The Diviners (February 5-7, 13-14, 2009)

Program from The Diviners (February 5-7, 13-14, 2009). To view the photos from this production of The Diviners, please click here

Zombies among Us: Injunctions in Defamation Cases Come Back from the Dead

Here\u27s a scary thought: an individual, unhappy with negative statements that have been made about him, sues for defamation and persuades the trial court to issue an injunction prohibiting the speaker from engaging in that speech again. An appellate court reviews the injunction and, in large measure, upholds it. This creepy scenario brings shudders to free speech and media advocates, who have long viewed such injunctions as prior restraints that the First Amendment forbids in all but the most extreme and extraordinary cases. As a recent decision from the Michigan Court of Appeals demonstrates, however, decades of United States Supreme Court opinions strongly condemning prior restraints have failed to drive a stake through the heart of injunctions in libel cases

Efficacy of curently reccommended control measures for lameness in dairy cows.

End of Project ReportLameness is a multifactorial condition, the principal factors influencing its development being genetics, nutrition, environment and management. The objectives of the studies reported here were: (i) To determine the incidence of lameness on selected Irish commercial dairy farms, ii) To identify and to quantify risk factors associated with lameness on Irish dairy farms and (iii) To evaluate the efficacy of recommended control measures for lameness with the aid of information obtained through (i) and (ii). • The average number of animals which became lame per six month period (Jan-Jun or July-December) on 14 commercial dairy farms was between 12 and 16 per 100 cows. On individual farms the figure could be as high as 31 per 100 during any six month period. • White line disease was the most common cause of lameness with sole ulceration being the second most common. • Poor maintenance of roads with little use of top dressing and the presence of concrete roadways on farms were both associated with a detrimental effect on lameness incidence. Thus, prevention of lameness at pasture entails maintaining roads in good condition and, if concrete roads are used for cows, care must be taken to ensure that the junction between the concrete and the dirt road is maintained in good condition and that the concrete is maintained free of grit. • Cubicles on most farms have not been upgraded sufficiently to provide adequate cow comfort. Many are too small for the size of cows housed and bedding is frequently insufficient. Uncomfortable housing conditions resulted in less lying behaviour and more standing half-in cubicles. • Restricted feed space was associated with more lameness. Experimental studies suggested that this effect was likely to be mediated through increased aggression between animals. • Higher levels of concentrate feeding correlated with more lameness. Increasing fibre in the diet in the form of sugar beet pulp appeared to protect against lameness. There was some evidence that feeding maize silage may increase lameness incidence but this effect requires further study. Cows housed in all space-sharing cubicle designs tested showed good lying times. The finding that cows will reduce use of cubicles in order to stand on a soft matted area suggests that even spacesharing cubicles may not always provide sufficiently comfortable conditions for cows. It also reinforces the findings of work at Moorepark and elsewhere that cows do not like standing on concrete in addition to the fact that it can be detrimental to claw health. All of the above findings suggest that lameness incidence could be reduced by maintaining roads in good condition, avoiding the use of concrete if possible, providing comfortable housing conditions and avoiding all design features which reduce cubicle occupancy and which increase aggression between cows.Dairy Levy Farmer FundsEuropean Union Structural Funds (EAGGF

Thermal Testing of Ablators in the NASA Johnson Space Center Radiant Heat Test Facility

A spacecraft's thermal protection system (TPS) is required to survive the harsh environment experienced during reentry. Accurate thermal modeling of the TPS is required to since uncertainties in the thermal response result in higher design margins and an increase in mass. The Radiant Heat Test Facility (RHTF) located at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) replicates the reentry temperatures and pressures on system level full scale TPS test models for the validation of thermal math models. Reusable TPS, i.e. tile or reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC), have been the primary materials tested in the past. However, current capsule designs for MPCV and commercial programs have required the use of an ablator TPS. The RHTF has successfully completed a pathfinder program on avcoat ablator material to demonstrate the feasibility of ablator testing. The test results and corresponding ablation analysis results are presented in this paper

Large N and the Dine-Rajaraman problem

We compute the effective action for scattering of three well-separated extremal brane solutions, in 11d supergravity, with zero p_ transfer and small transverse velocities. Using an interpretation of the conjecture of Maldacena, following Hyun, this can be viewed as the large N limit of the Matrix theory description of three supergraviton scattering at leading order. The result is consistent with the perturbative supergravity calculation.Comment: 10 pages, tex (harvmac

Canopy Interception of Acid Deposition in Southern Ontario

The impact of tree canopies on acid deposition was examined. Differences in the chemical composition of unintercepted precipitation (dustfall) and canopy was intercepted precipitation (throughfall) at 18 southern Ontario forests, collected during the summers of 1995-1996, were chemically analyzed. The methodology of collection and analysis validated using consistency checks for interception loss, maintenance of electrical neutrality and ion correlation. T-test analyses found throughfall fluxes of K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and NO3- were significantly higher than dustfall flux (p < 0.05), consistent with other studies. Barrie and nearby sites at Orillia and Bracebridge had larger dustfall depositions of base cations and Cl- suggesting a nearby source of these ions. T-tests revealed large exceedances of pH and sulphate concentration in dustfall over throughfall at the two Scarborough sites; a local point source of sulphates in the Greater Toronto Area was suspected

Effect of genital herpes on cervicovaginal HIV shedding in women co-infected with HIV AND HSV-2 in Tanzania.

To compare the presence and quantity of cervicovaginal HIV among HIV seropositive women with clinical herpes, subclinical HSV-2 infection and without HSV-2 infection respectively; to evaluate the association between cervicovaginal HIV and HSV shedding; and identify factors associated with quantity of cervicovaginal HIV. Four groups of HIV seropositive adult female barworkers were identified and examined at three-monthly intervals between October 2000 and March 2003 in Mbeya, Tanzania: (1) 57 women at 70 clinic visits with clinical genital herpes; (2) 39 of the same women at 46 clinic visits when asymptomatic; (3) 55 HSV-2 seropositive women at 60 clinic visits who were never observed with herpetic lesions; (4) 18 HSV-2 seronegative women at 45 clinic visits. Associations of genital HIV shedding with HIV plasma viral load (PVL), herpetic lesions, HSV shedding and other factors were examined. Prevalence of detectable genital HIV RNA varied from 73% in HSV-2 seronegative women to 94% in women with herpetic lesions (geometric means 1634 vs 3339 copies/ml, p = 0.03). In paired specimens from HSV-2 positive women, genital HIV viral shedding was similar during symptomatic and asymptomatic visits. On multivariate regression, genital HIV RNA (log10 copies/mL) was closely associated with HIV PVL (β = 0.51 per log10 copies/ml increase, 95%CI:0.41-0.60, p<0.001) and HSV shedding (β = 0.24 per log10 copies/ml increase, 95% CI:0.16-0.32, p<0.001) but not the presence of herpetic lesions (β = -0.10, 95%CI:-0.28-0.08, p = 0.27). HIV PVL and HSV shedding were more important determinants of genital HIV than the presence of herpetic lesions. These data support a role of HSV-2 infection in enhancing HIV transmissibility

Subcommittee Report on the Establishment of a State Ethics Commission

The establishment of a State Ethics Commission relates directly to ethics reform in the state of New Mexico. Such a commission does not exist in New Mexico, the establishment of which would represent a tangible and concrete manifestation of a state commitment to ethics reform, as well as the top-down expectation that state officials (elected or otherwise) will be held to the highest standard of conduct in the performance of their duties. In addition, while New Mexico does have statutory proscriptions against certain kinds or conduct or requiring other kinds of conduct (i.e., the Government Conduct Act, the Procurement Act, Campaign Practices Act), there is no common set of ethical guidelines that apply uniformly to all executive agencies, elected officials, and employees. Moreover, there is no agency or organization that is charged with receiving reports of ethical misconduct, investigating such reports, and taking action as necessary, including disciplinary action. A state ethics commission could be established to do exactly that. This report reviews the options for establishing a state ethics commission and provides recommendations

THE USE OF BASEL SCORE IN EARLY DETECTION OF CORONARY LESION SEVERITY IN NON-ST SEGMENT ELEVATION MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION AND UNSTABLE ANGINA PECTORIS

Early diagnosis of cardiac ischemia is crucial for effective management of acute myocardial infarction. The BASEL (Better Analysis of ST-segment Elevations and Depressions in a 12-leads-ECG) score has been shown to provide additional diagnostic value to the established electrocardiographic (ECG) criteria. This study aimed to evaluate the use of BASEL score to determine the severity of coronary lesions in patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome. This study used a cross-sectional approach and was conducted from January 2021 to January 2022. From a total of 90 subjects, more than three-quarters were male, while the mean age was 60.3 years. The median BASEL score was 2.3 (1–4.2). GRACE 2.0 score had a mean of 97.3±26. The SYNTAX I score had a mean of 25±15.6, the SYNTAX II – PCI median score was 34.5 (25.9-42.4), and the SYNTAX II-CABG mean score was 23.4±11.9. The BASEL score showed a significant association with the SYNTAX I score both in univariate 2.60 (2.60-3.59),

Ariel - Volume 9 Number 3

Executive Editor Emily Wofford Business Manager Fredric Jay Matlin University News John Patrick Welch World News George Robert Coar Editorials Editor Steve Levine Features Mark Rubin Brad Feldstein Photo Rick Spaide Circulation Victor Onufreiczuk Lee Wugofski Graphics and Art Steve Hulkower Commons Editor Brenda Peterso