An Evaluation of Antibiotics Upon Selected Dairy Organisms

This study was designed to answer a three-fold purpose. Primarily, it has endeavored to measure the inhibitory effect of three antibiotics (potassium pencillin, dihydrostreptomycin, and oxytetracycline) on lactic acid producing organisms. The lactic acid-producing organisms include Streptococcus lactis, Streptococcus thermophilis, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. The determination of an effective dose of a given antibiotic which will inhibit 50 percent of the lactic acid-producing organism (E.D.50) will be established. A 50 percent cut in acid development will certainly lead to an inferior product. The secondary purpose has related to the detection of inhibitory substances (antibiotics) in milk. What is the possibility of detecting the concentration of antibiotic which correlates to the E.D.50 established in the first phase of the problem? The third purpose embraces a study of the sensitivity of tests for detecting inhibitory substances

Coping with a pandemic: findings on efficacy and predictors of treatment outcome in an internet-based self-help intervention for COVID-19 related psychological distress

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic represents a non-normative life event and is associated with various pandemic-related stressors. Research at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic indicated an increase in psychological distress in the general population. However, over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, findings increasingly showed that, on average, the general population appeared to recover from psychological distress. Nonetheless, a substantial minority appears to have become and remained psychologically distressed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Internet-based self-help interventions might be promising in the treatment of this COVID-19 related psychological distress. Against this background, the aim of this doctoral thesis is to investigate the efficacy of an internet-based self-help intervention for COVID-19 related psychological distress. In addition, by exploring predictors of treatment outcome, the aim is to identify who might benefit from such an intervention. For this purpose, three articles are presented. The first article presents the study protocol of the ROCO project, in which the efficacy of an internet-based self-help intervention for COVID-19 related psychological distress was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). In the second article, the main results of this RCT are reported and in the third article, in a secondary analysis, predictors of treatment outcome were explored. Results indicate that the intervention was not effective in reducing depressive symptoms but led to a significant increase in emotion regulation skills and resilience. In addition, with regard to depressive symptoms, young adults in particular seem to benefit from the intervention, and with regard to resilience, individuals with higher pre-existing resources seem to particularly benefit. In this doctoral thesis, the articles are embedded in both the underlying theoretical framework and the current state of research. Moreover, results are summarized, discussed, and implications for coping with possible future pandemics are derived

Gantry-Tau A New Three Degrees of Freedom Parallel Kinematic Robot

In the last decades, an increasing attention has been paid to the study of different parallel structure mechanisms and their applications, mainly triggered by Stewart that presented an aircraft simulator system. Parallel structure features provide big advantages in potential applications. For example, parallel robots may give higher speed and acceleration, higher static and dynamic accuracy and higher stiffness than what is possible with the industrial robots used today. A typical limitation with many of the paral-lel structures is that their workspace is small com-pared to the serial structures. This paper presents a new parallel structure, the Gantry-Tau, which pro-vides 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) translational mo-tion with a large workspace. The structure of the ro-bot is patented by ABB. The Gantry-Tau robot is a six link parallel kinematic structure with the links configured according to 3-2-1. The 3-2-1 notation refers to how many links form each resulting kine-matic cluster of the robot. Orientational DOF of the robot could be provided by a decoupled system. For a conventional 3 DOF serial gantry ro-bot two of the actuators contribute to the moving mass. The Gantry-Tau can be constructed with ex-ceptionally low moving mass since the actuators are stationary and the structure has inherently high stiff-ness. The structure is thus ideal for many applications with demands on high accelerations, for instance for the pick and place operations. The nominal inverse and direct kinematics of the structure are developed and optimization is used to find a construction of Gantry-Tau with maximum workspace volume

Gantry-Tau A New Three Degrees of Freedom Parallel Kinematic Robot

In the last decades, an increasing attention has been paid to the study of different parallel structure mechanisms and their applications, mainly triggered by Stewart that presented an aircraft simulator system. Parallel structure features provide big advantages in potential applications. For example, parallel robots may give higher speed and acceleration, higher static and dynamic accuracy and higher stiffness than what is possible with the industrial robots used today. A typical limitation with many of the paral-lel structures is that their workspace is small com-pared to the serial structures. This paper presents a new parallel structure, the Gantry-Tau, which pro-vides 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) translational mo-tion with a large workspace. The structure of the ro-bot is patented by ABB. The Gantry-Tau robot is a six link parallel kinematic structure with the links configured according to 3-2-1. The 3-2-1 notation refers to how many links form each resulting kine-matic cluster of the robot. Orientational DOF of the robot could be provided by a decoupled system. For a conventional 3 DOF serial gantry ro-bot two of the actuators contribute to the moving mass. The Gantry-Tau can be constructed with ex-ceptionally low moving mass since the actuators are stationary and the structure has inherently high stiff-ness. The structure is thus ideal for many applications with demands on high accelerations, for instance for the pick and place operations. The nominal inverse and direct kinematics of the structure are developed and optimization is used to find a construction of Gantry-Tau with maximum workspace volume

Comparitive study between a modified fixation disparity curve procedure and standard protocol

PROCEDURE AND STANDARD PROTOCOL In this study a comparison was made between the efficacies of a standard fixation disparity curve and a fixation disparity curve created with protocol modified for speed of administration in a traditional clinical setting. The modified curve consists of five points; associated phoria (with 0 prism), three prism diopters each of base in and out, and one additional base in and base out point based on the each subject\u27s vergence ranges. A modified curve and a standard curve were obtained from 40 subjects. Three objective, blind evaluators made assessments of the curves to allow comparisons between the associated phorias, the least amount of prism to the flat zone, prism value to the center of symmetry, curve type, and slope of these two curves. Also assessed was the comfort level of each examiner in using the data from the modified curves and standard curves in making patient care decisions. The analysis of the relationship between the associated phoria values from each curve (modified vs. standard) showed the difference between them to be 2 prism diopters (p = 0.012) indicating a significant change in the data sets. When a comparison was made between the \u27least amount of prism to flat zone\u27 with each of these methods, the insignificant average difference was -0.122 prism diopters (p = 0.792). With respect to the slopes, the relationship between the modified and standard curves showed an insignificant average difference of -0.14 (p = 0.295). The blind evaluators felt confident making patient care decisions with the standard curve 83% of the time versus only 25% of the time using the modified curve. The analysis of the data collected shows not only that the modified protocol failed to provide reliable data for essential elements of a fixation disparity curve such as associated phoria, least amount of prism to flat zone and curve type, but also raised questions about repeatability of the standard method of fixation disparity testing

Age, Motivation, and Emotion Regulation Skills Predict Treatment Outcome in an Internet-Based Self-Help Intervention for COVID-19 Related Psychological Distress.

Introduction First evidence suggests that internet-based self-help interventions effectively reduce COVID-19 related psychological distress. However, it is yet unclear which participant characteristics are associated with better treatment outcomes. Therefore, we conducted secondary analyses on data from a randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of a 3-week internet-based self-help intervention for COVID-19 related psychological distress. In this exploratory analysis, we examined several predictors ranging from sociodemographic variables to psychological distress, resource-related, and treatment-related variables. This includes, for example, age, motivation, and emotion regulation skills. Treatment outcomes were defined as post-treatment depressive symptoms and post-treatment resilience. Methods In a total of 107 participants with at least mild depressive symptoms, possible predictor variables and treatment outcomes were assessed using self-report measures. For example, emotion regulation skills were assessed by the Self-report measure for the assessment of emotion regulation skills. In a first step, we performed a separate linear regression analysis for each potential predictor. In a second step, predictors meeting a significant threshold of p < 0.05 were entered in linear multiple regression models. Baseline scores of the respective outcome measure were controlled for. Results The mean age of the participants was 40.36 years (SD = 14.59, range = 18-81 years) with the majority being female (n = 87, 81.3%). Younger age predicted lower post-treatment depressive symptoms. Additionally, higher motivation to use the intervention and better pre-treatment emotion regulation skills predicted higher post-treatment resilience. Conclusion The current study provides preliminary evidence regarding the relationship between participant characteristics and treatment outcome in internet-based self-help interventions for COVID-19 related distress. Our results suggest that under the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 such interventions might be particularly beneficial for young adults regarding depressive symptoms. Moreover, focusing on participants' existing strengths might be a promising approach to promote resilience through internet-based self-help interventions. However, since this was an exploratory analysis in an uncontrolled setting, further studies are needed to draw firm conclusions about the relationship of participant characteristics and treatment outcome in internet-based self-help interventions for COVID-19 related psychological distress

Nanomaterials Meet Li-ion Batteries

Li-ion batteries are used in many applications in everyday life: cell phones, laser pointers, laptops, cordless drillers or saws, bikes and even cars. Yet, there is room for improvement in order to make the batteries smaller and last longer. The Fromm group contributes to this research focusing mainly on nanoscale lithium ion cathode materials. This contribution gives an overview over our current activities in the field of batteries. After an introduction on the nano-materials of LiCoO2 and LiMnPO4, the studies of our cathode composition and preparation will be presented

Provider-facing ehealth tool for transitioning youth with special health care needs from pediatric to adult care: Mixed methods, user-engaged usability study

Background: There is a need for medical education on health care transitions for youth with special health care needs. The Texas Transition Toolkit (the tool) supports providers through a one-stop shop for researching literature on care transitions, a catalog of care transition tools, and guides for developing care transition programs. Objective: This study aims to assess the functionality and usability of the tool with providers working with transition-aged children and youth with special health care needs (representative users). Methods: The tool was evaluated using a triangulated mixed methods case study approach consisting of a concurrent think-aloud phase, a satisfaction survey, and a survey of problem relevance and task performance to operationalize and capture functionality and usability. Our mixed methods deep dive into the functionality and usability of the tool focused on 10 representative users from one medical home in Texas and 5 website design experts. Results: Representative users found the tool to be highly relevant, as demonstrated by the satisfaction score for relevance (138/150, 92%). According to the users, the tool provided comprehensive information related to health care transitions for youth with special health care needs, with a satisfaction score of 87.3% (131/150) for comprehensive. Overall satisfaction with the tool was high at 81.92% (1065/1300) with a cutoff score of 73.33% (953.4/1300) indicating high satisfaction, but users reported relatively lower satisfaction with search (114/150, 76%) and navigation (ease of use: 114/150, 76%; hyperlinks: 163/200, 81.5%; structure: 159/200, 79.5%). They experienced search- and navigation-related problems (total problems detected: 21/31, 68%) and, based on quality checks, had a relatively low task completion rate for tasks involving finding information (60/80, 75%), which required searching and navigation. The problems identified around search and navigation functionality were relevant (relevance scores ranging from 14.5 to 22, with a cutoff score of 11.7 indicating relevance). Conclusions: The tool may help bridge the gaps in training on health care transitions for youth with special health care needs in US medical education. The tool can be used to create structured protocols to help improve provider knowledge, collaboration across pediatric and adult care providers, and the continuity of care as youth with special health care needs transition from pediatric to adult care. The results provided a road map for optimizing the tool and highlighted the importance of evaluating eHealth technologies with representative users.Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psycholog

Fatigue crack growth retardation inconel 600

The effect of single-cycle overloads on the subsequent fatigue crack growth behavior of Inconel 600 is studied. Overloads ranging from 10 to 50% are applied to a sample undergoing baseline fatigue crack growth at constant [Delta]K. In all cases, the crack growth rate increases slightly immediately after the overload and then decreases rapidly to a minimum value before later returning to the pre-overload value. The plastic zone size, affected crack length and the crack growth increment at minimum crack growth rate, a, are measured for each overload.The affected crack length is considerably larger than the overload plastic zone size for overloads greater than 20%. Consequently, although the minimum crack growth rate occurs within the plane stress overload plastic zone, the effect of the overload extends well beyond the overload region.Within the overload plastic zone, contact occurs between the crack faces due to the excessive deformation produced during the overload cycle. The size of the contact region agrees very well with the overload plastic zone size. Beyond the overload region, [Delta]Keff remains less than the applied [Delta]K for some time due to the wedge action of the plastically deformed overload region, delaying recovery of the pre-overload crack growth rate. The crack growth rate recovers only after the crack grows out of the region of influence of the wedge.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25000/1/0000427.pd