Classical issues in electroweak baryogenesis

In one scenario of baryogenesis, the matter-antimatter asymmetry was generated in the early universe during a cold electroweak transition. We model this transition by changing the sign of the effective mass-squared parameter of the Higgs field from positive to negative. The resulting `tachyonic' instability leads to a rapid growth of occupation numbers, such that a classical approximation can be made in computing subsequent developments in real time. We solve the classical equations of motion in the SU(2)-Higgs model under the influence of effective CP-violation. The resulting baryon asymmetry follows from the generated Chern-Simons number using the anomaly equation. The `classical' difficulties with lattice implementations of these observables are avoided here because the fields are smooth on the lattice scale.Comment: Proceedings Lattice 2003 (Higgs), 3 pages; added reference

Management of cannabis use disorder and related issues. A clinician’s guide.

This guide provides the knowledge essential to help people reduce, cease, or manage their cannabis-use problems. The manual aims to provide facts, figures, and useful techniques to assist clinicians in providing evidence-based treatments for cannabis users wishing to change the patterns of their use. The manual also provides a number of worksheets to use with cannabis clients. The manual is divided into 12 sections: Chapter 1: Background information Chapter 2: Working with cannabis users Chapter 3: Screening for cannabis use Chapter 4: Assessment Chapter 5: Withdrawal management Chapter 6: Brief interventions Chapter 7: Special considerations Chapter 8: Family interventions Chapter 9: Psycho-education and social support Chapter 10: Treating mental health in cannabis users Chapter 11: Screening tools Chapter 12: Worksheet

Pioneers of Environmental Law

This book is intended to introduce the reader to examples of some of the persons who helped to invent and develop the field of environmental law. Some of these pioneers are well known; some are more obscure, but still have played critical roles in field of environmental law. A “pioneer” is among the first to explore a new area. And a pioneer of environmental law may be one who (1) first recognized the importance of the natural environment, (2) helped to invent the relatively new doctrine of environmental law and then ensured that it would survive, or (3) once the new law was accepted, took new and creative approaches to established principles and applied these ideas to environmental law. The pioneers discussed in this book represent these three types, or classes, of pioneers—“True Pioneers,” “Creators and Saviors,” and “Innovators.

Simulations of Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis

We present real-time lattice simulations of Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis, in which the baryon asymmetry of the Universe is generated during tachyonic electroweak symmetry breaking at the end of inflation. In the minimal realisation of the model, only three parameters remain undetermined: the strength of CP-violation, the Higgs mass and the speed of the symmetry breaking quench. The dependence of the asymmetry on these parameters is studied.Comment: 4 pages. Presented at International Conference on Strong and Electroweak Matter (SEWM 2006), Upton, New York, 10-13 May 200

The Iowa Homemaker vol.36, no.15

From the Dean’s Advisory Board, Margot Copeland, page 5 “Musts” for Your Record Collection, page 6 A Well-Groomed TV Personality, Jan Anderson, page 7 Polly Otto, Nancy Stephenson Win!, Betty Gregory, page 8 A Look at Graduate School, page 10 The T and Cs are Asking Us, Martha Burleigh, page 11 “Atoms for Living” Kitchen, page 12 Introducing:, Joan Will, page 13 Plants for Your Room, Donna Schneider, page 14 What’s New, Anne Beem, page 1

Quantifying the Clinical Significance of Cannabis Withdrawal

Background and Aims: Questions over the clinical significance of cannabis withdrawal have hindered its inclusion as a discrete cannabis induced psychiatric condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV). This study aims to quantify functional impairment to normal daily activities from cannabis withdrawal, and looks at the factors predicting functional impairment. In addition the study tests the influence of functional impairment from cannabis withdrawal on cannabis use during and after an abstinence attempt. Methods and Results: A volunteer sample of 49 non-treatment seeking cannabis users who met DSM-IV criteria for dependence provided daily withdrawal-related functional impairment scores during a one-week baseline phase and two weeks of monitored abstinence from cannabis with a one month follow up. Functional impairment from withdrawal symptoms was strongly associated with symptom severity (p = 0.0001). Participants with more severe cannabis dependence before the abstinence attempt reported greater functional impairment from cannabis withdrawal (p = 0.03). Relapse to cannabis use during the abstinence period was associated with greater functional impairment from a subset of withdrawal symptoms in high dependence users. Higher levels of functional impairment during the abstinence attempt predicted higher levels of cannabis use at one month follow up (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Cannabis withdrawal is clinically significant because it is associated with functional impairment to normal daily activities, as well as relapse to cannabis use. Sample size in the relapse group was small and the use of a non-treatment seeking population requires findings to be replicated in clinical samples. Tailoring treatments to target withdrawal symptoms contributing to functional impairment during a quit attempt may improve treatment outcomes

The Iowa Homemaker vol.36, no.14

Here’s to Your Job!, Marcia Wilsie, page 4 Journalism is for You, Ann Baur, page 6 Contest, Betty Gregory, page 7 “Little World of Spices”, Pat McBride, page 8 Miss Bernice Burns, Jan Anderson, page 10 Promise, Martha Elder, page 11 Choose Wisely, Cutlery, Anne Beem, page 12 Clara Inkumsah from West Africa, Margot Copeland, page 13 Good Design doesn’t have to be Expensive, Mary Vandecar, page 1

Quantifying the Clinical Significance of Cannabis Withdrawal

Background and Aims: Questions over the clinical significance of cannabis withdrawal have hindered its inclusion as a discrete cannabis induced psychiatric condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV). This study aims to quantify functional impairment to normal daily activities from cannabis withdrawal, and looks at the factors predicting functional impairment. In addition the study tests the influence of functional impairment from cannabis withdrawal on cannabis use during and after an abstinence attempt. Methods and Results: A volunteer sample of 49 non-treatment seeking cannabis users who met DSM-IV criteria for dependence provided daily withdrawal-related functional impairment scores during a one-week baseline phase and two weeks of monitored abstinence from cannabis with a one month follow up. Functional impairment from withdrawal symptoms was strongly associated with symptom severity (p = 0.0001). Participants with more severe cannabis dependence before the abstinence attempt reported greater functional impairment from cannabis withdrawal (p = 0.03). Relapse to cannabis use during the abstinence period was associated with greater functional impairment from a subset of withdrawal symptoms in high dependence users. Higher levels of functional impairment during the abstinence attempt predicted higher levels of cannabis use at one month follow up (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Cannabis withdrawal is clinically significant because it is associated with functional impairment to normal daily activities, as well as relapse to cannabis use. Sample size in the relapse group was small and the use of a non-treatment seeking population requires findings to be replicated in clinical samples. Tailoring treatments to target withdrawal symptoms contributing to functional impairment during a quit attempt may improve treatment outcomes. © 2012 Allsop et al

Shotgun metagenome data of a defined mock community using Oxford Nanopore, PacBio and Illumina technologies.

Metagenomic sequence data from defined mock communities is crucial for the assessment of sequencing platform performance and downstream analyses, including assembly, binning and taxonomic assignment. We report a comparison of shotgun metagenome sequencing and assembly metrics of a defined microbial mock community using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION, PacBio and Illumina sequencing platforms. Our synthetic microbial community BMock12 consists of 12 bacterial strains with genome sizes spanning 3.2-7.2 Mbp, 40-73% GC content, and 1.5-7.3% repeats. Size selection of both PacBio and ONT sequencing libraries prior to sequencing was essential to yield comparable relative abundances of organisms among all sequencing technologies. While the Illumina-based metagenome assembly yielded good coverage with few misassemblies, contiguity was greatly improved by both, Illumina + ONT and Illumina + PacBio hybrid assemblies but increased misassemblies, most notably in genomes with high sequence similarity to each other. Our resulting datasets allow evaluation and benchmarking of bioinformatics software on Illumina, PacBio and ONT platforms in parallel