An airfoil for general aviation applications

A new airfoil, the NLF(1)-0115, has been recently designed at the NASA Langley Research Center for use in general-aviation applications. During the development of this airfoil, special emphasis was placed on experiences and observations gleaned from other successful general-aviation airfoils. For example, the flight lift-coefficient range is the same as that of the turbulent-flow NACA 23015 airfoil. Also, although beneficial for reducing drag and having large amounts of lift, the NLF(1)-0115 avoids the use of aft loading which can lead to large stick forces if utilized on portions of the wing having ailerons. Furthermore, not using aft loading eliminates the concern that the high pitching-moment coefficient generated by such airfoils can result in large trim drags if cruise flaps are not employed. The NASA NLF(1)-0115 has a thickness of 15 percent. It is designed primarily for general-aviation aircraft with wing loadings of 718 to 958 N/sq m (15 to 20 lb/sq ft). Low profile drag as a result of laminar flow is obtained over the range from c sub l = 0.1 and R = 9x10(exp 6) (the cruise condition) to c sub l = 0.6 and R = 4 x 10(exp 6) (the climb condition). While this airfoil can be used with flaps, it is designed to achieve c(sub l, max) = 1.5 at R = 2.6 x 10(exp 6) without flaps. The zero-lift pitching moment is held at c sub m sub o = 0.055. The hinge moment for a .20c aileron is fixed at a value equal to that of the NACA 63 sub 2-215 airfoil, c sub h = 0.00216. The loss in c (sub l, max) due to leading edge roughness, rain, or insects at R = 2.6 x 10 (exp 6) is 11 percent as compared with 14 percent for the NACA 23015

No equity, no triple aim: strategic proposals to advance health equity in a volatile policy environment

Health professionals, including social workers, community health workers, public health workers, and licensed health care providers, share common interests and responsibilities in promoting health equity and improving social determinants of health—the conditions in which we live, work, play, and learn. This article summarizes underlying causes of health inequity and comparatively poor health outcomes in the U.S. It describes barriers to realizing the hope embedded in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that moving away from fee-for-service payments will naturally drive care upstream as providers respond to greater financial risk for the health of their patients by undertaking greater prevention efforts. The article asserts that health equity should serve as the guiding framework for achieving the Triple Aim of health care reform. It outlines practical opportunities for improving care and for promoting stronger efforts to address social determinants of health. These proposals include developing a dashboard of measures to assist providers committed to health equity and community-based prevention and to promote institutional accountability for addressing socio-economic factors that influence health

Evolutionary optimization of optical antennas

The design of nano-antennas is so far mainly inspired by radio-frequency technology. However, material properties and experimental settings need to be reconsidered at optical frequencies, which entails the need for alternative optimal antenna designs. Here a checkerboard-type, initially random array of gold cubes is subjected to evolutionary optimization. To illustrate the power of the approach we demonstrate that by optimizing the near-field intensity enhancement the evolutionary algorithm finds a new antenna geometry, essentially a split-ring/two-wire antenna hybrid which surpasses by far the performance of a conventional gap antenna by shifting the n=1 split-ring resonance into the optical regime.Comment: Also see Supplementary material, as attached to the main pape

Differential neuroproteomic and systems biology analysis of spinal cord injury

Acute spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition with many consequences and no known effective treatment. Although it is quite easy to diagnose traumatic SCI, the assessment of injury severity and projection of disease progression or recovery are often challenging, as no consensus biomarkers have been clearly identified. Here rats were subjected to experimental moderate or severe thoracic SCI. At 24h and 7d postinjury, spinal cord segment caudal to injury center versus sham samples was harvested and subjected to differential proteomic analysis. Cationic/anionic-exchange chromatography, followed by 1D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, was used to reduce protein complexity. A reverse phase liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry proteomic platform was then utilized to identify proteome changes associated with SCI. Twenty-two and 22 proteins were up-regulated at 24 h and 7 day after SCI, respectively; whereas 19 and 16 proteins are down-regulated at 24 h and 7 day after SCI, respectively, when compared with sham control. A subset of 12 proteins were identified as candidate SCI biomarkers - TF (Transferrin), FASN (Fatty acid synthase), NME1 (Nucleoside diphosphate kinase 1), STMN1 (Stathmin 1), EEF2 (Eukaryotic translation elongation factor 2), CTSD (Cathepsin D), ANXA1 (Annexin A1), ANXA2 (Annexin A2), PGM1 (Phosphoglucomutase 1), PEA15 (Phosphoprotein enriched in astrocytes 15), GOT2 (Glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase 2), and TPI-1 (Triosephosphate isomerase 1), data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD003473. In addition, Transferrin, Cathepsin D, and TPI-1 and PEA15 were further verified in rat spinal cord tissue and/or CSF samples after SCI and in human CSF samples from moderate/severe SCI patients. Lastly, a systems biology approach was utilized to determine the critical biochemical pathways and interactome in the pathogenesis of SCI. Thus, SCI candidate biomarkers identified can be used to correlate with disease progression or to identify potential SCI therapeutic targets

No equity, no triple aim: strategic proposals to advance health equity in a volatile policy environment

Health professionals, including social workers, community health workers, public health workers, and licensed health care providers, share common interests and responsibilities in promoting health equity and improving social determinants of health—the conditions in which we live, work, play, and learn. This article summarizes underlying causes of health inequity and comparatively poor health outcomes in the U.S. It describes barriers to realizing the hope embedded in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that moving away from fee-for-service payments will naturally drive care upstream as providers respond to greater financial risk for the health of their patients by undertaking greater prevention efforts. The article asserts that health equity should serve as the guiding framework for achieving the Triple Aim of health care reform. It outlines practical opportunities for improving care and for promoting stronger efforts to address social determinants of health. These proposals include developing a dashboard of measures to assist providers committed to health equity and community-based prevention and to promote institutional accountability for addressing socio-economic factors that influence health

Biology of advanced uveal melanoma and next steps for clinical therapeutics

Uveal melanoma is the most common intraocular malignancy although it is a rare subset of all melanomas. Uveal melanoma has distinct biology relative to cutaneous melanoma, with widely divergent patient outcomes. Patients diagnosed with a primary uveal melanoma can be stratified for risk of metastasis by cytogenetics or gene expression profiling, with approximately half of patients developing metastatic disease, predominately hepatic in location, over a 15-yr period. Historically, no systemic therapy has been associated with a clear clinical benefit for patients with advanced disease, and median survival remains poor. Here, as a joint effort between the Melanoma Research Foundation's ocular melanoma initiative, CURE OM and the National Cancer Institute, the current understanding of the molecular and immunobiology of uveal melanoma is reviewed, and on-going laboratory research into the disease is highlighted. Finally, recent investigations relevant to clinical management via targeted and immunotherpies are reviewed, and next steps in the development of clinical therapeutics are discussed

On the Exponentials of Some Structured Matrices

In this note explicit algorithms for calculating the exponentials of important structured 4 x 4 matrices are provided. These lead to closed form formulae for these exponentials. The techniques rely on one particular Clifford Algebra isomorphism and basic Lie theory. When used in conjunction with structure preserving similarities, such as Givens rotations, these techniques extend to dimensions bigger than four.Comment: 19 page

Forest conservation delivers highly variable coral reef conservation outcomes

Coral reefs are threatened by human activities on both the land (e.g., deforestation) and the sea (e.g., overfishing). Most conservation planning for coral reefs focuses on removing threats in the sea, neglecting management actions on the land. A more integrated approach to coral reef conservation, inclusive of land–sea connections, requires an understanding of how and where terrestrial conservation actions influence reefs. We address this by developing a land–sea planning approach to inform fine-scale spatial management decisions and test it in Fiji. Our aim is to determine where the protection of forest can deliver the greatest return on investment for coral reef ecosystems. To assess the benefits of conservation to coral reefs, we estimate their relative condition as influenced by watershed-based pollution and fishing. We calculate the cost-effectiveness of protecting forest and find that investments deliver rapidly diminishing returns for improvements to relative reef condition. For example, protecting 2% of forest in one area is almost 500 times more beneficial than protecting 2% in another area, making prioritization essential. For the scenarios evaluated, relative coral reef condition could be improved by 8–58% if all remnant forest in Fiji were protected rather than deforested. Finally, we determine the priority of each coral reef for implementing a marine protected area when all remnant forest is protected for conservation. The general results will support decisions made by the Fiji Protected Area Committee as they establish a national protected area network that aims to protect 20% of the land and 30% of the inshore waters by 2020. Although challenges remain, we can inform conservation decisions around the globe by tackling the complex issues relevant to integrated land–sea planning