Strategies for a Successful PhD Program: Words of Wisdom From the \u3cem\u3eWJNR\u3c/em\u3e Editorial Board

Nursing doctoral programs prepare students for research-focused careers within academic settings. The purpose of this Editorial Board Special Article is to provide PhD students and advisors with suggestions for making the most of their doctoral experience. Editorial Board members provide their individual insights on the skills and attributes students must acquire during the course of their doctoral education in order to succeed. The authors provide practical tips and advice on how to excel in a PhD program, including how to select an advisor and a dissertation committee, the importance of attending conferences to increase visibility and develop a network of colleagues, presenting and publishing research while still a student, and balancing work and personal life. Students who take full advantage of the opportunities available to them during the course of their doctoral programs will graduate well prepared to take on the multiple responsibilities of research, teaching, and leadership

The Grizzly, April 29, 1988

Alcohol Policy Discussed • Honorability Sought at Ursinus • Meet McCurdy! • Urisnus\u27 Own Oscar Winners • Come One, Come All! • Letters: Plagiarist Re-admitted?; Casey Causes Changes; Blast From the Past; Alcohol Education • Band to Perform • That Staiger Chemistry Not at all Overdue • PA Dutch Parsons • Emeritus Williamson • U.C. to Take on Trenton State in Lax Showdown Tonight • Baseball on 6-game Win Streak • Men Backhand W.M. and Albright for U.C. Victory • Tennis Women End Season 6-4 • New Football Mentor • Goldberg Finds Student Athletes • Young\u27s Notes for You • Medieval Fest at College Aids Handicapped • Final Exam Schedulehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1213/thumbnail.jp

Mid-Infrared interferometry of dust around massive evolved stars

We report long-baseline interferometric measurements of circumstellar dust around massive evolved stars with the MIDI instrument on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer and provide spectrally dispersed visibilities in the 8-13 micron wavelength band. We also present diffraction-limited observations at 10.7 micron on the Keck Telescope with baselines up to 8.7 m which explore larger scale structure. We have resolved the dust shells around the late type WC stars WR 106 and WR 95, and the enigmatic NaSt1 (formerly WR 122), suspected to have recently evolved from a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) stage. For AG Car, the protoypical LBV in our sample, we marginally resolve structure close to the star, distinct from the well-studied detached nebula. The dust shells around the two WC stars show fairly constant size in the 8-13 micron MIDI band, with gaussian half-widths of ~ 25 to 40 mas. The compact dust we detect around NaSt1 and AG Car favors recent or ongoing dust formation. Using the measured visibilities, we build spherically symmetric radiative transfer models of the WC dust shells which enable detailed comparison with existing SED-based models. Our results indicate that the inner radii of the shells are within a few tens of AU from the stars. In addition, our models favor grain size distributions with large (~ 1 micron) dust grains. This proximity of the inner dust to the hot central star emphasizes the difficulty faced by current theories in forming dust in the hostile environment around WR stars. Although we detect no direct evidence for binarity for these objects, dust production in a colliding-wind interface in a binary system is a feasible mechanism in WR systems under these conditions.Comment: 21 pages, 4 tables, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Investigation of wall normal electromagnetic actuator for seawater flow control

Submitted versio

LoCuSS: First Results from Strong-lensing Analysis of 20 Massive Galaxy Clusters at z~0.2

We present a statistical analysis of a sample of 20 strong lensing clusters drawn from the Local Cluster Substructure Survey (LoCuSS), based on high resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the cluster cores and follow-up spectroscopic observations using the Keck-I telescope. We use detailed parameterized models of the mass distribution in the cluster cores, to measure the total cluster mass and fraction of that mass associated with substructures within R<250kpc.These measurements are compared with the distribution of baryons in the cores, as traced by the old stellar populations and the X-ray emitting intracluster medium. Our main results include: (i) the distribution of Einstein radii is log-normal, with a peak and 1sigma width of =1.16+/-0.28; (ii) we detect an X-ray/lensing mass discrepancy of =1.3 at 3 sigma significance -- clusters with larger substructure fractions displaying greater mass discrepancies, and thus greater departures from hydrostatic equilibrium; (iii) cluster substructure fraction is also correlated with the slope of the gas density profile on small scales, implying a connection between cluster-cluster mergers and gas cooling. Overall our results are consistent with the view that cluster-cluster mergers play a prominent role in shaping the properties of cluster cores, in particular causing departures from hydrostatic equilibrium, and possibly disturbing cool cores. Our results do not support recent claims that large Einstein radius clusters present a challenge to the CDM paradigm.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS, replaced with accepted versio

Mechanisms of Cognitive Impairment in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease: Multimodal MRI Results from the St George's Cognition and Neuroimaging in Stroke (SCANS) Study.

Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a common cause of vascular cognitive impairment. A number of disease features can be assessed on MRI including lacunar infarcts, T2 lesion volume, brain atrophy, and cerebral microbleeds. In addition, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is sensitive to disruption of white matter ultrastructure, and recently it has been suggested that additional information on the pattern of damage may be obtained from axial diffusivity, a proposed marker of axonal damage, and radial diffusivity, an indicator of demyelination. We determined the contribution of these whole brain MRI markers to cognitive impairment in SVD. Consecutive patients with lacunar stroke and confluent leukoaraiosis were recruited into the ongoing SCANS study of cognitive impairment in SVD (n = 115), and underwent neuropsychological assessment and multimodal MRI. SVD subjects displayed poor performance on tests of executive function and processing speed. In the SVD group brain volume was lower, white matter hyperintensity volume higher and all diffusion characteristics differed significantly from control subjects (n = 50). On multi-predictor analysis independent predictors of executive function in SVD were lacunar infarct count and diffusivity of normal appearing white matter on DTI. Independent predictors of processing speed were lacunar infarct count and brain atrophy. Radial diffusivity was a stronger DTI predictor than axial diffusivity, suggesting ischaemic demyelination, seen neuropathologically in SVD, may be an important predictor of cognitive impairment in SVD. Our study provides information on the mechanism of cognitive impairment in SVD

Retinal Expression of Wnt-Pathway Mediated Genes in Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein 5 (Lrp5) Knockout Mice

Mutations in low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 (Lrp5) impair retinal angiogenesis in patients with familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR), a rare type of blinding vascular eye disease. The defective retinal vasculature phenotype in human FEVR patients is recapitulated in Lrp5 knockout $(Lrp5^{-/-})$ mouse with delayed and incomplete development of retinal vessels. In this study we examined gene expression changes in the developing $Lrp5^{−/−}$ mouse retina to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the pathology of FEVR in humans. Gene expression levels were assessed with an Illumina microarray on total RNA from $Lrp5^{−/−}$ and WT retinas isolated on postnatal day (P) 8. Regulated genes were confirmed using RT-qPCR analysis. Consistent with a role in vascular development, we identified expression changes in genes involved in cell-cell adhesion, blood vessel morphogenesis and membrane transport in $Lrp5^{−/−}$ retina compared to WT retina. In particular, tight junction protein claudin5 and amino acid transporter slc38a5 are both highly down-regulated in $Lrp5^{−/−}$ retina. Similarly, several Wnt ligands including Wnt7b show decreased expression levels. Plasmalemma vesicle associated protein (plvap), an endothelial permeability marker, in contrast, is up-regulated consistent with increased permeability in $Lrp5^{−/−}$ retinas. Together these data suggest that Lrp5 regulates multiple groups of genes that influence retinal angiogenesis and may contribute to the pathogenesis of FEVR

The extinction law in high redshift galaxies

We estimate the dust extinction laws in two intermediate redshift galaxies. The dust in the lens galaxy of LBQS1009-0252, which has an estimated lens redshift of zl~0.88, appears to be similar to that of the SMC with no significant feature at 2175 A. Only if the lens galaxy is at a redshift of zl~0.3, completely inconsistent with the galaxy colors, luminosity or location on the fundamental plane, can the data be fit with a normal Galactic extinction curve. The dust in the zl=0.68 lens galaxy for B0218+357, whose reddened image lies behind a molecular cloud, requires a very flat ultraviolet extinction curve with (formally) R(V)=12 +- 2. Both lens systems seem to have unusual extinction curves by Galactic standards.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. ApJ in pres

The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) survey

We are developing a purely commensal survey experiment for fast (<5s) transient radio sources. Short-timescale transients are associated with the most energetic and brightest single events in the Universe. Our objective is to cover the enormous volume of transients parameter space made available by ASKAP, with an unprecedented combination of sensitivity and field of view. Fast timescale transients open new vistas on the physics of high brightness temperature emission, extreme states of matter and the physics of strong gravitational fields. In addition, the detection of extragalactic objects affords us an entirely new and extremely sensitive probe on the huge reservoir of baryons present in the IGM. We outline here our approach to the considerable challenge involved in detecting fast transients, particularly the development of hardware fast enough to dedisperse and search the ASKAP data stream at or near real-time rates. Through CRAFT, ASKAP will provide the testbed of many of the key technologies and survey modes proposed for high time resolution science with the SKA.Comment: accepted for publication in PAS

The Grizzly, September 23, 1988

Sexual Harassment: Battling Sex Roles • Bridging the Gap • Parents\u27 Day Fair Promising • Letter: U.C. Knows Worth • U.C. Loses in Ratings Game • Sporting Theatre • Fife Marches to Math Cadence • Volleyball Hits Target • Soccer on Winning Streak • Lady Bears Back in Groove Again • Bears Lose Second Straight • Sports Exhibit Openshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1218/thumbnail.jp