Lead salt diode lasers and development of tunable solid state lasers for remote sensing

Extensive studies of the output characteristics of single quantum well lead-telluride lasers developed at the General Motors Research Laboratories were carried out. Threshold currents, output powers and line structures were measured as a function of temperature. Very low-current lasing thresholds, record high operating temperatures and over 30% tuning ranges were achieved. Excellent reproducibilities, good far-field patterns and reasonable linewidths (approx. 500 kHz) were found

I Know It\u27s Only Rock \u27n\u27 Roll But They Like It! A Community History, Popular Music, and Public Audiences

The author discusses community history, popular music, and public audiences using a multidisciplinary approach. These themes are discussed with an example from the Colonial Albany Social History Project

The population dynamics of the crested newt (Triturus Cristatus Cristatus (Laurenti)).

This thesis describes studies carried out on the crested newt, Triturus cristatus, and the smooth newt, T. vulgaris, at two localities in the vicinity of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, between 1980 and 1983. The first study site was a pond within the grounds of the Open University at Walton Hall and the second was some 8 miles away from this near the village of Milton Bryan. At Walton Hall crested newts were intercepted during migration to the breeding pond using drift fencing and pitfall traps and by picking animals up off the road during evening searches. In this way it was found that movement was significantly correlated with daily temperature, but not with daily rainfall. In addition, it was observed that males entered the breeding pond significantly earlier than the females. At Milton Bryan a program of mark-recapture analyses was carried out on both species as the basis for the study of their population dynamics. Animals were trapped using static underwater traps and marked using toe-clips and the recording of belly-patterning. Both species were found to show variable population sizes from year to year. The sex ratio in T. vulgaris showed an excess of females in all years, whilst that of T. cristatus varied from an excess of males in some years to equality in other years. Annual survival of male and female crested newts was calculated as 0.36 for each sex. From data on weight change during the season it was found that the majority of individuals of both sexes lost weight whilst in the water. Annual growth in the crested newt was found to be highly variable, but positively correlated with body size; smaller individuals had larger increments of growth than larger individuals. However, animals of the same size did not necessarily grow by the same amount. Size-frequency distributions of both species are analysed and morphometric characteristics compared with data from other populations. The problems associated with the the extrapolation of these types of data into age-distributions are discussed, with reference to the data on growth. It is concluded that length cannot be used as reliable indicator of age in T. cristatus. From the size-frequency data it was found that the numbers of juveniles appearing at a breeding site may be highly variable from year to year. The implications of this for the dynamics of crested newt populations are discussed. Data are also presented from the dissection of preserved animals. These relate gonad size to body size in both species. It is shown that both testes weight and ovary weight are positively correlated with body weight and snout-vent length and that females display size-specific fecundity i.e. larger females produce larger ova and greater quantities of ova than smaller individuals. These findings are discussed with reference to other species of urodele and with regard to the life history tactics displayed by other species

Dictators, Fry Cooks, Film Students, Basketball Players, and Gang Bangers: How Shakespeare Looks on Film in the Late Twentieth Century and Beyond

Within the genre of the alternative Shakespearean universe, there exist two sub-genres. The two sub-genres are the Shakespeare language, contemporary era film and the contemporary language, contemporary era. Though films in these genres have existed since the dawn of filmmaking, they recently been marketed to more mainstream audiences. This thesis incorporates five ofthe more recent examples of these particular genres of Shakespearean film: William Shakespeare\u27s Romeo + Juliet, Hamlet, Richard III, 0, and Scotland, Pa. Each film is a unique take on the original Shakespearean work that it represents. The filmmakers include many of their own original ideas along with a re-imagining of the ideas taken directly from Shakespeare. In many cases the filmmakers have decided to tailor events and character motivations to fit the film that they have chosen to create. The choices, and their degree of success, must be analyzed in order to provide a complete analysis of the films. Many scholars and critics have viewed these films harshly upon their release and·again when subjected to critical study. This is not entirely fair, as the films cannot be judged based on their faithfulness to the original work alone. The audience has changed since the time in which Shakespeare lived and, as a result, some of the stories need to be changed as well

Implementierung von Software-Frameworks am Beispiel von Apache Spark in das DBpediaExtraction Framework

Das DBpedia-Projekt extrahiert zweimal pro Jahr RDF-Datensätze aus den semi-\\strukturierten Datensätzen Wikipedias. DBpedia soll nun auf ein Release-Modell umgestellt werden welches einen Release-Zyklus mit bis zu zwei vollständigen DBpedia Datensätzen pro Monat unterstützt. Dies ist mit der momentanen Geschwindigkeit des Extraktionsprozesses nicht möglich. Eine Verbesserung soll durch eine Parallelisierung mithilfe von Apache Spark erreicht werden. Der Fokus dieser Arbeit liegt auf der effizienten lokalen Nutzung Apache Sparks zur parallelen Verarbeitung von großen, semi-strukturierten Datensätzen. Dabei wird eine Implementierung der Apache Spark gestützten Extraktion vorgestellt, welche eine ausreichende Verringerung der Laufzeit erzielt. Dazu wurden grundlegende Methoden der komponentenbasierten Softwareentwicklung angewendet, Apache Sparks Nutzen für das Extraction-Framework analysiert und ein Überblick über die notwendigen Änderungen am Extraction-Framework präsentiert

Investigating Relative Energy Deficiency in Male Endurance Trained Athletes

The Female Athlete Triad and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport is a well-studied interrelationship between bone mineral density (BMD), hormone disruption and low energy availability in female athletes. Standards for identification, treatment, and prevention have been established for female athletes. Research suggests that a similar phenomenon is occurring in male athletes. However, due to the different physiologies of males and females, the vast knowledge and findings surrounding female athletes cannot be directly applied to male athletes. The purpose of this study is to act as a preliminary study investigating the relationship between percentage body fat, BMD, and hormone levels in collegiate endurance athletes. In addition, we examined these relationships by level of adiposity. Twenty subjects enrolled in the study and 19 subjects met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Out of 19 subjects, 5 subjects had missing data and were not included in the analyses resulting in 14 subjects for analyses. No relationship was found between percentage body fat and BMD or between percentage body fat and levels of hormones. The median percentage body fat was calculated and two groups were created: (1) ≤50th percentile; and (2) 50th percentile. In subjects with a percentage body fat below the median, an inverse correlation between serum testosterone and dual femur z-score (r = -0.76, p = 0.05) was found. A borderline significant inverse correlation between serum testosterone and AP spine z-score (r = -0.74, p = 0.06) was also detected. Insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) was positively correlated to AP spine z-score (r = 0.82, p = 0.02). Additionally, a strong correlation between IGF-1 and dual femur z-score (r=0.69, p= 0.09) was observed. Relationships were also detected in athletes with a percentage body fat above the median. Serum testosterone was strongly correlated to AP spine z-score (r = 0.84, p = 0.19). The relationship between serum testosterone and dual femur z-score approached significance (r = .072, p = 0.07). No relationships between cortisol and dual femur or AP spine z-score was found in either percentage body fat group. In conclusion, no relationship was found between percentage body fat and BMD or between percentage body fat and levels of hormones. Relationships were detected when examining these correlations in athletes with a percentage body fat ≤50th percentile or 50th percentile. Further studies with a larger sample size are needed to understand these relationships

Biennial Performance Reports: 2000-2001 State Assessment Data Summary Prepared by:

The information in this summary is based on data submitted in states ’ Biennia

Evaluation of Two Web-Based Interventions (Res-Up! and REMOTION) in Routine Outpatient Psychotherapy (Therapy Online Plus-TOP): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND Only 11%-40% of those with a mental disorder in Germany receive treatment. In many cases, face-to-face psychotherapy is not available because of limited resources, such as an insufficient number of therapists in the area. New approaches to improve the German health care system are needed to counter chronification. Web-based interventions have been shown to be effective as stand-alone and add-on treatments to routine practice. Interventions designed for a wide range of mental disorders such as transdiagnostic interventions are needed to make treatment for mental disorders more accessible and thus shorten waiting times and mitigate the chronification of mental health problems. In general, interventions can be differentiated as having either a capitalization (CAP) focus-thus drawing on already existing strengths-or a compensation (COMP) focus-trying to compensate for deficits. Up to now, the effectiveness of transdiagnostic web-based interventions with either a CAP or a COMP focus has not yet been evaluated. OBJECTIVE This study is the first to examine the effectiveness of two transdiagnostic web-based interventions: (1) the activation of resilience and drawing on existing strengths (CAP: Res-Up!) and (2) the improvement of emotion regulation (COMP: REMOTION), compared with care as usual (CAU) in routine outpatient psychotherapy. METHODS Adults with at least 1 mental health disorder will be recruited at 4 outpatient centers in Germany. Participants will then be randomized equally into 1 of the 2 intervention groups Res-Up! (CAP) and REMOTION (COMP) or into the control group (CAU). Assessments will be made at baseline (T0), at 6 weeks after treatment start (T1), and at 12 weeks after treatment start (T2). A primary outcome will be symptom severity (Brief Symptom Inventory-18). Secondary outcomes will focus on emotion regulation and resilience. RESULTS Participant recruitment and data collection started in April 2020 and were ongoing as of July 2022. We expect participants to benefit more from the interventions than from the CAU control on the dimensions of symptom severity, resilience, and emotion regulation. Furthermore, we expect to find possible differences between CAP and COMP. The results of the study are expected in 2023. CONCLUSIONS This randomized controlled trial will compare CAU with the transdiagnostic web-based interventions Res-Up! and REMOTION, and will thus inform future studies concerning the effectiveness of transdiagnostic web-based interventions in routine outpatient psychotherapy. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04352010; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04352010. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/41413