117,277 research outputs found
Design and Application of a Portable Launching Catapult for Crash Test Simulations
No full textINTRODUCTION. In speed disciplines performed in natural ambient such as downhill skiing, racing and
downhill cycling, safety of athletes is related to the possibility of correct design of the course trajectory and
competition artifacts (i.e. jumps & walls in cycling) as well as to the correct installation of safety barriers when
dangerous elements cannot be removed from the course background (rocks, trees, drops). Not only the intrinsic
properties of structures and barriers but also their installation determine the real behaviour of such elements in the
field [1]. Crash/functional in-situ evaluation of crashworthiness or correct dynamic design of such structures gives
to course safety managers and athletes a final tool for the engineering assessment of such installations [2].
METHODS. A launching catapult for bicycle and skiing crash test simulations was designed following given
requirements of portability and energy release. The system was designed to accelerate an instrumented Hybrid III
50th male dummy and a 25 kg downhill bicycle up to an exit speed of 50 km/h in a total wooden base length of 4.0
m. In principle, two main guide beams (5.6 m) sustain a carriage (15kg) that can be accelerated by a set of 4 elastic
bands (L=1m, K=210 N/m each) each side: the bicycle/dummy assembly is guided at the floor, pulled at the
handlebars and pushed at the dummy back by the carriage. The catapult can be preloaded by a wrench and released
by a remote mechanical trigger: the carriage is stopped by two car shock absorbers. The catapult was used to test
downhill bicycle jumps with different take off angle (-4°, 0°, +4°) of the jump board and recording landing events.
RESULTS. The catapult allowed to successfully launch the dummy/bike up to 48km/h for a total number of 14
jumps. Speed can be modulated by the number of elastic bands. Dummy/bike stabilities were satisfactory and
improvement were made to prevent hand/handlebar release or dummy backflips due to the high accelerations (max
11g). Crash impacts on the downhill slope allowed recording Peak Head Resultant accelerations up to 375 g.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The catapult is being adapted to other sports such as ski barriers testing
by lowering of the guide beams, introducing low friction guide for the skis, and adapting the carriage to a skiing
posture. It will be used against A-nets, B-nets and Mattresses along a racecourse after installation on the snow.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The research was funded by Interreg IV project “Goodride” ITAT 2033.
REFERENCES.
[1] Petrone N. et al., Procedia Engineering, Volume 2, Issue 2, June 2010, Pages 2593-2598.
[2] EN 1263-1,2:2014. Temporary works equipment. Safety nets safety requirements, test methods
Angiogenesis, programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and immune microenvironment association in laryngeal carcinoma.
No full textIn the specific field of laryngeal carcinoma (LSCC), evidence
about the interaction between angiogenetic
pathway and immune microenvironment has not yet been
explored. Given the potential relevance of such an interaction
for prognostic and therapeutic purposes, the main
aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the existence
of a correlation between angiogenesis (quantified
through CD31 expression), programmed cell death ligand
1 (PD-L1) expression, and immune microenvironment. A
secondary aim was to verify whether considering a combination
of angiogenesis and immune microenvironment
variables might improve prognostic accuracy compared to
the traditional clinical-pathological prognostic tools.
CD31-assessed micro-vessel density (MVD), PD-L1 in
terms of combined positive score (CPS), and tumour
infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were assessed on 45
consecutive cases of LSCC.
Cox proportional hazards model revealed increasing
CD31-assessed MVD values, PD-L1 CPS <1, and TILs
count rate <30%, as predictive of reduced disease free
survival (DFS). Multivariate analysis found that MVD
(p<0.0001) and TILs (p=0.0420) retained their significant
independent prognostic value. Spearman’s correlation
model disclosed a significant negative correlation between
CD31-assessed MVD values and PD-L1 CPS (p=0.0040).
PD-L1 CPS and TILs count rate were positively correlated
(p<0.0001). DFS was significantly lower in the CD31-
assessed MVD >7, PD-L1 CPS <1, TILs <30% group
than in the MVD 7, PD-L1 CPS 1, TILs 30% group
(p=0.0001).
These data preliminarily support an integrated interpretation
of the prognostic role or angiogenesis and immune
microenvironment markers in LSCC. This is of potential
clinical relevance suggesting a synergistic effect of the
combination of anti-angiogenic drugs with programmed
death-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors in advanced LSCC
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Square Dancing with the Stars to Enhance Dynamic Hirschman Linkages?
No full textIn this Presidential Address, the author takes the reader on a reconnaissance of his life and time as a regional scientist. He points out scenery he found scintillating along the way, hoping that some may pick up the banner and chew on a few of the ideas for a while. He suggests a revisit to Albert O. Hirschman’s notion of key sectors and more empirical analysis related to Marcus Berliant’s and Masahisa Fujita’s notion of knowledge creation and transfer.Presidential Address, San Antonio, Texas, March 29, 2014 (53rd Meetings of the Southern Regional Science Association
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Letter from unknown writer to Jesse L. Boyce
No full textLetter to Jesse L. Boyce from unknown author (possibly Jack) about the investigation into the powder magazine located in the Grand Canyon. Some personal news is included in the letter such as the writer's marriage to the daughter of C.A. Taylor, former Supervisor of Cochise County
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Sarah L. Blum Author Visit - Warrior Nurse: PTSD and Healing
No full textHear Sarah L. Blum, author of Women Under Fire: Abuse in the Military, discuss her newest book, Warrior Nurse: PTSD and Healing followed by a Q&A and book signing.
Sarah L. Blum is a decorated Vietnam veteran who served as an operating room nurse during the intense fighting of 1967. In recognition of her service, she was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.
Sponsored by CWU Veterans Center and CWU Libraries.https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/libraryevents/1252/thumbnail.jp
Lillian L. Lambert, Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur
No full textLillian L. Lambert, Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneu
Letter to Alfred L. Shoemaker, February 10, 1948
No full textA handwritten letter from an unknown author addressed to Alfred L. Shoemaker, dated February 10, 1948. Within, the author discusses the Pennsylvania Dutch word for Ash Wednesday, along with traditions associated with this day.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/shoemaker_documents/1118/thumbnail.jp
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