Phase Angle as a Marker of Muscular Strength in Breast Cancer Survivors

Background: accurate prognostic tools are relevant for decision-making in cancer care. Objective measures, such as bioelectrical impedance (BI), have the potential to improve prognostic accuracy for these patients. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate whether phase angle (PhA) derived from the electrical properties of the body tissues is a predictor of muscular strength in breast cancer survivors (BCS). Methods: a total of 41 BCS (age 54.6 ± 9.2 years) were evaluated. PhA, obtained at frequency 50 kHz, was assessed with BI spectroscopy, and muscular strength with a handgrip dynamometer. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Measurements were performed in the morning after an overnight fast. Results: linear regression analysis showed that PhA accounted for 22% (r2 = 0.22) of muscular strength variance. PhA remained a borderline predictor of muscular strength variance independently of age and MVPA. Conclusions: the findings of this study suggest that PhA is a significant predictor of maximal forearm isometric strength and a potential indicator of disease-related functionality in BCS.

The unequal variance signal-detection model of recognition memory: Investigating the encoding variability hypothesis

Despite the unequal variance signal-detection (UVSD) model’s prominence as a model of recognition memory, a psychological explanation for the unequal variance assumption has yet to be verified. According to the encoding variability hypothesis, old item memory strength variance (σo) is greater than that of new items because items are incremented by variable, rather than fixed, amounts of strength at encoding. Conditions that increase encoding variability should therefore result in greater estimates of σo. We conducted three experiments to test this prediction. In Experiment 1, encoding variability was manipulated by presenting items for a fixed or variable (normally distributed) duration at study. In Experiment 2, we used an attentional manipulation whereby participants studied items while performing an auditory one-back task in which distractors were presented at fixed or variable intervals. In Experiment 3, participants studied stimuli with either high or low variance in word frequency. Across experiments, estimates of σo were unaffected by our attempts to manipulate encoding variability, even though the manipulations weakly affected subsequent recognition. Instead, estimates of σo tended to be positively correlated with estimates of the mean difference in strength between new and studied items ( d), as might be expected if σo generally scales with d. Our results show that it is surprisingly hard to successfully manipulate encoding variability, and they provide a signpost for others seeking to test the encoding variability hypothesis.

Feasibility of Pulverized Oyster Shell as a Cementing Material

This research intends to study the cementing potential of pulverized oyster shell, rich in calcium, when mixed with fly ash and soil. Cylindrical compacted soil and cubic lime specimens with different proportions of the shells and fly ash are made to study the strength variance. Soil, which is classified as CL in the USCS system, commercialized pulverized oyster shell, F-type fly ash, and lime are mixed in different weight percentages. Five sample groups are made to study the compressive strength of soil and lime specimens, respectively. The lime cubes are made with 0.45 W/B ratio and the cylindrical soils are compacted under the standard Procter compaction process with 20% moisture content. The results show that increment of shell quantity result to lower strength on both the soil and lime specimens. In a 56-day curing, the compressive strength of the lime cubes containing fly ash increases evidently while those carrying the shell get little progress in strength. The soil specimens containing fly ash gradually gain strength as curing proceeds. It suggests that mixtures of the shell and fly ash do not process any Pozzolanic reaction nor help to raise the unconfined strength of the compacted soil through the curing.

Tensile Bond Strength Variance of Thermally Sprayed Coatings with Respect to Adhesive Type

A Round Robin study involving 19 coating suppliers and independent laboratories was conducted on tensile testing of thermally sprayed coatings to determine the accuracy and consistency of the tensile data among the participating labs and within a lab. One coating system (NiCrAl) and two adhesive types (film vs. liquid epoxy) were used. The results showed the average tensile strengths for the coating system using the liquid epoxy systems (EC2086/EC2214) were consistently higher than the average values which resulted using the film epoxy system (FMIOOO). However, less scatter in the results was observed when the FMIOOO film epoxy was used.