Gun Violence, Policing, and Young Communities of Color

Young people of color are leading the response to recent instances of gun violence. Young people do not all experience gun violence at the same rate nor do they feel its consequences evenly. Our research on young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 years old highlights the very different experiences young people have with guns, gun violence, and policing across racial and ethnic groups

Method for detecting pollutants

A method is described for detecting and measuring trace amounts of pollutants of the group consisting of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide in a gaseous environment. A sample organic solid material that will undergo a chemical reaction with the test pollutant is exposed to the test environment and thereafter, when heated in the temperature range of 100-200 C., undergoes chemiluminescence that is measured and recorded as a function of concentration of the test pollutant. The chemiluminescence of the solid organic material is specific to the pollutant being tested

Individuals' Use of Care While Uninsured: Effects of Time Since Episode Inception and Episode Length

Few studies have addressed how use of care may vary over the course of an episode of being uninsured or across uninsured episodes of varying duration. This research models the probability that an uninsured individual has (a) any medical expenditures or charges, and (b) any office-based visit during each month of an uninsured episode. We find that the ultimate length of an individual's episode of being uninsured bears relatively little on individuals' use of healthcare in any particular month and that the probability of health care utilization rises during the first year of the episode, with more use in the second six months of the year compared to the first six months.

IAC-DIDAS-L Dynamic Interactive Decision Analysis and Support System Linear Version

This paper is one of the series of 11 Working Papers presenting the software for interactive decision support and software tools for developing decision support systems. These products constitute the outcome of the contracted study agreement between the System and Decision Sciences Program at IIASA and several Polish scientific institutions. The theoretical part of these results is presented in the IIASA Working Paper WP-88-071 entitled "Theory, Software and Testing Examples in Decision Support Systems". This volume contains the theoretical and methodological backgrounds of the software systems developed within the project. This paper presents user documentation for two versions of decision analysis and support systems of DIDAS family: IAC-DIDAS-L1 (pilot version) and IAC-DIDAS-L2. These programs can be used for supporting decision problems when the model of the decision situation can be described using the linear programming framework

Strain and dynamic measurements using fiber optic sensors embedded into graphite/epoxy tubes

Graphite/epoxy tubes were fabricated with embedded optical fibers to evaluate the feasibility of monitoring strains with a fiber optic technique. Resistance strain gauges were attached to the tubes to measure strain at four locations along the tube for comparison with the fiber optic sensors. Both static and dynamic strain measurements were made with excellent agreement between the embedded fiber optic strain sensor and the strain gauges. Strain measurements of 10(exp -7) can be detected with the optical phase locked loop (OPLL) system using optical fiber. Because of their light weight, compatibility with composites, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and based on the static and dynamic results obtained, fiber optic sensors embedded in composites may be useful as the sensing component of smart structures

Socioeconomic Status and Medical Care Expenditures in Medicare Managed Care

This study examined the effects of education, income, and wealth on medical care expenditures in two Medicare managed care plans. The study also sought to elucidate the pathways through which socioeconomic status (SES) affects expenditures, including preferences for health and medical care and ability to navigate the managed care system. We modeled the effect of SES on medical care expenditures using Generalized Linear Models, estimating separate models for each component of medical expenditures: inpatient, outpatient, physician, and other expenditures. We found that education, income, and wealth all affected medical care expenditures, although the effects of these variables differed across expenditure categories. Moreover, the effects of these SES variables were much smaller than the effects found in earlier studies of fee-for-service Medicare. The pathway variables also were associated with expenditures. Accounting for the pathways through which SES affects expenditures narrowed the effect of SES on expenditures; however, the change in the estimates was very small. Thus, although our measures of preferences and ability to navigate the system were associated with expenditures, they did not account for an appreciable share of the impact of SES on expenditures.

Unraveling the complexity of protein backbone dynamics with combined 13C and 15N solid-state NMR relaxation measurements

Typically, protein dynamics involve a complex hierarchy of motions occurring on different time scales between conformations separated by a range of different energy barriers. NMR relaxation can in principle provide a site-specific picture of both the time scales and amplitudes of these motions, but independent relaxation rates sensitive to fluctuations in different time scale ranges are required to obtain a faithful representation of the underlying dynamic complexity. This is especially pertinent for relaxation measurements in the solid state, which report on dynamics in a broader window of time scales by more than 3 orders of magnitudes compared to solution NMR relaxation. To aid in unraveling the intricacies of biomolecular dynamics we introduce 13C spin–lattice relaxation in the rotating frame (R1ρ) as a probe of backbone nanosecond-microsecond motions in proteins in the solid state. We present measurements of 13C′ R1ρ rates in fully protonated crystalline protein GB1 at 600 and 850 MHz 1H Larmor frequencies and compare them to 13C′ R1, 15N R1 and R1ρ measured under the same conditions. The addition of carbon relaxation data to the model free analysis of nitrogen relaxation data leads to greatly improved characterization of time scales of protein backbone motions, minimizing the occurrence of fitting artifacts that may be present when 15N data is used alone. We also discuss how internal motions characterized by different time scales contribute to 15N and 13C relaxation rates in the solid state and solution state, leading to fundamental differences between them, as well as phenomena such as underestimation of picosecond-range motions in the solid state and nanosecond-range motions in solution

Human rights and ethical reasoning : capabilities, conventions and spheres of public action

This interdisciplinary article argues that human rights must be understood in terms of opportunities for social participation and that social and economic rights are integral to any discussion of the subject. We offer both a social constructionist and a normative framework for a sociology of human rights which reaches beyond liberal individualism, combining insights from the work of Amartya Sen and from French convention theory. Following Sen, we argue that human rights are founded on the promotion of human capabilities as ethical demands shaped by public reasoning. Using French convention theory, we show how the terms of such deliberation are shaped by different constructions of collectively held values and the compromises reached between them. We conclude by demonstrating how our approach offers a new perspective on spheres of public action and the role these should play in promoting social cohesion, individual capabilities and human rights

Neoliberalism, managerialism and the reconfiguring of social work in Sweden and the United Kingdom

This is the author's manuscript of an article published in Archaeological Dialogues. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508412448222This paper considers some of the ways in which neoliberalism, through the processes of managerialism, has impacted on the occupation of social work in Sweden and the UK. It is argued that there are similar implications in both countries, through the managerial drive for increased performance in economy, efficiency and effectiveness, but also in the development of evidence based practice. Whilst the key focus of the paper is on similarities between these two countries, differences are also noted. There is also recognition of the way in which resistance to the reconfiguration of social work is taking shape