Ordering our world: the quest for traces of temporal organization in autobiographical memory

An experiment examined the idea, derived from the Self Memory System model (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), that autobiographical events are sometimes tagged in memory with labels reflecting the life era in which an event occurred. The presence of such labels should affect the ease of judgments of the order in which life events occurred. Accordingly, 39 participants judged the order of two autobiographical events. Latency data consistently showed that between-era judgments were faster than within-era judgments, when the eras were defined in terms of either: (a) college versus high school, (b) academic quarter within year, or (c) academic year within school. The accuracy data similarly supported the presence of a between-era judgment effect for the college versus high school dichotomy

Comparison of osteoporosis pharmacotherapy fracture rates: Analysis of a marketScan® claims database cohort

Background: Several different classes of medications have been shown to be efficacious at preventing fractures in patients with osteoporosis. No study has compared real world efficacy at preventing fractures between all currently approved medications. Objectives: To directly compare the efficacy of all currently available osteoporosis medications by using a large population claims database. Methods: The Truven Health Analytics MarketScan® database from 2008 - 2012 was used to identify all patients who started a new osteoporosis medication. Patients who experienced a fracture after at least 12 months of treatment were identified and risk factors for fracture for all patients were recorded. Logistic regression was used to account for and quantify the contribution of risk factors, and to make direct comparisons between different osteoporosis medications. Results: A total of 51649 patients were included in the cohort, with an average age of 56 years. The overall incidence rate of fracture was 1.55 per 100 person - years of treatment. Orally administered medications had the lowest fracture rates, led by raloxifene and alendronate (1.24 and 1.54 respectively), while parenterally administered medications including teriparatide and zolerdonic acid had the highest rates (3.90 and 1.98 respectively). No statistically significant differences found between oral or parenterally administered bisphosphonate medications. Conclusions: While patients taking orally administered drugs including bisphosphonates had less frequent incident fracture no statistically significant differences were found between most drugs in head - to - head comparisons, even considering the route of administration of bisphosphonates. These findings support previous evidence that minimal differences in efficacy exist between different osteoporosis medications. This is the first study using a large database to compare all currently available osteoporosis treatments and will hopefully be augmented by further study to provide more evidence to make clinical decisions on osteoporosis medication use. © 2017 American Association of Neuropathologists, Inc

Investigation of Cleanliness Verification Techniques for Rocket Engine Hardware

Oxidizer propellant systems for liquid-fueled rocket engines must meet stringent cleanliness requirements for particulate and nonvolatile residue. These requirements were established to limit residual contaminants which could block small orifices or ignite in the oxidizer system during engine operation. Limiting organic residues in high pressure oxygen systems, such as in the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is particularly important. The current method of cleanliness verification for the SSME uses an organic solvent flush of the critical hardware surfaces. The solvent is filtered and analyzed for particulate matter followed by gravimetric determination of the nonvolatile residue (NVR) content of the filtered solvent. The organic solvents currently specified for use (1, 1, 1-trichloroethane and CFC-113) are ozone-depleting chemicals slated for elimination by December 1995. A test program is in progress to evaluate alternative methods for cleanliness verification that do not require the use of ozone-depleting chemicals and that minimize or eliminate the use of solvents regulated as hazardous air pollutants or smog precursors. Initial results from the laboratory test program to evaluate aqueous-based methods and organic solvent flush methods for NVR verification are provided and compared with results obtained using the current method. Evaluation of the alternative methods was conducted using a range of contaminants encountered in the manufacture of rocket engine hardware

Investigation of cleanliness verification techniques for rocket engine hardware

Oxidizer propellant systems for liquid-fueled rocket engines must meet stringent cleanliness requirements for particulate and nonvolatile residue. These requirements were established to limit residual contaminants which could block small orifices or ignite in the oxidizer system during engine operation. Limiting organic residues in high pressure oxygen systems is particularly important. The current method of cleanliness verification used by Rocketdyne requires an organic solvent flush of the critical hardware surfaces. The solvent is filtered and analyzed for particulate matter, followed by gravimetric determination of the nonvolatile residue (NVR) content of the filtered solvent. The organic solvents currently specified for use (1,1,1-trichloroethane and CFC-113) are ozone-depleting chemicals slated for elimination by December 1995. A test program is in progress to evaluate alternative methods for cleanliness verification that do not require the use of ozone-depleting chemicals and that minimize or eliminate the use of solvents regulated as hazardous air pollutants or smog precursors. Initial results from the laboratory test program to evaluate aqueous-based methods and organic solvent flush methods for NVR verification are provided and compared with results obtained using the current method. Evaluation of the alternative methods was conducted using a range of contaminants encountered in the manufacture of rocket engine hardware

A Qualitative Study of Pastors\u27 Kids at Cedarville University: A Pilot Study

Children of pastors (PK’s) are commonly stereotyped in one of two different ways: either they are seen as the model child, or as the prodigal (Barna Group, 2013). The model child is perceived as sheltered and naïve, with expectations placed on them to follow in their parents’ footsteps of faith and practice. The rebel is perhaps the more common stereotype, where children of pastors are seen as having negative feelings toward their father’s position, and wanting to make their own mark on the world and find their own faith journey. The purpose of this study was to determine if either of these stereotypes, or other unifying factors, were present and continuing into their college years. We interviewed 15 college students at a Midwestern Christian university, whose fathers were pastors of medium sized churches (200 to 500 members). While each student interviewed commented on expectations from society in general, their personal experiences varied between the two stereotypical extremes. Apart from the acknowledgement of the stereotypes themselves, we found no major themes common to a majority of the students. This leads us to believe that the widely-held stereotypes about pastor’s kids are not accurate or complete. It appears that these students are very much like their non-PK peers, varying to the same degree in their faith and life journeys, family dynamics, and social interactions

Energy homeostasis in leptin deficient Lep^(ob/ob) mice

Maintenance of reduced body weight is associated both with reduced energy expenditure per unit metabolic mass and increased hunger in mice and humans. Lowered circulating leptin concentration, due to decreased fat mass, provides a primary signal for this response. However, leptin deficient (Lepob/ob) mice (and leptin receptor deficient Zucker rats) reduce energy expenditure following weight reduction by a necessarily non-leptin dependent mechanisms. To identify these mechanisms, Lepob/ob mice were fed ad libitum (AL group; n = 21) or restricted to 3 kilocalories of chow per day (CR group, n = 21). After losing 20% of initial weight (in approximately 2 weeks), the CR mice were stabilized at 80% of initial body weight for two weeks by titrated refeeding, and then released from food restriction. CR mice conserved energy (-17% below predicted based on body mass and composition during the day; -52% at night); and, when released to ad libitum feeding, CR mice regained fat and lean mass (to AL levels) within 5 weeks. CR mice did so while their ad libitum caloric intake was equal to that of the AL animals. While calorically restricted, the CR mice had a significantly lower respiratory exchange ratio (RER = 0.89) compared to AL (0.94); after release to ad libitum feeding, RER was significantly higher (1.03) than in the AL group (0.93), consistent with their anabolic state. These results confirm that, in congenitally leptin deficient animals, leptin is not required for compensatory reduction in energy expenditure accompanying weight loss, but suggest that the hyperphagia of the weight-reduced state is leptin-dependent

Gene expression during preimplantation mouse development

To develop a resource for the identification and isolation of genes expressed in the early mammalian embryo, large and representative cDNA libraries were constructed from unfertilized eggs, and two-cell, eight-cell, and blastocyst-stage mouse embryos. Using these libraries, we now report the first stages at which the cytokines interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1 beta, and interferon (IFN)-gamma are transcribed in the developing embryo and the presence of IL-7 transcripts in the unfertilized egg. Transcripts for IL-1 alpha, -2, -3, -4, or -5 were not detected at these stages. To identify novel genes expressed on activation of the embryonic genome, the egg and eight-cell stage-specific cDNA libraries were subtracted from the two-cell library, yielding a specialized cDNA library enriched for transcripts expressed at the two-cell stage. Sequence and Southern blot analysis of several of these cDNAs expressed predominantly at the two-cell stage of embryogenesis revealed them to be from novel genes, thereby providing the first molecular tools with which to approach the study of gene expression in the early mammalian embryo