Spinal Musculoskeletal Injuries Associated with Swimming: A Discussion of Technique

Objectives: To review the biomechanics of the swimming stroke and examine common injuries which occur in swimming. A review of diagnosis and management strategies of these injuries is also performed

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas and Financial Impacts of Energy Use in L/A Area Businesses

Human economic activity has contributed massively to the emission of Greenhouse gases (GHG) since the industrial revolution. Commercial businesses, no matter any size, shape or form cannot function without the use of energy, especially without electricity and heating. Within Maine, the vast majority of GHG emission is from transportation. However, electric power, commercial and industrial sectors, which links to the process of operating businesses, account for 27 percent (Maine DEP, 2021). This project works to provide resources to improve efficiency in energy use to help lower the contribution of Maine’s businesses to that 27 percent slice. The main goal is to reduce GHG emissions by businesses in the Lewiston Auburn area by providing solutions to make changes to increase energy efficiency and reduce fossil fuel combustion. Though it may seem easy to tell businesses to reduce their emissions through efficiency upgrades, the biggest barrier that needs to be addressed is Maine’s businesses are small with limited financial capabilities as their bottom line is to make revenue for survival. They are limited financially and time-wise to explore different efficiency upgrade options. To address this barrier, our project will help businesses to identify different methods of upgrades while also providing methods of financing by recommending existing federal and state rebate programs. The aim of this project is to aid the Lewiston Auburn Chamber of Commerce, project’s community partner, in providing information and education to local businesses with the goal of increasing energy efficiency for the purpose of lowering business operating costs and reducing GHG emissions. To achieve this aim we would provide attractive and easily digestible fact sheet as deliverables and tackle the following objectives: Identify where businesses use energy and categorize consumption, recommend actions for businesses to improve energy efficiency in areas of high consumption supported by Federal and or State Efficiency Programs, and show businesses how they can potentially save money with energy efficiency programs and reducing energy consumption. Our project seeks to help business owners who have very limited time and resources to research energy upgrades to look at the deliverables and gain all the necessary information from one location. Commercial sectors in Maine, especially in Lewiston and in Auburn, restaurant, office, manufacturing, institution, food sales (convenience stores), and retail were selected, and business profiles, sectors separated by size, were created to understand individual’s divers of energy use. Calculations of monthly energy consumption were done to identify its biggest drivers and understand where to focus its efficiency upgrades to make the most effective and biggest effects to GHG emissions. Within the six sectors, HVAC system and appliance upgrades were identified to be the most commonly effective upgrade options. Federal and state rebate programs to finance these upgrades were identified. These suggestions were compiled into the deliverables, fact sheets for each business profile, for business owners to look at their identifiable business profile fact sheet and easily attain information for future changes

Effects of Kerr Spacetime on Spectral Features from X-Ray Illuminated Accretion Discs

We performed detailed calculations of the relativistic effects acting on both the reflection continuum and the iron line from accretion discs around rotating black holes. Fully relativistic transfer of both illuminating and reprocessed photons has been considered in Kerr spacetime. We calculated overall spectra, line profiles and integral quantities, and present their dependences on the black hole angular momentum. We show that the observed EW of the lines is substantially enlarged when the black hole rotates rapidly and/or the source of illumination is near above the hole. Therefore, such calculations provide a way to distinguish among different models of the central source.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 13 figures, 3 Tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

Controlling Soil Erosion After Wildfire and Guiding Recovery in Southern Utah

Wildfire is a natural part of many ecosystems in the Four Corners region (Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Southwest Colorado, and Northwest New Mexico). However, after decades of fire suppression, the intensity and size of wildfires is increasing. This fact sheet is intended to help those in dry, monsoonal regions understand what happens to land after a wildfire and explains the processes of soil erosion. It outlines factors that influence how wildfire can affect soils and plants and provides suggestions for reducing soil erosion when necessary. The information presented is relevant to both private landowners and public lands managers whose landscapes have been affected by wildfire

Extracting and re-using research data from chemistry e-theses: the SPECTRa-T project

Scientific e-theses are data-rich resources, but much of the information they contain is not readily accessible. For chemistry, the SPECTRa-T project has addressed this problem by developing data-mining techniques to extract experimental data, creating RDF (Resource Description Framework) triples for exposure to sophisticated Semantic Web searches. We used OSCAR3, an Open Source chemistry text-mining tool, to parse and extract data from theses in PDF, and from theses in Office Open XML document format. Theses in PDF suffered data corruption and a loss of formatting that prevented the identification of chemical objects. Theses in .docx yielded semantically rich SciXML that enabled the additional extraction of associated data. Chemical objects were placed in a data repository, and RDF triples deposited in a triplestore. Data-mining from chemistry e-theses is both desirable and feasible; but the use of PDF, the de facto format standard for deposit in most repositories, prevents the optimal extraction of data for semantic querying. In order to facilitate this, we recommend that universities also require deposition of chemistry e-theses in an XML document format. Further work is required to clarify the complex IPR issues and ensure that they do not become an unwarranted barrier to data extraction and re-use

Polls and the political process: the use of opinion polls by political parties and mass media organizations in European post‐communist societies (1990–95)

Opinion polling occupies a significant role within the political process of most liberal-capitalist societies, where it is used by governments, parties and the mass media alike. This paper examines the extent to which polls are used for the same purposes in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and in particular, for bringing political elites and citizens together. It argues that these political elites are more concerned with using opinion polls for gaining competitive advantage over their rivals and for reaffirming their political power, than for devolving political power to citizens and improving the general processes of democratization