The Bush Legacy: An Assault on Public Protections

This report shows that attacks on a variety of common-sense regulations over the past eight years have taken a great toll on the United States. Though not intended to serve as a comprehensive record of every anti-regulatory effort by the Bush administration, this report uses clear examples to document a wide range of activity, much of which occurred behind the scenes, away from the eyes of all but the most observant members of the press and the public. The storytelling style of the report, crafted by freelance writer and author Osha Gray Davidson, helps readers begin to understand how much damage has been done under the watch of George W. Bush and his vice president, Richard B. Cheney

Auditory event-related potentials associated with perceptual reversals of bistable pitch motion

Previous event-related potential (ERP) experiments have consistently identified two components associated with perceptual transitions of bistable visual stimuli, the reversal negativity (RN) and the late positive complex (LPC). The RN (~200ms post-stimulus, bilateral occipital-parietal distribution) is thought to reflect transitions between neural representations that form the moment-to-moment contents of conscious perception, while the LPC (~400ms, central-parietal) is considered an index of post-perceptual processing related to accessing and reporting one’s percept. To explore the generality of these components across sensory modalities, the present experiment utilized a novel bistable auditory stimulus. Pairs of complex tones with ambiguous pitch relationships were presented sequentially while subjects reported whether they perceived the tone pairs as ascending or descending in pitch. ERPs elicited by the tones were compared according to whether perceived pitch motion changed direction or remained the same across successive trials. An auditory RN component (aRN) was evident at ~170ms post-stimulus over bilateral fronto-central scalp locations. An auditory LPC component (aLPC) was evident at subsequent latencies (~350ms, fronto-central distribution). These two components may be auditory analogs of the visual RN and LPC, suggesting functionally equivalent but anatomically distinct processes in auditory versus visual bistable perception

Macrophages from gut-corrected CF mice express human CFTR and lack a pro-inflammatory phenotype

Macrophages represent prominent immune orchestrators of cystic fibrosis (CF) inflammation and, as such, are an ever-increasing focus of CF research with several reports of intrinsic immune dysfunction related to loss of CFTR activity in macrophages themselves. Animal models of CF have contributed, in no small part, to a deepening of our understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and towards therapeutic development. A commonly-used animal model in CF research is the Cftr(tm1Unc) Tg(FABP-hCFTR) mouse, which displays gut-specific expression of a human CFTR transgene in order to rescue the high rate of early mortality in Cftr-null mice associated with severe intestinal obstruction. We find significant variation in the response to inflammatory challenge of patient macrophages and cells derived from the Cftr(tm1Unc) Tg(FABP-hCFTR) mouse and show that macrophages derived from this mouse exhibit aberrant expression of human CFTR. This may contribute to the absence of inflammatory changes in this model

Impact experiments into multiple-mesh targets: Concept development of a lightweight collisional bumper

The utility of multiple-mesh targets as potential lightweight shields to protect spacecraft in low-Earth orbit against collisional damage is explored. Earlier studies revealed that single meshes comminute hypervelocity impactors with efficiencies comparable to contiguous targets. Multiple interaction of projectile fragments with any number of meshes should lead to increased comminution, deceleration, and dispersion of the projectile, such that all debris exiting the mesh stack possesses low specific energies (ergs/sq cm) that would readily be tolerated by many flight systems. The study is conceptually exploring the sensitivity of major variables such as impact velocity, the specific areal mass (g/sq cm) of the total mesh stack (SM), and the separation distance (S) between individual meshes. Most experiments employed five or ten meshes with total SM typically less than 0.5 the specific mass of the impactor, and silicate glass impactors rather than metal projectiles. While projectile comminution increases with increasing impact velocity due to progressively higher shock stresses, encounters with multiple-meshes at low velocity (1-2 km/s) already lead to significant disruption of the glass impactors, with the resulting fragments being additionally decelerated and dispersed by subsequent meshes, and, unlike most contiguous single-plate bumpers, leading to respectable performance at low velocity. Total specific bumper mass must be the subject of careful trade-off studies; relatively massive bumpers will generate too much debris being dislodged from the bumper itself, while exceptionally lightweight designs will not cause sufficient comminution, deceleration, or dispersion of the impactor. Separation distance was found to be a crucial design parameter, as it controls the dispersion of the fragment cloud. Substantial mass savings could result if maximum separation distances were employed. The total mass of debris dislodged by multiple-mesh stacks is modestly smaller than that of single, contiguous-membrane shields. The cumulative surface area of all penetration holes in multiple mesh stacks is an order of magnitude smaller than that in analog multiple-foil shields, suggesting good long-term performance of the mesh designs. Due to different experimental conditions, direct and quantitative comparison with other lightweight shields is not possible at present

Starspot Jitter in Photometry, Astrometry and Radial Velocity Measurements

Analytical relations are derived for the amplitude of astrometric, photometric and radial velocity perturbations caused by a single rotating spot. The relative power of the star spot jitter is estimated and compared with the available data for $\kappa^1$ Ceti and HD 166435, as well as with numerical simulations for $\kappa^1$ Ceti and the Sun. A Sun-like star inclined at i=90\degr at 10 pc is predicted to have a RMS jitter of 0.087 \uas in its astrometric position along the equator, and 0.38 m s$^{-1}$ in radial velocities. If the presence of spots due to stellar activity is the ultimate limiting factor for planet detection, the sensitivity of SIM Lite to Earth-like planets in habitable zones is about an order of magnitude higher that the sensitivity of prospective ultra-precise radial velocity observations of nearby stars.Comment: accepted in ApJ Letters, Nov. 200

Prospectus, December 6, 2017

WPCD celebrates 40 years of operation; Bad Moms Christmas a passable, sometimes tedious sequel; On Black Friday we stay out all night: a family\u27s tale; Giertz Gallery holds mug and dessert fundraiser; Antique naturalism exhibit at KAM closing soonhttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2017/1032/thumbnail.jp

Prospectus, November 15, 2017

Dodds Park hosts scholarship fundraiser run; Review: Hansel and Gretel at KCPA; 2017\u27s Pokemon film relives 1998 classic series; Tyler Oakley talks about journey as YouTube LGBTQ activist; Cobra\u27s men\u27s basketball wins against REnd Lake on Nov. 8.https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2017/1030/thumbnail.jp

Prospectus, October 18, 2017

Parkland police talk face-to-face with students; Parkland to show off at upcoming open house; Blade Runner 2049 a worthy sequel to the sci-fi classic; Midway of Madness serves up frights to the CU area; SciCommons offers one-on-one experience for students; Help us help you: mental health at Parklandhttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2017/1026/thumbnail.jp