PASP: A high voltage array experiment

In the near future, Air Force mission payloads will require significant increases in power. Sophisticated sensing systems such as infrared focal plane detector arrays and radar will be employed by the Air Force to fulfill its strategic objectives. These payloads will demand that the power subsystem provide up to 50 kW at the end of mission life, more than an order of magnitude greater than is currently required. Some of these payloads must be flown in low-Earth polar orbits to satisfy mission objectives, and it is likely that large (500 to 600 sq m) solar photovoltaic arrays will operate in the low-Earth polar environment. The standard 28 volt power subsystem is not weight efficient for the array power levels being considered. The impact of the solar array operating voltage on the total weight of the array and the subsystem power conditioning and distribution components is illustrated. In the interest of reducing power subsystem weight, higher array operating voltages are considered. The problems which the higher array voltage present to the array designer are discussed. In order to provide a maximum return on the tremendous investment of resources required to develop and place these assets in orbit, they must be designed to operate effectively for extended periods of time. To achieve this, the system must be able to function in the threat-induced and natural space environment

William Arbuthnot Lane (1856-1943): Surgical Innovator and His Theory of Autointoxication.

William Arbuthnot Lane contributed to the advancement of many fields of orthopedics, otolaryngology, and general surgery. He is credited for his no-touch technique and the invention of long-handled instruments, some of which are still in use today, to minimize tissue handling. He is most well known for his hypothesis that slowing of gastric contents could cause a variety of ailments and this became known as Lane\u27s disease. Although his surgical treatment of Lane\u27s disease is now defunct, it advanced the surgical technique in colorectal surgery. It seems likely that some of Lane\u27s autointoxication patients would be classified today as patients with colonic inertia, diverticulitis, colonic volvulus, and megacolon or, which are all treated with colectomy. Lane was a pioneer in multiple fields and a true general surgeon. He advanced colorectal surgery immensely and propelled the field of surgery into a new era

Inconsistency and Angst in District Court Resolution of Social Security Disability Appeals

This study of federal court decisionmaking asks whether characteristics of a jurist including age, race, gender, and work experience, can affect results in the context of the nation’s most frequently litigated administrative law dispute—social security disability claims. SSDI cases by and large are similar, turning most frequently on claims of mental illness and muscular skeletal pain. Thus, there is ample room for discretion among ALJs and federal judges in determining whether an applicant is entitled to benefits. The results are remarkable both in what they showed and did not show. First, decisionmaking patterns among district court judges and magistrates both reveal the same kind of inconsistencies that plague ALJ adjudication more generally. The results of an SSDI appeal might turn more on the hap of which judge or magistrate is slated to review the appeal than on the merits of the case. Second, if the cases are similar, the question arises as to what explains the difference in outcomes. Again, the results are striking in that no correlation can be drawn between results and the race, gender, seniority, and job experience of the jurist. Nor can they be explained by geography or the percentage of disabled within the region. Third, although sociological attributes did not explain much of the variation in resolution of the cases, we noted a substantial correlation between remand rates and the circuit in which the judges and magistrates sat. Remand rates from both judges and magistrates in the Tenth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, for instance, were almost double those from judges and magistrates in the First and Fourth Circuits. The statistics strongly suggest that the “culture’ within a particular judicial circuit makes a substantial difference in such decisionmaking

Measurement of Antenna Surfaces from In- and Out-Of-Focus Beam Maps using Astronomical Sources

We present a technique for the accurate estimation of large-scale errors in an antenna surface using astronomical sources and detectors. The technique requires several out-of-focus images of a compact source and the signal-to-noise ratio needs to be good but not unreasonably high. For a given pattern of surface errors, the expected form of such images can be calculated directly. We show that it is possible to solve the inverse problem of finding the surface errors from the images in a stable manner using standard numerical techniques. To do this we describe the surface error as a linear combination of a suitable set of basis functions (we use Zernike polynomials). We present simulations illustrating the technique and in particular we investigate the effects of receiver noise and pointing errors. Measurements of the 15-m James Clerk Maxwell telescope made using this technique are presented as an example. The key result is that good measurements of errors on large spatial scales can be obtained if the input images have a signal-to-noise ratio of order 100 or more. The important advantage of this technique over transmitter-based holography is that it allows measurements at arbitrary elevation angles, so allowing one to characterise the large scale deformations in an antenna as a function of elevation.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures (accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics

Cardiovascular disease and air pollution in Scotland: no association or insufficient data and study design?

<p><b>Background:</b> Coronary heart disease and stroke are leading causes of mortality and ill health in Scotland, and clear associations have been found in previous studies between air pollution and cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to use routinely available data to examine whether there is any evidence of an association between short-term exposure to particulate matter (measured as PM10, particles less than 10 micrograms per cubic metre) and hospital admissions due to cardiovascular disease, in the two largest cities in Scotland during the years 2000 to 2006.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> The study utilised an ecological time series design, and the analysis was based on overdispersed Poisson log-linear models.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> No consistent associations were found between PM10 concentrations and cardiovascular hospital admissions in either of the cities studied, as all of the estimated relative risks were close to one, and all but one of the associated 95% confidence intervals contained the null risk of one.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> This study suggests that in small cities, where air quality is relatively good, then either PM10 concentrations have no effect on cardiovascular ill health, or that the routinely available data and the corresponding study design are not sufficient to detect an association.</p&gt

Community Emergency Management During the 2005 Ambae Eruption, Vanuatu, SW Pacific.

No abstract availabl

Amyloid positron emission tomography candidates may focus more on benefits than risks of results disclosure

IntroductionGiven mounting calls to disclose biomarker test results to research participants, we explored factors underlying decisions by patients with mild cognitive impairment to receive amyloid imaging results.MethodsProspective, qualitative interviews were conducted with 59 participants (30 = mild cognitive impairment patients, 29 = care partners) from the scan arm of a randomized controlled trial on the effects of amyloid PET results disclosure in an Alzheimer Disease Research Center setting.ResultsSixty‐three percent of the participants were female, with an average age of 72.9 years, and most had greater than a high school level of education (80%). Primary motivations included: (1) better understanding one’s mild cognitive impairment etiology and prognosis to plan ahead, and (2) learning one’s brain amyloid status for knowledge’s sake, regardless of whether the information is actionable. Most participants demonstrated an adequate understanding of the scan’s limitations, yet instances of characterizing amyloid PET as a definitive test for Alzheimer’s disease occurred. Mention of potential drawbacks, such as negative psychological outcomes, was minimal, even among care partners.DiscussionFindings demonstrate a risk of disproportionate focus on possible benefits of testing among amyloid scan candidates and suggest a need to clearly emphasize the limitations of amyloid PET when counseling cognitively impaired patients and their families before testing. Future research should examine whether minimizing drawbacks at the pre‐imaging stage has adverse consequences on results disclosure.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152635/1/dad2jdadm201805003.pd

Effective Treatments of UTI—Is Intravesical Therapy the Future?

Urinary tract infection (UTI) afflicts millions of patients globally each year. While the majority of UTIs are successfully treated with orally administered antibiotics, the impact of oral antibiotics on the host microbiota is under close research scrutiny and the potential for dysbiosis is a cause for concern. Optimal treatment of UTI relies upon the selection of an agent which displays appropriate pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) properties that will deliver appropriately high concentrations in the urinary tract after oral administration. Alternatively, high local concentrations of antibiotic at the urothelial surface can be achieved by direct instillation into the urinary tract. For antibiotics with the appropriate physicochemical properties, this can be of critical importance in cases for which an intracellular urothelial bacterial reservoir is suspected. In this review, we summarise the underpinning biopharmaceutical barriers to effective treatment of UTI and provide an overview of the evidence for the deployment of the intravesical administration route for antibiotics