7,196 research outputs found
Dynamics of the BCS-BEC crossover in a degenerate Fermi gas
We study the short-time dynamics of a degenerate Fermi gas positioned near a
Feshbach resonance following an abrupt jump in the atomic interaction resulting
from a change of external magnetic field. We investigate the dynamics of the
condensate order parameter and pair wavefunction for a range of field
strengths. When the abrupt jump is sufficient to span the BCS to BEC crossover,
we show that the rigidity of the momentum distribution precludes any
atom-molecule oscillations in the entrance channel dominated resonances
observed in the 40K and 6Li. Focusing on material parameters tailored to the
40K Feshbach resonance system at 202.1 gauss, we comment on the integrity of
the fast sweet projection technique as a vehicle to explore the condensed phase
in the crossover regionComment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Active-Learning Quality Improvement Training Curriculum for Faculty in Hospital Medicine
Background: There is a growing emphasis on teaching Quality Improvement (QI) to resident physicians and medical students. However, faculty with QI skills and knowledge is lacking at many academic medical centers.Active learning programs to improve faculty capacity for QI have shown positive outcomes. We sought to develop a QI curriculum for faculty within the Division of Hospital Medicine. Description of project/program/innovation: We conducted a needs assessment focus group for Hospital Medicine faculty at our academic medical center. Six faculty members participated and identified priorities and potential challenges. Based on the focus group feedback, we designed a 12-session curriculum that uses an active-learning approach to teach core concepts in QI and includes sessions on effectively mentoring and publishing QI (Table 1). Junior and senior faculty collaborated on curricular design and delivery, with the goal of developing junior faculty into effective QI teachers. Pre-assessment of QI knowledge, skills, and attitudes was conducted using a survey instrument and the revised Quality Improvement Knowledge Application Tool (QIKAT-R). Results: Eighteen faculty completed the pre-assessments (82% completion). At baseline, self-reported comfort was highest for âsetting aims for a QI projectâ and lowest for âpresenting results of a QI projectâ. The mean QIKAT-R score was 16.8 out of 27 (SD 4.5), with the lowest performance in the âsetting aimsâ domain. To date, six sessions have been completed. The selected project focuses on improving hospitalized patientsâ experiences around daily bedside rounding. Discussion: We have created a QI curriculum that seeks to address the gap in QI skills among hospitalists. Pre-assessments revealed poor correlation between self-reported comfort level and QIKAT-R scores within each domain, further highlighting educational opportunities. We plan to use feedback from this pilot to refine the curriculum and offer it to faculty in other specialties
Psychological Abuse of Children: The State of Public and Professional Concern
The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Burnett, Bruce B., D.S.W., A.C.S.W., dissertation, Boston College - "Psychological Abuse of Children: The State of Public and Professional Concern".The Ohio State University College of Social Wor
Pinching and Spacing Effects on Cut Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) Production in East Texas
Three experiments evaluated pinching and spacing on Helianthus annuus in East Texas to determine their effects on growth and development. Experiment 1 was designed to determine the effects of pinching nodes 1, 2, 3, or 4 on âPro Cut Goldâ sunflowers. Results from experiment 1 showed non-pinched plants produced marketable stem lengths and flower sizes, while pinched plantsâ stem length, stem diameter, flower diameter, and disk diameter decreased compared to the non-pinched plants. The objective for experiment 2 was to evaluate pinching and spacing treatments on âPro Cut Goldâ sunflowers. All spacings for non-pinched plants in experiment 2 produced marketable stem lengths and flower sizes. Experiment 3 was designed to analyze the effects of pinching nodes 1, 2, 3, or 4 on âPro Cut Gold, âSupreme Sunbrightâ, âVincents Choiceâ, âSunrich Lemonâ, and âSuperior Goldâ sunflowers. All of the non-pinched plants for all five cultivars produced marketable stem lengths and flower sizes. Pinching responses varied by cultivar but overall stem length, stem diameter, flower diameter, and disk diameter all decreased compared to the non-pinched plants. âVincents Choiceâ pinched at the first node was the only cultivar when pinched to produce a marketable stem length and flower size. A successful pinching in East Texas is dependent on planting early into the growing season (May). Spacing did not clearly affect sunflower growth and development; therefore, increasing planting densities of non-pinched sunflowers could increase marketable stem yield compared to pinching sunflowers at lower planting densities
Some Effects Of The Federal Reserve System On The American Economy
The Federal Reserve System is considered by many people to be a mysterious organization because most people have only a vague idea of the functions and operations of the Federal Reserve System.
The purpose of this study is to study the organization of the Federal Reserve System and to investigate the effects that the system has upon the American economy.
In seeking the origin of the reform legislation known as the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the economic historian usually begins with the year 1893, It was that year that the panic and the depression brought to American bankers, businessmen, and statesmen a realization of the weaknesses of the American banking system. In a very real sense, the people of this country began to look in the direction of foreign systems to discover the reasons for their superiority. The complacency which had marked American banking thought was severely shaken
Dysregulation of the Integrated Stress Response in Early Onset Dystonia (DYT16) Due to Mutations in Pact
Early onset primary dystonia 16 (DYT16) is a subtype of the neuromuscular movement disorder, dystonia. The resultant phenotypes of DYT16 consist of both agonist and antagonist muscles firing simultaneously, compromised posture and gait, as well as chronic repetitive movements. DYT16 has been shown to result from mutations in the protein activator of PKR, PACT. Under conditions of viral infection, ER stress, oxidative stress, and serum starvation, PKR phosphorylates eIF2α resulting in the attenuation of general protein synthesis. Transient eIF2α phosphorylation is favorable for cell survival, however, when prolonged leads to apoptosis. In the absence of stress, both PACT and PKR are in an inhibitory heterodimeric complex with TRBP thus preventing PKRâs activation. In response to stress stimuli, PKR is activated through the disassociation of these inhibitory heterodimers which promotes the formation of PACT homodimers, a critical intermediate for activating PKR, and PACT-PKR heterodimers that result in PKR activation. Here we describe how DYT16 mutations dysregulate eIF2α stress response signaling through PKR.
Our results indicate that a dominantly inherited DYT16 frameshift mutation truncating PACT within its first functional motif ablates PACTâs ability to bind dsRNA and interact with PKR. We then describe how this truncated protein not only retains its ability to interact with TRBP and PACT but is also capable of dissociating PACT-TRBP heterodimers. Furthermore, when expressing an N- vi terminally tagged mCherry-FS fusion protein in mammalian cells we observe the accumulation of cytosolic protein aggregates, the induction of apoptosis through activation of caspases 3/7, and dysregulation in eIF2α stress signaling kinetics.
We also describe the effect 3 recessive (C77S, C213F, C213R) and 2 dominant (N102S, T34S) DYT16 point mutations have on the biochemical properties of PACT. Our results reveal that PACT with dominant mutations interact more efficiently with PKR and all DYT16 mutations have an increased capacity to homodimerize resulting in their enhanced ability to activate PKR relative to wild type PACT. We then describe how DYT16 patient lymphoblasts form stronger PACT-PKR interactions, have high basal levels of active PKR, have dysregulated eIF2α stress response signaling, and heightened sensitivity to ER stress relative to control cells. We further show that the increased sensitivity to ER stress can be partially rescued by disrupting PACT-PKR interactions.
Finally, we investigate a novel DYT16 mouse model resulting from a frameshift mutation, Prkralear-5J (referred to as lear-5J), in the mouse homolog of PACT. We demonstrate that although the mRNA is being targeted for nonsense mediated decay, we still detect residual mRNA and the truncated lear-5J protein in the mouse brain, however, not in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. We show that lear-5J protein retains its ability to interact with PKR but is a less efficient activator PKR. We also identified defects in the development of the folia within the cerebellum and reduced levels of p-eIF2α in DYT16 mice. Finally, we further demonstrate dramatic defects in the arborization of the Purkinje neuron layer within the cerebellum of these mice
A study of maintenance of treatment contact in mothers of runaways
Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit
Sildenafil Citrate-Restored eNOS and PDE5 Regulation in Sickle Cell Mouse Penis Prevents Priapism Via Control of Oxidative/Nitrosative Stress
Sildenafil citrate revolutionized the practice of sexual medicine upon its federal regulatory agency approval approximately 15 years ago as the prototypical phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor indicated for the treatment of male erectile dysfunction. We now provide scientific support for its alternative use in the management of priapism, a clinical disorder of prolonged and uncontrolled penile erection. Sildenafil administered continuously to sickle cell mice, which show a priapism phenotype, reverses oxidative/nitrosative stress effects in the penis, mainly via reversion of uncoupled endothelial nitric oxide synthase to the functional coupled state of the enzyme, which in turn corrects aberrant signaling and function of the nitric oxide/cyclic GMP/protein kinase G/phosphodiesterase type 5 cascade. Priapism tendencies in these mice are reverted partially toward normal neurostimulated erection frequencies and durations after sildenafil treatment in association with normalized cyclic GMP concentration, protein kinase G activity and phosphodiesterase type 5 activity in the penis. Thus, sildenafil exerts pleiotropic effects in the penis that extend to diverse erection disorders. © 2013 Bivalacqua et al
Intermittency in a single event
The possibility to study intermittency in a single event of high multiplicity
is investigated in the framework of the model. It is found that, for
cascade long enough, the dispersion of intermittency exponents obtained from
individual events is fairly small. This fact opens the possibility to study the
distribution of the intermittency parameters characterizing the cascades seen
(by observing intermittency) in particle spectra.Comment: 7 pages, latex, 2 figures available on request by e-mai
Modeling the non-recycled Fermi gamma-ray pulsar population
We use Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detections and upper limits on
non-recycled pulsars obtained from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) to constrain
how the gamma-ray luminosity L depends on the period P and the period
derivative \dot{P}. We use a Bayesian analysis to calculate a best-fit
luminosity law, or dependence of L on P and \dot{P}, including different
methods for modeling the beaming factor. An outer gap (OG) magnetosphere
geometry provides the best-fit model, which is L \propto P^{-a} \dot{P}^{b}
where a=1.36\pm0.03 and b=0.44\pm0.02, similar to but not identical to the
commonly assumed L \propto \sqrt{\dot{E}} \propto P^{-1.5} \dot{P}^{0.5}. Given
upper limits on gamma-ray fluxes of currently known radio pulsars and using the
OG model, we find that about 92% of the radio-detected pulsars have gamma-ray
beams that intersect our line of sight. By modeling the misalignment of radio
and gamma-ray beams of these pulsars, we find an average gamma-ray beaming
solid angle of about 3.7{\pi} for the OG model, assuming a uniform beam. Using
LAT-measured diffuse fluxes, we place a 2{\sigma} upper limit on the average
braking index and a 2{\sigma} lower limit on the average surface magnetic field
strength of the pulsar population of 3.8 and 3.2 X 10^{10} G, respectively. We
then predict the number of non-recycled pulsars detectable by the LAT based on
our population model. Using the two-year sensitivity, we find that the LAT is
capable of detecting emission from about 380 non-recycled pulsars, including
150 currently identified radio pulsars. Using the expected five-year
sensitivity, about 620 non-recycled pulsars are detectable, including about 220
currently identified radio pulsars. We note that these predictions
significantly depend on our model assumptions.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by ApJ on 8 September 201
- âŠ