Restoring Sustainable Forests on Appalachian Mined Lands for Wood Products, Renewable Energy, Carbon Sequestration, and Other Ecosystems Services Quarterly Report

This is the first quarterly Technical Report for the period October-December, 2003. A kick-off meeting was held with NETL administrators and scientists at Morgantown, WV, on December 2, 2002. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the biological and economic feasibility of restoring high-quality forests on mined land, and to measure carbon sequestration and wood production benefits that would be achieved from forest restoration procedures. During this first quarterly reporting period, five Graduate Research Assistants were recruited, an MOA was drafted between Virginia Tech and three industry cooperators, preliminary field locations for controlled studies were located, and a preliminary analysis of a carbon inventory of forest sites on mined land was made

Parameter Diagrams of the GRW and CSL Theories of Wave Function Collapse

It has been hypothesized that the time evolution of wave functions might include collapses, rather than being governed by the Schroedinger equation. The leading models of such an evolution, GRW and CSL, both have two parameters (or new constants of nature), the collapse width sigma and the collapse rate lambda. We draw a diagram of the sigma-lambda-plane showing the region that is empirically refuted and the region that is philosophically unsatisfactory.Comment: 17 pages LaTeX, 7 figure

New preparative methods to enhance phase purity and physical properties of cuprate superconductors

Several methods which avoid the problems inherent in solid state reactions have been developed. These methods include freeze drying, liquid ammonia based processes and a novel xerogel process. They are applicable to both 123, 124 and BISCCO based superconductors and have as their goal the atomic mixing of precursors in order to reduce inhomogeneity in the final product. The three methods are described and compared to each other and to conventional methods of synthesis. The products prepared by these methods are fully characterized by elemental analysis, XRD, TGA, DSC, resistivity and magnetic susceptibility versus temperature and by SEM. 13 refs., 2 figs

Data quality and practical challenges of thyroid volume assessment by ultrasound under field conditions - observer errors may affect prevalence estimates of goitre

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The ultrasonographic estimation of thyroid size has been advocated as being more precise than palpation to diagnose goitre. However, ultrasound also requires technical proficiency. This study was conducted among Saharawi refugees, where goitre is highly prevalent. The objectives were to assess the overall data quality of ultrasound measurements of thyroid volume (Tvol), including the intra- and inter-observer agreement, under field conditions, and to describe some of the practical challenges encountered.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In 2007 a cross-sectional study of 419 children (6-14 years old) and 405 women (15-45 years old) was performed on a population of Saharawi refugees with prevalent goitre, who reside in the Algerian desert. Tvol was measured by two trained fieldworkers using portable ultrasound equipment (examiner 1 measured 406 individuals, and examiner 2, 418 individuals). Intra- and inter-observer agreement was estimated in 12 children selected from the study population but not part of the main study. In the main study, an observer error was found in one examiner whose ultrasound images were corrected by linear regression after printing and remeasuring a sample of 272 images.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The intra-observer agreement in Tvol was higher in examiner 1, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.91, 0.99) compared to 0.86 (95% CI: 0.60, 0.96) in examiner 2. The ICC for inter-observer agreement in Tvol was 0.38 (95% CI: -0.20, 0.77). Linear regression coefficients indicated a significant scaling bias in the original measurements of the AP and ML diameter and a systematic underestimation of Tvol (a product of AP, ML, CC and a constant). The agreement between re-measured and original Tvol measured by ICC (95% CI) was 0.76 (0.71, 0.81). The agreement between re-measured and corrected Tvol measured by ICC (95% CI) was 0.97 (0.96, 0.97).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>An important challenge when using ultrasound to assess thyroid volume under field conditions is to recruit and train qualified personnel to perform the measurements. Methodological studies are important to assess data quality and can facilitate statistical corrections and improved estimates.</p

Snow Control - An RCT protocol for a web-based self-help therapy to reduce cocaine consumption in problematic cocaine users

Background: Cocaine use has increased in most European countries, including Switzerland, and many states worldwide. The international literature has described treatment models that target the general population. In addition to supplying informative measures at the level of primary and secondary prevention, the literature also offers web-based self-help tools for problematic substance users, which is in line with tertiary prevention. Such programs, however, have been primarily tested on individuals with problematic alcohol and cannabis consumption, but not on cocaine-dependent individuals. Methods/Design: This paper presents the protocol of a randomised clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a web-based self-help therapy to reduce cocaine use in problematic cocaine users. The primary outcome is severity of cocaine dependence. Secondary outcome measures include cocaine craving, consumption of cocaine and other substances of abuse in the past month, and changes in depression characteristics. The therapy group will receive a 6-week self-help therapy to reduce cocaine consumption based on methods of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, principles of Motivational Interviewing and self-control practices. The control group will be presented weekly psycho-educative information with a quiz. The predictive validity of participant characteristics on treatment retention and outcome will be explored. Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first randomised clinical trial to test the effectiveness of online self-help therapy to reduce or abstain from cocaine use. It will also investigate predictors of outcome and retention. This trial is registered at Current Controlled Trials and is traceable as NTR-ISRCTN93702927

The Gender Congruence and Life Satisfaction Scale (GCLS): development and validation of a scale to measure outcomes from transgender health services

Background: It is vital that the treatment offered at transgender health services can be evaluated to ensure a high quality of care. However, the tools currently used to evaluate treatment at transgender health services are limited by mainly focusing on mental health or because they have been developed for binary transgender people only. This study therefore aimed to develop and validate a tool that addresses these limitations. The Gender Congruence and Life Satisfaction Scale (GCLS) was developed through reviewing the literature, conducting interviews with transgender people, and holding discussions with experts working in transgender healthcare. An initial pool of items was developed and feedback on these was obtained. The tool was then validated. Method: For the validation of the tool a total of 789 participants (451 transgender [171 transgender females, 147 transgender males, 133 non-binary identifying people], and 338 cisgender [254 females, 84 males]) were recruited from the United Kingdom to test the factor structure and validity of the GCLS. Results: Exploratory factor analysis retained 38 items which formed seven subscales (psychological functioning; genitalia; social gender role recognition; physical and emotional intimacy; chest; other secondary sex characteristics; and life satisfaction). These seven subscales were found to have good internal consistency and convergent validity. The GCLS was also found to be capable of discriminating between groups (e.g., people who have and have not undergone gender affirming medical interventions). Transgender and cisgender subscale norms are provided for the GCLS. Conclusion: The GCLS is a suitable tool to use with the transgender population to measure health-related outcomes for both clinical and research purposes

An assessment of environmental sustainability corridor: The role of economic expansion and research and development in EU countries.

Given that the European Union-28 countries proposed a target of 3% of the Gross Domestic Product on research and development (R&D) expenditure by 2020, the current study attempts to examine the role of R&D on environmental sustainability. In addition, the study further investigates the long-run and causal interaction between, renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, and economic growth in an ecological footprint function. Notably, the study incorporates research and development (R&D) expenditure to the model as an additional variable, and measures impact of each variable on ecological footprint. Empirical evidence is based on a balanced panel data between annual periods of 1997-2014 for selected EU-16 countries. The Pedroni, Johansen Multivariate and Kao tests all reveal a cointegration between ecological footprint, economic growth, research and development expenditure, renewable, and nonrenewable energy consumption. The Fully Modified and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares models (FMOLS and DOLS) both suggest a negative significant relationship between the countries' research and development expenditure and ecological footprint in the long-run. This implies that spending on R&D significantly impacts on the environmental sustainability of the panel countries. Our study affirms that nonrenewable energy consumption and economic growth increase carbon emission flaring while renewable energy consumption declines ecological footprint. The panel causality analysis reveals a feedback mechanism between ecological footprint, R&D expenditure, renewable, and nonrenewable energy consumption. We further observed a one-way causality between ecological footprint and economic growth. Effective policy implications could be drawn toward modern and environmentally friendly energy sources, especially in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals via spending on R&D