High-pressure promoted combustion chamber

In the preferred embodiment of the promoted combusiton chamber disclosed herein, a thick-walled tubular body that is capable of withstanding extreme pressures is arranged with removable upper and lower end closures to provide access to the chamber for dependently supporting a test sample of a material being evaluated in the chamber. To facilitate the real-time analysis of a test sample, several pressure-tight viewing ports capable of withstanding the simulated environmental conditions are arranged in the walls of the tubular body for observing the test sample during the course of the test. A replaceable heat-resistant tubular member and replaceable flame-resistant internal liners are arranged to be fitted inside of the chamber for protecting the interior wall surfaces of the combustion chamber during the evaluation tests. Inlet and outlet ports are provided for admitting high-pressure gases into the chamber as needed for performing dynamic analyses of the test sample during the course of an evaluation test

The Amish Goodie Gang of the 1950s: A Story of Changing Identity and Spiritual Renewal

Revivals of the 1950s and 60s spawned a movement of spiritual and practical change within the Amish community of Lancaster County, PA. Out of those changes came an unusual Amish gang called the Goodies. They were thus named because of refusing to engage with their old friends in the Amish tradition of Rumspringa. This article describes the beginnings of the Goodie gang and the consequential divisions that sprung out of this movement, including four new Amish-Mennonite congregations in Lancaster County. In conclusion, the paper reflects on some mission activity spawned by those within the Goodie gang in the years following

Mutation-biased adaptation in Andean house wrens

Genes, proteins, and genomes are pervasively shaped by biases in mutation that exert their influence by biasing rates of evolutionary change. Indeed, methods of phylogeny inference routinely assume that evolutionary rates will reflect transition–transversion bias and other common mutational biases. This influence is typically attributed to neutral evolution, presuming that mutation is a weak force easily overcome by selection, so that any noticeable effect of mutation must signal a lack of selection. However, in PNAS Galen et al. (1) propose a case of mutation-biased adaptation, in which the course of evolution reflects both a bias in mutation and a fitness benefit. How important are mutational biases in shaping adaptation? Are internal sources of orientation or direction in evolution—once dismissed as improbable (2)—more important than previously imagined

Self-Insurance for Small Employers Under the Affordable Care Act: Federal and State Regulatory Options

As implementation of the Affordable Care Act reshapes the US health insurance market, state and federal policy makers should be prepared to revisit regulation of stop-loss coverage — a form of reinsurance — for small businesses. Aspects of the reform law could motivate small businesses to self-insure, rather than participate in state-regulated markets either inside or outside the new health insurance exchanges. If younger or healthier groups self-insure, premiums for insured plans will rise, perhaps to an extent that could seriously impair the regulated market. State or federal lawmakers can influence small businesses to participate in the regulated market by making it more difficult or costly to obtain stop-loss coverage, which self-funded employers rely on to protect their businesses from catastrophic medical costs incurred by one or more insured workers. Regulators can limit the comprehensiveness of stop-loss coverage, ban stop-loss coverage outright, or regulate it as they do primary coverage. Because the issues are national in scope, and because uncertainty over ERISA preemption complicates state initiative, the federal government should take the lead in determining the proper confines of self-funding in the small-group employer market

The Role of State Regulation in Consumer-Driven Health Care

The Consumer-directed health care movement has recently been given a major boost by section 223 of the Medicare Modernization Act, which provides federal income tax subsidies for health savings accounts coupled with high deductible health plans. The federal tax subsidy, however, will only be available in states whose program of insurance regulation permits high deductible health plans to exist. The MMA represents, therefore, a new approach to federalism in health insurance - offering tax incentives for states to change their approach to insurance regulation rather than preempting state regulation or imposing federal regulation. To date the states have generally responded positively to the federal inducement by adapting their regulations to the federal model. We question, however, whether the states are fully considering the new challenges to insurance regulation raised by consumer-driven health care. This article, based on interviews with state regulators, insurance company representatives, and other experts, attempts to ask the questions that states must answer in deciding how to regulate this new form of health care finance

Effect Of The PEP Program On Biomechanical Risk Factors In Male Collegiate Lacrosse Athletes

Research poster stemming from IPEC mini-grant funded student project Effect of The Prevent Injury Enhance Performance Program on Biomechanical Risk Factors and Performance Variables in Male Collegiate Lacrosse Athletes. Background: Landing and cutting maneuvers are common mechanisms for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Men’s lacrosse is a high risk sport for ACL injury. The Prevent Injury Enhance Performance (PEP) program has been shown to decrease injury rates in women’s soccer but has not been studied in men’s lacrosse. Purpose: Determine if collegiate men’s lacrosse athletes land and cut in ways that put them at risk of ACL tear and to determine the effect of the PEP program on these mechanics. Methods: Twenty-two male collegiate lacrosse athletes participated in this study. Kinetics and kinematics were measured during a single leg drop-landing and a cutting maneuver before and after the spring 2015 season. Half of the participants performed the the PEP program, half of the participants performed a typical lacrosse warm up. Results: No group by time difference was observed in any variable in either task. Both groups demonstrated increased knee flexion angles at initial contact while cutting with the dominant limb. Conclusion: Neither group displayed mechanics that may increase risk of ACL tear. The PEP program did not alter landing and cutting mechanics more than a typical lacrosse warm up.https://dune.une.edu/minigrant_pep/1000/thumbnail.jp

Total Value of Phosphorus Recovery

Phosphorus (P) is a critical, geographically concentrated, nonrenewable resource necessary to support global food production. In excess (e.g., due to runoff or wastewater discharges), P is also a primary cause of eutrophication. To reconcile the simultaneous shortage and overabundance of P, lost P flows must be recovered and reused, alongside improvements in P-use efficiency. While this motivation is increasingly being recognized, little P recovery is practiced today, as recovered P generally cannot compete with the relatively low cost of mined P. Therefore, P is often captured to prevent its release into the environment without beneficial recovery and reuse. However, additional incentives for P recovery emerge when accounting for the total value of P recovery. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the range of benefits of recovering P from waste streams, i.e., the total value of recovering P. This approach accounts for P products, as well as other assets that are associated with P and can be recovered in parallel, such as energy, nitrogen, metals and minerals, and water. Additionally, P recovery provides valuable services to society and the environment by protecting and improving environmental quality, enhancing efficiency of waste treatment facilities, and improving food security and social equity. The needs to make P recovery a reality are also discussed, including business models, bottlenecks, and policy and education strategies

Experiencing Narrative Pedagogy: Conversations with Nurse Educators

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)The increasingly complex nature of health care requires nursing graduates, upon completion of their formal education, to be fully capable of providing safe and competent patient care. Accrediting bodies for schools of nursing have challenged nursing education to develop and implement innovative, research-based pedagogies that engage students in learning. Narrative Pedagogy is an innovative approach to teaching and learning developed by Nancy Diekelmann after many years of researching nursing education using Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology. As a new paradigm for teachers and students gathering in learning, Narrative Pedagogy is understood to be both a strategy and a philosophy of teaching. Narrative Pedagogy as a strategy provides an approach using the interpretation of clinical stories to better understand the experience of the patient, the nurse, and the family. Narrative Pedagogy as a philosophy of teaching offers Diekelmann’s Concernful Practices as a way of comportment for teachers and students as they gather in learning and teachers as they incline toward teaching narratively. This hermeneutic phenomenological study examined the experience of Nurse Educators with Narrative Pedagogy. Findings include overarching Pattern: Narrative Pedagogy as Bridge. Two themes are: 1) Students and teachers gathering in learning, and 2) Inclining toward teaching with Narrative Pedagogy. Positive teaching experiences and positive learning experiences with Narrative Pedagogy will advance the science of nursing education by adding to the body of knowledge of alternative pedagogies

Heat Effects of Promoters and Determination of Burn Criterion in Promoted Combustion Testing

Promoted ignition testing (NASA Test 17) [1] is used to determine the relative flammability of metal rods in oxygen-enriched atmospheres. A promoter is used to ignite a metal sample rod, initiating sample burning. If a predetermined length of the sample burns, beyond the promoter, the material is considered flammable at the condition tested. Historically, this burn length has been somewhat arbitrary. Experiments were performed to better understand this test by obtaining insight into the effect a burning promoter has on the preheating of a test sample. Test samples of several metallic materials were prepared and coupled to fast-responding thermocouples along their length. Thermocouple measurements and test video were synchronized to determine temperature increase with respect to time and length along each test sample. A recommended flammability burn length, based on a sample preheat of 500 F, was determined based on the preheated zone measured from these tests. This length was determined to be 30 mm (1.18 in.). Validation of this length and its rationale are presented

Exons, introns and DNA thermodynamics

The genes of eukaryotes are characterized by protein coding fragments, the exons, interrupted by introns, i.e. stretches of DNA which do not carry any useful information for the protein synthesis. We have analyzed the melting behavior of randomly selected human cDNA sequences obtained from the genomic DNA by removing all introns. A clear correspondence is observed between exons and melting domains. This finding may provide new insights in the physical mechanisms underlying the evolution of genes.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures - Final version as published. See also Phys. Rev. Focus 15, story 1