Medium Modifications of Hadron Properties and Partonic Processes

Chiral symmetry is one of the most fundamental symmetries in QCD. It is closely connected to hadron properties in the nuclear medium via the reduction of the quark condensate , manifesting the partial restoration of chiral symmetry. To better understand this important issue, a number of Jefferson Lab experiments over the past decade have focused on understanding properties of mesons and nucleons in the nuclear medium, often benefiting from the high polarization and luminosity of the CEBAF accelerator. In particular, a novel, accurate, polarization transfer measurement technique revealed for the first time a strong indication that the bound proton electromagnetic form factors in 4He may be modified compared to those in the vacuum. Second, the photoproduction of vector mesons on various nuclei has been measured via their decay to e+e- to study possible in-medium effects on the properties of the rho meson. In this experiment, no significant mass shift and some broadening consistent with expected collisional broadening for the rho meson has been observed, providing tight constraints on model calculations. Finally, processes involving in-medium parton propagation have been studied. The medium modifications of the quark fragmentation functions have been extracted with much higher statistical accuracy than previously possible.Comment: to appear in J. Phys.: Conf. Proc. "New Insights into the Structure of Matter: The First Decade of Science at Jefferson Lab", eds. D. Higinbotham, W. Melnitchouk, A. Thomas; added reference

The southern dust pillars of the Carina Nebula

We present preliminary results from a detailed study towards four previously detected bright mid-infrared sources in the southern part of the Carina Nebula: G287.73--0.92, G287.84--0.82, G287.93--0.99 and G288.07--0.80. All of these sources are located at the heads of giant dust pillars that point towards the nearby massive star cluster, Trumpler 16. It is unclear if these pillars are the prime sites for a new generation of triggered star formation or if instead they are the only remaining parts of the nebula where ongoing star fromation can take place.Comment: 2 pages, to appear in the proceedings of "Hot Star Workshop III: The Earliest Phases of Massive Star Birth" (ed. P.A. Crowther

Progression and assessment in foreign languages at Key Stage 2

The teaching of primary languages has been increasing steadily, in response to the future entitlement for all Key Stage 2 (KS2) pupils aged 7-11 to learn a foreign language by 2010. However, there remain concerns about progression both within KS2 and through to secondary school and about how learners' progress is assessed. This paper presents findings on the issues of progression and assessment taken from case studies which formed part of a project funded by the then Department for Education and Skills (DfES), now the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). This project set out to evaluate 19 local authority (LA) Pathfinders in England that were piloting the introduction of foreign language learning at KS2 between 2003 and 2005. Findings revealed that there was inconsistency between schools, even within each LA Pathfinder, in the use of schemes of work and that assessment was generally underdeveloped in the majority of the Pathfinders. In order to set these findings in context, this paper examines the issues of progression and assessment in foreign language learning in England. Finally, it investigates the challenges English primary schools face in terms of progression and assessment in the light of the new entitlement and discusses implications for the future. Managing progression, both within KS2 and through to secondary school at KS3 (ages 11-14), is one of the key factors in determining the overall success of starting languages in primary school

Type I Error Inflation of the Separate-Variances Welch t test with Very Small Sample Sizes when Assumptions Are Met

This Monte Carlo study shows that the separate-variances Welch t test has inflated Type I error rates at very small sample sizes, especially when sample sizes are very small in one group and larger in the second group – even when all assumptions for the statistical test are met

Spacecraft System Integration and Test: SSTI Lewis critical design audit

The Critical Design Audit package is the final detailed design package which provides a comprehensive description of the SSTI mission. This package includes the program overview, the system requirements, the science and applications activities, the ground segment development, the assembly, integration and test description, the payload and technology demonstrations, and the spacecraft bus subsystems. Publication and presentation of this document marks the final requirements and design freeze for SSTI

Low EUV Luminosities Impinging on Protoplanetary Disks

The amount of high-energy stellar radiation reaching the surface of protoplanetary disks is essential to determine their chemistry and physical evolution. Here, we use millimetric and centimetric radio data to constrain the EUV luminosity impinging on 14 disks around young (~2-10Myr) sun-like stars. For each object we identify the long-wavelength emission in excess to the dust thermal emission, attribute that to free-free disk emission, and thereby compute an upper limit to the EUV reaching the disk. We find upper limits lower than 10$^{42}$ photons/s for all sources without jets and lower than $5 \times 10^{40}$ photons/s for the three older sources in our sample. These latter values are low for EUV-driven photoevaporation alone to clear out protoplanetary material in the timescale inferred by observations. In addition, our EUV upper limits are too low to reproduce the [NeII] 12.81 micron luminosities from three disks with slow [NeII]-detected winds. This indicates that the [NeII] line in these sources primarily traces a mostly neutral wind where Ne is ionized by 1 keV X-ray photons, implying higher photoevaporative mass loss rates than those predicted by EUV-driven models alone. In summary, our results suggest that high-energy stellar photons other than EUV may dominate the dispersal of protoplanetary disks around sun-like stars.Comment: Accepted for publication to The Astrophysical Journa

A proposal for a comprehensive grading of Parkinson's disease severity combining motor and non-motor assessments: meeting an unmet need.

Non-motor symptoms are present in Parkinson's disease (PD) and a key determinant of quality of life. The Non-motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) is a validated scale that allows quantifying frequency and severity (burden) of NMS. We report a proposal for using NMSS scores to determine levels of NMS burden (NMSB) and to complete PD patient classification

Absorbent products for urinary/faecal incontinence: a comparative evaluation of key product designs

Background: The UK health service, nursing homes and public spend around £94 million per year on incontinence pads (absorbent products) to contain urine and/or faeces, but the research base for making informed choices between different product designs is very weak.Objectives: The aim of this trial was to compare the performance and cost-effectiveness of the key absorbent product designs to provide a more solid basis for guiding selection and purchase.A further aim was to carry out the first stage in the development of a quality of life instrument for measuring the impact of absorbent product use on users' lives.Design: The work involved three clinical trials focusing on the three biggest market sectors. Each trial had a similar crossover design in which each participant tested all products within their group in random order.Settings, participants and methods: In Trial 1, 85 women with light urinary incontinence living in the community tested three products from each of the four design categories available (total of 12 test products): disposable inserts (pads); menstrual pads; washable pants with integral pad; and washable inserts. In Trial 2a, 85 moderate/heavily incontinent adults (urinary or urinary/faecal) living in the community (49 men and 36 women) tested three (or two) products from each of the five design categories available (total of 14 test products): disposable inserts (with mesh pants); disposable diapers (nappies); disposable pull-ups (similar to toddlers' trainer pants); disposable T-shaped diapers (nappies with waist-band); and washable diapers. All products were provided in a daytime and a (mostly more absorbent) night-time variant. In these first two trials, the test products were selected on the basis of data from pilot studies. In Trial 2b, 100 moderate/heavily incontinent adults (urinary or urinary/faecal) living in 10 nursing homes (27 men and 73 women) evaluated one product from each of the four disposable design categories from Trial 2a. Products were selected on the basis of product performance in Trial 2a and, again, daytime and night-time variants were provided. The first phase of work to develop a quality of life tool for measuring the impact of using different pad designs was carried out by interviewing participants from Trials 1 and 2a.Outcome measures: Product performance was characterised using validated questionnaires, which asked the participants (in Trials 1 and 2a) or carers (all participants in Trial 2b, except for the few who could report for themselves) to evaluate various aspects of pad performance (leakage, ease of putting on, discreetness, etc.) using a five-point scale (very good–very poor) at the end of the week (or 2 weeks for Trial 2b) of product testing. In addition, participants/carers were asked to save individual used pads in bags for weighing and to indicate the severity of any leakage from them on a three-point scale (none, a little, a lot). These data were used to determine differences in leakage performance. Numbers of laundry items and pads used were recorded to estimate costs, and skin health changes were recorded by the participant or by the researchers (Trial 2b). At the end of testing, participants were interviewed and ranked their preferences (with and without costs), stated the acceptability of each design (highly acceptable–totally unacceptable) and recorded their overall opinion on a visual analogue scale (VAS) of 0–100 points (worst design–best design). This VAS score was used with product costs to estimate cost-effectiveness. In addition, a timed pad changing exercise was conducted with 10 women from Trial 2b to determine any differences between product designs.Results: Results presented are for statistically and clinically significant findings.<br/

Particulate and aerosol detector

A device is described for counting aerosols and sorting them according to either size, mass or energy. The component parts are an accelerator, a capacitor sensor and a readout. The accelerator is a means for accelerating the aerosols toward the face of the capacitor sensor with such force that they partially penetrate the capacitor sensor, momentarily discharging it. The readout device is a means for counting the number of discharges of the capacitor sensor and measuring the amplitudes of these different discharges. The aerosols are accelerated by the accelerator in the direction of the metal layer with such force that they penetrate the metal and damage the oxide layers, thereby allowing the electrical charge on the capacitor to discharge through the damaged region. Each incident aerosol initiates a discharge path through the capacitor in such a fashion as to vaporize the conducting path. Once the discharge action is complete, the low resistance path no longer exists between the two capacitor plates and the capacitor is again able to accept a charge. The active area of the capacitor is reduced in size by the damaged area each time a discharge occurs