Isolation characteristics of space telescope suspension systems Final technical report

Vibration isolation tests of spring, hysteresis, and magnetic suspension systems for spaceborne telescope

Sarah Walkley. Cultural Diversity in the French Film Industry: Defending the Cultural Exception in a Digital Age. Palgrave MacMillan.

Review of Sarah Walkley, Cultural Diversity in the French Film Industry: Defending the Cultural Exception in a Digital Age. Palgrave MacMillan, 2018

Jonathan K. Gosnell. Franco-America in the Making: The Creole Nation Within. U of Nebraska P, 2018.

Review of Jonathan K. Gosnell. Franco-America in the Making: The Creole Nation Within. U of Nebraska P, 2018. 347 pp

Determining the feasibility of an online, media mediation program for parents to improve parent-child sexual health communication

Media Aware Parent is an interactive, web-based program designed to equip parents to communicate with their adolescent child about sexual health and media by enhancing parental communication and media mediation skills, as well as provide them with medically-accurate sexual health knowledge. In a small feasibility study, 56 parents of 7th and 8th graders in the United States were randomly assigned to complete a prototype of Media Aware Parent or receive online resources about adolescent sexual health. Results indicated that after using the program, participants in the intervention group discussed more new sexual health topics with their child and also had stronger beliefs in the importance of parent-adolescent communication (PAC) about sexual health when compared to the control group

Role of the Cyclooxygenase Pathway in Chemotherapy-Induced Oral Mucositis: A Pilot Study

Goals Oral mucositis can be a significant and dose-limiting complication of high-dose cancer therapy. Mucositis is a particularly severe problem in patients receiving myeloablative chemotherapy prior to bone marrow or hematopoetic stem cell transplant (HSCT). The cyclooxygenase (COX) pathway mediates tissue injury and pain through upregulation of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins, including prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostacyclin (PGI2). The objective of this small (n=3) pilot study was to examine the role of the COX pathway in causing mucosal injury and pain in chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis. Materials and methods We collected blood, saliva, and oral mucosal biopsy specimens from three autologous HSCT patients at the following time-points before and after administration of conditioning chemotherapy: Day −10, +10, +28, and +100, where day 0 is day of transplant. RNA extracted from full-thickness tissue samples was measured by RT-PCR for the following: COX-1, COX-2, microsomal prostaglandin E synthase (mPGES), IL-1β, and TNF-α. Blood and saliva samples were measured by ELISA for PGE2 and PGI2, which are markers of COX activity. Severity of oral mucositis was determined using the Oral Mucositis Index. Severity of pain due to oral mucositis was measured using a Visual Analog Scale. Relationships between the different variables were examined using Spearman rank correlation coefficients. Main results Mean mucositis and pain scores increased significantly after administration of chemotherapy and then gradually declined. The correlation between changes in mucositis and pain scores was strong and statistically significant. The following additional correlations were statistically significant: between tissue COX-1 and pain; between tissue mPGES and pain; between salivary PGE1 and pain; between salivary PGI2 and pain. Other relationships were not statistically significant. Conclusions Our finding of significant associations of pain scores with tissue COX-1 and mPGES, as well as salivary prostaglandins, is suggestive of a role for the cyclooxygenase pathway in mucositis, possibly via upregulation of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins. However, our small sample size may have contributed to the lack of significant associations between COX-2 and other inflammatory mediators with mucosal injury and pain. Thus, additional studies with larger numbers of subjects are warranted to confirm the involvement of the cyclooxygenase pathway in chemotherapy-induced mucositis

What Role Does Hydrological Science Play in the Age of Machine Learning?

ABSTRACT: This paper is derived from a keynote talk given at the Google's 2020 Flood Forecasting Meets Machine Learning Workshop. Recent experiments applying deep learning to rainfall‐runoff simulation indicate that there is significantly more information in large‐scale hydrological data sets than hydrologists have been able to translate into theory or models. While there is a growing interest in machine learning in the hydrological sciences community, in many ways, our community still holds deeply subjective and nonevidence‐based preferences for models based on a certain type of “process understanding” that has historically not translated into accurate theory, models, or predictions. This commentary is a call to action for the hydrology community to focus on developing a quantitative understanding of where and when hydrological process understanding is valuable in a modeling discipline increasingly dominated by machine learning. We offer some potential perspectives and preliminary examples about how this might be accomplished

Pattern formation of reaction-diffusion system having self-determined flow in the amoeboid organism of Physarum plasmodium

The amoeboid organism, the plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum, behaves on the basis of spatio-temporal pattern formation by local contraction-oscillators. This biological system can be regarded as a reaction-diffusion system which has spatial interaction by active flow of protoplasmic sol in the cell. Paying attention to the physiological evidence that the flow is determined by contraction pattern in the plasmodium, a reaction-diffusion system having self-determined flow arises. Such a coupling of reaction-diffusion-advection is a characteristic of the biological system, and is expected to relate with control mechanism of amoeboid behaviours. Hence, we have studied effects of the self-determined flow on pattern formation of simple reaction-diffusion systems. By weakly nonlinear analysis near a trivial solution, the envelope dynamics follows the complex Ginzburg-Landau type equation just after bifurcation occurs at finite wave number. The flow term affects the nonlinear term of the equation through the critical wave number squared. Contrary to this, wave number isn't explicitly effective with lack of flow or constant flow. Thus, spatial size of pattern is especially important for regulating pattern formation in the plasmodium. On the other hand, the flow term is negligible in the vicinity of bifurcation at infinitely small wave number, and therefore the pattern formation by simple reaction-diffusion will also hold. A physiological role of pattern formation as above is discussed.Comment: REVTeX, one column, 7 pages, no figur

A multi-centre cohort study evaluating the role of Inflammatory Markers In patient’s presenting with acute ureteric Colic (MIMIC)

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous Stone Passage (SSP) rates in acute ureteric colic range from 47–75%. There is conflicting evidence on the role of raised inflammatory markers in acute ureteric colic. The use of an easily applicable biomarker that could predict SSP or need for intervention would improve the management of obstructing ureteric stones. Thus, there is a need to determine in an appropriately powered study, in patients who are initially managed conservatively, which factors at the time of acute admission can predict subsequent patient outcome such as SSP and the need for intervention. Particularly, establishing whether levels of white cell count (WBC) at presentation are associated with likelihood of SSP or intervention may guide clinicians on the management of these patients’ stones. DESIGN: Multi-center cohort study disseminated via the UK British Urology Researchers in Surgical Training (BURST) and Australian Young Urology Researchers Organisation (YURO). PRIMARY RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the association between WBC and SSP in patients discharged from emergency department after initial conservative management? PATIENT POPULATION: Patients who have presented with acute renal colic with CT KUB evidence of a solitary ureteric stone. A minimum sample size of 720 patients across 15 centres will be needed. HYPOTHESIS: A raised WBC is associated with decreased odds of spontaneous stone passage. PRIMARY OUTCOME: The occurrence of SSP within six months of presentation with acute ureteric colic (YES/NO). SSP was defined as absence of need for intervention to assist stone passage STATISTICAL ANALYSIS PLAN: A multivariable logistic regression model will be constructed, where the outcome of interest is SSP using data from patients who do not undergo intervention at presentation. A random effect will be used to account for clustering of patients within hospitals/institutions. The model will include adjustments for gender, age as control variables

Heavy ion fusion system assessment: Final focus and transport model

This report discusses the trade-offs necessary to build an economical heavy ion fusion reactor. The principal concerns are the dynamics of the accelerated ion beam. 15 refs. (JDH

Analysis of an induction linac driver system for inertial fusion

A linear induction accelerator that produces a beam of energetic (5 to 20 GeV) heavy (130 to 210 amu) ions is a prime candidate as a driver for inertial fusion. Continuing developments in sources for ions with charge state greater than unity allow a potentially large reduction in the driver cost and an increase in the driver efficiency. The use of high undepressed tunes (sigma/sub 0/ approx. = 85/sup 0/) and low depressed tunes (sigma approx. = 8.5/sup 0/) also contributes to a potentially large reduction in the driver cost. The efficiency and cost of the induction linac system are discussed as a function of output energy and pulse repetition frequency for several ion masses and charge states. The cost optimization code LIACEP, including accelerating module alternatives, transport modules, and scaling laws, is presented. Items with large cost-leverage are identified as a guide to future research activities and development of technology that can yield substantial reductions in the accelerator system cost and improvement in the accelerator system efficiency. Finally, a cost-effective strategy using heavy ion induction linacs in a development scenario for inertial fusion is presented. 34 refs., 6 figs., 7 tabs