The size of the US pharmaceutical market means that the US Food and Drug Administration has a disproportionately large global influence

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for approving and regulating all drugs in the US. Aside from its domestic role, the FDA is also globally important, writes Robin Forrest. Drawing attention to mechanisms of global drug development, market dynamics, and recent trends in drug approvals, he argues that the influence of the FDA outside of the US cannot be overstated

Towards a Sociologically-Grounded View of Occupation in Sociolinguistics

In order to improve our operationalization of class in sociolinguistic analysis, this paper draws on sociological theory as the foundation for a new approach to the conception and coding of occupation. The 162-speaker dataset is drawn from the larger corpus of sociolinguistic interviews conducted in Raleigh, NC. F1 and F2 measurements for the five front vowels of the SVS were extracted at 25% vowel duration and Lobanov-normalized (1971), and the vowel diagonal (Z2-Z1) was included as the dependent variable in regression analyses. To operationalize a sociologically-based theory of occupations, we implement a five-way distinction between industrial/occupational sectors (Law and Government, Technology and Finance, Interactive Service Work, Care Work, and Blue Collar) based on historical changes in Raleigh’s economy. Net of social and linguistic controls, models show significant differences between groups formerly grouped together as White Collar occupations, attributable to historical embeddedness in the greater Raleigh area

Network Characteristics of American Raising

The raising of the nucleus of /aɪ/ before voiceless consonants, as in write but not ride, has been observed in many North American English varieties (Davis et al. 2019, Fruehwald 2016, Joos 1942, Strelluf 2018). Its emergence appears to be phonetically motivated in some cases rather than the result of diffusion between communities (Chambers 1989, Thomas & Moreton 2008). Recent evidence from geographically diverse communities within the U.S. suggests that /aɪ/ raising is a new supra-regional sound change (Davis, et al. 2019; Strelluf 2018; Davis & Berkson 2019). The widespread and recent emergence of /aɪ/ raising offers the opportunity to study the social network characteristics of early adopters. This analysis compares the social distributions of /aɪ/ raising in two different social settings. The first is Raleigh, North Carolina, an urban setting in the Southeast, and the second is small-town Kansas as represented by suburban communities and rural agricultural communities located in the Great Plains region of the US. Both communities show evidence of this sound change, with a female lead. In Raleigh, network position is correlated with the loss of salient Southern vocalic features including /aɪ/ monophthongization, but /aɪ/ raising does not follow the same pattern. While network brokers or those with many weak ties are often assumed to lead sound changes, individual-level evidence from both Kansas and Raleigh is mixed with regard to whether network characteristics are correlated with /aɪ/ raising. These findings indicate that we still do not know the network factors facilitating the adoption and spread of supra-regional linguistic innovations

Comparison of Orbiter PRCS Plume Flow Fields Using CFD and Modified Source Flow Codes

The Space Shuttle Orbiter will use Reaction Control System (RCS) jets for docking with the planned International Space Station (ISS). During approach and backout maneuvers, plumes from these jets could cause high pressure, heating, and thermal loads on ISS components. The object of this paper is to present comparisons of RCS plume flow fields used to calculate these ISS environments. Because of the complexities of 3-D plumes with variable scarf-angle and multi-jet combinations, NASA/JSC developed a plume flow-field methodology for all of these Orbiter jets. The RCS Plume Model (RPM), which includes effects of scarfed nozzles and dual jets, was developed as a modified source-flow engineering tool to rapidly generate plume properties and impingement environments on ISS components. This paper presents flow-field properties from four PRCS jets: F3U low scarf-angle single jet, F3F high scarf-angle single jet, DTU zero scarf-angle dual jet, and F1F/F2F high scarf-angle dual jet. The RPM results compared well with plume flow fields using four CFD programs: General Aerodynamic Simulation Program (GASP), Cartesian (CART), Unified Solution Algorithm (USA), and Reacting and Multi-phase Program (RAMP). Good comparisons of predicted pressures are shown with STS 64 Shuttle Plume Impingement Flight Experiment (SPIFEX) data

Heroin Use and Sex: Some Patterns in Miami-Dade County, Florida

Much of the literature on heroin and opioid addiction holds that regular, long-term users of heroin and other opioids lose interest in sex as their drug using careers lengthen. Analysis of self-reports collected from IDUs in two cross- sectional surveys on patterns of risk behavior in Miami-Dade County, Florida, reveals that large proportions of IDUs report using heroin before or during sex across a wide range of self-injection experience, from as little as twelve months to over 40 years. One half or more of respondents to both surveys reported using heroin in their recent sexual experiences, with similar proportions reported by both males and females. The same IDUs, however, tend not to report using prescription painkillers before or during sex. This finding indicates that co-occurring risk behavior related to both sexual behavior and heroin use may be more prevalent among long-term IDUs than previous literature has suggested

The Promise of Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are markets for contracts that yield payments based on the outcome of an uncertain future event, such as a presidential election. Using these markets as forecasting tools could substantially improve decision making in the private and public sectors. We argue that U.S. regulators should lower barriers to the creation and design of prediction markets by creating a safe harbor for certain types of small stakes markets. We believe our proposed change has the potential to stimulate innovation in the design and use of prediction markets throughout the economy, and in the process to provide information that will benefit the private sector and government alike.Technology and Industry