Foreword to the Issue

George H. Sage is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Kinesiology at the University of Northern Colorado. He has published more than fifty articles and is the author of many books, including Globalizing Sport: How Corporations, Media, and Politics Are Changing Sports (Paradigm 2010). He was inducted into the National Association for Sport and Physical Education Hall of Fame in 2006. He is the past president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport

A Review of Electronic Devices to Assess Inhaler Technique

Multiple electronic devices exist that provide feedback on the accuracy of patient inhaler technique. Our purpose is to describe the inhaler technique feedback provided by these devices, including specific technique steps measured, how feedback is displayed, target of feedback (patient, provider, researcher), and compatibility with inhaler type (metered-dose inhaler [MDI], diskus, etc.)

Note and Comment

American Bar Association Meeting; Disbarment or Suspension of Attorney; Is the Property Owner Negligent if He Fails to Exercise Reasonable Care to Prevent an Injury to An Infant Trespasser?; Liability of Water companies for Losses by Fire; Evidence in Deportation Proceedings Under the Act of congress of May 5th, 1892; Duty of a Bank to a Surety to Apply Funds of a Principal Debtor to Satisfy a Debt Due the Bank

Multiwavelength Observations of the Low Metallicity Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy SBS 0335-052

New infrared and millimeter observations from Keck, Palomar, ISO, and OVRO and archival data from the NRAO VLA and IRAS are presented for the low metallicity blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS 0335-052. Mid-infrared imaging shows this young star-forming system is compact (0.31"; 80 pc) at 12.5 microns. The large Br-gamma equivalent width (235 Angstroms) measured from integral field spectroscopy is indicative of a ~5 Myr starburst. The central source appears to be optically thin in emission, containing both a warm (~80 K) and a hot (~210 K) dust component, and the overall interstellar radiation field is quite intense, about 10,000 times the intensity in the solar neighborhood. CO emission is not detected, though the galaxy shows an extremely high global H I gas-to-dust mass ratio, high even for blue compact dwarfs. Finally, the galaxy's mid-infrared-to-optical and mid-to-near-infrared luminosity ratios are quite high, whereas its far-infrared-to-radio and far-infrared-to-optical flux ratios are surprisingly similar to what is seen in normal star-forming galaxies. The relatively high bolometric infrared-to-radio ratio is more easily understood in the context of such a young system with negligible nonthermal radio continuum emission. These new lines of evidence may outline features common to primordial galaxies found at high redshift.Comment: 28 pages including 6 figures; accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

The Use of Genetics for the Management of a Recovering Population: Temporal Assessment of Migratory Peregrine Falcons in North America

Background: Our ability to monitor populations or species that were once threatened or endangered and in the process of recovery is enhanced by using genetic methods to assess overall population stability and size over time. This can be accomplished most directly by obtaining genetic measures from temporally-spaced samples that reflect the overall stability of the population as given by changes in genetic diversity levels (allelic richness and heterozygosity), degree of population differentiation (FST and DEST), and effective population size (Ne). The primary goal of any recovery effort is to produce a longterm self-sustaining population, and these genetic measures provide a metric by which we can gauge our progress and help make important management decisions. Methodology/Principal Findings: The peregrine falcon in North America (Falco peregrinus tundrius and anatum) was delisted in 1994 and 1999, respectively, and its abundance will be monitored by the species Recovery Team every three years until 2015. Although the United States Fish and Wildlife Service makes a distinction between tundrius and anatum subspecies, our genetic results based on eleven microsatellite loci suggest limited differentiation that can be attributed to an isolation by distance relationship and warrant no delineation of these two subspecies in its northern latitudinal distribution from Alaska through Canada into Greenland. Using temporal samples collected at Padre Island, Texas during migration (seven temporal time periods between 1985–2007), no significant differences in genetic diversity or significant population differentiation in allele frequencies between time periods were observed and were indistinguishable from those obtained from tundrius/anatum breeding locations throughout their northern distribution. Estimates of harmonic mean Ne were variable and imprecise, but always greater than 500 when employing multiple temporal genetic methods. Conclusions/Significance: These results, including those from simulations to assess the power of each method to estimate Ne, suggest a stable or growing population, which is consistent with ongoing field-based monitoring surveys. Therefore, historic and continuing efforts to prevent the extinction of the peregrine falcon in North America appear successful with no indication of recent decline, at least from the northern latitude range-wide perspective. The results also further highlight the importance of archiving samples and their use for continual assessment of population recovery and long-term viability

Ancient bears provide insights into Pleistocene ice age refugia in Southeast Alaska

During the Late Pleistocene, major parts of North America were periodically covered by ice sheets. However, there are still questions about whether ice-free refugia were present in the Alexander Archipelago along the Southeast (SE) Alaska coast during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Numerous subfossils have been recovered from caves in SE Alaska, including American black (Ursus americanus) and brown (U. arctos) bears, which today are found in the Alexander Archipelago but are genetically distinct from mainland bear populations. Hence, these bear species offer an ideal system to investigate long-term occupation, potential refugial survival and lineage turnover. Here, we present genetic analyses based on 99 new complete mitochondrial genomes from ancient and modern brown and black bears spanning the last ~45,000 years. Black bears form two SE Alaskan subclades, one preglacial and another postglacial, that diverged \u3e100,000 years ago. All postglacial ancient brown bears are closely related to modern brown bears in the archipelago, while a single preglacial brown bear is found in a distantly related clade. A hiatus in the bear subfossil record around the LGM and the deep split of their pre-and postglacial subclades fail to support a hypothesis of continuous occupancy in SE Alaska throughout the LGM for either species. Our results are consistent with an absence of refugia along the SE Alaska coast, but indicate that vegetation quickly expanded after deglaciation, allowing bears to recolonize the area after a short-lived LGM peak

Extended Schmidt Law: Role Of Existing Stars In Current Star Formation

We propose an "extended Schmidt law" with explicit dependence of the star formation efficiency (SFE=SFR/Mgas) on the stellar mass surface density. This relation has a power-law index of 0.48+-0.04 and an 1-sigma observed scatter on the SFE of 0.4 dex, which holds over 5 orders of magnitude in the stellar density for individual global galaxies including various types especially the low-surface-brightness (LSB) galaxies that deviate significantly from the Kennicutt-Schmidt law. When applying it to regions at sub-kpc resolution of a sample of 12 spiral galaxies, the extended Schmidt law not only holds for LSB regions but also shows significantly smaller scatters both within and across galaxies compared to the Kennicutt-Schmidt law. We argue that this new relation points to the role of existing stars in regulating the SFE, thus encoding better the star formation physics. Comparison with physical models of star formation recipes shows that the extended Schmidt law can be reproduced by some models including gas free-fall in a stellar-gravitational potential and pressure-supported star formation. By implementing this new law into the analytic model of gas accretion in Lambda CDM, we show that it can re-produce the observed main sequence of star-forming galaxies (a relation between the SFR and stellar mass) from z=0 up to z=2.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures; Accepted for Publication In Ap

IGRT/ART phantom with programmable independent rib cage and tumor motion

Abstract PURPOSE: This paper describes the design and experimental evaluation of the Methods and Advanced Equipment for Simulation and Treatment in Radiation Oncology (MAESTRO) thorax phantom, a new anthropomorphic moving ribcage combined with a 3D tumor positioning system to move target inserts within static lungs. METHODS: The new rib cage design is described and its motion is evaluated using Vicon Nexus, a commercial 3D motion tracking system. CT studies at inhale and exhale position are used to study the effect of rib motion and tissue equivalence. RESULTS: The 3D target positioning system and the rib cage have millimetre accuracy. Each axis of motion can reproduce given trajectories from files or individually programmed sinusoidal motion in terms of amplitude, period, and phase shift. The maximum rib motion ranges from 7 to 20 mm SI and from 0.3 to 3.7 mm AP with LR motion less than 1 mm. The repeatability between cycles is within 0.16 mm root mean square error. The agreement between CT electron and mass density for skin, ribcage, spine hard and inner bone as well as cartilage is within 3%. CONCLUSIONS: The MAESTRO phantom is a useful research tool that produces programmable 3D rib motions which can be synchronized with 3D internal target motion. The easily accessible static lungs enable the use of a wide range of inserts or can be filled with lung tissue equivalent and deformed using the target motion system.status: publishe