Evidence on the Efficacy of School-Based Incentives for Healthy Living

We analyze the effects of a school-based incentive program on children's exercise habits. The program offers children an opportunity to win prizes if they walk or bike to school during prize periods. We use daily child-level data and individual fixed effects models to measure the impact of the prizes by comparing behavior during prize periods with behavior during non-prize periods. Variation in the timing of prize periods across different schools allows us to estimate models with calendardate fixed effects to control for day-specific attributes, such as weather and proximity to holidays. On average, we find that being in a prize period increases riding behavior by sixteen percent, a large impact given that the prize value is just six cents per participating student. We also find that winning a prize lottery has a positive impact on ridership over subsequent weeks; consider heterogeneity across prize type, gender, age, and calendar month; and explore differential effects on the intensive versus extensive margins.health; exercise; children; school; incentives; active commuting

EPR of Cu\u3csup\u3e2+\u3c/sup\u3e Prion Protein Constructs at 2 GHz Using the \u3cem\u3eg\u3c/em\u3e\u3csub\u3e⊥\u3c/sub\u3e Region to Characterize Nitrogen Ligation

A double octarepeat prion protein construct, which has two histidines, mixed with copper sulfate in a 3:2 molar ratio provides at most three imidazole ligands to each copper ion to form a square-planar Cu2+ complex. This work is concerned with identification of the fourth ligand. A new (to our knowledge) electron paramagnetic resonance method based on analysis of the intense features of the electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum in the g⊥ region at 2 GHz is introduced to distinguish between three and four nitrogen ligands. The methodology was established by studies of a model system consisting of histidine imidazole ligation to Cu2+. In this spectral region at 2 GHz (S-band), g-strain and broadening from the possible rhombic character of the Zeeman interaction are small. The most intense line is identified with the MI = +1/2 extra absorption peak. Spectral simulation demonstrated that this peak is insensitive to cupric Ax and Ay hyperfine interaction. The spectral region to the high-field side of this peak is uncluttered and suitable for analysis of nitrogen superhyperfine couplings to determine the number of nitrogens. The spectral region to the low-field side of the intense extra absorption peak in the g⊥ part of the spectrum is sensitive to the rhombic distortion parameters Ax and Ay. Application of the method to the prion protein system indicates that two species are present and that the dominant species contains four nitrogen ligands. A new loop-gap microwave resonator is described that contains ∼1 mL of frozen sample

Numerical optimization of integrating cavities for diffraction-limited millimeter-wave bolometer arrays

Far-infrared to millimeter-wave bolometers designed to make astronomical observations are typically encased in integrating cavities at the termination of feedhorns or Winston cones. This photometer combination maximizes absorption of radiation, enables the absorber area to be minimized, and controls the directivity of absorption, thereby reducing susceptibility to stray light. In the next decade, arrays of hundreds of silicon nitride micromesh bolometers with planar architectures will be used in ground-based, suborbital, and orbital platforms for astronomy. The optimization of integrating cavity designs is required for achieving the highest possible sensitivity for these arrays. We report numerical simulations of the electromagnetic fields in integrating cavities with an infinite plane-parallel geometry formed by a solid reflecting backshort and the back surface of a feedhorn array block. Performance of this architecture for the bolometer array camera (Bolocam) for cosmology at a frequency of 214 GHz is investigated. We explore the sensitivity of absorption efficiency to absorber impedance and backshort location and the magnitude of leakage from cavities. The simulations are compared with experimental data from a room-temperature scale model and with the performance of Bolocam at a temperature of 300 mK. The main results of the simulations for Bolocam-type cavities are that (1) monochromatic absorptions as high as 95% are achievable with <1% cross talk between neighboring cavities, (2) the optimum absorber impedances are 400 Ω/sq, but with a broad maximum from ~150 to ~700 Ω/sq, and (3) maximum absorption is achieved with absorber diameters ≥1.5λ. Good general agreement between the simulations and the experiments was found

Bolocam Survey for 1.1 mm Dust Continuum Emission in the c2d Legacy Clouds. II. Ophiuchus

We present a large-scale millimeter continuum map of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. Nearly 11 square degrees, including all of the area in the cloud with visual extinction more than 3 magnitudes, was mapped at 1.1 mm with Bolocam on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). By design, the map also covers the region mapped in the infrared with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We detect 44 definite sources, and a few likely sources are also seen along a filament in the eastern streamer. The map indicates that dense cores in Ophiuchus are very clustered and often found in filaments within the cloud. Most sources are round, as measured at the half power point, but elongated when measured at lower contour levels, suggesting spherical sources lying within filaments. The masses, for an assumed dust temperature of 10 K, range from 0.24 to 3.9 solar masses, with a mean value of 0.96 solar masses. The total mass in distinct cores is 42 solar masses, 0.5 to 2% of the total cloud mass, and the total mass above 4 sigma is about 80 solar masses. The mean densities in the cores are quite high, with an average of 1.6 x 10^6 per cc, suggesting short free-fall times. The core mass distribution can be fitted with a power law with slope of 2.1 plus or minus 0.3 for M>0.5 solar masses, similar to that found in other regions, but slightly shallower than that of some determinations of the local IMF. In agreement with previous studies, our survey shows that dense cores account for a very small fraction of the cloud volume and total mass. They are nearly all confined to regions with visual extinction at least 9 mag, a lower threshold than found previously.Comment: 47 pages, 16 figures, accepted for Ap

“It’s like heaven over there”: Medicine as discipline and the production of the carceral body

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background Correctional systems in several U.S. states have entered into partnerships with Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) to provide healthcare for people who are incarcerated. This project was initiated to better understand medical trainee perspectives on training and providing healthcare services to prison populations at one AMC specializing in the care of incarcerated patients: The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB). We set out to characterize the attitudes and perceptions of medical trainees from the start of their training until the final year of Internal Medicine residency. Our goal was to analyze medical trainee perspectives on caring for incarcerated patients and to determine what specialized education and training is needed, if any, for the provision of ethical and appropriate healthcare to incarcerated patients. Results We found that medical trainees grapple with being beneficiaries of a state and institutional power structure that exploits the neglected health of incarcerated patients for the benefit of medical education and research. The benefits include the training opportunities afforded by the advanced pathologies suffered by persons who are incarcerated, an institutional culture that generally allowed students more freedom to practice their skills on incarcerated patients as compared to free-world patients, and an easy compliance of incarcerated patients likely conditioned by their neglect. Most trainees failed to recognize the extreme power differential between provider and patient that facilitates such freedom. Conclusions Using a critical prison studies/Foucauldian theoretical framework, we identified how the provision/withholding of healthcare to and from persons who are incarcerated plays a major role in disciplining incarcerated bodies into becoming compliant medical patients and research subjects, complacent with and even grateful for delayed care, delivered sometimes below the standard best practices. Specialized vulnerable-population training is sorely needed for both medical trainees and attending physicians in order to not further contribute to this exploitation of incarcerated patients.The University of Kansas (KU) One University Open Access Author Fun

POLOCAM: a millimeter wavelength cryogenic polarimeter prototype for MUSIC-POL

As a proof-of-concept, we have constructed and tested a cryogenic polarimeter in the laboratory as a prototype for the MUSIC instrument (Multiwavelength Sub/millimeter Kinetic Inductance Camera). The POLOCAM instrument consists of a rotating cryogenic polarization modulator (sapphire half-waveplate) and polarization analyzer (lithographed copper polarizers deposited on a thin film) placed into the optical path at the Lyot stop (4K cold pupil stop) in a cryogenic dewar. We present an overview of the project, design and performance results of the POLOCAM instrument (including polarization efficiencies and instrumental polarization), as well as future application to the MUSIC-POL instrument

Comparing Star Formation on Large Scales in the c2d Legacy Clouds: Bolocam 1.1 mm Dust Continuum Surveys of Serpens, Perseus, and Ophiuchus

We have undertaken an unprecedentedly large 1.1 millimeter continuum survey of three nearby star forming clouds using Bolocam at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. We mapped the largest areas in each cloud at millimeter or submillimeter wavelengths to date: 7.5 sq. deg in Perseus (Paper I), 10.8 sq. deg in Ophiuchus (Paper II), and 1.5 sq. deg in Serpens with a resolution of 31", detecting 122, 44, and 35 cores, respectively. Here we report on results of the Serpens survey and compare the three clouds. Average measured angular core sizes and their dependence on resolution suggest that many of the observed sources are consistent with power-law density profiles. Tests of the effects of cloud distance reveal that linear resolution strongly affects measured source sizes and densities, but not the shape of the mass distribution. Core mass distribution slopes in Perseus and Ophiuchus (alpha=2.1+/-0.1 and alpha=2.1+/-0.3) are consistent with recent measurements of the stellar IMF, whereas the Serpens distribution is flatter (alpha=1.6+/-0.2). We also compare the relative mass distribution shapes to predictions from turbulent fragmentation simulations. Dense cores constitute less than 10% of the total cloud mass in all three clouds, consistent with other measurements of low star-formation efficiencies. Furthermore, most cores are found at high column densities; more than 75% of 1.1 mm cores are associated with Av>8 mag in Perseus, 15 mag in Serpens, and 20-23 mag in Ophiuchus.Comment: 32 pages, including 18 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

(4-Hydr­oxy-3-nitro­benz­yl)methyl­ammonium chloride

The title compound, C8H11N2O3 +·Cl−, was synthesized as an inter­mediate in the development of a new sugar sensor. The structure displays N—H⋯Cl and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding, as well as weak O—H⋯Cl inter­actions and π–π stacking (3.298 Å). There are two formula units in the asymmetric unit

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XIV. Physical Properties of Massive Starless and Star Forming Clumps

We sort $4683$ molecular clouds between $10^\circ< \ell <65^\circ$ from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey based on observational diagnostics of star formation activity: compact $70$ $\mu{\rm m}$ sources, mid-IR color-selected YSOs, ${\rm H_2O}$ and ${\rm CH_3OH}$ masers, and UCHII regions. We also present a combined ${\rm NH_3}$-derived gas kinetic temperature and ${\rm H_2O}$ maser catalog for $1788$ clumps from our own GBT 100m observations and from the literature. We identify a subsample of $2223$ ($47.5\%$) starless clump candidates, the largest and most robust sample identified from a blind survey to date. Distributions of flux density, flux concentration, solid angle, kinetic temperature, column density, radius, and mass show strong ($>1$ dex) progressions when sorted by star formation indicator. The median starless clump candidate is marginally sub-virial ($\alpha \sim 0.7$) with $>75\%$ of clumps with known distance being gravitationally bound ($\alpha < 2$). These samples show a statistically significant increase in the median clump mass of $\Delta M \sim 170-370$ M$_\odot$ from the starless candidates to clumps associated with protostars. This trend could be due to (i) mass growth of the clumps at $\dot{M}\sim200-440$ Msun Myr$^{-1}$ for an average free-fall $0.8$ Myr time-scale, (ii) a systematic factor of two increase in dust opacity from starless to protostellar phases, (iii) and/or a variation in the ratio of starless to protostellar clump lifetime that scales as $\sim M^{-0.4}$. By comparing to the observed number of ${\rm CH_3OH}$ maser containing clumps we estimate the phase-lifetime of massive ($M>10^3$ M$_\odot$) starless clumps to be $0.37 \pm 0.08 \ {\rm Myr} \ (M/10^3 \ {\rm M}_\odot)^{-1}$; the majority ($M<450$ M$_\odot$) have phase-lifetimes longer than their average free-fall time.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 33 pages; 22 figures; 7 table

A Comparison of Fish Populations in Shallow Coastal Lagoons with Contrasting Shoalgrass (Halodule wrightii) Cover in the Northcentral Gulf of Mexico

A number of studies have examined the effects of reduced seagrass cover on local fish populations (e.g., Heck et al. 1989, Ferrell and Bell 1991, Hughes et al. 2002 and more), but few of those studies have focused on shoalgrass (e.g., Tolan et al. 1997, Rydene and Matheson 2003). We present a preliminary comparison of fish populations in three shallow coastal lagoons in the northcentral GOM that have varying levels of shoalgrass cover. Namely, we compare (1) abundances of individual species and the entire fish population, (2) fish population diversity, and (3) length-frequency distributions of the most abundant species