D^0 measurements in Au+Au Collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV using the STAR Silicon Inner Tracker

We present preliminary results from D^0 meson measurements through the hadronic decay channel in minimum bias Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV at STAR. The measurements are performed using a secondary vertexing technique that exploits the resolution given by the Silicon detectors available in STAR.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures - To appear in the conference proceedings for Quark Matter 2009, March 30 - April 4, Knoxville, Tennesse

Comparing D-Bar and Common Regularization-Based Methods for Electrical Impedance Tomography

Objective: To compare D-bar difference reconstruction with regularized linear reconstruction in electrical impedance tomography. Approach: A standard regularized linear approach using a Laplacian penalty and the GREIT method for comparison to the D-bar difference images. Simulated data was generated using a circular phantom with small objects, as well as a \u27Pac-Man\u27 shaped conductivity target. An L-curve method was used for parameter selection in both D-bar and the regularized methods. Main results: We found that the D-bar method had a more position independent point spread function, was less sensitive to errors in electrode position and behaved differently with respect to additive noise than the regularized methods. Significance: The results allow a novel pathway between traditional and D-bar algorithm comparison

WEATHERING THE STORM: DIAGNOSTIC MONITORING FOR PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION AT SPRUCE TREE HOUSE, MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, COLORADO

This paper examines Spruce Tree House, an alcovate site located in Mesa Verde National Park, as a model for monitoring the impacts of the natural environment on the deterioration of a unique collection of archaeological resources. At present, it is the only alcove site in the park that has been fully documented by park service archaeologists. In the past, preservation at Mesa Verde has focused on the minimal remedial stabilization of the prehistoric masonry structures. A comprehensive study of broad deterioration patterns across the alcovate sites in the park and the possible causes of these patterns has never been performed. Identifying common sources of deterioration site-wide has the potential to lead to a comprehensive maintenance plan that could slow deterioration through preventive as well as remedial actions, thereby protecting the resources and decreasing the amount of emergency rehabilitation work needed. Implementation of a monitoring program is the first step in this process, as it allows us to identify patterns and establish causality, leading eventually to non-invasive preventive and protective measures. This paper proposes that the presence of water is the main cause of deterioration at the site. A specific monitoring program has been put forth in order to verify that this is still an active problem at the site. The program includes the use of soil moisture meters, motion activated cameras and at least one weather station to record the external environmental conditions for comparison with occurrences within the alcove

Patient characteristics associated with objective measures of digital health tool use in the United States: A literature review.

The study sought to determine which patient characteristics are associated with the use of patient-facing digital health tools in the United States.We conducted a literature review of studies of patient-facing digital health tools that objectively evaluated use (eg, system/platform data representing frequency of use) by patient characteristics (eg, age, race or ethnicity, income, digital literacy). We included any type of patient-facing digital health tool except patient portals. We reran results using the subset of studies identified as having robust methodology to detect differences in patient characteristics.We included 29 studies; 13 had robust methodology. Most studies examined smartphone apps and text messaging programs for chronic disease management and evaluated only 1-3 patient characteristics, primarily age and gender. Overall, the majority of studies found no association between patient characteristics and use. Among the subset with robust methodology, white race and poor health status appeared to be associated with higher use.Given the substantial investment in digital health tools, it is surprising how little is known about the types of patients who use them. Strategies that engage diverse populations in digital health tool use appear to be needed.Few studies evaluate objective measures of digital health tool use by patient characteristics, and those that do include a narrow range of characteristics. Evidence suggests that resources and need drive use

Trädinventering i urban miljö

Stadsträd är nödvändiga i den urbana miljön, de bidrar till ett flertal positiva värden både för miljö, klimat och människa. Men stadsträd kan också utgöra hot mot hälsa och ekonomi när förutsättningarna att leverera tjänster till staden saknas. Till följd av urbanisering och klimatförändringar, förändras villkoren för de redan utsatta stadsträden. För att hantera hoten som uppkommer i den urbana miljön, lindra de negativa följderna och bidra till alla positiva värden, krävs friska stadsträd, fria från sjukdomar och skadedjur med en stor artdiversitet. För att åstadkomma starka stadsträd krävs grundlig planering, design och förvaltning, vilket i sin tur kräver kunskap. Trädinventering är en metod att inhämta kunskap om träden som förvaltas, bidra till kunskap om framtida generationer men framförallt fungera som ett verktyg i målet att nå en hållbar stad. Trädinventering som metod blir allt vanligare, såväl i internationell kontext som i Sverige. Men syftet att använda metoden varierar, likväl vem som initierar dem och var i organisationen det sker, framförallt vad organisationer väljer att använda kunskapen från trädinventeringar till. Med en kvalitativ metod syftar studien att undersöka vad en trädinventering är, med vilket syfte och metod utförs trädinventering och vad används kunskapen till. En litteraturstudie har följts upp med tre fallstudier av trädinventeringar i Melbourne Australien, Vancouver Kanada och Malmö stad. Resultatet visar att trädinventeringar inte enbart är ett verktyg i operativ skötsel utan en viktig resurs som kan bidra till analyser och åtgärder på ett flertal nivåer i organisationen. Melbourne och Vancouver utgör goda exempel vilka har utnämnt träden som avgörande för det goda klimatet i staden. Policydokument och mål i de två nämnda städerna, har skapats utifrån träden som resurs och framförallt verkar Melbourne och Vancouver för att göra träden levande via moderna informativa hemsidor, vilka inbjuder till engagemang kring stadsträd. Malmö som har utfört en omfattande trädinventering använder kunskapen till planering av operativ skötsel och saknar liknande analyser och program som Melbourne, trots att det inte föreligger skillnader mellan städerna varken i metod eller trädbeståndets omfattning. En förklaring som kan tänkas ha betydelse för hur man använder trädinventeringar är organisationen och vilken organisationsnivå trädinventeringar operationaliseras i, vilket kan utgöra en förutsättning eller en begränsning för vidare användning och analys.City Trees are necessary in the urban surroundings, contributing to a number of positive values for the environment, climate and man. But urban trees can also pose threats to the health and economy, as prerequisites to deliver services to the city is missing. The conditions are changing for the already vulnerable urban trees, as a result of urbanization and climate change. To deal with threats that arise in the urban environment, alleviate the negative consequences and contribute to all the positive values, requires healthy urban trees, free of diseases and pests with a great diversity of species. To achieve strong urban trees, thorough planning, design and management is necessary, which in turn requires knowledge. Tree Inventory is a method to obtain knowledge of the trees that are managed, it also contribute to the knowledge of future generations. But above all, tree inventory can serve as a tool in the goal of achieving a sustainable city. Tree Inventory as a method is becoming more common, both in the international context as in Swedish. But the purpose of using the method varies, and especially what organizations choose to use the knowledge for. With a qualitative approach, the study aims to examine what a tree inventory is, for what purpose, which method is performed and what the knowledge contribute to. A literature study has been followed by three case studies in Melbourne Australia, Vancouver Canada and the City of Malmö. The results show that tree inventories is not only a tool for operational management, they are a important resource that can contribute to analysis and actionplans at multiple levels in the organization. Melbourne and Vancouver are good examples which have noticed the trees as vital to the good climate in the city. Policies and goals for the whole town are created from trees as a resource and, modern and improving internet sights combined with open treedatabase invites participation. Malmö has performed an extensive hazardtree inventory and using knowledge to the planning of operative maintenance. No similar analyzes and programs like Melbourne has been done in Malmö, although there is no difference in either methods or tree stand scope. A declaration that may be of importance for how to use tree inventories is the organization and the level which tree inventory is managed in, that can act as a pre-condition or a limitation for further use and analysis

Overcoming challenges in the economic evaluation of interventions to optimise antibiotic use

Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, reducing our ability to treat infections and threatening to undermine modern health care. Optimising antibiotic use is a key element in tackling the problem. Traditional economic evaluation methods do not capture many of the benefits from improved antibiotic use and the potential impact on resistance. Not capturing these benefits is a major obstacle to optimising antibiotic use, as it fails to incentivise the development and use of interventions to optimise the use of antibiotics and preserve their effectiveness (stewardship interventions). Estimates of the benefits of improving antibiotic use involve considerable uncertainty as they depend on the evolution of resistance and associated health outcomes and costs. Here we discuss how economic evaluation methods might be adapted, in the face of such uncertainties. We propose a threshold-based approach that estimates the minimum resistance-related costs that would need to be averted by an intervention to make it cost-effective. If it is probable that without the intervention costs will exceed the threshold then the intervention should be deemed cost-effective

Accent modulates access to word meaning: Evidence for a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition

Speech carries accent information relevant to determining the speaker’s linguistic and social background. A series of web-based experiments demonstrate that accent cues can modulate access to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, British participants were more likely to retrieve the American dominant meaning (e.g., hat meaning of “bonnet”) in a word association task if they heard the words in an American than a British accent. In addition, results from a speeded semantic decision task (Experiment 4) and sentence comprehension task (Experiment 5) confirm that accent modulates on-line meaning retrieval such that comprehension of ambiguous words is easier when the relevant word meaning is dominant in the speaker’s dialect. Critically, neutral-accent speech items, created by morphing British- and American-accented recordings, were interpreted in a similar way to accented words when embedded in a context of accented words (Experiment 2). This finding indicates that listeners do not use accent to guide meaning retrieval on a word-by-word basis; instead they use accent information to determine the dialectic identity of a speaker and then use their experience of that dialect to guide meaning access for all words spoken by that person. These results motivate a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition in which comprehenders determine key characteristics of their interlocutor and use this knowledge to guide word meaning access

Managing Interspecies Competition to Improve Spring Pasture

Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) is one of the earliest maturing pasture grasses utilized in the northeastern United States. However, wet springs can delay forage harvesting resulting in advanced forage maturity and reduction in nutritive value. Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) is a tall, upright-growing forb that shows promise as a high-energy companion crop to orchardgrass and may delay orchardgrass maturity through shading effects on plant morphology. The objective of this study was to evaluate monocultures and mixtures of orchardgrass, chicory, and white clover (Trifolium repens L.) over two consecutive springs to determine the effects of species diversity on plant maturity, nutritive characteristics, and botanical composition of forage mass. Forage monocultures and mixtures were planted in central Pennsylvania in August 2018 and were observed for two years with three harvests occurring each year (one each in spring, summer, and fall). In the first spring, orchardgrass demonstrated nine days delay in maturity when grown with chicory as compared to when grown in monocultures or in orchardgrass-white clover mixtures. Although orchardgrass was at an earlier developmental stage, fiber concentrations were similar when grown with or without chicory. Additionally, in the first spring, orchardgrass mixtures containing chicory had 1.5x greater forage mass than orchardgrass monocultures and orchardgrass-white clover mixtures. Chicory biomass was low in the second spring, likely due to winterkill following a late fall harvest the previous year, resulting in a negligible effect on orchardgrass. However, orchardgrass-chicory-white clover mixtures (even with low amounts of chicory in the second year) had the greatest forage mass and nutritive value yield over both years, indicating that these mixtures can provide greater agronomic benefits than orchardgrass monocultures