The Coinage of the Peloponnese Under Septimius Severus

During the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus the Peloponnese experienced a boom in civic minting. Prior to this, approximately ten cities had intermittently issued coins during the Imperial period, but under Severus that number grew to forty-three. I have compiled a catalog of 1113 published examples of Severan coins of the Peloponnese, which serves as the foundation for this study. In Chapter 2 I address the question of mint organization and conclude that Corinth, either by serving as a central mint or by supplying itinerant craftsmen, was responsible for much of the coinage struck during this period. In the next chapter, I argue that the reason for increased minting activity in the Peloponnese during this period may be a policy of decentralized bronze coinage production under Severus. Finally, I explore the iconography used on these coins, paying particular attention to the tendency of cities to choose "local" subjects.</p

The Tunka Experiment: Towards a 1-km^2 Cherenkov EAS Array in the Tunka Valley

The project of an EAS Cherenkov array in the Tunka valley/Siberia with an area of about 1 km^2 is presented. The new array will have a ten times bigger area than the existing Tunka-25 array and will permit a detailed study of the cosmic ray energy spectrum and the mass composition in the energy range from 10^15 to 10^18 eV.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, to be published in IJMP

Primary Energy Spectrum and Mass Composition Determined with the Tunka EAS Cherenkov Array

New results of 300 hours of operation of the Tunka array are presented. An improved parametrization of the Cherenkov light lateral distribution function (LDF), based on CORSIKA Monte Carlo simulations and the experiment QUEST, has been used for the reconstruction of EAS parameters. The corrected energy spectrum in the knee region is obtained. The mean depth of the EAS maximum has been derived both from the analysis of LDF steepness and the FWHM of Cerenkov light pulse. The mean mass composition around the knee is estimated.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, to be published in IJMP

Search for Sub-TeV Gamma Rays Coincident with BATSE Gamma Ray Bursts

Project GRAND is a 100m x 100m air shower array of proportional wire chambers (PWCs). There are 64 stations each with eight 1.29 m^2 PWC planes arranged in four orthogonal pairs placed vertically above one another to geometrically measure the angles of charged secondaries. A steel plate above the bottom pair of PWCs differentiates muons (which pass undeflected through the steel) from non-penetrating particles. FLUKA Monte Carlo studies show that a TeV gamma ray striking the atmosphere at normal incidence produces 0.23 muons which reach ground level where their angles and identities are measured. Thus, paradoxically, secondary muons are used as a signature for gamma ray primaries. The data are examined for possible angular and time coincidences with eight gamma ray bursts (GRBs) detected by BATSE. Seven of the GRBs were selected because of their good acceptance by GRAND and high BATSE Fluence. The eighth GRB was added due to its possible coincident detection by Milagrito. For each of the eight candidate GRBs, the number of excess counts during the BATSE T90 time interval and within plus or minus five degrees of BATSE's direction was obtained. The highest statistical significance reported in this paper (2.7 sigma) is for the event that was predicted to be the most likely to be observed (GRB 971110).Comment: To be presented at the XXVIII International Cosmic Ray Conference, Tsukuba, Japa

Contrasting Views of Physicians and Nurses about an Inpatient Computer-based Provider Order-entry System

Objective: Many hospitals are investing in computer-based provider order-entry (POE) systems, and providers’ evaluations have proved important for the success of the systems. The authors assessed how physicians and nurses viewed the effects of one modified commercial POE system on time spent patients, resource utilization, errors with orders, and overall quality of care. Design: Survey. Measurements: Opinions of 271 POE users on medicine wards of an urban teaching hospital: 96 medical house officers, 49 attending physicians, 19 clinical fellows with heavy inpatient loads, and 107 nurses. Results: Responses were received from 85 percent of the sample. Most physicians and nurses agreed that orders were executed faster under POE. About 30 percent of house officers and attendings or fellows, compared with 56 percent of nurses, reported improvement in overall quality of care with POE. Forty-four percent of house officers and 34 percent of attendings/fellows reported that their time with patients decreased, whereas 56 percent of nurses indicated that their time with patients increased (P \u3c 0.001). Sixty percent of house officers and 41 percent of attendings/fellows indicated that order errors increased, whereas 69 percent of nurses indicated a decrease or no change in errors. Although most nurses reported no change in the frequency of ordering tests and medications with POE, 61 percent of house officers reported an increased frequency. Conclusion: Physicians and nurses had markedly different views about effects of a POE system on patient care, highlighting the need to consider both perspectives when assessing the impact of POE. With this POE system, most nurses saw beneficial effects, whereas many physicians saw negative effects

AAPM medical physics practice guideline 10.a.: Scope of practice for clinical medical physics.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is a nonprofit professional society whose primary purposes are to advance the science, education, and professional practice of medical physics. The AAPM has more than 8000 members and is the principal organization of medical physicists in the United States. The AAPM will periodically define new practice guidelines for medical physics practice to help advance the science of medical physics and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the United States. Existing medical physics practice guidelines will be reviewed for the purpose of revision or renewal, as appropriate, on their fifth anniversary or sooner. Each medical physics practice guideline (MPPG) represents a policy statement by the AAPM, has undergone a thorough consensus process in which it has been subjected to extensive review, and requires the approval of the Professional Council. The medical physics practice guidelines recognize that the safe and effective use of diagnostic and therapeutic radiation requires specific training, skills, and techniques as described in each document. As the review of the previous version of AAPM Professional Policy (PP)-17 (Scope of Practice) progressed, the writing group focused on one of the main goals: to have this document accepted by regulatory and accrediting bodies. After much discussion, it was decided that this goal would be better served through a MPPG. To further advance this goal, the text was updated to reflect the rationale and processes by which the activities in the scope of practice were identified and categorized. Lastly, the AAPM Professional Council believes that this document has benefitted from public comment which is part of the MPPG process but not the AAPM Professional Policy approval process. The following terms are used in the AAPM's MPPGs: Must and Must Not: Used to indicate that adherence to the recommendation is considered necessary to conform to this practice guideline. Should and Should Not: Used to indicate a prudent practice to which exceptions may occasionally be made in appropriate circumstances