An analysis of oral reading achievement in relation to a basal text,

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Treatment of chronic pain for adults 65 and over: analyses of outcomes and changes in psychological flexibility following interdisciplinary acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

Objective. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for older adults with chronic pain. Secondarily, we examined the associations between changes on processes of psychological flexibility and treatment outcome variables. Subjects. Participants were 60 adults with chronic pain age 65 and older selected from a larger consecutive sample of 928 adults of any age. All participants had longstanding pain that was associated with significant distress and disability. Methods. Participants completed measures of pain, functioning, and depression, and processes of psychological flexibility at baseline, immediately posttreatment, and at a 9-month follow-up. Treatment consisted of a 2- or 4-week residential program based on principles of ACT delivered by an interdisciplinary team. Treatment was designed to increase daily functioning by enhancing key processes of psychological flexibility, including openness, awareness, and committed action. Results. Participants showed significant improvements in functioning and mental health at posttreatment. Participants also showed significant increases in pain acceptance and committed action from pre to post-treatment. Small effect sizes were observed for most treatment outcome and process variables in the pre-treatment to follow-up intervals; however, these improvements were not statistically significant. In secondary analyses, changes in facets of psychological flexibility were significantly associated with improvements in social functioning and mental health. Conclusion. This study supports the potential effectiveness of ACT for chronic pain among older adults. Future research is needed to determine how to maximize the impact of this treatment, particularly through greater impact on psychological flexibility

FRII radio sources in rich clusters of galaxies

A sample of FRII radio sources in rich clusters of galaxies, both at high (z\sim0.5) and low (z\sim0) redshift, has been constructed to study the effect of environment on radio sources. Comparisons are made between the properties of FRII sources in cluster and non-cluster environments, and between X-ray clusters with and without FRII sources. The principal results are the following: 1. Most low-redshift FRII sources in clusters appear to be similar to FRII sources in group or field environments in terms of radio power, optical properties of the host galaxy, and nonthermal pressure of the radio bridge. Most low-redshift clusters with FRII sources tend to lie at the lower end of cluster X-ray luminosity distribution, some having L_x comparable to FRII sources in non-cluster environments. 2. High-redshift FRII sources are all quite similar to each other irrespective of their environments. The nonthermal pressures of their radio bridges appear to be similar to those of low-redshift FRII's. 3. The nonthermal pressures of the bridges of FRII sources appear to be similar to the thermal pressures of the ICM around them. This result would allow FRII sources to be used as probes of their gaseous environments. The current data imply that the evolution in the clustering strength around FRII sources toward high-redshift is likely to be closely linked to an evolution of the state of the intracluster medium

Northwest Africa 11522: A New Paired Stone of Martian Polymict Regolith Breccia Northwest Africa 7034

No abstract available

Spectroscopic characterization and detection of Ethyl Mercaptan in Orion

New laboratory data of ethyl mercaptan, CH$_{3}$CH$_{2}$SH, in the millimeter and submillimeter-wave domains (up to 880 GHz) provided very precise values of the spectroscopic constants that allowed the detection of $gauche$-CH$_3$CH$_2$SH towards Orion KL. 77 unblended or slightly blended lines plus no missing transitions in the range 80-280 GHz support this identification. A detection of methyl mercaptan, CH$_{3}$SH, in the spectral survey of Orion KL is reported as well. Our column density results indicate that methyl mercaptan is $\simeq$ 5 times more abundant than ethyl mercaptan in the hot core of Orion KL.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL (30 January 2014)/ submitted (8 January 2014

Nitric oxide affects short-term olfactory memory in the antennal lobe of Manduca sexta

Nitric oxide (NO) is thought to play an important neuromodulatory role in olfaction. We are using the hawkmoth Manduca sexta to investigate the function of NO signaling in the antennal lobe (AL; the primary olfactory network in invertebrates). We have found previously that NO is present at baseline levels, dramatically increases in response to odor stimulation, and alters the electrophysiology of AL neurons. It is unclear, however, how these effects contribute to common features of olfactory systems such as olfactory learning and memory, odor detection and odor discrimination. In this study, we used chemical detection and a behavioral approach to further examine the function of NO in the AL. We found that basal levels of NO fluctuate with the daily light cycle, being higher during the nocturnal active period. NO also appears to be necessary for short-term olfactory memory. NO does not appear to affect odor detection, odor discrimination between dissimilar odorants, or learning acquisition. These findings suggest a modulatory role for NO in the timing of olfactory-guided behaviors

Global Cosmological Parameters Determined Using Classical Double Radio Galaxies

A sample of 20 powerful extended radio galaxies with redshifts between zero and two were used to determine constraints on global cosmological parameters. Data for six radio sources were obtained from the VLA archive, analyzed, and combined with the sample of 14 radio galaxies used previously by Guerra & Daly to determine cosmological parameters. The results are consistent with our previous results, and indicate that the current value of the mean mass density of the universe is significantly less than the critical value. A universe with $\Omega_m$ of unity is ruled out at 99.0% confidence, and the best fitting values of $\Omega_m$ in matter are $0.10^{+0.25}_{-0.10}$ and $-0.25^{+0.35}_{-0.25}$ assuming zero space curvature and zero cosmological constant, respectively. Note that identical results obtain when the low redshift bin, which includes Cygnus A, is excluded; these results are independent of whether the radio source Cygnus A is included. The method does not rely on a zero-redshift normalization. The radio properties of each source are also used to determine the density of the gas in the vicinity of the source, and the beam power of the source. The six new radio sources have physical characteristics similar to those found for the original 14 sources. The density of the gas around these radio sources is typical of gas in present day clusters of galaxies. The beam powers are typically about $10^{45} \hbox{erg s}^{-1}$.Comment: 39 pages includes 21 figures, accepted to Ap

Quintessence, Cosmology, and Fanaroff-Riley Type IIB Radio Galaxies

Fanaroff-Riley type IIb (FR IIb) radio galaxies provide a modified standard yardstick that allows constraints to be placed on global cosmological parameters. A sample of 20 FR IIb radio galaxies with redshifts between 0 and 2 are compared with the parent population of 70 radio galaxies to determine the coordinate distance to each source. The coordinate-distance determinations are used to constrain the current mean mass-energy density of quintessence $\Omega_q$, the equation of state of the quintessence w, and the current mean mass-energy density of nonrelativistic matter $\Omega_m$; zero space curvature is assumed. Radio galaxies alone indicate that the universe is currently accelerating in its expansion (with 84% confidence); most of the allowed parameter space falls within the accelerating universe region on the $\Omega_m$-w plane. This provides verification of the acceleration of the universe indicated by high-redshift supernovae and suggests that neither method is plagued by systematic errors. It is found that $\Omega_m$ must be less than about 0.5 and the equation of state w of the quintessence must lie between -0.25 and -2.5 at about 90% confidence. Fits of the radio galaxy data constrain the model parameter $\beta$, which describes a relation between the beam power of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and the total energy expelled through large-scale jets. It is shown that the empirically determined model parameter is consistent with models in which the outflow results from the electromagnetic extraction of rotational energy from the central compact object. A specific relation between the strength of the magnetic field near the AGN and the spin angular momentum per unit mass of the central compact object is predicted

Time Perspective and All-Cause Mortality : Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Acknowledgments We gratefully acknowledge funding support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/L010437/1, ESRC Future Leaders grant to M. Daly) and European Union’s H2020 Work Programme (2014–2020) (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Career Development Fellowship to M.  Daly funded under the Research Executive Agency grant agreement 750169). We thank the UK Data Archive for providing these data which, along with materials, have been made available to researchers at https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200011.Peer reviewedPostprin