MEMS 411 Morphing Wing RC Glider Senior Design Project

The problem we spent a semester working on was building a remote controlled glider which used morphing wings rather than traditional control surfaces. After interviewing our customer, we discovered a few metrics guiding the size of our project as well as the requirements of gliding and control. After brainstorming several ideas, we settled on a bat wing design keying in on the flexible wing material. The wing skin material we used ended up being made from one layer of plastic sandwiched by two layers of elastic fabric. The elastic skin was stretched over airfoil cross sections which rotated over a controlling torsion bar. The result were controllable, morphing surfaces for the main wings of our RC glider. The report contains several photos of the construction and videos of the operation of the wings. During testing we ran in to problems with weather which limited the results we could obtain. This meant we fell short on some of our design metrics such as flight time and glide ratio. However, we were able to successfully demonstrate control in the air by using the morphing wings. In the future, we would like to build upon our success by cutting down on weight in the parts used for construction, the addition of pitch control through controllable rear elevator surfaces, the addition of landing gear, and finally by ensuring proper weather conditions before flying

Leading from the Center Out: The Joint Library Services Leadership Team at James Madison University

In a system with multiple service points, how can leadership work together to keep the library as a whole relevant and central to students? James Madison University Libraries created the Joint Library Services Leadership Team, which works outside traditional departmental silos to provide coherent, consistent, and collaborative services regardless of location. Three major service points of James Madison University Libraries, the two main library circulation/reference departments and the media resources center, have historically been both physically and philosophically separate from each other. Although the departments shared common goals of providing excellent student learning-focused services, they did not systematically work together to do so. Library hierarchical structures placed each department parallel to the others, with limited connections across leadership levels. As a result, each created unique services and outreach and competed in planning and budgeting processes. When collaboration across the departments happened, it was often project based, convenient, personality driven, and an extra duty on top of regular job expectations. Some excellent service programs came out of these ad hoc collaborations, including the development of core competencies for circulation services, joint training events, and the development of and training on procedures for emergency response. This competitive model did not help the libraries fulfill the goal of providing student learning-focused services that are consistent, cohesive, and collaborative across locations and departments. After much debate, and some changes in personnel, the leadership of the three departments reworked the parallel department model to place collaboration in service planning and deployment at the center, with departmental hierarchies radiating out in rings. This allows for collaboration to be thoughtful, deliberate, intentional, position driven, and included in job expectations at all levels. While the departments are still physically separated, the philosophical differences melt away, allowing for joint services and outreach, and shared planning and budgeting. It is the experience – and the continuing hope – of the JLSL Team that this model allows the three departments to lead from the center out ensures that we put our services and outreach for our students, and their academic, civic, and cultural lives, at the center of our concerns

An Environmental Scan of Mindfulness-Based Interventions on University and College Campuses: A Research Note

The purpose of this research note is to provide readers with an understanding of the diverse types of student mental health interventions that are being offered on North American universities/ colleges broken down into two types of interventions: (1) traditional, or non-mindfulness-based interventions, and (2) mindfulness-based interventions. Data were collected, organized, and synthesized during the first 5 months of 2016 (via a simple Google searches) for all North American universities/colleges that offered their students mental health interventions on their campuses. Traditional, or non-mindfulness-based interventions remain widely in use on university/college campuses and include: prevention and outreach, support groups and workshops, individual counseling, and self-help. Mindfulness-based interventions, although less widely available, include: mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, mindfulness- based stress reduction, guided meditations and yoga, compassion training, mindfulness-based technology, and mindful eating. There is an abundance of data that seem to indicate that colleges/universities are increasing the mental health interventions they offer to their students. In addition, the use of mindfulness- based interventions (a sub-set of mental health interventions) seems to be being used with an increasing frequency

Influence of Detection Method and Study Area Scale on Syphilis Cluster Identification in North Carolina

Identifying geographical clusters of sexually transmitted infections can aid in targeting prevention and control efforts. However, detectable clusters can vary between detection methods because of different underlying assumptions. Furthermore, because disease burden is not geographically homogenous, the reference population is sensitive to the study area scale, affecting cluster outcomes. We investigated the influence of cluster detection method and geographical scale on syphilis cluster detection in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

Prediction of HIV transmission cluster growth with statewide surveillance data

Background:Prediction of HIV transmission cluster growth may help guide public health action. We developed a predictive model for cluster growth in North Carolina (NC) using routine HIV surveillance data.Methods:We identified putative transmission clusters with ≥2 members through pairwise genetic distances ≤1.5% from HIV-1 pol sequences sampled November 2010-December 2017 in NC. Clusters established by a baseline of January 2015 with any sequences sampled within 2 years before baseline were assessed for growth (new diagnoses) over 18 months. We developed a predictive model for cluster growth incorporating demographic, clinical, temporal, and contact tracing characteristics of baseline cluster members. We internally and temporally externally validated the final model in the periods January 2015-June 2016 and July 2016-December 2017.Results:Cluster growth was predicted by larger baseline cluster size, shorter time between diagnosis and HIV care entry, younger age, shorter time since the most recent HIV diagnosis, higher proportion with no named contacts, and higher proportion with HIV viremia. The model showed areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves of 0.82 and 0.83 in the internal and temporal external validation samples.Conclusions:The predictive model developed and validated here is a novel means of identifying HIV transmission clusters that may benefit from targeted HIV control resources. © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved

Survival Differences in Pediatric Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Clues to a Better Understanding of Outcome and Optimal Treatment Strategies

ObjectivesIn order to describe survival and treatment strategies in pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in the current era of PAH-targeted drugs and to identify predictors of outcome, we studied uniformly defined contemporary patient cohorts at 3 major referral centers for pediatric PAH (New York [NY], Denver, and the Netherlands [NL]).BackgroundIn pediatric PAH, discrepancies exist in reported survival rates between North American and European patient cohorts, and robust data for long-term treatment effects are lacking.MethodsAccording to uniform inclusion criteria, 275 recently diagnosed consecutive pediatric PAH patients who visited the 3 referral centers between 2000 and 2010 were included.ResultsUnadjusted survival rates differed between the center cohorts (1-, 3-, and 5-year transplantation-free survival rates: 100%, 96%, and 90% for NY; 95%, 87%, and 78% for Denver; and 84%, 71%, and 62% for NL, respectively; p < 0.001). Based on World Health Organization (WHO) functional class and hemodynamic parameters, disease severity at diagnosis differed between the center cohorts. Adjustment for diagnosis, WHO functional class, indexed pulmonary vascular resistance, and pulmonary-to-systemic arterial pressure ratio resolved the observed survival differences. Treatment with PAH-targeted dual and triple therapy during the study period was associated with better survival than treatment with PAH-targeted monotherapy.ConclusionsSurvival rates of pediatric PAH patients differed between 3 major referral centers. This could be explained by differences between the center cohorts in patients’ diagnoses and measures of disease severity, which were identified as important predictors of outcome. In this study, treatment with PAH-targeted combination therapy during the study period was independently associated with improved survival