Maine Healthy General Stores (Healthy Small Stores in Rural Communities)

Presenters discuss the project origin and design of Healthy Food Finance, which encourages food access and building bridges between business development and public health organizations. Details of the healthy general store strategy are provided followed by a toolkit to improve healthy food access in general stores

Gap prepulse inhibition and auditory brainstem-evoked potentials as objective measures for tinnitus in guinea pigs

Tinnitus or ringing of the ears is a subjective phantom sensation necessitating behavioral models that objectively demonstrate the existence and quality of the tinnitus sensation. The gap detection test uses the acoustic startle response elicited by loud noise pulses and its gating or suppression by preceding sub-startling prepulses. Gaps in noise bands serve as prepulses, assuming that ongoing tinnitus masks the gap and results in impaired gap detection. This test has shown its reliability in rats, mice, and gerbils. No data exists for the guinea pig so far, although gap detection is similar across mammals and the acoustic startle response is a well-established tool in guinea pig studies of psychiatric disorders and in pharmacological studies. Here we investigated the startle behavior and prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the guinea pig and showed that guinea pigs have a reliable startle response that can be suppressed by 15 ms gaps embedded in narrow noise bands preceding the startle noise pulse. After recovery of auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds from a unilateral noise over-exposure centered at 7 kHz, guinea pigs showed diminished gap-induced reduction of the startle response in frequency bands between 8 and 18 kHz. This suggests the development of tinnitus in frequency regions that showed a temporary threshold shift (TTS) after noise over-exposure. Changes in discharge rate and synchrony, two neuronal correlates of tinnitus, should be reflected in altered ABR waveforms, which would be useful to objectively detect tinnitus and its localization to auditory brainstem structures. Therefore, we analyzed latencies and amplitudes of the first five ABR waves at suprathreshold sound intensities and correlated ABR abnormalities with the results of the behavioral tinnitus testing. Early ABR wave amplitudes up to N3 were increased for animals with tinnitus possibly stemming from hyperactivity and hypersynchrony underlying the tinnitus percept. Animals that did not develop tinnitus after noise exposure showed the opposite effect, a decrease in wave amplitudes for the later waves P4–P5. Changes in latencies were only observed in tinnitus animals, which showed increased latencies. Thus, tinnitus-induced changes in the discharge activity of the auditory nerve and central auditory nuclei are represented in the ABR

Analysis of the Electronic Effects and Reactivity of Benzhydrols in the Formation of Benzhydryl Ethers

Benzhydryl ethers were synthesized through the use of microwave irradiation in a proto-ionic liquid solvent. The resulting products were separated from the reaction mixture by vacuum filtration with a silica gel plug. The products were analyzed using GCMS and 1 H NMR techniques to identify and quantify products. Analysis of the resultant data indicated the syntheses of the desired benzhydryl products were successful for 4,4-dimethoxybenzhydrol (conversion: 83% (1-propyl ether), 11% (2-propyl ether), 11% (menthyl ether)) and 4,4-dimethylbenzhydrol (conversion to desired product: 100% (1-propyl ether), 100% (2-propyl ether), 26% (menthyl ether)). However, the syntheses were unsuccessful for reactant 4,4-difluorobenzhydrol and benzhydrol. It was concluded that the electron-donating groups of 4,4-dimethoxybenzhydrol and 4,4-dimethylbenzhydrol aided in the formulation of a stable intermediate and subsequent desired product. The data support the hypothesized mechanism of protonation of the hydroxyl group of the benzhydrol with subsequent creation of a carbocation intermediate

Identifying Idiosyncratic Career Taste and Skill with Income Risk

How important to well-being is choosing a career with the right fit? This question is difficult to answer because we observe individuals only in their chosen careers, not in the other (presumably inferior) options they did not choose. To overcome this problem, we use expected utility to cardinalize a logit model of career choice in a setting where we observe the income risk of chosen careers and the risk-aversion of the people who choose them. The key parameter of interest - the importance of idiosyncratic taste and skill in career choice - is identified from the shift in the distribution of income risk with risk aversion. We estimate the model using individual-specific measures of income volatility to proxy for income risk and survey questions about hypothetical income gambles to proxy for risk preference, both from the PSID. We separate idiosyncratic career taste from skill using the pay gap between high and low-income risk people with high and low risk-aversion

Time Averaged Quantum Dynamics and the Validity of the Effective Hamiltonian Model

We develop a technique for finding the dynamical evolution in time of an averaged density matrix. The result is an equation of evolution that includes an Effective Hamiltonian, as well as decoherence terms in Lindblad form. Applying the general equation to harmonic Hamiltonians, we confirm a previous formula for the Effective Hamiltonian together with a new decoherence term which should in general be included, and whose vanishing provides the criteria for validity of the Effective Hamiltonian approach. Finally, we apply the theory to examples of the AC Stark Shift and Three- Level Raman Transitions, recovering a new decoherence effect in the latter.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Pan-chromatic observations of the remarkable nova LMC 2012

We present the results of an intensive multiwavelength campaign on nova LMC 2012. This nova evolved very rapidly in all observed wavelengths. The time to fall two magnitudes in the V band was only 2 days. In X-rays the super soft phase began 13$\pm$5 days after discovery and ended around day 50 after discovery. During the super soft phase, the \Swift/XRT and \Chandra\ spectra were consistent with the underlying white dwarf being very hot, $\sim$ 1 MK, and luminous, $\sim$ 10$^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The UV, optical, and near-IR photometry showed a periodic variation after the initial and rapid fading had ended. Timing analysis revealed a consistent 19.24$\pm$0.03 hr period in all UV, optical, and near-IR bands with amplitudes of $\sim$ 0.3 magnitudes which we associate with the orbital period of the central binary. No periods were detected in the corresponding X-ray data sets. A moderately high inclination system, $i$ = 60$\pm$10^{\arcdeg}, was inferred from the early optical emission lines. The {\it HST}/STIS UV spectra were highly unusual with only the \ion{N}{5} (1240\AA) line present and superposed on a blue continuum. The lack of emission lines and the observed UV and optical continua from four epochs can be fit with a low mass ejection event, $\sim$ 10$^{-6}$ M$_{\odot}$, from a hot and massive white dwarf near the Chandrasekhar limit. The white dwarf, in turn, significantly illuminated its subgiant companion which provided the bulk of the observed UV/optical continuum emission at the later dates. The inferred extreme white dwarf characteristics and low mass ejection event favor nova LMC 2012 being a recurrent nova of the U Sco subclass.Comment: 18 figures, 6 tables (one online only containing all the photometry

Knowledge acquisition and effective socialization: the role of the psychological contract

Although studies reveal that acquiring knowledge about a new workplace during organizational socialization leads to better integration, the pathway through which this occurs is not well understood. Previous research has explored the psychological contract as an outcome of socialization. This study explores its role within the socialization process. A total of 161 organizational newcomers undertook surveys at months one and three of tenure, with data used to test a model within which four psychological contract dimensions mediate the relationship between knowledge acquisition and employee outcomes. At month one, organizational and employee promise strength mediated the relationship between knowledge and outcomes. At month three, organizational and employee promise fulfilment mediated this relationship. Findings confirm the role of the psychological contract in the socialization process and suggest that effective integration requires extensive knowledge provision and active employee knowledge acquisition. Practitioner points Acquisition of knowledge about a new work environment during the very early stages of tenure can positively affect newcomers’ attitudes and perceived employment relationships. Learning leads to mutual promises that are perceived to be stronger and more likely to be fulfilled, as well as reduced stress, greater commitment, and greater service quality behaviour. Employers should provide newcomers with information about their role, team, and organization, whilst newcomers should be encouraged to ask questions