Design and test of a prototype scale ejector wing

A two dimensional momentum integral analysis was used to examine the effect of changing inlet area ratio, diffuser area ratio, and the ratio of ejector length to width. A relatively wide range of these parameters was considered. It was found that for constant inlet area ratio the augmentation increases with the ejector length, and for constant length: width ratio the augmentation increases with inlet area ratio. Scale model tests were used to verify these trends and to examine th effect of aspect ratio. On the basis of these results, an ejector configuration was selected for fabrication and testing at a scale representative of an ejector wing aircraft. The test ejector was powered by a Pratt-Whitney F401 engine developing approximately 12,000 pounds of thrust. The results of preliminary tests indicate that the ejector develops a thrust augmentation ratio better than 1.65

The space between : uncovering the lived experience of actor communication

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Sept 10, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Cheryl Black.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2009.Using the qualitative methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology, this dissertation documents student actors' lived experience of actor communication in performance. The author locates this study in relation to actor training, rehearsal methods, director training, and psychoanalytic theory. This hermeneutic phenomenological study examines the lived experience of eight undergraduate student actors who had performed at the University of Missouri and had experienced actor communication in performance and/or rehearsal. The actors' lived experience of actor communication was found to be a complex multi-dimensional phenomenon described as: a connection between actors which is only understood through feeling or sense, having certain necessary conditions, obstacles and variable conditions which may impact the connection; a blurring of reality, identity, relationships, and emotions; and having a specific location with defined limits - a space between actors. The absence or presence of actor communication has significant impact on an actor's process and perception of her acting partner. The strong emotional responses towards acting partners suggest that the structure of transference is also a part of the process of actor communication.Includes bibliographical references

Effect of the Synthetic Bile Salt Analog CamSA on the Hamster Model of Clostridium difficile Infection

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and has gained worldwide notoriety due to emerging hypervirulent strains and the high incidence of recurrence. We previously reported protection of mice from CDI using the antigerminant bile salt analog CamSA. Here we describe the effects of CamSA in the hamster model of CDI. CamSA treatment of hamsters showed no toxicity and did not affect the richness or diversity of gut microbiota; however, minor changes in community composition were observed. Treatment of C. difficile-challenged hamsters with CamSA doubled the mean time to death, compared to control hamsters. However, CamSA alone was insufficient to prevent CDI in hamsters. CamSA in conjunction with suboptimal concentrations of vancomycin led to complete protection from CDI in 70% of animals. Protected animals remained disease-free at least 30 days postchallenge and showed no signs of colonic tissue damage. In a delayed-treatment model of hamster CDI, CamSA was unable to prevent infection signs and death. These data support a putative model in which CamSA reduces the number of germinating C. difficile spores but does not keep all of the spores from germinating. Vancomycin halts division of any vegetative cells that are able to grow from spores that escape CamSA

Similarity judgment and feature weights

This thesis project investigated the relationship of linguistic features and their modality, and the amount of change in similarity judgments within each age group and between age groups. Three triads of unfamiliar line drawings were presented to four year-old preschoolers and college students. Participants were asked to judge which one of two line drawing stimuli is most similar to the target stimulus. In the control condition no linguistic labels were provided for the line drawings. In the experimental conditions linguistic labels were added in the form o f spoken words, printed words or spoken and printed words. Linguistic labels were carefully “invented” considering the developmental level of typical auditory discrimination skills in four-year-olds. The study consisted o f a rhyming screen performed with preschoolers to examine rhyming skills, one control condition (no linguistic features presented), and three experimental conditions (added linguistic features). The order o f experimental condition, presentation of triad I, II and HI, placement (right or left side) of the stimuli choices, and verbal instructions were randomized within the two age groups. Chi-square analyses were used for each triad and each experimental condition. Results revealed emergent skills o f phonological similarity detection and orientation towards similar sounding labels in preschool children, however their performance did not exceed chance level. The preschoolers’ decisions were mainly based on visual perceptual features. In adults linguistic features overrode non-linguistic visual features in one triad when features were provided in verbal and printed form. Labels did not override non-linguistic visual features when only provided in verbal or printed form. Conclusions for adult participants are that when labels are provided in verbal and printed form more attention is drawn to the label. These differences between adults and children may be attributed to differences in metalinguistic knowledge, developmental differences in the nature o f the phonological lexicon in both age groups, different capacities o f auditory short term memory and pre-literacy of preschoolers influencing their considerations of printed words

Articulatory-To-Acoustic Relations in Response to Speaking Rate and Loudness Manipulations

Purpose: This investigation determined the strength of association between tongue kinematic and speech acoustic changes in response to speaking rate and loudness manipulations. Performance changes in the kinematic and acoustic domains were measured using two aspects of speech production presumably affecting speech clarity: phonetic specification and variability. Method: Tongue movements for the vowels /ia/ were recorded in ten healthy adults during habitual, fast, slow and loud speech using three dimensional electromagnetic articulography. To determine articulatory-to-acoustic relations for phonetic specification, we correlated changes in lingual displacement with changes in acoustic vowel distance. To determine articulatory-toacoustic relations for phonetic variability, we correlated changes in lingual movement variability with changes in formant movement variability. Results: A significant positive linear association was found for kinematic and acoustic specification, but not for kinematic and acoustic variability. Several significant speaking task effects were also observed. Conclusion: Lingual displacement is a good predictor of acoustic vowel distance in healthy talkers. The weak association between kinematic and acoustic variability raises questions regarding the effects of articulatory variability on speech clarity and intelligibility, particularly in individuals with motor speech disorders

Accuracy Assessment for AG500, Electromagnetic Articulograph

Purpose: The goal of this article was to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the AG500 (Carstens Medizinelectronik, Lenglern, Germany), an electromagnetic device developed recently to register articulatory movements in three dimensions. This technology seems to have unprecedented capabilities to provide rich information about time-varying positions of articulators. However, strengths and weaknesses of the system need to be better understood before the device is used for speech research. Method: Evaluations of the sensor positions over time were obtained during (a) movements of the calibration device, (b) manual movements of sensors in a cartridge within the recording field of the cube, and (c) various speech tasks. Results: Results showed a median error to be under 0.5 mm across different types of recordings. The maximum error often ranged between 1 and 2 mm. The magnitude of error depended somewhat on the task but largely on the location of the sensors within the recording region of the cube. Conclusion: The performance of the system was judged as adequate for speech movement acquisition, provided that specific steps are taken for minimizing error during recording and for validating the quality of recorded data

Comparison of Muscle Latencies for Diabetic Neuropathy Patients Versus Healthy Controls During a Perturbed Balance Task

The purpose of this study was to compare muscle latencies for patients diagnosed with diabetic neuropathy versus healthy controls during a perturbed balance task, with a secondary purpose to distinguish postural control strategies the groups used based on the muscle latencies. Five participants diagnosed with diabetic neuropathy (DN; 4 male, 99.7 ± 7.95 kg, 176 ± 9.58 cm, 46.6 ± 16.55 years) and 5 healthy control (HC; 4 male, 100.36 ± 12.61 kg, 173.76 ± 9.66 cm, 47 ± 13.42 years) participants were recruited. Participants granted institutionally approved written consent before participating. Delsys Trigino Wireless EMG sensors were placed on the following muscles on each subject’s right side of their body: tibialis anterior, gastrocenemius medialis, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, rectus abdominis, and lumbar paraspinals at the iliac crest. Subjects performed three trials of a perturbed balance task (SOT VI). EMG data were analyzed in MatLab using custom written script. Latency was determined as the time from the perturbation to the time when the smoothed EMG data exceeded two standard deviations above the baseline for at least 50 ms. Dependent variables (latency for each muscle) were evaluated between groups using a paired t-test (SPSS Statistics 20; IBM; Armonk, NY). Single subject (SS) analysis between matched participants was performed using Microsoft Excel. No statistically significant differences (p \u3e 0.05) were observed between the groups for any muscle latency. Single subject analysis identified differences (p \u3c 0.05) between some matched pairs with no distinguishable trend or pattern observed. Similar balance strategies based on muscle latency were observed between groups. The results of this study may be explained with current theory that has challenged the pathophysiology of DN especially regarding whether DN affects the motor system, and if DN may be attenuated by exercise. The results of this study continue to shed light on the complexity of DN

Incomplete Denitrification in Thermus Species

Members the bacterial genus Thermus have been shown to be incomplete denitrifiers, terminating with nitrite or nitrous oxide (N2O). However, the ability to carry out denitrification and the evolution of nitrogen oxide reductase genes in Thermus remains poorly understood. This study tests the hypothesis that incomplete denitrification is common in Thermus and seeks to uncover patterns in the evolution of denitrification pathways in Thermus. Denitrification capacity was determined in a collection of 25 strains representing ten species of Thermus and phylogenetic analysis was performed to determine whether denitrification genes evolved horizontally in Thermus. No strains in this study reduced nitrate to dinitrogen (N2). Terminal products were nitrite, nitric oxide (NO), or nitrous oxide (N2O), with most strains ending with N2O as a final product. In most cases, denitrification phenotypes were consistent with the presence of denitrification genes and strains of the same species typically had the same denitrification phenotypes. Phylogenetic analysis and the pattern of extant nitrogen oxide reductases showed evidence for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and gene loss/gain within Thermus. These results show that incomplete denitrification is prominent in the genus Thermus, which suggests Thermus may play a role in consortial denitrification at high temperature