Lincoln at Gettysburg

This is an envelope enclosing four photograph reproductions. Produced for Eastern National Park & Monument Association. It’s front features a photograph image of President Abraham Lincoln. Its verso contains information about each photograph.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-artifacts/5776/thumbnail.jp

Are health-promoting prisons an impossibility? Lessons from England and Wales

Investigates 1999/2000 health promotion activities in prisons in England and Wales and documents the range and quality of health promotion occurring in prisons, against which future activity might be measured. Finds that health promotion is under-resourced and the concept and practice poorly understood. Health needs assessment tended to be analysis of and for health-care services and, except in a minority of cases, did not include consultation with staff, prisoners or their families. Where responsibility was shared and the work based on multi-disciplinary approaches, it seems more likely to have been reported accurately as health promotion activity. The official policy of a healthy settings/whole prison approach was not understood by many and its application was limited. The findings have informed the development of a new health promotion strategy for the prison service in England and Wales

Massively parallel landscape-evolution modelling using general purpose graphical processing units

As our expectations of what computer systems can do and our ability to capture data improves, the desire to perform ever more computationally intensive tasks increases. Often these tasks, comprising vast numbers of repeated computations, are highly interdependent on each other – a closely coupled problem. The process of Landscape-Evolution Modelling is an example of such a problem. In order to produce realistic models it is necessary to process landscapes containing millions of data points over time periods extending up to millions of years. This leads to non-tractable execution times, often in the order of years. Researchers therefore seek multiple orders of magnitude reduction in the execution time of these models. The massively parallel programming environment offered through General Purpose Graphical Processing Units offers the potential for multiple orders of magnitude speedup in code execution times. In this paper we demonstrate how the time dominant parts of a Landscape-Evolution Model can be recoded for a massively parallel architecture providing two orders of magnitude reduction in execution time

Integral equations for simple fluids in a general reference functional approach

The integral equations for the correlation functions of an inhomogeneous fluid mixture are derived using a functional Taylor expansion of the free energy around an inhomogeneous equilibrium distribution. The system of equations is closed by the introduction of a reference functional for the correlations beyond second order in the density difference from the equilibrium distribution. Explicit expressions are obtained for energies required to insert particles of the fluid mixture into the inhomogeneous system. The approach is illustrated by the determination of the equation of state of a simple, truncated Lennard--Jones fluid and the analysis of the behavior of this fluid near a hard wall. The wall--fluid integral equation exhibits complete drying and the corresponding coexisting densities are in good agreement with those obtained from the standard (Maxwell) construction applied to the bulk fluid. Self--consistency of the approach is examined by analyzing the virial/compressibility routes to the equation of state and the Gibbs--Duhem relation for the bulk fluid, and the contact density sum rule and the Gibbs adsorption equation for the hard wall problem. For the bulk fluid, we find good self--consistency for stable states outside the critical region. For the hard wall problem, the Gibbs adsorption equation is fulfilled very well near phase coexistence where the adsorption is large.For the contact density sum rule, we find some deviationsnear coexistence due to a slight disagreement between the coexisting density for the gas phase obtained from the Maxwell construction and from complete drying at the hard wall.Comment: 29 page

A genomewide scan for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in an extended sample: Suggestive linkage on 17p11

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD [MIM 143465]) is a common, highly heritable neurobehavioral disorder of childhood onset, characterized by hyperactivity, impulsivity, and/or inattention. As part of an ongoing study of the genetic etiology of ADHD, we have performed a genomewide linkage scan in 204 nuclear families comprising 853 individuals and 270 affected sibling pairs (ASPs). Previously, we reported genomewide linkage analysis of a “first wave” of these families composed of 126 ASPs. A follow-up investigation of one region on 16p yielded significant linkage in an extended sample. The current study extends the original sample of 126 ASPs to 270 ASPs and provides linkage analyses of the entire sample, using polymorphic microsatellite markers that define an ∼10-cM map across the genome. Maximum LOD score (MLS) analysis identified suggestive linkage for 17p11 (MLS=2.98) and four nominal regions with MLS values >1.0, including 5p13, 6q14, 11q25, and 20q13. These data, taken together with the fine mapping on 16p13, suggest two regions as highly likely to harbor risk genes for ADHD: 16p13 and 17p11. Interestingly, both regions, as well as 5p13, have been highlighted in genomewide scans for autism

Non-existence and uniqueness results for supercritical semilinear elliptic equations

Non-existence and uniqueness results are proved for several local and non-local supercritical bifurcation problems involving a semilinear elliptic equation depending on a parameter. The domain is star-shaped but no other symmetry assumption is required. Uniqueness holds when the bifurcation parameter is in a certain range. Our approach can be seen, in some cases, as an extension of non-existence results for non-trivial solutions. It is based on Rellich-Pohozaev type estimates. Semilinear elliptic equations naturally arise in many applications, for instance in astrophysics, hydrodynamics or thermodynamics. We simplify the proof of earlier results by K. Schmitt and R. Schaaf in the so-called local multiplicative case, extend them to the case of a non-local dependence on the bifurcation parameter and to the additive case, both in local and non-local settings.Comment: Annales Henri Poincar\'e (2009) to appea

Local Chatter or International Buzz? Language Differences on Posts about Zika Research on Twitter and Facebook

Background When the Zika virus outbreak became a global health emergency in early 2016, the scientific community responded with an increased output of Zika-related research. This upsurge in research naturally made its way into academic journals along with editorials, news, and reports. However, it is not yet known how or whether these scholarly communications were distributed to the populations most affected by Zika. Methodology/Principal findings To understand how scientific outputs about Zika reached global and local audiences, we collected Tweets and Facebook posts that linked to Zika-related research in the first six months of 2016. Using a language detection algorithm, we found that up to 90% of Twitter and 76% of Facebook posts are in English. However, when none of the authors of the scholarly article are from English-speaking countries, posts on both social media are less likely to be in English. The effect is most pronounced on Facebook, where the likelihood of posting in English is between 11 and 16% lower when none of the authors are from English-speaking countries, as compared to when some or all are. Similarly, posts about papers written with a Brazilian author are 13% more likely to be in Portuguese on Facebook than when made on Twitter. Conclusions/Significance Our main conclusion is that scholarly communication on Twitter and Facebook of Zikarelated research is dominated by English, despite Brazil being the epicenter of the Zika epidemic. This result suggests that scholarly findings about the Zika virus are unlikely to be distributed directly to relevant populations through these popular online mediums. Nevertheless, there are differences between platforms. Compared to Twitter, scholarly communication on Facebook is more likely to be in the language of an author’s country. The Zika outbreak provides a useful case-study for understanding how scientific outputs are communicated to relevant populations. Our results suggest that Facebook is a more effective channel than Twitter, if communication is desired to be in the native language of the affected country. Further research should explore how local media—such as governmental websites, newspapers and magazines, as well as television and radio—disseminate scholarly publication

Randomized controlled trial of live lactobacillus acidophilus plus bifidobacterium bifidum in prophylaxis of diarrhea during radiotherapy in cervical cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Radiation-induced diarrhea is frequently observed during pelvic radiotherapy. This study was performed to determine the ability of a probiotic containing live lactobacillus acidophilus plus bifidobacterium bifidum to reduce the incidence of radiation-induced diarrhea in locally advanced cervical cancer patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients who were undergoing pelvic radiotherapy concurrent with weekly cisplatin were randomly assigned to a study drug or placebo, in a double-blind study. Diarrhea was graded weekly according the Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) system. Stool consistency and white and red blood cell count in stool were also assessed. The primary endpoint was to reduce the incidence of diarrhea, defined by a CTC grade 2 or more, and the need for anti-diarrheal medication.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 63 patients were enrolled. Grade 2 -3 diarrhea was observed in 45% of the placebo group (n = 31) and 9% of the study drug group (n = 32) (p = 0.002). Anti-diarrheal medication use was significantly reduced in the placebo group (p = 0.03). The patients in the study drug group had a significantly improved stool consistency (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Live lactobacillus acidophilus plus bifidobacterium bifidum reduced the incidence of radiation-induced diarrhea and the need for anti-diarrheal medication and had a significant benefits on stool consistency.</p

The fallibility of memory in judicial processes: Lessons from the past and their modern consequences

The capability of adult and child witnesses to accurately recollect events from the past and provide reliable testimony has been hotly debated for more than one hundred years (Binet, 1900). Prominent legal cases of the 1980s and 1990s sparked lengthy debates and important research questions surrounding the fallibility and general reliability of memory. But what lessons have we learned, some forty years later, about the role of memory in the judicial system? In this review, we focus on what we now know about the consequences of the fallibility of memory for legal proceedings. We present a brief historical overview of false memories that focuses on three critical forensic areas that changed memory research: Children as eyewitnesses, historic sexual abuse, and eyewitness (mis)identification. We revisit some of the prominent trials of the 1980s and 1990s to not only consider the role false memories have played, but also to see how this has helped us understand memory today. Finally, we consider the way in which the research on memory (true and false) has been successfully integrated into some courtroom procedures