack of availability of extensive historical data sets containing 'interesting' events, as well as the difficulties associated in gaining access to such data, due to its commercially sensitive nature. It can not be readily claimed, nor shown that laboratory based testing or simulations actually reflect real turbine operation, due to scaling, control and dynamic considerations. In order that different patterns of machine deterioration can be determined and detected in their incipient stages, precise high resolution data, of existing monitored parameters, should be sampled at frequencies higher than that is typically available in the integrated SCADA systems installed in most modern turbines today. This paper reports the design of a data acquisition platform which will be mounted on a 660 kW VESTAS V47 wind turbine. Details of the monitoring equipment used, the installation requirements as well as the system architecture will be presented and discussed

Impacts of harmonic distortion from charging electric vehicles on low voltage networks

Paper focusing on the impacts of harmonic distortion from charging electric vehicles on low voltage networks

Regional Security Complex Theory: Southeast Asia and the South Pacific

The changing shape of the international system in the post-Cold War era has demanded that theorists and practitioners re-evaluate the nature of security in the analysis of International Relations in the modern world. While realist conceptions of security are still pivotal in determining the actions of states, the increasing prevalence of transnational threats and security interdependence has facilitated the rise of regionally coherent subsystems within which the pursuit of security cannot be achieved in the absence of cooperation. Despite modern advancements in technology and transportation, the reality remains that security threats have a higher capability to travel over short distances rather than long, and the capacity of most states to project power beyond their own regional sphere is relatively limited. Consequently, the interplay between geography and anarchy in the current international system has facilitated the rise of regional security complexes (RSCs), whereby geographically proximate states are bound within a distinct regional dynamic; be it conflict or cooperation. The regionalist perspective has sought to emphasize that security at the regional level is autonomous and distinguishable from the dynamics of the global and domestic levels and that, whilst each regional space is unique, particular variables are comparable and highlight interactions that would not occur were it not for the existence of a RSC. The purpose of this thesis is to utilise the theoretical framework of Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) in order to cross-compare two different regions; Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Southeast Asia has been widely accepted as an autonomous regional construct and experiences a web of security interdependence which ensures that the security concerns of its units cannot be analysed or resolved apart from one another. The South Pacific, by contrast, has been largely ignored in the literature on regional security and has otherwise been categorized as being unstructured and too weak in its dynamic to constitute a security complex in its own right. The objective of this thesis is to outline the variables of the essential structure of a RSC so as to ascertain whether the characterization of the South Pacific as being unstructured holds true. The additional objective of this thesis is to map and cross-compare the regional security architecture of the South Pacific to that of Southeast Asia in order to highlight and pinpoint what differences exist, what they say about the region itself, and how they may be explained

Primary Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

Cardiovascular Disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, causing about 1 in 4 deaths. Cardiac rehabilitation is often only suggested to patients AFTER a hospitalization for serious heart conditions such as heart attack or heart failure. Data demonstrates the decrease of a secondary cardiac event for individuals who were enrolled in cardiac rehab as well as an improvement in cardiac risk factors including: decrease in lipid levels and insulin resistance with increased smoking cessation and exercise tolerance. Levels of depression and anxiety also improved in this population. This leads us to ask: How can we take what has been proven to improve heart health and prevent secondary cardiac events to prevent primary cardiac events?https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1832/thumbnail.jp

Recent Progress in Entry Radiation Measurements in the NASA Ames Electric ARC Shock Tube Facility

The Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) at NASA Ames Research Center is NASA's only working shock tube capable of obtaining conditions representative of entry in a multitude of planetary atmospheres. The facility is capable of mapping spectroscopic signatures of a wide range of planetary entries from the Vacuum Ultraviolet through Mid-Wave Infrared (120-5500 nm). This paper summarizes the tests performed in EAST for Earth, Mars and Venus entries since 2008, then focuses on a specific test case for CO2/N2 mixtures. In particular, the paper will focus on providing information for the proper interpretation of the EAST data

Fuel cells for power generation and organic waste treatment on the island of Mull

In-situ use of biomass and organic waste streams have the potential to provide the key to energy self sustainability for islands and remote communities. Traditionally biogas fuels have been used in combustion engines for electric power generation. However, fuel cells offer the prospect of achieving higher generating efficiencies, and additionally, important environmental benefits can be achieved by way of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, whilst providing a carbon sink. This paper presents the design details of a biogas gas plant and fuel cell installation that will provide a practical solution on an island (and be applicable in other remote and rural areas) where connection to the grid can be expensive, and where biofuels can be produced on site at no significant extra cost

Absolute Radiation Measurements in Earth and Mars Entry Conditions

This paper reports on the measurement of radiative heating for shock heated flows which simulate conditions for Mars and Earth entries. Radiation measurements are made in NASA Ames' Electric Arc Shock Tube at velocities from 3-15 km/s in mixtures of N2/O2 and CO2/N2/Ar. The technique and limitations of the measurement are summarized in some detail. The absolute measurements will be discussed in regards to spectral features, radiative magnitude and spatiotemporal trends. Via analysis of spectra it is possible to extract properties such as electron density, and rotational, vibrational and electronic temperatures. Relaxation behind the shock is analyzed to determine how these properties relax to equilibrium and are used to validate and refine kinetic models. It is found that, for some conditions, some of these values diverge from non-equilibrium indicating a lack of similarity between the shock tube and free flight conditions. Possible reasons for this are discussed