Studies supporting an upper-atmosphere chemical release program. Part I - Experimental studies on chemiluminescence. Part II - A model of releases leading to upper-atmospheric chemi-ion formation Final report, May 1965 - May 1966

Chemiluminescence of chemical compounds released in upper atmosphere and model of releases leading to upper atmospheric chemi-ionizatio

Controlling extended systems with spatially filtered, time-delayed feedback

We investigate a control technique for spatially extended systems combining spatial filtering with a previously studied form of time-delay feedback. The scheme is naturally suited to real-time control of optical systems. We apply the control scheme to a model of a transversely extended semiconductor laser in which a desirable, coherent traveling wave state exists, but is a member of a nowhere stable family. Our scheme stabilizes this state, and directs the system towards it from realistic, distant and noisy initial conditions. As confirmed by numerical simulation, a linear stability analysis about the controlled state accurately predicts when the scheme is successful, and illustrates some key features of the control including the individual merit of, and interplay between, the spatial and temporal degrees of freedom in the control.Comment: 9 pages REVTeX including 7 PostScript figures. To appear in Physical Review

Media coverage of Muslims: Introduction and overview

Existing research largely concurs that coverage of Muslims is negative. Yet this masks how much remains unknown. In particular, there has been no clear or consistent way to gauge precisely how much negativity is present in stories about Muslims. This chapter introduces a systematic way to assess the tone of articles and discusses how this allows for answers to six important questions about coverage of Muslims. The chapter also outlines the structure of the book and summarizes the key findings. In particular, it argues that coverage of Muslims is strikingly negative by every comparative measure examined.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1139/thumbnail.jp

Atheism in US and UK Newspapers: Negativity about Non-Belief and Non-Believers

Atheists are among the most disliked “religious” groups in the United States, but the origins of this aversion remain poorly understood. Because the media are an important source of public attitudes, we analyze coverage of atheism and atheists in American and British newspapers. Using computational text analysis techniques, including sentiment analysis and topic modeling, we show that atheism is portrayed negatively by the print media. Significantly, we show that greater negativity is associated with atheism as a concept than with atheists as individuals. Building on this insight, and challenging arguments that prominent atheist intellectuals attract negative coverage, we also find that coverage of famous atheists is actually more positive than that of atheists or atheism in general. Overall, our findings add a new dimension to scholarship on differences between individual-targeted and group-targeted tolerance in public attitudes, establishing for the first time that media coverage mirrors such differences

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and homocysteine levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid

Background: There is evidence that homocysteine contributes to various neurodegenerative disorders. Objective: To assess the values of homocysteine in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in both cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma. Methods: Study design: Case control study. Total homocysteine was quantified in CSF and plasma samples of CJD patients (n = 13) and healthy controls (n = 13). Results: Mean values in healthy controls: 0.15 mumol/l +/- 0.07 (CSF) and 9.10 mumol/l +/- 2.99 (plasma); mean values in CJD patients: 0.13 mumol/l +/- 0.03 (CSF) and 9.22 mumol/l +/- 1.81 (plasma). No significant differences between CJD patients and controls were observed (Mann-Whitney U, p > 0.05). Conclusions: The results indicate that the CSF and plasma of CJD patients showed no higher endogenous levels of homocysteine as compared to normal healthy controls. These findings provide no evidence for an additional role of homocysteine in the pathogenetic mechanisms underlying CJD neurodegeneration. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

Unconventional Josephson Effect in Hybrid Superconductor-Topological Insulator Devices

We report on transport properties of Josephson junctions in hybrid superconducting-topological insulator devices, which show two striking departures from the common Josephson junction behavior: a characteristic energy that scales inversely with the width of the junction, and a low characteristic magnetic field for suppressing supercurrent. To explain these effects, we propose a phenomenological model which expands on the existing theory for topological insulator Josephson junctions

Media Coverage of Muslim Devotion: A Four-Country Analysis of Newspaper Articles, 1996–2016

Scholars have identified Muslims’ religiosity and faith practices, often believed to be more intense than those of other religious groups, as a point of friction in liberal democracies. We use computer-assisted methods of lexical sentiment analysis and collocation analysis to assess more than 800,000 articles between 1996 and 2016 in a range of British, American, Canadian, and Australian newspapers. We couple this approach with human coding of 100 randomly selected articles to investigate the tone of devotion-related themes when linked to Islam and Muslims. We show that articles touching on devotion are not as negative as articles about other aspects of Islam—and indeed that they are not negative at all, on average, when focused on a key subset of devotion-related articles. We thus offer a new perspective on the perception of Islamic religiosity in Western societies. Our findings also suggest that if newspapers strive to provide a more balanced portrayal of Muslims and Islam within their pages, they may seek opportunities to include more frequent mentions of Muslim devotion

Addressing health inequalities in the United States: Key data trends and policy action

Health inequalities, which have been well documented for decades, have recently become policy targets in the United States. This report summarizes current patterns and trends in health inequalities, commitments to reduce health inequalities, and progress made to eliminate health inequalities. Time trend data indicate improvements in health status and major risk factors but increases in morbidity, with black and lower-education individuals experiencing a disproportionate burden of disease. A common policy response has been priority setting in the form of national objectives or goals to address health inequalities. More research and better methods are needed to precisely measure relationships between stated policy goals and observed trends in health inequalities. Despite these challenges, the United States has made commitments to advancing research and policy to eliminate health inequalities. There remain considerable opportunities for local public health systems and practioners to develop innovative solutions to address the problem of health inequalities, particularly related to action steps, and for researchers to address knowledge gaps in the scientific literature related to the evaluation and measurement of progress aimed at addressing health inequalities

Pharmacotherapy of 1,044 inpatients with posttraumatic stress disorder: current status and trends in German-speaking countries

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric disorder with limited approved pharmacological treatment options and high symptom burden. Therefore, real-life prescription patterns may differ from guideline recommendations, especially in psychiatric inpatient settings. The European Drug Safety Program in Psychiatry (“Arzneimittelsicherheit in der Psychiatrie”, AMSP) collects inpatients’ prescription rates cross-sectionally twice a year in German-speaking psychiatric hospitals. For this study, the AMSP database was screened for psychiatric inpatients with a primary diagnosis of PTSD between 2001 and 2017. N = 1,044 patients with a primary diagnosis of PTSD were identified with 89.9% taking psychotropics. The average prescription rate was 2.4 (standard deviation: 1.5) psychotropics per patient with high rates of antidepressant drugs (72.0%), antipsychotics drugs (58.4%) and tranquilizing drugs (29.3%). The presence of psychiatric comorbidities was associated with higher rates of psychotropic drug use. The most often prescribed substances were quetiapine (24.1% of all patients), lorazepam (18.1%) and mirtazapine (15.0%). The use of drugs approved for PTSD was low (sertraline 11.1%; paroxetine 3.7%). Prescription rates of second-generation antipsychotic drugs increased, while the use of tranquilizing drugs declined over the years. High prescription rates and extensive use of sedative medication suggest a symptom-driven prescription (e.g., hyperarousal, insomnia) that can only be explained to a minor extent by existing comorbidities. The observed discrepancy with existing guidelines underlines the need for effective pharmacological and psychological treatment options in psychiatric inpatient settings