CARS Temperature Measurements in a Hypersonic Propulsion Test Facility

Nonintrusive diagnostic measurements were performed in the supersonic reacting flow of the Hypersonic Propulsion Test Cell 2 at NASA-Langley. A Coherent Anti-stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS) system was assembled specifically for the test cell environment. System design considerations were: (1) test cell noise and vibration; (2) contamination from flow field or atmospheric borne dust; (3) unwanted laser or electrically induced combustion (inside or outside the duct); (4) efficient signal collection; (5) signal splitting to span the wide dynamic range present throughout the flow field; (6) movement of the sampling volume in the flow; and (7) modification of the scramjet model duct to permit optical access to the reacting flow with the CARS system. The flow in the duct was a nominal Mach 2 flow with static pressure near one atmosphere. A single perpendicular injector introduced hydrogen into the flow behind a rearward facing step. CARS data was obtained in three planes downstream of the injection region. At least 20 CARS data points were collected at each of the regularly spaced sampling locations in each data plane. Contour plots of scramjet combustor static temperature in a reacting flow region are presented

Beyond Amateurism: The Rebranding of Major College Athletics

For decades prior to NCAA v. Board of Regents, the brand of college athletics, even at the highest level, was amateurism. However, the last three decades of surging revenues and costs, as well as the current wave of litigation challenging amateurism, force decision makers in major college athletics to contemplate a future in which amateurism is banished or in retreat. In sum, the brand has outgrown amateurism. Major college athletics can survive a paradigm shift by selling the action in its games, the game day experience, and the traditions of the institutions

Residential Wood Combustion Emissions: The Development of a Negotiated Regulation

This paper has five purposes: (1) To report on the technicalities of the RWC emission issue. (2) To enumerate the various factors which must be considered in an RWC emission regulation. (3) To report on the use of regulatory negotiation, and how this differs form normal EPA rulemaking procedures. (4) To show how negotiation is particularly applicable to an RWC regulation. (5) To examine the thesis that a negotiated regulation was an appropriate alternative by reporting on how various specific issues were resolved in the six regulatory negotiation (reg-neg) committee meetings held monthly from March to August 1986.Master of Science in Public Healt

Evaluation of the 40 Hours per Month Work Requirement for MassHealth’s CommonHealth Working Program

Summary: This report evaluates the effectiveness of the 40 hours per month work requirement for eligibility for CommonHealth Working, Massachusetts\u27 Medicaid Buy-In program. The evaluation compared CommonHealth Working to other Massachusetts Medicaid programs and to other state Buy-In programs, examining enrollee earnings, hours worked, expenditures and enrollment patterns. The study also analyzed the impact of eligibility rules and case closure data on enrollment. Prepared for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services

Structural and transcriptional analysis of plant genes encoding the bifunctional lysine ketoglutarate reductase saccharopine dehydrogenase enzyme

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among the dietary essential amino acids, the most severely limiting in the cereals is lysine. Since cereals make up half of the human diet, lysine limitation has quality/nutritional consequences. The breakdown of lysine is controlled mainly by the catabolic bifunctional enzyme lysine ketoglutarate reductase - saccharopine dehydrogenase (LKR/SDH). The LKR/SDH gene has been reported to produce transcripts for the bifunctional enzyme and separate monofunctional transcripts. In addition to lysine metabolism, this gene has been implicated in a number of metabolic and developmental pathways, which along with its production of multiple transcript types and complex exon/intron structure suggest an important node in plant metabolism. Understanding more about the LKR/SDH gene is thus interesting both from applied standpoint and for basic plant metabolism.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The current report describes a wheat genomic fragment containing an LKR/SDH gene and adjacent genes. The wheat LKR/SDH genomic segment was found to originate from the A-genome of wheat, and EST analysis indicates all three LKR/SDH genes in hexaploid wheat are transcriptionally active. A comparison of a set of plant LKR/SDH genes suggests regions of greater sequence conservation likely related to critical enzymatic functions and metabolic controls. Although most plants contain only a single LKR/SDH gene per genome, poplar contains at least two functional bifunctional genes in addition to a monofunctional LKR gene. Analysis of ESTs finds evidence for monofunctional LKR transcripts in switchgrass, and monofunctional SDH transcripts in wheat, <it>Brachypodium</it>, and poplar.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The analysis of a wheat LKR/SDH gene and comparative structural and functional analyses among available plant genes provides new information on this important gene. Both the structure of the LKR/SDH gene and the immediately adjacent genes show lineage-specific differences between monocots and dicots, and findings suggest variation in activity of LKR/SDH genes among plants. Although most plant genomes seem to contain a single conserved LKR/SDH gene per genome, poplar possesses multiple contiguous genes. A preponderance of SDH transcripts suggests the LKR region may be more rate-limiting. Only switchgrass has EST evidence for LKR monofunctional transcripts. Evidence for monofunctional SDH transcripts shows a novel intron in wheat, <it>Brachypodium</it>, and poplar.</p

The Effects of Suspended Sediment on Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes) and Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) Metabolism

Sedimentation is recognized as a significant environmental stressor in aquatic ecosystems and high amounts of suspended sediments (SS) in streams are known to negatively affect aquatic organisms. In particular, it has been hypothesized that many fish species mayexhibit increased respiration rates when exposed to elevated SS. To evaluate this hypothesis, we evaluated the acute response (3 hour exposure) of two small, freshwater fish species exposed to high suspended sediment loads using experimental respirometry chambers which measure oxygen consumption as a proxy of metabolism. Our results indicate that Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes) did not exhibit a significantly greater oxygen consumption, as compared to control fish, when exposed to chamber sediment of 0.17 g/L (p-value of 0.41), though oxygen consumption was higher for sediment treatments. However, mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) exposed to 0.17 g/L did exhibit noticeably greater oxygen consumption compared to fish in no-sediment control test, but not at statistically significant levels (p-value of 0.07). Further study is needed with increased sample sizes and across SS levels to determine the threshold of increased metabolic rate among freshwater species exposed to SS

Baseline elevation and reduction in cardiac electrical instability assessed by quantitative T-wave alternans in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy treated with vagus nerve stimulation in the AspireSR E-36 trial

Objective: Reports of cardiac arrhythmias and cardiac pathology at postmortem examination of patients with epilepsy suggest a possible cardiac component of risk for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). T-wave alternans (TWA) is an established marker of cardiac electrical instability and risk for sudden death in patients with cardiovascular disease. We determined the TWA level before vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) system implantation and subsequently the effect of VNS on TWA in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Methods: Patients (n = 28) from the Seizure Detection and Automatic Magnet Mode Performance Study (E-36), a clinical trial of the AspireSR (R) VNS Therapy System (R) (NCT01325623), were monitored with ambulatory electrocardiograms (ECGs) similar to 2 weeks before de novo VNS system implantation and following 2- to 4-week VNS titration during a protocol-specified 3- to 5-day epilepsy monitoring unit stay with concurrent EEG/ECG recordings. The TWA level was assessed interictally by the Modified Moving Average (MMA) method. Results: At preimplantation baseline, TWA was elevated above the 47-mu V abnormality cutpoint in 23 (82%) patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. In 16 (70%) patients, TWA level was reduced during VNS treatment to <47 mu V, thereby converting positive TWA test results to negative. Peak TWA level in all 28 patients improved (group mean, 43%, from 72 +/- 4.3 to 41 +/- 2.3 mu V; p < 0.0001). Vagus nerve stimulation was not associated with reduced heart rate (77 +/- 1.4 to 75 +/- 1.4 beats/min; p = 0.18). Heart rate variability was unchanged. Significance: These findings suggest significant interictal cardiac electrical instability in this population of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy and suggest that VNS may be a novel approach to reducing risk