A kinetic energy study of the meso beta-scale storm environment during AVE-SESAME 5 (20-21 May 1979)

Kinetic energy of the near storm environment was analyzed by meso beta scale data. It was found that horizontal winds in the 400 to 150 mb layer strengthen rapidly north of the developing convection. Peak values then decrease such that the maximum disappears 6 h later. Southeast of the storms, wind speeds above 300 mb decrease nearly 50% during the 3 h period of most intense thunderstorm activity. When the convection dissipates, wind patterns return to prestorm conditions. The mesoscale storm environment of AVE-SESAME 5 is characterized by large values of cross contour generation of kinetic energy, transfers of energy to nonresolvable scales of motion, and horizontal flux divergence. These processes are maximized within the upper troposphere and are greatest during times of strongest convection. It is shown that patterns agree with observed weather features. The southeast area of the network is examined to determine causes for vertical wind variations

Community Gardens in Central Minnesota

The focus of this work is to examine community gardens in Central Minnesota (specifically within the three-county area of Benton, Sherburne, and Stearns counties). This paper utilizes qualitative methodologies to compare and contrast community gardens in the area, with attention given to historic context, participation (or lack of) within the community gardening movement, and current community values. Emphasis is given to the differentiation between levels of community within the construct of community gardens as social spaces, as well as the development of the concept of the community garden network among the eighteen gardens studied

Process Modeling of Solid Source Phosphorus Diffusions Using SUPREM-III

Carborundum PH-1025 Solid Planar Diffusion Sources were used to perform a statistically designed diffusion matrix. The data taken from this matrix included junction depth, sheet resistance and transferred glass thickness. Modifications to the existing SUPREM-Ill diffusion model failed to produce good correlation between SUPREM-Ill and the experimental data

History of the Indiana State Teachers College

Not Available.Max P. AllenNot ListedNot ListedMaster of ArtsDepartment Not ListedCunningham Memorial library, Terre Haute, Indiana State University.isua-thesis-1931-allenMastersTitle from document title page. Document formatted into pages: contains 129p. : ill. Includes annotated bibliography

Effectiveness of the LifeStraw as a Personal Point-of-Use Water Purifier

Point-of-use (POU) water treatment has emerged as a way to immediately and directly combat the reality that >1 billion people lack access to safe water. The LifeStraw is a personal, portable, POU water purifier. This research focused on testing various LifeStraw models in order to determine optimal configuration. Performance was judged on the basis of the ability to reduce microorganisms from water, achieve a total filtered volume of 700 L while maintaining a constant flow rate and realistic pressure, and not leach internal chemical components, specifically iodine and silver, at levels exceeding health-based standards or guidelines. Concentrations of pathogenic microbes were determined in the influent challenge water and LifeStraw filtrates to compute log[10] and percent reductions. Overall log[10] reductions were: for the bacterium, Salmonella typhimurium, >6.0 (99.9999%); for the enteric virus, Poliovirus-1, 1.1-1.4 (92-96%), and for the protozoan parasites, Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia, <0.3 (50%). The later LifeStraw models tested consistently achieved a filtration aging volume of 700 L and effluent concentrations of iodine and silver were below standards and guidelines values. Therefore, the LifeStraw is capable of reducing pathogenic bacteria, like Salmonella to levels meeting national and international performance targets of 6.0 log[10] reduction, but log[10] reductions for viruses and protozoan parasites were far below the performance targets of 4.0 and 3.0, respectively. Therefore, some key performance criteria were achieved by LifeStraws but others, especially virus and protozoan reductions, require further research and development for improved performance.Master of Science in Public Healt

Recent publications from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative: Reviewing progress toward improved AD clinical trials

INTRODUCTION: The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) has continued development and standardization of methodologies for biomarkers and has provided an increased depth and breadth of data available to qualified researchers. This review summarizes the over 400 publications using ADNI data during 2014 and 2015. METHODS: We used standard searches to find publications using ADNI data. RESULTS: (1) Structural and functional changes, including subtle changes to hippocampal shape and texture, atrophy in areas outside of hippocampus, and disruption to functional networks, are detectable in presymptomatic subjects before hippocampal atrophy; (2) In subjects with abnormal β-amyloid deposition (Aβ+), biomarkers become abnormal in the order predicted by the amyloid cascade hypothesis; (3) Cognitive decline is more closely linked to tau than Aβ deposition; (4) Cerebrovascular risk factors may interact with Aβ to increase white-matter (WM) abnormalities which may accelerate Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression in conjunction with tau abnormalities; (5) Different patterns of atrophy are associated with impairment of memory and executive function and may underlie psychiatric symptoms; (6) Structural, functional, and metabolic network connectivities are disrupted as AD progresses. Models of prion-like spreading of Aβ pathology along WM tracts predict known patterns of cortical Aβ deposition and declines in glucose metabolism; (7) New AD risk and protective gene loci have been identified using biologically informed approaches; (8) Cognitively normal and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects are heterogeneous and include groups typified not only by "classic" AD pathology but also by normal biomarkers, accelerated decline, and suspected non-Alzheimer's pathology; (9) Selection of subjects at risk of imminent decline on the basis of one or more pathologies improves the power of clinical trials; (10) Sensitivity of cognitive outcome measures to early changes in cognition has been improved and surrogate outcome measures using longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging may further reduce clinical trial cost and duration; (11) Advances in machine learning techniques such as neural networks have improved diagnostic and prognostic accuracy especially in challenges involving MCI subjects; and (12) Network connectivity measures and genetic variants show promise in multimodal classification and some classifiers using single modalities are rivaling multimodal classifiers. DISCUSSION: Taken together, these studies fundamentally deepen our understanding of AD progression and its underlying genetic basis, which in turn informs and improves clinical trial desig

Objective assessment of bradykinesia in Parkinson’s disease using evolutionary algorithms: clinical validation

Background: There is an urgent need for developing objective, effective and convenient measurements to help clinicians accurately identify bradykinesia. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of an objective approach assessing bradykinesia in finger tapping (FT) that uses evolutionary algorithms (EAs) and explore whether it can be used to identify early stage Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods: One hundred and seven PD, 41 essential tremor (ET) patients and 49 normal controls (NC) were recruited. Participants performed a standard FT task with two electromagnetic tracking sensors attached to the thumb and index finger. Readings from the sensors were transmitted to a tablet computer and subsequently analyzed by using EAs. The output from the device (referred to as "PD-Monitor") scaled from − 1 to +1 (where higher scores indicate greater severity of bradykinesia). Meanwhile, the bradykinesia was rated clinically using the Movement Disorder Society- Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) FT item. Results: With an increasing MDS-UPDRS FT score, the PD-Monitor score from the same hand side increased correspondingly. PD-Monitor score correlated well with MDS-UPDRS FT score (right side: r = 0.819, P = 0.000; left side: r = 0.783, P = 0.000). Moreover, PD-Monitor scores in 97 PD patients with MDS-UPDRS FT bradykinesia and each PD subgroup (FT bradykinesia scored from 1 to 3) were all higher than that in NC. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves revealed that PD-Monitor FT scores could detect different severity of bradykinesia with high accuracy (≥89.7%) in the right dominant hand. Furthermore, PD-Monitor scores could discriminate early stage PD from NC, with area under the ROC curve greater than or equal to 0.899. Additionally, ET without bradykinesia could be differentiated from PD by PD-Monitor scores. A positive correlation of PD-Monitor scores with modified Hoehn and Yahr stage was found in the left hand sides. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that a simple to use device employing classifiers derived from EAs could not only be used to accurately measure different severity of bradykinesia in PD, but also had the potential to differentiate early stage PD from normality

Conference of Microelectronic Research 1990

https://scholarworks.rit.edu/meec_archive/1003/thumbnail.jp

The Boundary-spanning Role of Democratic Learning Communities: Implementing the IDEALS

This multi-case study investigates characteristics and practices in schools that expand the traditional boundaries of school leadership and transform schools into democratic learning communities based on the level of implementation of the IDEALS framework. This investigation serves as a modus to illuminate democratic processes that change schools and address the needs of the students, not the needs of the adults in the system. A sample of five purposefully selected high schools, from the Midwest USA, was utilized. The schools serve Grade 9—12 students, but vary in size, residential area and socioeconomic status of the students. This study illuminates some of the challenges and strategies that facilitate or impede the process of creating more democratic schools that expand the boundaries of inquiry and discourse to include a broader range of community stakeholders and that respect and embrace issues of equity.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline