The lift of a cylinder executing rotary motions in a uniform flow

The mean lift coefficient of a circular cylinder executing rotary motions in a uniform flow is investigated. These motions include steady rotation, and rotary oscillations with a net rotation rate. Results for the steadily rotating cylinder show that for a given rotation rate, larger cylinder aspect ratios yield higher lift coefficients. It was also found that the addition of forced rotary oscillations to the steady rotation of the cylinder increases the lift coefficient in the cases where the wake would normally be separated in the steadily rotating case, but decreases it otherwise. In addition, a method for estimating the mean lift of a rotating cylinder is presented. Estimates based on this method compare favourably with similar data published for steadily rotating cylinders

Secondary Stroke Prevention Among Filipinos Compared with Other Racial Groups in Hawaii

Purpose/Background: As the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and a main cause of disability, stroke results in immense health and economic burden. Filipinos (FI) were found to have the highest mortality due to major CVD and stroke in Hawaii, and it is unclear whether the increased stroke risk among FI might be reduced by increasing the use of guideline recommended medications for secondary stroke prevention. Additionally, the attitudes and concerns of FI patients in Hawaii regarding stroke prevention have not been studied. The purpose of this study is to utilize a mixed-method approach to elucidate health disparities in FI after stroke compared with other racial groups in Hawaii, Whites, other Asians, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (NHOPI) and other race. Materials & Methods: The Get With the Guidelines – Stroke (GWTG-Stroke) data from The Queenʼs Medical Center (QMC) will be used to identify patients hospitalized for stroke from years 2006-2016. Subjects will be excluded if diagnosed with non-ischemic stroke and with disposition other than home. Multivariable logistic regression models will examine differences in appropriate medication use at discharge related to race/ethnicity, controlling for age, sex, insurance, prior use of medications, and stroke risk factors. Additionally, semi-structured key informant interviews will be conducted among FI and other stroke patients from QMC. Transcripts from the interviews will be reviewed, coded, and interpreted for congruent themes. Results: Preliminary results from the GWTG-Stroke 2013 to 2016 data identified a total of 3574 stroke patients. After meeting inclusion criteria, a total of 1489 subjects were identified. The subjects included 398 Whites, 191 FI, 528 other Asian, 346 NHOPI, and 26 other race. At baseline, there was no difference in the average age of FI compared with Whites (66 vs 67 years old, respectively, P=0.15); however, other Asians (70 years old, P=0.002) were older, and NHOPI (60 years old, P\u3c0.001) were younger than Whites. Furthermore, FI, other Asians, and NHOPI had significantly higher rates of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia than Whites. Multivariable logistic regression results showed no statistically significant racial difference in prescribing of antithrombotics or statins at discharge. Age [OR=0.97; 95% CI (0.95, 0.995)], however, was a negative predictor of antithrombotic prescription, and being female [OR=0.68; 95% CI (0.51, 0.90)] was associated with lower rates of statin prescription on discharge (Table 1). Discussion/Conclusion: Analyses of data from a large hospital in Hawaii from 2013 to 2016 found race was not associated with prescribing differences for the guideline recommended medications for secondary stroke prevention. Further study is needed to better understand why female gender was associated with fewer statin prescriptions. The pending results of the key informant interviews may shed light on the attitudes and concerns regarding stroke prevention among FI and other racial groups in Hawaii

Development of a coronal mass ejection arrival time forecasting system using interplanetary scintillation observations

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) cause disturbances in the environment of the Earth when they arrive at the Earth. However, the prediction of the arrival of CMEs still remains a challenge. We have developed an interplanetary scintillation (IPS) estimation system based on a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the inner heliosphere to predict the arrival time of CMEs. In this system, the initial speed of a CME is roughly derived from white light coronagraph observations. Then, the propagation of the CME is calculated by a global MHD simulation. The IPS response is estimated by the three-dimensional density distribution of the inner heliosphere derived from the MHD simulation. The simulated IPS response is compared with the actual IPS observations made by the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, and shows good agreement with that observed. We demonstrated how the simulation system works using a halo CME event generated by a X9.3 flare observed on September 5, 2017. We find that the CME simulation that best estimates the IPS observation can more accurately predict the time of arrival of the CME at the Earth. These results suggest that the accuracy of the CME arrival time can be improved if our current MHD simulations include IPS data.Comment: 39 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Earth, Planets and Spac

Running shoes design system with artificial bee colony method using gaze information

To retrieve multimodal candidate solutions for real users, we investigated the effectiveness of an interactive evolutionary computation (IEC) method with an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. Using three types of bees (i.e., employed, onlooker, and scout bees), the ABC algorithm retrieves various candidate solutions. Our previous study showed the effectiveness of the IEC with the ABC algorithm while looking at various practical IEC parameters from a numerical simulation using a pseudo-user that imitates user preferences. The results showed that the IEC with the ABC algorithm could retrieve more multimodal candidates than the interactive genetic algorithm (IGA), the previous chief method of IECs. However, we did not examine the effectiveness of the IEC with the ABC algorithm for real users. In this study, we performed experiments to examine the effectiveness of the IEC with the ABC algorithm for real users using running shoe designs as an evaluation object. The investigations compared multimodal candidate solutions using the IGA method as a comparison tool, retrieving the performance of both methods. To evaluate candidates, we employed user gaze information to reduce user evaluation loads. The results showed that the evaluation time for evaluating candidates of the IEC with the ABC algorithm was shorter than that of the IGA method. Moreover, we confirmed that the IEC with the ABC algorithm could retrieve more multimodal candidate solutions than the IGA method

On the Noninteracting Control of Linear Time-Variant Multivariable Systems

In this paper, we show two results with respect to the noninteracting control problem in multivariable linear systems. In the first half, we show that the noninteracting control problem is a variational one. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the linear (time-variant and time-invariant) multivariable control system to be the noninteracting control system are shown with the aid of variational method used in the theory of invariance. In the second half, it is shown that it is possbile to obtain the noninteracting control system by state variable feedback. Sufficient conditions for the noninteracting control system to be constructed by state variable feedback are obtained by using the concept of relative orders

Interaction Between Agile Methods and Organizational Culture – A Qualitative Study

Background: Agile practices have gained popularity in the 21st century. There is also a growing body of research on agile methods. While some earlier research on agile practices and organizational culture exists with the assumption that the optimal combination of agile practices and organizational culture exists, we examine how agile methods and organizational culture interact and are mutually adjusted. Method: To find out how agile methods and organizational culture are related in practice, we conducted 50 semi-structured interviews with software and embedded software developers from five Japanese companies and three software teams from Finland. Results: Adopting agile methods does not necessarily cause convergence of organizational culture toward democratic which seems to be most compatible with archetypal agile practices. Agile methods can be adapted to organizational cultures that are sometimes challenging to modify. We demonstrate that companies tried to fit agile practices into hierarchical organizational cultures, demonstrating that organizational culture can occasionally be viewed as an exogenous variable influenced firm-, product-, and industry-specific features. Also, it is possible to transform organizational cultures to democratic. The examples demonstrate how companies alter their culture in part through HRM techniques. It should be noted, however, that these efforts to conform to culture can have some restrictions. Conclusion: There is not a single ideal combination of agile methods and organizational culture, despite what some earlier studies suggested. The results show how organizational culture and agile methods interact and adapt to one another in different ways. According to several earlier studies, different organizational cultures may support different facets of agile methods. They do not presuppose organizational culture diversity; in that it goes beyond the notion of a one-to-one relationship between agile methods and democratic organizational culture. While implementing agile practices in various organizational cultural contexts, practitioners must consider how agile methods and organizational culture are interconnected