Activism in the Popular Imagination

This panel presentation will explore new forms of engagement and activism that have emerged with community transformation through social media, music, performance, and the presentation of self and identity. These changes in visual and musical landscapes have created exciting opportunities to disrupt systems and cultures of domination and oppression. This session will explore how area activists, citizens, and artists have used popular culture to interrogate and respond to anti-democratic and anti-representative initiatives in Ohio. By exploring actual music of Dayton-based artists, performance at inclusive music events (for example, For Dayton By Dayton), artwork, and social protest in Ohio, the conversation in this session will demonstrate how the intersection of popular culture, which is all too often ignored in the analysis of resistance, provides vehicles for endurance and social change to anti-democratic trends in the state of Ohio

State-Corporate Crime and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant

While criminologists have for some time examined state and corporate crime as separate entities, the concept of state-corporate crime highlighting joint government and private corporate action causing criminal harm is a recent area of study with relatively few published case studies (Matthews and Kauzlarich, 2000). This paper focuses on state-corporate crime at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) in Paducah, Kentucky, and contributes to the study of state-corporate crime in three ways: (1) it adds a new case study to a field in which there are few published accounts, (2) it assesses the utility of Kauzlarich and Kramer’s (1998) integrated theoretical framework of state-corporate crime by applying it to understanding harms at PGDP, and (3) it demonstrates how the state role in state-corporate crime can evolve from that of instigator to facilitator. PGDP is an especially important case study in the field of state-corporate crime because it constitutes a rare instance in which the federal government has both acknowledged and apologized for its role in harms caused to plant workers and the environment

The pinto legacy: The community as an indirect victim of corporate deviance

In 1978, in Elkhart County Indiana, three teenage girls died following an accident in which their Ford Pinto was struck from behind and burst into flames. Two years later, in what has been described as a landmark case (Maakestad, 1987; Clinard, 1990; Frank and Lynch, 1992; Hills, 1987), a trial began in which the Ford Motor Company, as a result of this incident, found itself facing three charges of reckless homicide (State of Indiana v. Ford Motor Company, hereafter referred to as the Pinto Case). While this was not the first time an automobile manufacturer was faced with a potentially lethal faulty design (the Chevrolet Covair among others), it was the first case to result in a criminal homicide charge. The Pinto case has received considerable attention in the criminological and legal literature, ranging from journal articles (Clark, 1979; Swigert and Farrell, 1980-81; Wheeler, 1981), to discussions in textbooks (Albanese, 1995; Green, 1997), to books focusing on the case in varying degrees (Birsch and Fielder, 1994; Cullen et al., 1987; Strobel, 1980; Welty, 1982)

The Pinto Legacy: The Long Term Impact on Residents of Elkhart County, Indiana

A paper presented by Paul J. Becker at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology in November of 1997 on the long term impact of two teenage girls that died following an accident involving a Ford Pinto in Elkhart County, Indiana

Electromechanical Reliability Testing of Three-Axial Silicon Force Sensors

This paper reports on the systematic electromechanical characterization of a new three-axial force sensor used in dimensional metrology of micro components. The siliconbased sensor system consists of piezoresistive mechanicalstress transducers integrated in thin membrane hinges supporting a suspended flexible cross structure. The mechanical behavior of the fragile micromechanical structure isanalyzed for both static and dynamic load cases. This work demonstrates that the silicon microstructure withstands static forces of 1.16N applied orthogonally to the front-side of the structure. A statistical Weibull analysis of the measured data shows that these values are significantly reduced if the normal force is applied to the back of the sensor. Improvements of the sensor system design for future development cycles are derived from the measurement results.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

Can exercise limits prevent post-exertional malaise in chronic fatigue syndrome? An uncontrolled clinical trial.

<b>Objective</b>: It was hypothesized that the use of exercise limits prevents symptom increases and worsening of their health status following a walking exercise in people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). <b>Design</b>: An uncontrolled clinical trial (semi-experimental design). <b>Setting</b>: Outpatient clinic of a university department. <b>Subjects</b>: 24 patients with CFS. <b>Interventions</b>: Subjects undertook a walking test with the two concurrent exercise limits. Each subject walked at an <i>intensity</i> where the maximum heart rate was determined by heart rate corresponding to the respiratory exchange ratio =1.0 derived from a previous sub-maximal exercise test and for a duration calculated from how long each patient felt they were able to walk. <b>Main outcome measures</b>: The Short Form 36 Health Survey or SF-36, the CFS Symptom List, and the CFS-Activities and Participation Questionnaire were filled in prior to, immediately and 24 hours post-exercise. <b>Results</b>: The fatigue increase observed immediately post-exercise (p=0.006) returned to pre-exercise levels 24 hours post-exercise. The increase in pain observed immediately post-exercise was retained at 24 hours post-exercise (p=0.03). Fourteen of 24 subjects experienced a clinically meaningful change in bodily pain (change of SF-36 bodily pain score ³10). Six of 24 participants indicated that the exercise bout had slightly worsened their health status, and 2 of 24 had a clinically meaningful decrease in vitality (change of SF-36 vitality score ³20). There was no change in activity limitations/participation restrictions. <b>Conclusion</b>: It was shown that the use of exercise limits (limiting both the intensity and duration of exercise) prevents important health status changes following a walking exercise in people with CFS, but was unable to prevent short-term symptom increases

A Refined Measurement of the Mean Transmitted Flux in the Ly-alpha Forest over 2 < z < 5 Using Composite Quasar Spectra

We present new measurements of the mean transmitted flux in the Ly-alpha forest over 2 < z < 5 made using 6065 quasar spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. We exploit the general lack of evolution in the mean quasar continuum to avoid the bias introduced by continuum fitting over the Ly-alpha forest at high redshifts, which has been the primary systematic uncertainty in previous measurements of the mean Ly-alpha transmission. The individual spectra are first combined into twenty-six composites with mean redshifts spanning 2.25 < z_comp < 5.08. The flux ratios of separate composites at the same rest wavelength are then used, without continuum fitting, to infer the mean transmitted flux, F(z), as a fraction of its value at z~2. Absolute values for F(z) are found by scaling our relative values to measurements made from high-resolution data by Faucher-Giguere et al. (2008) at z < 2.5, where continuum uncertainties are minimal. We find that F(z) evolves smoothly with redshift, with no evidence of a previously reported feature at z~3.2. This trend is consistent with a gradual evolution of the ionization and thermal state of the intergalactic medium over 2 < z < 5. Our results generally agree with the most careful measurements to date made from high-resolution data, but offer much greater precision and extend to higher redshifts. This work also improves upon previous efforts using SDSS spectra by significantly reducing the level of systematic error.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS, in press. Supplementary materials may be downloaded from http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~gdb/mean_flu

Compactifications of Heterotic Theory on Non-Kahler Complex Manifolds: I

We study new compactifications of the SO(32) heterotic string theory on compact complex non-Kahler manifolds. These manifolds have many interesting features like fewer moduli, torsional constraints, vanishing Euler character and vanishing first Chern class, which make the four-dimensional theory phenomenologically attractive. We take a particular compact example studied earlier and determine various geometrical properties of it. In particular we calculate the warp factor and study the sigma model description of strings propagating on these backgrounds. The anomaly cancellation condition and enhanced gauge symmetry are shown to arise naturally in this framework, if one considers the effect of singularities carefully. We then give a detailed mathematical analysis of these manifolds and construct a large class of them. The existence of a holomorphic (3,0) form is important for the construction. We clarify some of the topological properties of these manifolds and evaluate the Betti numbers. We also determine the superpotential and argue that the radial modulus of these manifolds can actually be stabilized.Comment: 75 pages, Harvmac, no figures; v2: Some new results added, typos corrected and references updated. Final version to appear in JHE

Feasibility of mHealth technology use among a sample of isolated rural men at high risk for cardiovascular disease

Purpose/Hypothesis: Isolated rural men are considered a health disparities group at high risk for cardiovascular disease. The increasing availability of technologies for self-monitoring for healthy eating, activity and weight loss (ie mHealth) may show promise for engaging rural men in lifestyle modification. This study investigated the feasibility of men from rural isolated areas to use a fitness monitor with text messaging support over a 3- week period. The study examined the men’s daily monitor use for tracking activity and eating, and assessed via written survey, their perspectives about mHealth. Number of Subjects: Twelve men, ages 40 to 69, from a US Department of Agriculture defined isolated rural area, participated. These men were a purposive sample originally recruited to participate in a focus group about their perceptions of the utility of mHealth. The men (50.9 6 8.6 yrs) had a baseline BMI of 25 to 44 kg/m2 (34.8 6 6.6 kg/m2). Eligibility included having cell/smartphones capable of sending/ receiving text messages, access to a computer, willing to use a fitness monitor and have research personnel access the men’s logs. Materials/Methods: Men participated in 2 visits at a community center located within 70 miles of their residence, at baseline and 3 weeks. Assessments included baseline health histories and vital sign biomarkers. The men received training using the fitness monitor with supporting technologies (cell/ smartphone and computer) and were asked to wear the monitor daily for 3 weeks. Men received 1–3 text messages/day for 3 weeks for reminders, education and motivation for self-monitoring. At visit 2, men completed post-intervention surveys about their fitness monitoring. Descriptive data were used for analysis. Results: Men were overweight (n 5 3) or obese (n 5 9) and most (9/12) were hypertensive with only four being treated with medications. One man was hypertensive stage 2 under no treatment and another was pre-hypertensive. Nine of 12 men wore the monitor during all 21 days, two wore it 9 and 15 days respectively and one lost the monitor. Survey data of the 12 men revealed seven checking their step count more than 5 times/day, 6 reported using the associated smart phone app and seven used the optional sleep log feature. Eleven of 12 men manually entered food into the log and most (9/12) did this on $15 days. Ten men indicated the log was helpful in learning about eating; though only 3 indicated it was easy to log food. All men reported reading reminder and motivational text messages sent during the study and 11 plan to continue using the fitness monitor. Conclusions: Men were not well managed for blood pressure or overweight/obesity. Both the log records and the survey results indicated that using fitness monitors was feasible and acceptable among this population. Clinical Relevance: Using mHealth appears feasible as an action-oriented tool for therapists to recommend for lifestyle self-monitoring in isolated rural men. The findings reinforce the important role of therapists in routinely assessing vital signs and making referrals as appropriate