Observations of formaldehyde and search for cyanoacetylene in Comet Brorsen-Metcalf (1989o)

The Very Large Array (VLA) was used in September 1989 to search Comet P/Brorsen-Metcalf (1989o) for the 1 sub 11-1 sub 10 transition of formaldehyde (H2CO) at 4,829.659 MHz and for the J equals 1-0, F equals 2-1 rotational transition of cyanoacetylene (HC3N) at 9098.3321 MHz. A new technique was used in reducing the data. Data blocks which were either 3x3 pixels, 5x5 pixels, or 9x9 pixels were examined for a signal from H2CO. Using this approach, different pixel clusters within the field of view can be sampled to optimize the coupling of the synthesized beam to the gas distribution. HC3N is of immediate interest as a cometary molecule because it may be a reservoir of carbon and a source of cometary CN. Our search for HC3N emission at 3.3 cm wavelength demonstrated that for this molecule the VLA can be expected to reach significant levels of sensitivity in many comets

Factors of Job-related Stress As Perceived by Middle School Principals in Virginia

This study was conducted among middle school principals in Virginia to determine their perceptions of job-related stress factors. The entire population of middle school principals (grades 6, 7, 8) was selected to participate in the study. The Administrative Stress Index was used to assess factors that cause principals stress on the job and to measure their stress levels. A demographic data form was used to collect data on the variables of age, gender, administrative experience, assistant principal support, student enrollment, adults supervised, percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch, location of school, type of school, experience as a middle school principal, and educational attainment to determine if any of these variables correlated with the principals\u27 stress as measured by the Administrative Stress Index. The Administrative Stress Index contained five subscales of seven questions each, which were used to indicate the perceptions of stress factors among the middle school principals in the study. The responses to the questionnaires were analyzed and the following statistics were computed from the data: percentage distribution, content analysis, multiple linear regression, and descriptive statistics. The results of the study suggest that public middle school principals in Virginia are experiencing low to moderate levels of stress in their work and report that they are mainly stressed by administrative constraints such as increased workloads, excessive meetings, time constraints, and unrealistic policy demands. Analysis of multiple linear regression revealed that the culminating effect of the principals\u27 demographic characteristics contributed no more than 27.7% to the prediction of the principals\u27 level of job-related stress. Further research on stress could be conducted among elementary and high school principals and with principals of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This study indicates a need for increased awareness of the causes of stress experienced by middle school principals experience so that superintendents, school boards, staff, and community can help reduce these stressors

Eye position modulates retinotopic responses in early visual areas: a bias for the straight-ahead direction

Even though the eyes constantly change position, the location of a stimulus can be accurately represented by a population of neurons with retinotopic receptive fields modulated by eye position gain fields. Recent electrophysiological studies, however, indicate that eye position gain fields may serve an additional function since they have a non-uniform spatial distribution that increases the neural response to stimuli in the straight-ahead direction. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a wide-field stimulus display to determine whether gaze modulations in early human visual cortex enhance the blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) response to stimuli that are straight-ahead. Subjects viewed rotating polar angle wedge stimuli centered straight-ahead or vertically displaced by ±20° eccentricity. Gaze position did not affect the topography of polar phase-angle maps, confirming that coding was retinotopic, but did affect the amplitude of the BOLD response, consistent with a gain field. In agreement with recent electrophysiological studies, BOLD responses in V1 and V2 to a wedge stimulus at a fixed retinal locus decreased when the wedge location in head-centered coordinates was farther from the straight-ahead direction. We conclude that stimulus-evoked BOLD signals are modulated by a systematic, non-uniform distribution of eye-position gain fields

Effects of boundary roughness on a Q-factor of whispering-gallery-mode lasing microdisk cavities

We perform numerical studies of the effect of sidewall imperfections on the resonant state broadening of the optical microdisk cavities for lasing applications. We demonstrate that even small edge roughness causes a drastic degradation of high-Q whispering gallery (WG) mode resonances reducing their Q-values by many orders of magnitude. At the same time, low-Q WG resonances are rather insensitive to the surface roughness. The results of numerical simulation obtained using the scattering matrix technique, are analyzed and explained in terms of wave reflection at a curved dielectric interface combined with the examination of Poincare surface of sections in the classical ray picture.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Enhancing creative problem solving and creative self-efficacy: a preliminary study

The ability to improve creative problem solving (CPS) is considered to be an important resource in a variety of fields such as education (see Murdock, 2003) and business (see Thompson, 2003). Previous research suggests that interventions aimed at training people to improve their CPS skills can be effective, however it is not always clear what tools are being used and it is sometimes difficult to untangle the effect the different tools are having (see Vernon, Hocking, & Tyler, 2016, for a review). This study therefore aimed to utilise an empirically- based creativity toolkit in an 8 week training program aimed at enhancing students' CPS skills. The intervention group was comprised of 33 psychology students who signed up to undertake 8 weeks of CPS training and the control group (n = 9) were matched for contact time, undertaking 8 weeks of cognitive psychology lectures instead. In week 1 (Time 1) and week 8 (Time 2) all participants were assessed using two Unusual Uses Tasks (UUT) and a Creative Problem Solving (CPS) task and were also asked to fill out measures of creative self-efficacy. Analyses revealed that whilst the control group showed no improvement on any of the measures from Time 1 to Time 2, the intervention group showed a significant increase in both their creative self-efficacy and also their levels of creativity on both the UUT and CPS tasks. Whilst a follow- up study utilising a larger control group is ideally needed, these preliminary findings nonetheless support the use of this empirically based creativity toolkit for enhancing creativity problem solving skills

Unusual Inflammatory Presentation for Locally Advanced Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Background: Thyroid cancer usually presents as a thyroid nodule. If the history implies rapid growth of the nodule, new onset hoarseness or presence of ipsilateral cervical lymphadenopathy then it should raise concern for malignancy. Deep neck infection/inflammation has rarely been reported as initial presentation and these patients are potentially misdiagnosed. Case Presentation: We present a 56-year-old male who comes to clinic for evaluation of left neck nodule. He started two weeks prior with sudden neck swelling associated with erythema and pain in his lower neck that caused choking sensation and swallowing discomfort, he was prescribed Bactrim and prednisone with improvement of symptoms. Ultrasound done in office showed a six-centimeter heterogeneous mass on his left thyroid with multiple lymph nodes on left neck, largest being 3cm at Level IV which was biopsied with FNA and confirmed metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma. A total thyroidectomy with central lymph node dissection and modified left neck dissection was performed, pathology reported left 5.2 cm papillary thyroid carcinoma with areas of infarction, 21/38 lymph nodes positive for metastases with extra nodal extension in largest LN pT3aN1b. He was referred to endocrinologist for radioactive iodine therapy. Conclusions: Papillary thyroid cancer is the most common thyroid malignancy, and it tends to metastasize to cervical lymph nodes. It’s very rare to have patients present with deep neck infection/inflammation and it should be suspected to avoid delayed management

Geometrical Optics of Beams with Vortices: Berry Phase and Orbital Angular Momentum Hall Effect

We consider propagation of a paraxial beam carrying the spin angular momentum (polarization) and intrinsic orbital angular momentum (IOAM) in a smoothly inhomogeneous isotropic medium. It is shown that the presence of IOAM can dramatically enhance and rearrange the topological phenomena that previously were considered solely in connection to the polarization of transverse waves. In particular, the appearance of a new-type Berry phase that describes the parallel transport of the beam structure along a curved ray is predicted. We derive the ray equations demonstrating the splitting of beams with different values of IOAM. This is the orbital angular momentum Hall effect, which resembles Magnus effect for optical vortices. Unlike the recently discovered spin Hall effect of photons, it can be much larger in magnitude and is inherent to waves of any nature. Experimental means to detect the phenomena is discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Differences in the Prevalence of Non-Communicable Disease between Slum Dwellers and the General Population in a Large Urban Area in Brazil.

Residents of urban slums are at greater risk for disease than their non-slum dwelling urban counterparts. We sought to contrast the prevalences of selected non-communicable diseases (NCDs) between Brazilian adults living in a slum and the general population of the same city, by comparing the age and sex-standardized prevalences of selected NCDs from a 2010 survey in Pau da Lima, Salvador Brazil, with a 2010 national population-based telephone survey. NCD prevalences in both populations were similar for hypertension (23.6% (95% CI 20.9⁻26.4) and 22.9% (21.2⁻24.6), respectively) and for dyslipidemia (22.7% (19.8⁻25.5) and 21.5% (19.7⁻23.4)). Slum residents had higher prevalences of diabetes mellitus (10.1% (7.9⁻12.3)) and of overweight/obesity (46.5% (43.1⁻49.9)), compared to 5.2% (4.2⁻6.1) and 40.6% (38.5⁻42.8) of the general population in Salvador. Fourteen percent (14.5% (12.1⁻17.0)) of slum residents smoked cigarettes compared to 8.3% (7.1⁻9.5) of the general population in Salvador. The national telephone survey underestimated the prevalence of diabetes mellitus, overweight/obesity, and smoking in the slum population, likely in part due to differential sampling inside and outside of slums. Further research and targeted policies are needed to mitigate these inequalities, which could have significant economic and social impacts on slum residents and their communities

Photon deflection by a Coulomb field in noncommutative QED

In noncommutative QED photons present self-interactions in the form of triple and quartic interactions. The triple interaction implies that, even though the photon is electrically neutral, it will deflect when in the presence of an electromagnetic field. If detected, such deflection would be an undoubted signal of noncommutative space-time. In this work we derive the general expression for the deflection of a photon by any electromagnetic field. As an application we consider the case of the deflection of a photon by an external static Coulomb field.Comment: 07 pages, some typos corrected, accepted for publication in JP

Compton scattering in Noncommutative Space-Time at the NLC

We study the Compton scattering in the noncommutative counter part of QED (NC QED). Interactions in NC QED have momentum dependent phase factors and the gauge fields have Yang Mills type couplings, this modifies the cross sections and are different from the commuting Standard Model. Collider signals of noncommutative space-time are studied at the Next Linear Collider (NLC) operating in the $e \gamma$ mode. Results for different polarised cases are presented and it is shown that the Compton process can probe the noncommutative scale in the range of 1 - 2.5 TeV for typical proposed NLC energies.Comment: 12 pages, 5 Postscript figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.