Characterization of the evolution of underwater DBD plasma jet

An air plasma jet formed underwater using a coaxial DBD electrode configuration with gas flow is being studied for water treatment applications. The arc-like behavior of the discharge in the absence of any obvious return electrode is not well understood. This study seeks to understand the underlying nature of the arc-like jet mode by studying the evolution of the discharge from microdischarge to jet mode. Photographic and spectroscopic data are used to develop a phenomenological model of discharge evolution. Time-averaged spectra were used to assign an average plume and electron temperature. Calculated jet temperatures were consistent with observed affects such as melting and oxide layer formation on a downstream substrate. The capacity of the microdischarge mode to decompose organic dye in water as a function of time, confirmed previously in the jet mode, was also demonstrated in the absence of the jet.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90806/1/0963-0252_20_3_034018.pd

Work Incentives and Salary Distributions in Major League Baseball

Sports economics, Gini coefficients, Team payroll and performance, J41,

Exercise Tutor: A System for In-home Therapeutic Exercise Guidance

The Exercise Tutor (ET) is a system that uses a Kinect camera motion sensor in conjunction with a number of wearable inertial sensors to monitor home exercise performance. Its purpose is to decrease healthcare costs while concurrently improving clinical outcomes. A clinician programs this system with the particular exercise(s) that a client is to perform, along with several critical parameters for its correct and safe completion. The client then takes the system home and exercises using the ET, which keeps track of the regularity and quantity as well as quality of exercise performance for the clinician. The system also provides real-time feedback to the client while performing the exercise to ensure correct and safe execution. This summer we completed initial ET feasibility testing and planned the next phase of pilot clinical studies. Initial feasibility testing included task analysis for prototype exercises (identifying joints of interest, velocities, critical angles, etc.), identifying relevant parameters for front end programming, determining error tolerance levels for the exercises, and identifying home usability features (screen size, control features, and avatar characteristics). Finally, two initial clinical trials were planned to assess the ET’s effectiveness as a feedback modality during exercise as well as its in-home usability

Development of a Clinical Data Warehouse for Hospital Infection Control

Existing data stored in a hospital's transactional servers have enormous potential to improve performance measurement and health care quality. Accessing, organizing, and using these data to support research and quality improvement projects are evolving challenges for hospital systems. The authors report development of a clinical data warehouse that they created by importing data from the information systems of three affiliated public hospitals. They describe their methodology; difficulties encountered; responses from administrators, computer specialists, and clinicians; and the steps taken to capture and store patient-level data. The authors provide examples of their use of the clinical data warehouse to monitor antimicrobial resistance, to measure antimicrobial use, to detect hospital-acquired bloodstream infections, to measure the cost of infections, and to detect antimicrobial prescribing errors. In addition, they estimate the amount of time and money saved and the increased precision achieved through the practical application of the data warehouse