Piezoelectric relay

Bimorph configurations reduce sensitivity to shock and vibration and yet respond to weak electric fields. Two bimorphs provide sum of individual movements, simulating double length

Effects of constant infusion with insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) to immature female rats on body weight gain, tissue growth, and sexual function: Evidence that such treatment does not affect sexual maturation or fertility

Plasma levels for insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) steadily increase in female rats between 20 and 40 d of life, and this increase is intimately related to the wellknown growth spurt occurring at this age. Since specific actions of IGF-I related to sexual function have been described at the ovarian and hypothalamic levels, an endocrine role of rising circulating IGF-I levels during sexual maturation cannot be excluded. Therefore, the impact of adult-type plasma IGF-I levels during the juvenile age, on body weight (BW) gain, growth of several organs, sexual development, and fertility has been evaluated. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were infused with rhIGF-I (2 and 4 μg/g BW/d, using Alzet minipumps), between 20 and 41 d of life. When infusing 2 μg/g BW/d, plasma levels for IGF-I were increased 1.5- to 2-fold over controls at all ages studied. They were further increased with the higher dosage, but only after 35 d of age. Plasma levels for insulin-like growth factor binding protein (IGFBP)-1 to-3 were clearly increased. BW gain was significantly increased, but only with the higher dosage. Tail length was never modified. In contrast, a growth acceleration for spleen, kidneys, adrenals, and ovaries was observed with both dosages. The ovarian weight of treated animals represented approx 140% of control animals with the 4 μg/g BW/d dosage. Histology of the enlarged ovaries did not reveal any abnormalities. No meaningful modification of the timing of vaginal opening was observed, and fertility was not compromised by previous rhIGF-I infusion during the 20-41 d age period. In summary, early exposure to increased (adult-like) plasma IGF-I levels did not modify BW gain or tail length, but affected the development of spleen, kidneys, adrenals, and ovaries. Exposure to supraphysiological plasma IGF-I levels (>1200 ng/mL), accelerated BW gain and increased the weight of all organs studied. No signs of precocious sexual maturation were seen and fertility was normal. In conclusion, prematurely increased plasma IGF-I levels affected somatotropic parameters, but not the onset of sexual functio

Female NCAA Division I Women\u27s Ice Hockey Head Coaches: Keeping Women in the Game

In 1972, the federal law Title IX altered the path toward equity and equal opportunity for girls and women in education and sport. Despite this legislation, the journey towards equality continues forty-seven years later. While support, opportunity, and growth for women in sport has increased, the decline and underrepresentation of female head coaches in collegiate athletics has decreased. Similar to the overall decline of collegiate female head coaches, women’s collegiate ice hockey at the NCAA Division I level has also experienced a decline and underrepresentation of female head coaches. While there is research on the decline of women coaches, there is little specifically on female collegiate head women’s ice hockey coaches. This research study will add to the literature on female coaches currently available. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences of current female head coaches of NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey programs. Six female coaches of NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey programs agreed to participate in this study. Findings from this study, connected to the research questions, revealed themes of personal and professional career trajectories; personal and professional costs or barriers; personal and professional benefits and advantages; experiences with institutions and athletic administrators; insight on the decline of women coaches; and mentorship opportunities. The study ends with suggestions and recommendations for female coaches, aspiring female head coaches, and female athletes who desire to become coaches. In addition, insight is provided to athletic administrators and institutions regarding the importance of female role models, and ways in which they can support, retain, and mentor female coaches

Weak Implementation of Boundary Conditions for the Finite-Volume Method

The Euler equations consist of conservation laws and describe a fluid in motion without viscous forces and heat conduction. They are non-linear and the solutions are often discontinuous. Therefore proofs of convergence are hard to give and the existing results are lacking. A new concept are weakly imposed characteristic boundary conditions, where a priori given boundary data only enter the scheme via ingoing characteristics. Thus a numerical solution for the boundary points is obtained as well. In combination with the node-centred finite-volume method, approximations of two-dimensional steady conservation laws can be made stable. Weakly imposed characteristic boundary conditions are compared to weakly imposed prescribed fluxes for the steady Euler equations, where the residuals converged to 10^-11 and 10^-3, respectively. The performance of these boundary conditions is investigated further for different grid sizes and the unsteady Euler equations.Se bilaga (sid iv-v) under "Files & Access"

Adipocyte size and function in the epididymal and inguinal fat depots

Nearly 60% of the worlds adult population is projected to be overweight or obese by 2030. The prevalence of obesity- related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D), has increased markedly in the past decades. The adipose tissue plays an important role in disease progression of T2D. Adipocyte insulin sensitivity, adipose tissue’s ability to expand, and accumulation of subcutaneous rather than visceral fat, are all important factors for adipose tissue function and systemic metabolic health.This thesis aims to broaden the understanding of adipose tissue function, focusing on the importance of adipocyte cell-size and differences between visceral and subcutaneous adipocytes. This knowledge may in the future contribute to novel treatments that focus on improving function of specific fat depots.Our first project (Paper I) examines the importance of EHD2, a caveolae-associated protein, and its influence on different fat depots by using knockout (Ehd2-/-) mice. Ehd2-/- mice display impaired expansion of epididymal fat, most likely caused by weakened hyperplastic growth, while the inguinal adipocytes exhibit impaired lipolytic response. The results indicate that EHD2 is required for healthy fat expansion since both impaired lipolysis and reduced hyperplastic growth are associated with dysfunctional adipose tissue.In Paper II, we examine the effect of the anti-diabetic drug, rosiglitazone, on hypertrophic adipocytes, and suggest a new mechanism of action for improving insulin-sensitivity in adipocytes. We propose that remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM), results in reduced stress-induced intracellular signaling, reduced filamentous (F)-actin and improved insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. The improvement in glucose uptake from rosiglitazone-treated mice are greater in epididymal adipocytes compared to inguinal, which is also reflected in larger changes in ECM expression, intracellular stress signaling and level of F-actin.The last project (Paper III) examines the plasticity of adipose tissue, focusing on cell-size and actin dynamics during weight gain and weight loss. We examine differences between the inguinal and epididymal depots using temporal resolution and correlate the findings to changes in systemic insulin sensitivity. Our data suggest that there are fat depot-specific differences in cell-size plasticity during weight gain, but not during weight loss. Epididymal adipocytes expand in size early during weight gain (after 4 weeks) while inguinal adipocytes expand at a later timepoint (after 12 weeks). During weight loss, both fat depots display intact plasticity, regarding cell-size, weight, and level of F- actin, for short interventions (4 and 8 weeks) but not following prolonged overfeeding (12 weeks).The inguinal depot, in comparison to the epididymal depot, displays stronger correlation between insulin sensitivity and number of hypertrophic adipocytes, suggesting that hypertrophic inguinal adipocytes may contribute to the progression of insulin resistance in mice

Factors Contributing To An Elite High School Football Program

The research question addressed in this project was, what factors contribute to an elite high school football program. The motivating factor for this capstone was one teacher-coach’s desire to understand what differentiates lasting levels of on-the-field success for high school football programs. This capstone was designed to ask high school football coaches their perspectives and methods in their respective high school football program. Previous studies on the definition of elite, organizational culture and support, coaches, and athletes aided the researcher in obtaining background information of successful organizations in various domains. Five high school football coaches, who met the criteria of elite, and four non-elite high school football coaches participated in the in-depth interview research. Participants responded to questions that asked for information regarding the categories of: background information of the head coach; assistant coaches; personnel and their use; philosophy and schematic approaches; practice structure; community interaction; perceptions of elite success; and challenges faced. The responses to the interview questions with elite and non-elite football coaches show that the four main thematic findings across all questions and categories on factors contributing to an elite high school football program were: 1) mentorship beyond the game; 2) organizational and cultural alignment; 3) staffing; 4) simple focus

Principles for tuning heat zone controllers in a belt furnace through modeling and simulation

In this thesis the heating area of a belt furnace for annealing metal powder has been modeled. The model was extended with PI-controllers for controlling the energy added to the model. It was simulated with differently tuned controllers to test tuning principles for finding suitable control parameters for the process. The most promising tuning principles was then written as a manual with the aim for process engineers at Höganäs AB. The process is running on a daily basis with control parameters that causes unnecessary overshoots and oscillations in the system.With updated and more suitable control parameters, the furnace is believed to be more efficient. Höganäs has several processes of the same type which the manual could be applied to. The process consists of non-linear thermal radiation, conduction and convection. It is very slow and has approximately no dead time, thus excluding many tuning principles that rely on the dead time. The most promising tuning principle to apply is the lambda-tuning principle which is often used in the process industry [Åström and Hägglund, 2006]. Due to the accuraccy of the model, the design parameter was choosen to ensure stability and monotonic setpoint changes. The manual can be found in Appendix D

Efficient Market Hypothesis: Testing for Price Predictability on the OMX Stockholm 30 Index

The use of historical information to predict future pricing of equities has been a topic of debate among the financial community for some time. This study examines the issue by testing for statistical significance on lagged price values, utilizing an autoregressive model. In the tests we use data from the OMX Stockholm 30 index. The study utilizes an autoregressive model (AR) to check two different time frames simultaneously. In part we examine lagged values in the short run whilst also observing lagged values for longer time periods. There are three tests in total, one testing for the 2015-16 period, one for the 2014-16, and finally one for the 2014-15 period. The test results obtained show that the strong form of EMH does not hold on the OMX Stockholm 30 index due to the finding that there is statistical significance in some of the lagged variables, which implies that historical prices do affect future prices

An accurate and efficient scheme for function extensions on smooth domains

A new scheme is proposed to construct an n-times differentiable function extension of an n-times differentiable function defined on a smooth domain D in d-dimensions. The extension scheme relies on an explicit formula consisting of a linear combination of n+1 function values in D, which extends the function along directions normal to the boundary. Smoothness tangent to the boundary is automatic. The performance of the scheme is illustrated by using function extension as a step in a numerical solver for the inhomogeneous Poisson equation on multiply connected domains with complex geometry in two and three dimensions. We show that the modest additional work needed to do function extension leads to considerably more accurate solutions of the partial differential equation.Comment: 22 pages, 38 figure

Perspectives on The Passion According to the Gospels of Matthew and John

My thesis covers the materials and methods of my composition, The Passion According to the Gospels of Matthew and John. It features an extensive analysis of Penderecki's Passio et mors Domini nostri Iesu Christi secundum Lucam. The research also covers some history of the Passion genre and its development. The second half of the paper presents a background and analysis of my work. It details many of the creative processes and methods I employed