Regulating Eternal Inflation II: The Great Divide

In a previous paper, two of the authors presented a "regulated" picture of eternal inflation. This picture both suggested and drew support from a conjectured discontinuity in the amplitude for tunneling from positive to negative vacuum energy, as the positive vacuum energy was sent to zero; analytic and numerical arguments supporting this conjecture were given. Here we show that this conjecture is false, but in an interesting way. There are no cases where tunneling amplitudes are discontinuous at vanishing cosmological constant; rather, the space of potentials separates into two regions. In one region decay is strongly suppressed, and the proposed picture of eternal inflation remains viable; sending the (false) vacuum energy to zero in this region results in an absolutely stable asymptotically flat space. In the other region, we argue that the space-time at vanishing cosmological constant is unstable, but not asymptotically Minkowski. The consequences of our results for theories of supersymmetry breaking are unchanged.Comment: JHEP3, 19 Pages, 7 Figure

Structural Studies of Proteins in Solution: Cytochrome-C and Mitochondrial RHO

Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) is a rapidly developing technique for determining the structures of proteins in solution. This thesis presents new solution structures of two proteins:cold denatured equine cytochrome-c,and mitochondrial rho (miro).Cytochrome-cis a modelsystem for protein folding and stability studies;this work demonstrates the interplay of thermodynamic forces in determining the global shape of unfolded proteins.Whereas denatured cytochrome-cis not able to form crystals in principle,miro is a newly purified protein of which no crystal structure is availablein any conditions.We have used our SAXS data to verify conjectures for miro\u27s structure based solely on protein sequence analysis

The evolution of law enforcement : the generational differences of the new police officer and how to attract them to your agency

The primary purpose of this study was to enhance the knowledge of the generational differences in the law enforcement profession. With this knowledge, it is hopeful that, agencies will change their current recruiting strategies and gear them towards today\u27s new generation of law enforcement officer. The overall goal of this study was enlighten Henrico County and Chesterfield county administrators of concerns facing employee recruiting within law enforcement so proactive efforts can be taken to curb ineffective and outdated recruiting strategies and methods

Anthony Banks, Phineas Pemberton, June 13, 1696

Letter dated June 13, 1696 (June 3, 1696 Old Style) from Anthony Banks to his cousin, Phineas Pemberton. It is followed by a note written by Phineas at the bottom

Relationship Between Victims of Urban Violence and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Urban violence has become common in lower-income communities that have high rates of shootings and African-American victims. Urban violence causes victims and their family and friends to experience trauma and puts them at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) injuries. However, there is a gap in knowledge in the framework of urban communities and their range of needs to address PTSD. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether a relationship exists between reinforcement of needs, membership, influence, shared emotional connection, and post-traumatic stress symptomology (PTSS) of urban violence victims in a large metropolitan city. Albert Bandura\u27s self-efficacy theory and social conflict theory comprised the theoretical framework for this research. A correlational design was employed with a convenience sample of 83 respondents drawn from urban violence victims using an internet-based survey instrument designed to assess the elements of sense of community. The research questions examined participants\u27 perceptions of reinforcement of needs, membership, influence, shared emotional connection, and PTSS. Pearson\u27s correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression analyses were performed on the collected data to test the hypotheses. The findings did not show a statistically significant relationship between participants\u27 perceptions of sense of community and PTSD. However, victims of urban violence can use the results of this study to expand understanding of PTSD to address the realities of living in lower-income geographical locations, therefore leading to positive social change

Progressive fatigue effects on manual lifting factors

Much evidence suggests that the cause of lower back pain (LBP) and injury is frequently related to the posture of lifting, the load, muscle fatigue, and other factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of progressive fatigue on factors that have previously been associated with increased risk of LBP in various occupational settings, during a repetitive lifting task where freestyle lifting technique was utilized. A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate several fatigue analysis, electromyography amplitude, kinematic, and kinetic parameters of repetitive freestyle lifting during a 2-hour lifting period. Each of ten (10) young adult male participants lifted a load from floor height to a lowering platform of 76cm height at a rate of 4 lifts/minute. The mass lifted was determined utilizing the psychophysical approach. The task consisted of 8 consecutive 15-minute periods of lifting, before, between, and after which subjective fatigue rating and strength measurements were taken, and during which kinematic variables were recorded. Effect of time, at α=0.05 level, was observed on subjective fatigue rating (p\u3c0.0001) and on static strength (p=0.0184). Subjective fatigue rating increased over time, indicating that the participant felt increasingly fatigued as the experiment progressed. Static composite strength decreased an average of 20% from the beginning to the end of the experiment. Effect of lifting posture (semi-squat, semi-stoop, and stoop) was observed on peak trunk flexion angle (p=0.0122), trunk flexion angle at initiation of the lift (p=0.009), and knee angle at initiation of the lift (p=0.0007), indicating that in freestyle lifting, participants assume quantitatively different lifting techniques. A significant effect of the time-posture interaction was observed on the dynamic leg lift floor to knuckle height strength (0.0237), indicating that dynamic strength may change depending upon lifting posture selected. No generalizable effect of the independent variables was observed on the remaining parameters for all participants. Indicators of general physical fatigue, particularly dynamic floor to knuckle height leglift strength and subjective fatigue rating, were observed to possess some significant predictive capability in variation of a number of kinematic and force parameters

Changes In Femoral Neck Bone Mineral Density: A Comparison Of NHANES 2005-2006, 2007-2008, And 2009-2010

Bone mass is an important component of quality of life and can be influenced by lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and diet. However the US surgeon general found a growing portion of Americans are not engaging in adequate amounts of physical activity and/or consuming less calcium and vitamin D. The purpose of this study was to compare bone mineral density (BMD) of American adults of different ethnicities and time periods to detect any differences. It was hypothesized that BMD would be lower in participants from more recent years, and African Americans would have the highest BMD. Measurements were taken at the femoral neck of volunteers between 18 and 35 years of age (n = 3578) from 2005-2006 (n = 1160), 2007-2008, (n = 1135), and 2009-2010 (n = 1283) by the National Center for Health Statistics. The data was analyzed using a three-way independent ANOVA with an alpha level of .05. Femoral neck BMD was used as the dependent variable; and year, age, and race were independent variables. The study found Hispanic women to have a significantly higher BMD from 2005-2006 (p \u3c.05) when compared to participants from later years. In addition, the study found significant differences based on age and ethnicity (p \u3c .001). African-American men (p \u3c .001) and women (p \u3c.001) had a higher BMD than any other ethnicity. Moreover, Hispanic men had a higher BMD (p \u3c.001) than Caucasian men. In men, BMD significantly decreased in each age group (p \u3c.001); whereas in women a significant decrease was detected in every other age group (p \u3c .05). However, in contradiction to literature, the results found peak BMD to occur between 18 and 19 years of age as opposed to mid-to-late twenties

A kinetic reaction model for biomass pyrolysis processes in Aspen Plus

This paper presents a novel kinetic reaction model for biomass pyrolysis processes. The model is based on the three main building blocks of lignocellulosic biomass, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin and can be readily implemented in Aspen Plus and easily adapted to other process simulation software packages. It uses a set of 149 individual reactions that represent the volatilization, decomposition and recomposition processes of biomass pyrolysis. A linear regression algorithm accounts for the secondary pyrolysis reactions, thus allowing the calculation of slow and intermediate pyrolysis reactions. The bio-oil is modelled with a high level of detail, using up to 33 model compounds, which allows for a comprehensive estimation of the properties of the bio-oil and the prediction of further upgrading reactions. After showing good agreement with existing literature data, our own pyrolysis experiments are reported for validating the reaction model. A beech wood feedstock is subjected to pyrolysis under well-defined conditions at different temperatures and the product yields and compositions are determined. Reproducing the experimental pyrolysis runs with the simulation model, a high coincidence is found for the obtained fraction yields (bio-oil, char and gas), for the water content and for the elemental composition of the pyrolysis products. The kinetic reaction model is found to be suited for predicting pyrolysis yields and product composition for any lignocellulosic biomass feedstock under typical pyrolysis conditions without the need for experimental data