The Vela Pulsar Wind Nebula at 6cm

Observations using the Australia Telescope Compact Array at a wavelength of 6 cm have uncovered the radio counterpart to the compact X-ray nebula surrounding the Vela pulsar. Two lobes were found oriented about the spin axis of the pulsar, starting at the edge of X-ray emission, they extend to three times the size. The northern lobe has a bright, defined edge and an integrated flux of 0.14 Jy, while the southern lobe of 0.12 Jy is more diffuse.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in "Neutron Stars in Supernova Remnants" (ASP Conference Proceedings), eds P. O. Slane and B. M. Gaensle

Device to Perioperatively Regulate Patient Temperature for Low-resources Settings

ME450 Capstone Design and Manufacturing Experience: Fall 2015Under anesthesia, a patient's body loses its ability to regulate temperature, resulting in a core-to-peripheral redistribution of body temperature. This causes perioperative hypothermia, or hypothermia during surgery, which leads to a number of complications, such as increased risk of infection, prolonged recovery, and increased costs to both the patient and hospital. Based on many weeks of needs assessment over summer 2016, secondary public hospitals in the Dominican Republic lack methods for regulating and monitoring patient temperature during surgery, and current solutions on the market are often designed for specific use, require manual control, are not reusable, and are expensive. The prototype described in this journal consists of a underbody warming mattress placed over the operating bed to warm the patient via radiation and conduction, insulating surgical drapes to prevent radiant and convective heat loss, and a PID control system that automates temperature adjustment in response to feedback from non-invasive core body temperature measurement at the tympanic membrane and internal sensors (thermistors) as fail-safes. This project will be continued through M-HEAL, and the team plans to return to the Dominican Republic to network with new and existing stakeholders and gather user feedback on the design.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117346/1/ME450-F15-Project06-FinalReport.pd

Two decades of pulsar timing of Vela

Pulsar timing at the Mt Pleasant observatory has focused on Vela, which can be tracked for 18 hours of the day. These nearly continuous timing records extend over 24 years allowing a greater insight into details of timing noise, micro glitches and other more exotic effects. In particular we report the glitch parameters of the 2004 event, along with the reconfirmation that the spin up for the Vela pulsar occurs instantaneously to the accuracy of the data. This places a lower limit of about 30 seconds for the acceleration of the pulsar to the new rotational frequency. We also confirm of the low braking index for Vela, and the continued fall in the DM for this pulsar.Comment: Isolated Neutron Stars conference, London, April 24-28 200

Strategy Precedes Operational Effectiveness: Aligning High Graduation Rankings With Competitive Graduation Grade Point Averages

Two pivotal and interconnected claims are addressed in this article. First, strategy precedes program effectiveness. Second, graduation rates and rankings are insufficient in any account of academic progress for African American students. In this article, graduation is regarded as the floor and not the ceiling, as it were. The ideal situation in the promotion of strategy is the alignment of high graduation rates or rankings with high graduation cumulative grade point averages. This strategic alignment is precisely what needs to be formulated in the first instance before making judgments about program development and/or operational effectiveness. The work of the Office of African American Affairs of the University of Virginia provides the context for observing trends in academic performance that illustrate the optimal alignment between high graduation rankings and correspondingly high grade point averages

The Vela pulsar, the key?

Of all pulsars known Vela has been one of the most productive in terms in understanding pulsars and their characteristics. We present the latest results derived from Australian telescopes. These include a more accurate pulsar distance, a more precise pulsar local space velocity, a new model of the spin up and the association of a radio nebula with the X-ray pulsar wind nebula.Comment: Poster presentation at IAU 25th meetin

Prospectus, February 8, 1995

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1995/1003/thumbnail.jp

Prospectus, February 15, 1995

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1995/1004/thumbnail.jp

Regulation of faecal biomarkers in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients treated with oral Mastiha (Pistacia lentiscus) supplement: a double-blind and placebo controlled randomised trial

There is a keen research upon the effects of nutraceuticals on inflammatory bowel disease. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of mastiha supplement, rich in bioactive nutraceuticals, in active inflammatory bowel disease. This is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Α total of 60 inflammatory bowel disease patients were enrolled and randomly allocated to mastiha (2.8 g/day) or placebo groups for 3 months adjunct to stable medical treatment. Medical and dietary history, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ), Harvey-Bradshaw index, partial Mayo score, biochemical indices, faecal, and blood inflammatory markers were assessed. A clinically important difference between groups in IBDQ was defined as primary outcome. Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire score significantly improved in verum compared with baseline (p = 0.004). There was a significant decrease in faecal lysozyme in mastiha patients (p = 0.018) with the mean change being significant (p = 0.021), and significant increases of faecal lactoferrin (p = 0.001) and calprotectin (p = 0.029) in the placebo group. Fibrinogen reduced significantly (p = 0.006) with a significant mean change (p = 0.018), whereas iron increased (p = 0.032) in mastiha arm. Our results show regulation of faecal lysozyme by mastiha supplement adjunctive to pharmacological treatments in active inflammatory bowel disease. An effect secondary to a prebiotic potency is proposed

The effect of group cohesion on rehabilitation outcome in cancer survivors

Objective: Group-based physical training interventions have been shown to be effective in increasing quality of life in cancer survivors. Until now, however, the impact of cohesion within the group on intervention outcome has not been investigated. Methods: We examined self-reported individual group cohesion ratings collected in the first half of a 12-week rehabilitation programme for cancer survivors (N = 132). Four dimensions of group cohesion were measured, i.e. the bond with the group as whole, the bond with other members, cooperation within the group and the instrumental value. Quality of life, physical functioning and fatigue were assessed before and after the intervention using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30. Linear multiple multivariate regression analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between group cohesion and intervention outcome. Results: The relationship between group cohesion and outcome was significantly modified by gender. Higher ratings of cooperation within the group predicted better post-intervention quality of life and physical functioning and less fatigue in men, and better quality of life and physical functioning in women. Additionally, women who reported a stronger bond with other members showed a lower quality of life after the intervention. No relationship was found between the instrumental value and the outcome variables. Conclusion: Some dimensions of group cohesion seem to be associated with intervention outcome. The underlying mechanisms need to be unravelled. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

L\'evy-stable two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in sNN=200\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200 GeV Au++Au collisions

We present a detailed measurement of charged two-pion correlation functions in 0%-30% centrality $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV Au$+$Au collisions by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The data are well described by Bose-Einstein correlation functions stemming from L\'evy-stable source distributions. Using a fine transverse momentum binning, we extract the correlation strength parameter $\lambda$, the L\'evy index of stability $\alpha$ and the L\'evy length scale parameter $R$ as a function of average transverse mass of the pair $m_T$. We find that the positively and the negatively charged pion pairs yield consistent results, and their correlation functions are represented, within uncertainties, by the same L\'evy-stable source functions. The $\lambda(m_T)$ measurements indicate a decrease of the strength of the correlations at low $m_T$. The L\'evy length scale parameter $R(m_T)$ decreases with increasing $m_T$, following a hydrodynamically predicted type of scaling behavior. The values of the L\'evy index of stability $\alpha$ are found to be significantly lower than the Gaussian case of $\alpha=2$, but also significantly larger than the conjectured value that may characterize the critical point of a second-order quark-hadron phase transition.Comment: 448 authors, 25 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, 2010 data. v2 is version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm