Feasibility of Conducting J-2X Engine Testing at the Glenn Research Center Plum Brook Station B-2 Facility

A trade study of the feasibility of conducting J-2X testing in the Glenn Research Center (GRC) Plum Brook Station (PBS) B-2 facility was initiated in May 2006 with results available in October 2006. The Propulsion Test Integration Group (PTIG) led the study with support from Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Jacobs Sverdrup Engineering. The primary focus of the trade study was on facility design concepts and their capability to satisfy the J-2X altitude simulation test requirements. The propulsion systems tested in the B-2 facility were in the 30,000-pound (30K) thrust class. The J-2X thrust is approximately 10 times larger. Therefore, concepts significantly different from the current configuration are necessary for the diffuser, spray chamber subsystems, and cooling water. Steam exhaust condensation in the spray chamber is judged to be the key risk consideration relative to acceptable spray chamber pressure. Further assessment via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and other simulation capabilities (e.g. methodology for anchoring predictions with actual test data and subscale testing to support investigation

Relativistic Treatment of Hypernuclear Decay

We compute for the first time the decay width of lambda-hypernuclei in a relativistic mean-field approximation to the Walecka model. Due to the small mass difference between the lambda-hyperon and its decay products---a nucleon and a pion---the mesonic component of the decay is strongly Pauli blocked in the nuclear medium. Thus, the in-medium decay becomes dominated by the non-mesonic, or two-body, component of the decay. For this mode, the lambda-hyperon decays into a nucleon and a spacelike nuclear excitation. In this work we concentrate exclusively on the pion-like modes. By relying on the analytic structure of the nucleon and pion propagators, we express the non-mesonic component of the decay in terms of the spin-longitudinal response function. This response has been constrained from precise quasielastic (p,n) measurements done at LAMPF. We compute the spin-longitudinal response in a relativistic random-phase-approximation model that reproduces accurately the quasielastic data. By doing so, we obtain hypernuclear decay widths that are considerably smaller---by factors of two or three---relative to existing nonrelativistic calculations.Comment: Revtex: 18 pages and 4 postscript figure

Factors that contribute to social media influence within an Internal Medicine Twitter learning community

Medical societies, faculty, and trainees use Twitter to learn from and educate other social media users. These social media communities bring together individuals with various levels of experience. It is not known if experienced individuals are also the most influential members. We hypothesize that participants with the greatest experience would be the most influential members of a Twitter community. We analyzed the 2013 Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine Twitter community. We measured the number of tweets authored by each participant and the number of amplified tweets (re-tweets). We developed a multivariate linear regression model to identify any relationship to social media influence, measured by the PageRank. Faculty (from academic institutions) comprised 19% of the 132 participants in the learning community (p < 0.0001). Faculty authored 49% of all 867 tweets (p < 0.0001). Their tweets were the most likely to be amplified (52%, p < 0.01). Faculty had the greatest influence amongst all participants (mean 1.99, p < 0.0001). Being a faculty member had no predictive effect on influence (β = 0.068, p = 0.6). The only factors that predicted influence (higher PageRank) were the number of tweets authored (p < 0.0001) and number of tweets amplified (p < 0.0001) The status of “faculty member� did not confer a greater influence. Any participant who was able to author the greatest number of tweets or have more of his/her tweets amplified could wield a greater influence on the participants, regardless of his/her authority

Rare Copy Number Variants in \u3cem\u3eNRXN1\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eCNTN6\u3c/em\u3e Increase Risk for Tourette Syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a model neuropsychiatric disorder thought to arise from abnormal development and/or maintenance of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits. TS is highly heritable, but its underlying genetic causes are still elusive, and no genome-wide significant loci have been discovered to date. We analyzed a European ancestry sample of 2,434 TS cases and 4,093 ancestry-matched controls for rare (\u3c 1% frequency) copy-number variants (CNVs) using SNP microarray data. We observed an enrichment of global CNV burden that was prominent for large (\u3e 1 Mb), singleton events (OR = 2.28, 95% CI [1.39–3.79], p = 1.2 × 10−3) and known, pathogenic CNVs (OR = 3.03 [1.85–5.07], p = 1.5 × 10−5). We also identified two individual, genome-wide significant loci, each conferring a substantial increase in TS risk (NRXN1 deletions, OR = 20.3, 95% CI [2.6–156.2]; CNTN6 duplications, OR = 10.1, 95% CI [2.3–45.4]). Approximately 1% of TS cases carry one of these CNVs, indicating that rare structural variation contributes significantly to the genetic architecture of TS

The assessment of dementia in primary care

Dementia is an irreversible and progressive condition characterized by a global deterioration of a person’s cognitive abilities. With an ageing population, the number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to rise both in the UK and abroad. Consequently, government policies across the world have stressed the need to improve early diagnosis of dementia in the hope that this will facilitate adjustment to the illness and thus to prolong independence. Arguably, one way of achieving this aim is to strengthen the role of primary care in the assessment, diagnosis and subsequent support of people affected by dementia. The purpose of this commentary is to explore the role of mental health and memory nurses in this process drawing on examples from the UK and Australia. Although there are a number of risks about increasing the role of primary care, pressures from limited budgets and resources at a time when the numbers of people affected by dementia are set to increase, means that it is inevitable that primary care will have a more influential role in dementia care than before. Consequently, it is important that the implications of these policy changes for mental health and specialist memory nurses are clearly understood

Strangeness nuclear physics: a critical review on selected topics

Selected topics in strangeness nuclear physics are critically reviewed. This includes production, structure and weak decay of $\Lambda$--Hypernuclei, the $\bar K$ nuclear interaction and the possible existence of $\bar K$ bound states in nuclei. Perspectives for future studies on these issues are also outlined.Comment: 63 pages, 51 figures, accepted for publication on European Physical Journal

A feasibility study comparing UK older adult mental health inpatient wards which use protected engagement time with other wards which do not: study protocol

Background: Protected engagement time (PET) is a concept of managing staff time on mental health inpatient wards with the aim of increasing staff and patient interaction. Despite apparent widespread use of PET, there remains a dearth of evidence as to how it is implemented and whether it carries benefits for staff or patients. This protocol describes a study which is being carried out on mental health wards caring for older adults (aged over 65) in England. The study shares a large proportion of the procedures, measures and study team membership of a recently completed investigation of the impact of PET in adult acute mental health wards. The study aims to identify prevalence and components of PET to construct a model for the intervention, in addition to testing the feasibility of the measures and procedures in preparation for a randomised trial. Methods/design: The study comprises four modules and uses a mixed methods approach. Module 1 involves mapping all inpatient wards in England which provide care for older adults, including those with dementia, ascertaining how many of these provide PET and in what way. Module 2 uses a prospective cohort method to compare five older adult mental health wards that use PET with five that do not across three National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust sites. The comparison comprises questionnaires, observation tools and routinely collected clinical service data and combines validated measures with questions developed specifically for the study. Module 3 entails an in-depth case study evaluation of three of the participating PET wards (one from each NHS Trust site) using semi-structured interviews with patients, carers and staff. Module 4 describes the development of a model and fidelity scale for PET using the information derived from the other modules with a working group of patients, carers and staff. Discussion: This is a feasibility study to test the application of the measures and methods in inpatient wards for older adults and develop a draft model for the intervention. The next stage will prospectively involve testing of the model and fidelity scale in randomised conditions to provide evidence for the effectiveness of PET as an intervention. Trial registration: ISRCTN3191919

Quality of family relationships and outcomes of dementia:a systematic review

Objectives: Evaluation of the association between the quality of relationship between a person with dementia and their family carer and outcomes for the person with dementia.Design: Systematic review.Eligibility criteria: Cohort studies of people with clinically diagnosed dementia and their main carers. Exposures of interest were any elements of relationship quality, e.g. attachment style, expressed emotion, coping style. Our primary outcome was institutionalisation, and secondary outcomes were hospitalisation, death, quality of life, and behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia (‘challenging behaviour’).Data sources: Medline, Embase, Web of Science, PsycInfo, the Cochrane Library and Opengrey were searched from inception to May 2017.Study appraisal and synthesis methods: The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess risk of bias. A narrative synthesis of results was performed due to differences between studies.Results: Twenty studies were included. None of the studies controlled for all pre-specified confounding factors (age, gender, socio-economic status, and severity of dementia). Reporting of results was inadequate with many studies simply reporting whether or not associations were ‘statistically significant’ without providing effect size estimates or confidence intervals. There was a suggestion of an association between relationship factors and global challenging behaviour. All studies evaluating global challenging behaviour provided statistical evidence of an association (most p-values below 0.02). There was no consistent evidence for an association for any other outcome assessed.Conclusions: There is currently no strong or consistent evidence on the effects of relationship factors on institutionalisation, hospitalisation, death or quality of life for people with dementia. There was a suggestion of an association between relationship factors and challenging behaviour, although the evidence for this was weak. To improve our ability to support those with dementia and their families further robust studies are needed

DMRN+18: Digital Music Research Network One-day Workshop 2023

DMRN+18: Digital Music Research Network One-day Workshop 2023 Queen Mary University of London Tuesday 19th December 2023 • Keynote speaker: Stefan Bilbao The Digital Music Research Network (DMRN) aims to promote research in the area of digital music, by bringing together researchers from UK and overseas universities, as well as industry, for its annual workshop. The workshop will include invited and contributed talks and posters. The workshop will be an ideal opportunity for networking with other people working in the area. Keynote speakers: Stefan Bilbao Tittle: Physics-based Audio: Sound Synthesis and Virtual Acoustics. Abstract: Any acoustically-produced sound produced must be the result of physical laws that describe the dynamics of a given system---always at least partly mechanical, and sometimes with an electronic element as well. One approach to the synthesis of natural acoustic timbres, thus, is through simulation, often referred to in this context as physical modelling, or physics-based audio. In this talk, the principles of physics-based audio, and the various different approaches to simulation are described, followed by a set of examples covering: various musical instrument types; the important related problem of the emulation of room acoustics or “virtual acoustics”; the embedding of instruments in a 3D virtual space; electromechanical effects; and also new modular instrument designs based on physical laws, but without a counterpart in the real world. Some more technical details follow, including the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of such methods, and pointers to some links to data-centred black-box approaches to sound generation and effects processing. The talk concludes with some musical examples and recent work on moving such algorithms to a real-time setting.. Bio: Stefan is a Professor (full) at Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh, he is the Personal Chair of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, Music. He currently works on computational acoustics, for applications in sound synthesis and virtual acoustics. Special topics of interest include: Finite difference time domain methods, distributed nonlinear systems such as strings and plates, architectural acoustics, spatial audio in simulation, multichannel sound synthesis, and hardware and software realizations. More information on: https://www.acoustics.ed.ac.uk/group-members/dr-stefan-bilbao/ DMRN+18 is sponsored by The UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence and Music (AIM); a leading PhD research programme aimed at the Music/Audio Technology and Creative Industries, based at Queen Mary University of London