How to increase the accuracy of analysis and reduce the computational time in ANSYS in the case of deformation study of orthopedic bone plates

Currently, finite element analyses are usually done by means of commercial software tools. Accuracy of analysis and computational time are two important factors in efficiency of these tools. This paper studies the effective parameters in computational time and accuracy of finite element analyses performed by ANSYS and provides the guidelines for the users of this software whenever they us this software for study on deformation of orthopedic bone plates or study on similar cases. It is not a fundamental scientific study and only shares the findings of the authors about structural analysis by means of ANSYS workbench. It gives an idea to the readers about improving the performance of the software and avoiding the traps. The solutions provided in this paper are not the only possible solutions of the problems and in similar cases there are other solutions which are not given in this paper. The parameters of solution method, material model, geometric model, mesh configuration, number of the analysis steps, program controlled parameters and computer settings are discussed through thoroughly in this paper.

Finding space and time in the West

WHENEVER I talk to my students about the requisites for writing, I always tell them that they need at least two things: space and time. Time, which we frequently describe through verbs of motion such as ‘flow’ or ‘flux’, and space, which we usually view as emptiness or the absence of matter. I.e., two dimensions, which are co-dependent, are not only features of the physical world but mental constructs that are elementary to the faculty of cognition...

Mid-Aged Adults' Sitting Time in Three Contexts

BACKGROUND: To develop evidence-based approaches for reducing sedentary behavior, there is a need to identify the specific settings where prolonged sitting occurs, associated factors, and variations. PURPOSE: To examine the sociodemographic and health factors associated with mid-aged adults' sitting time in three contexts and variations between weekdays and weekend days. METHODS: A mail survey was sent to 17,000 adults (aged 40-65 years) in 2007; 11,037 responses were received (68.5%); and 7719 were analyzed in 2010. Respondents indicated time spent sitting on a usual weekday and weekend day for watching TV, general leisure, and home computer use. Multivariate linear mixed models with area-level random intercepts were used to examine (1) associations between sociodemographic and health variables and sitting time, and (2) interaction effects of weekday/weekend day with each of gender, age, education, and employment status, on sitting time. RESULTS: For each context, longer sitting times were reported by those single and living alone, and those whose health restricted activity. For watching TV, longer sitting times were reported by men; smokers; and those with high school or lower education, not in paid employment, in poor health, and with BMI ≥25. For general leisure, longer sitting times were reported by women, smokers, and those not employed full-time. For home computer use, longer sitting times were reported by men; and those aged 40-44 years, with university qualifications; in the mid-income range; and with BMI ≥30. Sitting times tended to be longer on weekend days than weekdays, although the extent of this differed among sociodemographic groups. CONCLUSIONS: Sociodemographic and health factors associated with sitting time differ by context and between weekdays and weekend days.

Emotional climate and behavioral management during sleep time in early childhood education settings

The majority of children cease napping between 3 and 5 years of age yet, internationally, the allocation of a sleep time during the day for children of this age remains a practice in many early childhood education (ECE) settings. These dual circumstances present a disjuncture between children's sleep needs and center practices, that may cause conflict for staff, increase stress for children and escalate negative emotional climate in the room. Testing this hypothesis requires observation of both the emotional climate and behavioral management used in ECE rooms that extends into the sleep time. This study was the first to apply the Classroom Assessment and Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) to observe the emotional climate and behavioral management during sleep time. Pilot results indicated that the CLASS Pre-K functioned reliably to measure emotional climate and behavioral management in sleep time. However, new sleep-specific examples of the dimensions used were developed, to help orient fieldworkers to the CLASS Pre-K rating system in the sleep time context. The CLASS was then used to assess emotional climate and behavior management between the non-sleep and sleep time sessions, in 113 ECE rooms in Queensland, Australia. In these rooms 2.114 children were observed. Of these children, 71% did not sleep at any point during the allotted sleep times. There was a significant drop in emotional climate and behavioral management between the non-sleep and sleep-time sessions. Furthermore, the duration of mandated sleep time (a period of time where no activities are provided to non-sleeping children) accounted for significant independent variance in the observed emotional climate during sleep-time. The CLASS Pre-K presents a valuable tool to assess the emotional climate and behavior management during sleep-time and draws attention to the need for further studies of sleep time in ECE settings.

Inside the ‘Hurt Locker’: The combined effects of explosive ordnance disposal and chemical protective clothing on physiological tolerance time in extreme environments

Background Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians are often required to wear specialised clothing combinations that not only protect against the risk of explosion but also potential chemical contamination. This heavy (>35kg) and encapsulating ensemble is likely to increase physiological strain by increasing metabolic heat production and impairing heat dissipation. This study investigated the physiological tolerance times of two different chemical protective undergarments, commonly worn with EOD personal protective clothing, in a range of simulated environmental extremes and work intensities Methods Seven males performed eighteen trials wearing two ensembles. The trials involved walking on a treadmill at 2.5, 4 and 5.5 km.h-1 at each of the following environmental conditions, 21, 30 and 37°C wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT). The trials were ceased if the participants’ core temperature reached 39°C, if heart rate exceeded 90% of maximum, if walking time reached 60 minutes or due to volitional fatigue. Results Physiological tolerance times ranged from 8 to 60 min and the duration (mean difference: 2.78 min, P>0.05) were similar in both ensembles. A significant effect for environment (21>30>37°C WBGT, P<0.05) and work intensity (2.5>4>5.5 km.h-1, P< 0.05) was observed in tolerance time. The majority of trials across both ensembles (101/126; 80.1%) were terminated due to participants achieving a heart rate equivalent to greater than 90% of their maximum. Conclusions Physiological tolerance times wearing these two chemical protective undergarments, worn underneath EOD personal protective clothing, were similar and predominantly limited by cardiovascular strain.

The sleeping elephant in the room: Practices and policies regarding sleep-rest time in ECEC

The National Quality Framework (NQF) for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Australia identifies the need for services to make provision for each child’s sleep, rest and relaxation within a national early year’s policy framework that also requires that opportunities for learning and physical health are optimised, and that the agency of each child and their family is respected. Against this background, the scheduling of a standard sleep-time in ECEC centres remains a common practice, even in rooms catering for older children for whom daytime sleep may no longer be necessary. This article draws upon existing scholarship to explore the issues and tensions associated with sleep-rest, in the context of Australian curriculum and quality standards documents. We review accounts from educators, parents and children and contemporary views regarding high quality practice in ECEC, with an aim of supporting critical reflection on practice and continuous quality improvement in ECEC.

“I have to rest all the time because you are not allowed to play”: Exploring children’s perceptions of autonomy during sleep-time in long day care services

Daytime sleep is a significant part of the daily routine for children attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Australia and many other countries. The practice of sleep-time can account for a substantial portion of the day in ECEC and often involves a mandated sleep/rest period for all children, including older preschool-aged children. Yet, there is evidence that children have a reduced need for daytime sleep as they approach school entry age and that continuation of mandated sleep-time in ECEC for preschool-aged children may have a negative impact on their health, development, learning and well-being. Mandated sleep-time practices also go against current quality expectations for services to support children’s agency and autonomy in ECEC. This study documents children’s reports of their experiences of sleep-time in ECEC. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 54 preschool-aged children (44–63 months) across four long day ECEC services that employed a range of sleep-time practices. Findings provide a snapshot of children’s views and experiences of sleep-time and perceptions of autonomy-supportive practices. These provide a unique platform to support critical reflection on sleep-time policies and practices, with a view to continuous quality improvement in ECEC. This study forms part of a programme of work from the Sleep in Early Childhood research group. Our work examines sleep practices in ECEC, the subsequent staff, parent and child experiences and impacts on family and child learning and development outcomes.

Talking About Time in Russian and Finnish

In this study I look at what people want to express when they talk about time in Russian and Finnish, and why they use the means they use. The material consists of expressions of time: 1087 from Russian and 1141 from Finnish. They have been collected from dictionaries, usage guides, corpora, and the Internet. An expression means here an idiomatic set of words in a preset form, a collocation or construction. They are studied as lexical entities, without a context, and analysed and categorized according to various features. The theoretical background for the study includes two completely different approaches. Functional Syntax is used in order to find out what general meanings the speaker wishes to convey when talking about time and how these meanings are expressed in specific languages. Conceptual metaphor theory is used for explaining why the expressions are as they are, i.e. what kind of conceptual metaphors (transfers from one conceptual domain to another) they include. The study has resulted in a grammatically glossed list of time expressions in Russian and Finnish, a list of 56 general meanings involved in these time expressions and an account of the means (constructions) that these languages have for expressing the general meanings defined. It also includes an analysis of conceptual metaphors behind the expressions. The general meanings involved turned out to revolve around expressing duration, point in time, period of time, frequency, sequence, passing of time, suitable time and the right time, life as time, limitedness of time, and some other notions having less obvious semantic relations to the others. Conceptual metaphor analysis of the material has shown that time is conceptualized in Russian and Finnish according to the metaphors Time Is Space (Time Is Container, Time Has Direction, Time Is Cycle, and the Time Line Metaphor), Time Is Resource (and its submapping Time Is Substance), Time Is Actor; and some characteristics are added to these conceptualizations with the help of the secondary metaphors Time Is Nature and Time Is Life. The limits between different conceptual metaphors and the connections these metaphors have with one another are looked at with the help of the theory of conceptual integration (the blending theory) and its schemas. The results of the study show that although Russian and Finnish are typologically different, they are very similar both in the needs of expression their speakers have concerning time, and in the conceptualizations behind expressing time. This study introduces both theoretical and methodological novelties in the nature of material used, in developing empirical methodology for conceptual metaphor studies, in the exactness of defining the limits of different conceptual metaphors, and in seeking unity among the different facets of time. Keywords: time, metaphor, time expression, idiom, conceptual metaphor theory, functional syntax, blending theory

Developments in controlled green-water larval culture technologies for estuarine fishes in Queensland, Australia and elsewhere

Since 1989, researchers with the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) in Queensland, Australia, have successfully used controlled low-water exchange green-water cultures to rear the larvae of estuarine fishes and crustaceans through to metamorphosis. High survivals and excellent fry condition have been achieved for several commercially important endemic species produced for various projects. They include barramundi or sea bass, Lates calcarifer, Australian bass, Macquaria novemaculeata, dusky flathead, Platycephalus fuscus, sand whiting, Sillago ciliata, red sea bream or snapper, Pagrus auratus, banana prawn, Fenneropenaeus merguiensis, and others. The consistent success of our standardised and relatively simple approach at different localities has led to it being incorporated into general fingerling production practices at several establishments in Australia. Although post-metamorphosis rearing methods have differed for each species investigated, due to various biological and behavioural traits and project requirements, these larval rearing methods have been successful with few species-specific modifications. Initially modelled on the Taiwanese approach to rearing Penaeids in aerated low-water exchange cultures, the approach similarly appears to rely on a beneficial assemblage of micro-organisms. Conceptually, these micro-organisms may include a mixture of the air-borne primary invaders of pure phytoplankton cultures when exposed to outdoor conditions. Whilst this would vary with different sites, our experiences with these methods have consistently been favourable. Mass microalgal cultures with eco-physiological youth are used to regularly augment larval fish cultures so that rearing conditions simulate an exponential growth-phase microalgal bloom. Moderate to heavy aeration prevents settlement of particulate matter and encourages aerobic bacterial decomposition of wastes. The green-water larval rearing approach described herein has demonstrated high practical utility in research and commercial applications, and has greatly simplified marine finfish hatchery operations whilst generally lifting production capacities for metamorphosed fry in Australia. Its potential uses in areas of aquaculture other than larviculture are also discussed.

Deoxyribonucleic acid replication time in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37 Rv

The DNA increment method, designed for measuring the increment in the amount of DNA after inhibition of initiation of fresh rounds of replication initiation was employed to measure the rate of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) chain growth in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv growing in Youman and Karlson's medium at 37°C with a generation time of 24 h and also in relatively fast growing species like Mycobacterium smegmatis and Escherichia coli. From the results obtained, the time required for a DNA replication fork to traverse the chromosome from origin to terminus (C period) was calculated. The chain elongation rates of DNA of the three organisms was determined from the C period and the known genome sizes assuming that all these genomes have a single replication origin and bidirectional replication fork. The rate for M. tuberculosis was 3,200 nucleotides per min about 11 times slower than that of M. smegmatis and about 13–18 times slower than that of E. coli.

Bacterial and fungal community composition over time in chicken litter with high or low moisture content

1. Changes in bacterial and fungal communities in chicken litter with high and low moisture content over a five week period during a single chicken grow out cycle in a poultry shed in subtropical Australia were investigated to study the association between specific microbes and odour production. 2. Microbial biomass, as indicated by DNA yields, was higher and community composition was more dynamic over time in moist compared with dry chicken litter. 3. Bacillus, Atopostipes and Aspergillus species increased in relative abundance in moist chicken litter samples over time reflecting the relatively high fitness and hence activity of these specific bacteria and this specific fungus in this environment.

Nine year changes in sitting time in young and mid-aged Australian women: Findings from the Australian longitudinal study for women's health

- Objective To examine changes in sitting time (ST) in women over nine years and to identify associations between life events and these changes. - Methods Young (born 1973–78, n = 5215) and mid-aged (born 1946–51, n = 6973) women reported life events and ST in four surveys of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health between 2000 and 2010. Associations between life events and changes in ST between surveys (decreasers ≥ 2 h/day less, increasers ≥ 2 h/day more) were estimated using generalized estimating equations. - Results Against a background of complex changes there was an overall decrease in ST in young women (median change − 0.48 h/day, interquartile range [IQR] = − 2.54, 1.50) and an increase in ST in mid-aged women (median change 0.43 h/day; IQR = − 1.29, 2.0) over nine years. In young women, returning to study and job loss were associated with increased ST, while having a baby, beginning work and decreased income were associated with decreased ST. In mid-aged women, changes at work were associated with increased ST, while retiring and decreased income were associated with decreased ST. - Conclusions ST changed over nine years in young and mid-aged Australian women. The life events they experienced, particularly events related to work and family, were associated with these changes.

The validity of the GENEActiv wrist-worn accelerometer for measuring adult sedentary time in free living

OBJECTIVES Based on self-reported measures, sedentary time has been associated with chronic disease and mortality. This study examined the validity of the wrist-worn GENEactiv accelerometer for measuring sedentary time (i.e. sitting and lying) by posture classification, during waking hours in free living adults. DESIGN Fifty-seven participants (age=18-55 years 52% male) were recruited using convenience sampling from a large metropolitan Australian university. METHODS Participants wore a GENEActiv accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist and an activPAL device attached to their right thigh for 24-h (00:00 to 23:59:59). Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was used to examine the convergent validity of the GENEActiv and the activPAL for estimating total sedentary time during waking hours. Agreement was illustrated using Bland and Altman plots, and intra-individual agreement for posture was assessed with the Kappa statistic. RESULTS Estimates of average total sedentary time over 24-h were 623 (SD 103) min/day from the GENEActiv, and 626 (SD 123) min/day from the activPAL, with an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of 0.80 (95% confidence intervals 0.68-0.88). Bland and Altman plots showed slight underestimation of mean total sedentary time for GENEActiv relative to activPAL (mean difference: -3.44min/day), with moderate limits of agreement (-144 to 137min/day). Mean Kappa for posture was 0.53 (SD 0.12), indicating moderate agreement for this sample at the individual level. CONCLUSIONS The estimation of sedentary time by posture classification of the wrist-worn GENEActiv accelerometer was comparable to the activPAL. The GENEActiv may provide an alternative, easy to wear device based measure for descriptive estimates of sedentary time in population samples

Past-day recall of sedentary time: Validity of a self-reported measure of sedentary time in a university population

Background Sedentary behaviour is associated with several deleterious health consequences. Although device-based measures of sedentary time are available, they are costly and do not provide a measure of domain specific sedentary time. High quality self-report measures are necessary to accurately capture domain specific sedentary time, and to provide an alternative to devices when cost is an issue. In this study, the Past-day Adults’ Sedentary Time (PAST) questionnaire, previously shown to have acceptable validity and reliability in a sample of breast cancer survivors, was modified for a university sample and validity of the modified questionnaire was examined compared with activPAL. Methods Participants (n = 58, age = 18–55 years, 48% female, 66% students) were recruited from the University of Queensland (students and staff). They answered the PAST questionnaire, which asked about time spent sitting or lying down for work, study, travel, television viewing, leisure-time computer use, reading, eating, socialising and other purposes, during the previous day. Time reported for these questions was summed to provide a measure of total sedentary time. Participants also wore an activPAL device for the full day prior to completing the questionnaire and recorded their wake and sleep times in an activity log. Total waking sedentary time derived from the activPAL was used as the criterion measure. Correlation (Pearson's r) and agreement (Bland–Altman plots) between PAST and activPAL sedentary time were examined. Results Participants were sedentary (activPAL-determined) for approximately 66% of waking hours. The correlation between PAST and activPAL sedentary time for the whole sample was r = 0.50 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.28–0.67]; and higher for non-students (r = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.26–0.84) than students (r = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.16–0.68). Bland–Altman plots revealed that the mean difference between the two measures was 19 min although limits of agreement were wide (95% limits of agreement −4.1 to 4.7 h). Discussion The PAST questionnaire provides an acceptable measure of sedentary time in this population, which included students and adults with high workplace sitting. These findings support earlier research that questionnaires employing past-day recall of sedentary time provide a viable alternative to existing sedentary behaviour questionnaires.