Recent Results from the RICE Experiment at the South Pole

We present a compilation of recent results, submitted to the 2003 International Cosmic Ray Conference (Tsukuba, Japan). These include: a) Revised Monte Carlo estimates of the radiofrequency signals produced by electromagnetic showers in ice, b) an updated search for ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrinos based on detection of radio-wavelength Cherenkov radiation; such radiation results from neutrino-induced electromagnetic showers in cold Polar ice, and c) An in situ measurement of the index of refraction through the South Polar firn.Comment: Compendium of RICE collaboration submissions to ICRC0

Primary Care Physician Shortage: Increased Demand and Insufficient Supply

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is attempting to reform the organization, delivery and reimbursement rates associated with the health care system. The current healthcare system supports the provision of fragmented, uncoordinated care, which has contributed to its high costs and has led to a system that is not strongly based on primary care. As a result of this system, the unfavorable stigma of the primary care field, and the much higher income made by specialists, there is a shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs). This paper will first describe and analyze the current primary care physician shortage and the factors that have contributed to this shortage. Next, it will describe current projections regarding the future PCP shortage and, in so doing, will establish that the current shortage will be exacerbated by both demographic changes and the increased demand for PCPs created by the ACA’s encouraged utilization of primary care. It will briefly outline the different models implemented in the ACA that are centered around or coordinated by PCPs and will thus lead to an increased demand for PCPs. This paper will then analyze the incentives put in place by the ACA to encourage augmentation of the primary care physician workforce to help address and alleviate the primary care shortage. Finally, this paper will argue that the ACA incentives are not adequate enough to solve the primary care physician shortage due to their lack of focus on alleviating the income gap between PCPs and specialists and their inconstant support from Congress

Evaluation of Giga-bit Ethernet Instrumentation for SalSA Electronics Readout (GEISER)

An instrumentation prototype for acquiring high-speed transient data from an array of high bandwidth antennas is presented. Multi-kilometer cable runs complicate acquisition of such large bandwidth radio signals from an extensive antenna array. Solutions using analog fiber optic links are being explored, though are very expensive. We propose an inexpensive solution that allows for individual operation of each antenna element, operating at potentially high local self-trigger rates. Digitized data packets are transmitted to the surface via commercially available Giga-bit Ethernet hardware. Events are then reconstructed on a computer farm by sorting the received packets using standard networking gear, eliminating the need for custom, very high-speed trigger hardware. Such a system is completely scalable and leverages the hugh capital investment made by the telecommunications industry. Test results from a demonstration prototype are presented.Comment: 8 pages, to be submitted to NIM

Descartes on the Infinity of Space vs. Time

In two rarely discussed passages – from unpublished notes on the Principles of Philosophy and a 1647 letter to Chanut – Descartes argues that the question of the infinite extension of space is importantly different from the infinity of time. In both passages, he is anxious to block the application of his well-known argument for the indefinite extension of space to time, in order to avoid the theologically problematic implication that the world has no beginning. Descartes concedes that we always imagine an earlier time in which God might have created the world if he had wanted, but insists that this imaginary earlier existence of the world is not connected to its actual duration in the way that the indefinite extension of space is connected to the actual extension of the world. This paper considers whether Descartes’s metaphysics can sustain this asymmetrical attitude towards infinite space vs. time. I first consider Descartes’s relation to the ‘imaginary’ space/time tradition that extended from the late scholastics through Gassendi and More. I next examine carefully Descartes’s main argument for the indefinite extension of space and explain why it does not apply to time. Most crucially, since duration is merely conceptually distinct from enduring substance, the end or beginning of the world entails the end or beginning of real time. In contrast, extension does not depend on any enduring substance besides itself

Effects of Mold Exposure on Immune Cells

The relationship between exposure to mold spores and human disease is only beginning to be understood. While evidence exists of strong correlations between moldy environments and allergic and infectious diseases, the relationship between exposure to specific species and human immune responses to them is not fully understood. This paper seeks to clarify this relationship by analyzing the effects of exposing murine immune cells to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by different mold species. Mold species studied include Stachybotrys alternans; tests performed include cell viability studies and immunoassays. Results have implications for further research and treatment of mold-related diseases