Wind tunnel calibration of the ''Arcasonde 1-A'' at simulated altitudes between 35 and 57 km

Subsonic wind tunnel calibration of Arcasonde 1-A atmospheric temperature sensing unit at simulated altitudes between 35 and 56 k

RISK FACTORS FOR ABUSE OF PRESCRIPTION STIMULANTS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS: A DISSERTATION

The abuse of prescription stimulants among college students is a growing public health concern. While these substances are often viewed as safe, “smart drugs”, they are associated with a number of maladaptive outcomes, ranging from poorer academic performance to cardiovascular incidents and even death. To date, the majority of research on the abuse of these substances have focused on demographic factors which are not amenable to intervention, such as race, Greek organization status, and class rank. The current study examined family factors, academic stress, and impulsivity as potential risk factors which are amenable to intervention. In a sample of 335 undergraduate students, no associations were found between family variables and prescription stimulant abuse or academic stress and prescription stimulant abuse. Inconsistent support was found for an association between impulsivity and prescription stimulant abuse

Marital Conflict and Pubertal Timing: Stress and Security as Mediators of Associations

The timing of pubertal development has important mental and physical health consequences. Individuals who enter puberty off-time are at greater risk for psychological disorders, social difficulties, and physical morbidity. One variable associated with early pubertal development is marital conflict. Life History Theory proposes that marital conflict signals an unreliable environment and promotes advanced pubertal timing to enhance reproductive fitness. Such calibrations allow individuals to unconsciously invest more resources in reproduction, following a quantity over quality approach. Despite research supporting the role of marital conflict in early-onset puberty, research has struggled to find a mechanism for this relationship. The current study examined two possible mediators: emotional insecurity and cortisol levels in a sample of children aged 6-12 years from 2-parent families. Neither variable was supported as a mediator of this relationship. However, parental depression significantly predicted pubertal development for girls. Findings regarding the role of parental depression in the timing of girl’s puberty support life history theory

Deceleration of neutral molecules in macroscopic traveling traps

A new type of decelerator is presented where polar neutral molecules are guided and decelerated using the principle of traveling electric potential wells, such that molecules are confined in stable three-dimensional traps throughout. This new decelerator is superior to the best currently operational decelerator (Scharfenberg et al., Phys.Rev.A 79, 023410(2009)), providing a substantially larger acceptance even at higher accelerations. The mode of operation is described and experimentally demonstrated by guiding and decelerating CO molecules.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Healthy ageing and home: The perspectives of very old people in five European countries

This paper reports on in-depth research, using a grounded theory approach, to examine the ways in which very old people perceive healthy ageing in the context of living alone at home within urban settings in five European countries. This qualitative study was part of a cross-national project entitled ENABLE-AGE which examined the relationship between home and healthy ageing. Interviews explored the notion of healthy ageing, the meaning and importance of home, conceptualisations of independence and autonomy and links between healthy ageing and home. Data analysis identified five ways in which older people constructed healthy ageing: home and keeping active; managing lifestyles, health and illness; balancing social life; and balancing material and financial circumstances. Older people reflected on their everyday lives at home in terms of being engaged in purposeful, meaningful action and evaluated healthy ageing in relation to the symbolic and practical affordances of the home, contextualised within constructions of their national context. The research suggests that older people perceive healthy ageing as an active achievement, created through individual, personal effort and supported through social ties despite the health, financial and social decline associated with growing older. The physicality and spatiality of home provided the context for establishing and evaluating the notion of healthy ageing, whilst the experienced relationship between home, life history and identity created a meaningful space within which healthy ageing was negotiated

A traveling wave decelerator for neutral polar molecules

Recently, a decelerator for neutral polar molecules has been presented that operates on the basis of macroscopic, three-dimensional, traveling electrostatic traps (Osterwalder et al., Phys. Rev. A 81, 051401 (2010)). In the present paper, a complete description of this decelerator is given, with emphasis on the electronics and the mechanical design. Experimental results showing the transverse velocity distributions of guided molecules are shown and compared to trajectory simulations. An assessment of non-adiabatic losses is made by comparing the deceleration signals from 13-CO with those from 12-CO and with simulated signals.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Plasticity, and Its Limits, in Adult Human Primary Visual Cortex

There is an ongoing debate about whether adult human primary visual cortex (V1) is capable of large-scale cortical reorganization in response to bilateral retinal lesions. Animal models suggest that the visual neural circuitry maintains some plasticity through adulthood, and there are also a few human imaging studies in support this notion. However, the interpretation of these data has been brought into question, because there are factors besides cortical reorganization, such as the presence of sampling bias and/or the unmasking of task-dependent feedback signals from higher level visual areas, that could also explain the results. How reasonable would it be to accept that adult human V1 does not reorganize itself in the face of disease? Here, we discuss new evidence for the hypothesis that adult human V1 is not as capable of reorganization as in animals and juveniles, because in adult humans, cortical reorganization would come with costs that outweigh its benefits. These costs are likely functional and visible in recent experiments on adaptation — a rapid, short-term form of neural plasticity — where they prevent reorganization from being sustained over the long term

Diabetes alone should not be a reason for withholding adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer

Background: With increasing prevalence of diabetes mellitus and colon cancer, the number of patients suffering from both diseases is growing, and physicians are being faced with complicated treatment decisions. Objective: To investigate the association between diabetes and treatment/course of stage III colon cancer and the association between colon cancer and course of diabetes. Materials and Methods: Additional information was collected from the medical records of all patients with both stage III colon cancer and diabetes (n=201) and a random sample of stage III colon cancer patients without diabetes (n=206) in the area of the population-based Eindhoven Cancer Registry (1998–2007). Results: Colon cancer patients without diabetes were more likely to receive adjuvant chemotherapy compared with diabetic colon cancer patients (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.2–2.7). After adjustment for age, this difference was borderline significant (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.0–2.6). Diabetic patients did not have: significantly more side-effects from surgery or adjuvant chemotherapy; more recurrence from colon cancer; significantly shorter time interval until recurrence; or a poorer disease-free survival or overall survival. Age and withholding of adjuvant chemotherapy were most predictive of all-cause mortality. After colon cancer diagnosis, the dose of antiglycaemic medications was increased in 22% of diabetic patients, resulting in significantly lower glycaemic indexes than before colon cancer diagnosis. Conclusions: Since diabetic patients did not have more side-effects of adjuvant chemotherapy, and adjuvant chemotherapy had a positive effect on survival for both patients with and without diabetes, diabetes alone should not be a reason for withholding adjuvant chemotherapy.Journal of Comorbidity 2011;1(1):19–2