Applying the False Claims Act to Chemical and Physical Restraint Cases: Is the Government Going Too Far?

On August 6, 2002, Jeanne W. Price, a 79-year-old Alzheimer’s patient at the Central Montgomery Medical Center (CMMC), died while in a restraining device called a Posey vest. The CMMC staff used the restraint to keep Ms. Price from wandering the halls of the medical center by confining her in bed.1 When the patient later attempted to get out of bed, she slipped off the side, causing the vest to tighten around her chest. She soon died of asphyxiation. An attorney for the family stated that the patient may have been left unattended for up to an hour

Counting function for a sphere of anisotropic quartz

We calculate the leading Weyl term of the counting function for a mono-crystalline quartz sphere. In contrast to other studies of counting functions, the anisotropy of quartz is a crucial element in our investigation. Hence, we do not obtain a simple analytical form, but we carry out a numerical evaluation. To this end we employ the Radon transform representation of the Green's function. We compare our result to a previously measured unique data set of several tens of thousands of resonances.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure

A portable MBE system for in situ X-Ray investigations at synchrotron beamlines

A portable synchrotron MBE system is designed and applied for in situ investigations. The growth chamber is equipped with all the standard MBE components such as effusion cells with shutters, main shutter, cooling shroud, manipulator, RHEED setup and pressure gauges. The characteristic feature of the system is the beryllium windows which are used for in situ x-ray measurements. An UHV sample transfer case allows in-vacuo transfer of samples prepared elsewhere. We describe the system design and demonstrate it's performance by investigating the annealing process of buried InGaAs self organized quantum dots

Periodic orbit analysis of an elastodynamic resonator using shape deformation

We report the first definitive experimental observation of periodic orbits (POs) in the spectral properties of an elastodynamic system. The Fourier transform of the density of flexural modes show peaks that correspond to stable and unstable POs of a clover shaped quartz plate. We change the shape of the plate and find that the peaks corresponding to the POs that hit only the unperturbed sides are unchanged proving the correspondence. However, an exact match to the length of the main POs could be made only after a small rescaling of the experimental results. Statistical analysis of the level dynamics also shows the effect of the stable POs.Comment: submitted to Europhysics Letter

Radius dependent shift of surface plasmon frequency in large metallic nanospheres: theory and experiment

Theoretical description of oscillations of electron liquid in large metallic nanospheres (with radius of few tens nm) is formulated within random-phase-approximation semiclassical scheme. Spectrum of plasmons is determined including both surface and volume type excitations. It is demonstrated that only surface plasmons of dipole type can be excited by homogeneous dynamical electric field. The Lorentz friction due to irradiation of electro-magnetic wave by plasmon oscillations is analyzed with respect to the sphere dimension. The resulting shift of resonance frequency turns out to be strongly sensitive to the sphere radius. The form of e-m response of the system of metallic nanospheres embedded in the dielectric medium is found. The theoretical predictions are verified by a measurement of extinction of light due to plasmon excitations in nanosphere colloidal water solutions, for Au and Ag metallic components with radius from 10 to 75 nm. Theoretical predictions and experiments clearly agree in the positions of surface plasmon resonances and in an emergence of the first volume plasmon resonance in the e-m response of the system for limiting big nanosphere radii, when dipole approximation is not exact

Gaussian random waves in elastic media

Similar to the Berry conjecture of quantum chaos we consider elastic analogue which incorporates longitudinal and transverse elastic displacements with corresponding wave vectors. Based on that we derive the correlation functions for amplitudes and intensities of elastic displacements. Comparison to numerics in a quarter Bunimovich stadium demonstrates excellent agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Electronic transport through ballistic chaotic cavities: reflection symmetry, direct processes, and symmetry breaking

We extend previous studies on transport through ballistic chaotic cavities with spatial left-right (LR) reflection symmetry to include the presence of direct processes. We first analyze fully LR-symmetric systems in the presence of direct processes and compare the distribution w(T) of the transmission coefficient T with that for an asymmetric cavity with the same "optical" S matrix. We then study the problem of "external mixing" of the symmetry caused by an asymmetric coupling of the cavity to the outside. We first consider the case where symmetry breaking arises because two symmetrically positioned waveguides are coupled to the cavity by means of asymmetric tunnel barriers. Although this system is asymmetric with respect to the LR operation, it has a striking memory of the symmetry of the cavity it was constructed from. Secondly, we break LR symmetry in the absence of direct proceses by asymmetrically positioning the two waveguides and compare the results with those for the completely asymmetric case.Comment: 15 pages, 8 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Patterns and causes of variability in the cover, biomass, and total abundance of Ulva spp. in Elkhorn Slough, California

I studied the variability in Ulva spp. in Elkhorn Slough, CA temporally and spatially. I measured changes in cover and biomass and combined them to determined changes in total abundance seasonally (every three months) from July 2003 to July 2004. Over this time period I found a significant seasonal difference in Ulva cover and a significant seasonal difference in Ulva biomass. There was also a significant interaction between season and section. Total abundance followed the same pattern of change as cover, suggesting Ulva mat cover was a better indicator of total abundance in Elkhorn Slough. To determine if seasonal changes were occurring at sub-seasonal time scales, the seasonal experiment was repeated at a smaller spatial scale from June 2004 to August 2004 with bi-weekly samples of cover and biomass. I found that seasonal variation in cover was significantly greater than sub-seasonal variation; however, seasonal and sub-seasonal biomass measurements were not significantly different. These results indicated that changes in cover were more gradual over time and biomass was highly variable at both time scales. I also investigated tides as a possible factor regulating Ulva mats in Elkhorn Slough. I found a localized phenomenon where increased Ulva mat movement was related to increased tidal range. Although the second sampling location did not show this same relationship, I hypothesize that tidal range plays an important role in the regulation of Ulva mats in Elkhorn Slough

The Journal of Jean Laffite: Its History and Controversy

Whether defined as original order or the history of ownership, provenance is one of the guiding lights of the archival profession, the key that guarantees the validity of documents in the archives. Archival material is rarely questioned, and authorship is seldom a topic of intense discussion. One assumes that the signer of the letter penned it except when secretaries were known to have been employed. Perhaps as a profession, however, archivists are too trusting and rely too often on provenance as a guiding light