Addiction Burden and Resources for Patients in Connecticut

Nationally, the US has 60 million smokers, 14 million dependent on alcohol, and 14 million illicit drug users. One quarter of Americans over 15 have physiologic dependence on at least one addictive substance. A quarter of all deaths in the US are caused by addictive substances: alcohol, tobacco, drugs. There are an additional 40 million injuries and illnesses per year. Locally, one Connecticut therapist reports sending 30 of her patients under age 22 to in-patient treatment for opiate abuse.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1035/thumbnail.jp

Risky Shift Versus Cautious Shift: Determining Differences In Risk Taking Between Private And Public Management Decision-Making

This paper uses empirical evidence to examine whether people take more risk for their own potential loss/gain and less risk for other people’s potential loss/gain or vice versa.  An experiment is described wherein participants had the option of taking different risks in exchange for their own benefit and the benefit of others.  Results indicate that subjects take a statistically significant higher level of risk for themselves as individuals than they do when other’s payoffs are at stake.  This indicates that people are less risk averse in making decisions for themselves and more risk averse in making decisions that affect others.  However, when the amount of reward is increased, the findings change.  The purpose of the experiment is to find a better explanation for how government-owned businesses or large corporations work, where anecdotal evidence suggests much less innovation and risk taking takes place compared to small proprietary firms.&nbsp

Emergency Water Station 3.0 Final Project Report

The South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC) tasked our team, The Emergency Water Station 3.0 (3WS), with designing and implementing an emergency water station for migrants and refugees crossing the border between Mexico and Texas. The objectives of this project are to design, build, and test a prototype that can safely provide water to these migrants and refugees while communicating the water amount within the station back to the STHRC without hindrance due to weather or remote location. The following report outlines the features of our complete design, and details the primary functions of the main three subsystems that comprise the design. These subsystems include: the base structure, which holds the water and electronics/communication equipment, the electronics/communication system, which tallies and transmits water jug data to the STHRC, and the power system, which charges the station batteries and powers the electronic components. The final design is evaluated against the project constraints and requirements via subsystem and complete prototype testing. The design constraints of our project include the allotted time, two full semesters, and a budget of $1200, given to us by the Trinity University Engineering Science department. The fully constructed design must also fit within a standard truck bed (78” x 64”) for easy transportation. This constraint was satisfied with the dimensions included in Table 3.1.A of this report. The budget remains under$1200, our team spent exactly $1044.33 this semester on the station design. This project is also completed within the time allotment of two semesters, therefore satisfying all project constraints. The project requirements for our final design are outlined in Section 3. There are a total of eight requirements that need to be met, including the components that the water station is capable of housing. These components being 18 water gallon jugs, as flagpole, electronics system, as well as half the weight of the average adult human male. (Approx. 300 lbs. total). Our final prototype satisfied each part of this requirement, and had no deformation due to weight. Our design also satisfied the requirement of the operational cost for the communication system, which is$5 per month. Furthermore, we required that the primary components of the electronics/communications subsystem be at least IP55 compliant, as outlined by IEC Code 60529, which contributes to the weather resistance of our design. Each of these components is at least IP55 rated, some being up to IP68 compliant, which adds additional durability to adverse weather which is another requirement. The station must withstand an operational temperature of 20°F - 140°F, and a maximum wind speed of up to 40mph. Based on FEA simulations (seen in Section 3.8) and field tests, the wind speed requirement is satisfied. Although the components that make up our design are all capable of operating within the temperature range, our team was unable to directly test and prove this, as renting time in a 30’ tall thermal testing chamber is infeasible. The station also satisfies the requirement to report the total number of one gallon water jugs stored within the device at least once per day, to an accuracy of ±1 gallon jug. Furthermore, the station is required to be visible at night from at least one mile away, which was satisfied by attaching an LED strip to the top of our 25ft flagpole. Lastly, we detail two optional features which were not implemented in the final design: a phone charging system and additional storage compartments for items such as protein powder. Overall, the Emergency Water Station team has designed, constructed, and implemented a fully functioning prototype. All of our constraints and requirements were met, with the exception of additional lab and field testing for the operational temperature requirement. There are no predicted changes that will be made in the future, but improvements can always be made

Suzanne Reynolds Correspondence

Entries include brief biographical information and a handwritten biographical letter of correspondence with the Maine State Library

Reflective Blankets Do Not Effect Cooling Rates after Running in Hot, Humid Conditions

International Journal of Exercise Science 8(1) : 97-103, 2015. Reflective blankets (RB) are often provided at the conclusion of endurance events, even in extreme environments. The implications could be dangerous if increased core body temperature (CBT) is exacerbated by RB. To evaluate the effect of RB on cooling rate for individuals walking or sitting after intense running. Pilot, randomized control trial experimental design. Environmental chamber. Recreational runners (age=25±5y; mass=76.8±16.7kg; height=177±9cm) completed an 8km (actual mean distance=7.5±1.1km). We randomly assigned participants into one of four groups: walking with blanket (WB=5), walking without blanket (WNB=5), sitting with blanket (SB=5), or sitting without blanket (SNB=4). Participants ran on a treadmill at their own pace until volitional exhaustion, achieving the 8km distance, or experiencing CBT=40°C. Every three minutes during the running (time determined by pace) and cooling protocol (62 min in chamber), we measured CBT, HR, and Borg scale, and environmental conditions. We evaluated cooling rate, peak physiological variables, pace, and environment by condition using a Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric one-way ANOVAs. We identified similar exercise sessions (df=3; CBT χ2=0.921, p=0.82; HR χ2=7.446, p=0.06; Borg χ2= 5.732, p=0.13; pace χ2=0.747, p=0.86) and similar environmental characteristics between conditions (df=3; Wet Bulb Globe Temperature=26.18±2.78°C, χ2=1.552, p=0.67). No significant differences between conditions on cooling rate (df=3, χ2=2.301, p=0.512) were found, suggesting RBs neither cool nor heat the body, whether seated (SB=0.021±0.011deg/min; SNB=0.029±0.002deg/min) or walking (WB=0.015±0.025deg/min; WNB=0.021±0.011deg/min) in a hot, humid environment. CBT in distance runners is not altered by the use of a RB during a seated or walking cool down after a strenuous run

Supreme Court Voting Behavior - 2003 Term

The 2003 Term, for the second year, notes a liberal trend across a majority of the Tables of this Study. The voting behavior of individual Justices in 2003 was somewhat more stable this Term in that individual departures from past voting behaviors were less pronounced than in 2002. Nevertheless, the Study still demonstrates continuing instability in the voting behavior of individual Justices. This Term, statistically significant departures from past behavior by at least five Members of the Court are present on six Tables. This might suggest that the voting behavior of the Justices on these Tables is in transition, although the often-small statistical samples reported on many of these Tables also suggests caution in making (or relying upon) this inference. Bloc voting continues to control the outcome of a substantial number of the most controversial questions presented to the Court. But, as noted in the past few Studies, the voting power of conservative voting blocs seems to be losing steam. Justice O\u27Connor maintained her position as the Member of the Court most likely to cast the key swing-vote in closely divided opinions. The Study also demonstrates that Justice O\u27Connor\u27s voting behavior in state criminal cases has been a reliable indicator of the outcome of Majority Opinions in this category for a number of years. Her absence might alter decisional outcomes, not only in state criminal cases, but in the often-important cases decided by five-to-four votes of the Court

Clifford S. Reynolds Correspondence

Entries include a typed letter of correspondence from Revell responding to the want of biographical information in her name

Aggregation Patterns in Stressed Bacteria

We study the formation of spot patterns seen in a variety of bacterial species when the bacteria are subjected to oxidative stress due to hazardous byproducts of respiration. Our approach consists of coupling the cell density field to a chemoattractant concentration as well as to nutrient and waste fields. The latter serves as a triggering field for emission of chemoattractant. Important elements in the proposed model include the propagation of a front of motile bacteria radially outward form an initial site, a Turing instability of the uniformly dense state and a reduction of motility for cells sufficiently far behind the front. The wide variety of patterns seen in the experiments is explained as being due the variation of the details of the initiation of the chemoattractant emission as well as the transition to a non-motile phase.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX with 4 postscript figures (uuencoded) Figures 1a and 1b are available from the authors; paper submitted to PRL