Performance of a Brief Assessment Tool for Identifying Substance Use Disorders

Objective: Evaluation of the performance of a brief assessment tool for identifying substance use disorders. The Triage Assessment for Addictive Disorders (TAAD) is a triage instrument that provides professionals with a tool to evaluate indications of current substance use disorders in accordance with the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. The TAAD is a 31-item structured interview that addresses both alcohol and other drug issues to discriminate among those with no clear indications of a diagnosis, those with definite, current indications of abuse or dependence, and those with inconclusive diagnostic indications. Methods: Employing a sample of 1325 women between the ages of 18 and 60, reliability estimates and problem profiles produced by the TAAD were evaluated. Results: The Cronbach alpha coefficients for internal consistency for both the alcohol and drug dependence scales were .92. The alpha coefficients for the alcohol and drug abuse scales were .83 and .84 respectively. The diagnostic profiles elicited from the TAAD indicate that alcohol and drug dependences are the more definitive and distinct syndromes compared with the abuse syndromes. Conclusions: The diagnostic profiles from this sample are consistent with previous research. The Cronbach alpha coefficients suggest that the TAAD provides an internally consistent index for alcohol and drug dependence and abuse. Implications for use in clinical practice and the need for further research regarding the psychometric properties of the TAAD are discussed

Development of composite ionizer materials final report

Composite ionizer materials - effect of secondary additions to tungsten powder on sintering mechanisms and heat stability of porous structure

Neutron-Rich Nuclei in Heaven and Earth

An accurately calibrated relativistic parametrization is introduced to compute the ground state properties of finite nuclei, their linear response, and the structure of neutron stars. While similar in spirit to the successful NL3 parameter set, it produces an equation of state that is considerably softer -- both for symmetric nuclear matter and for the symmetry energy. This softening appears to be required for an accurate description of several collective modes having different neutron-to-proton ratios. Among the predictions of this model are a symmetric nuclear-matter incompressibility of K=230 MeV and a neutron skin thickness in 208Pb of Rn-Rp=0.21 fm. Further, the impact of such a softening on the properties of neutron stars is as follows: the model predicts a limiting neutron star mass of Mmax=1.72 Msun, a radius of R=12.66 km for a ``canonical'' M=1.4 Msun neutron star, and no (nucleon) direct Urca cooling in neutrons stars with masses below M=1.3 Msun.Comment: 4 pages, 3 tables, and no figure

Boundary Dissipation in a Driven Hard Disk System

A simulation is performed aiming at checking the existence of a well defined stationary state for a two dimensional system of driven hard disks when energy dissipation takes place at the system boundaries and no bulk impurities are presentComment: 5 pages, 7 figure

The Replication Argument for Incompatibilism

In this paper, I articulate an argument for incompatibilism about moral responsibility and determinism. My argument comes in the form of an extended story, modeled loosely on Peter van Inwagen’s “rollback argument” scenario. I thus call it “the replication argument.” As I aim to bring out, though the argument is inspired by so-called “manipulation” and “original design” arguments, the argument is not a version of either such argument—and plausibly has advantages over both. The result, I believe, is a more convincing incompatibilist argument than those we have considered previously

Development and testing of porous ionizer materials, part I Summary report, Feb. 1965 - May 1966

Development and testing of porous tungsten ionizer materials for cesium contact engine

Astrometric Discovery of GJ 164B

We discovered a low-mass companion to the M-dwarf GJ 164 with the CCD-based imaging system of the Stellar Planet Survey (STEPS) astrometric program. The existence of GJ 164B was confirmed with Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS imaging observations. A high-dispersion spectral observation in V sets a lower limit of delta m> 2.2 mag between the two components of the system. Based upon our parallax value of 0.082 +/- 0.008, we derive the following orbital parameters: P = 2.04 +/- 0.03 y, a = 1.03 +/- 0.03 AU, and Mtotal = 0.265 +/- 0.020 MSun. The component masses are MA = 0.170 +/- 0.015 MSun and MB = 0.095 +/- 0.015 MSun. Based on its mass, colors, and spectral properties, GJ 164B has spectral type M6-8 V.Comment: pdf file 14 pages with 6 fig

Gaussian approximation and single-spin measurement in OSCAR MRFM with spin noise

A promising technique for measuring single electron spins is magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), in which a microcantilever with a permanent magnetic tip is resonantly driven by a single oscillating spin. If the quality factor of the cantilever is high enough, this signal will be amplified over time to the point that it can be detected by optical or other techniques. An important requirement, however, is that this measurement process occur on a time scale short compared to any noise which disturbs the orientation of the measured spin. We describe a model of spin noise for the MRFM system, and show how this noise is transformed to become time-dependent in going to the usual rotating frame. We simplify the description of the cantilever-spin system by approximating the cantilever wavefunction as a Gaussian wavepacket, and show that the resulting approximation closely matches the full quantum behavior. We then examine the problem of detecting the signal for a cantilever with thermal noise and spin with spin noise, deriving a condition for this to be a useful measurement.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures in EPS format, RevTeX 4.