A Microscale Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer for Ion Species Analysis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77363/1/AIAA-2004-3444-418.pd

Phylogenetic relationships of African Caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona): insights from mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences

Africa (excluding the Seychelles) has a diverse caecilian fauna, including the endemic family Scolecomorphidae and six endemic genera of the more cosmopolitan Caeciliidae. Previous molecular phylogenetic studies have not included any caecilians from the African mainland. Partial 12S and 16S mitochondrial gene sequences were obtained for two species of the endemic African Scolecomorphidae and five species and four genera of African Caeciliids, aligned against previously reported sequences for 16 caecilian species, and analysed using parsimony, maximum likelihood, Bayesian and distance methods. Results are in agreement with traditional taxonomy in providing support for the monophyly of the African Caeciliid genera Boulengerula and Schistometopum and for the Scolecomorphidae. They disagree in indicating that the Caeciliidae is paraphyletic with respect to the Scolecomorphidae. Although more data from morphology and/or molecules will be required to resolve details of the interrelationships of the African caecilian genera, the data provide strong support for at least two origins of caecilians in which the eye is reduced and covered with bone, and do not support the hypotheses that the caecilian assemblages of Africa, and of East and of West Africa are monophyletic

Bound States and Power Counting in Effective Field Theories

The problem of bound states in effective field theories is studied. A rescaled version of nonrelativistic effective field theory is formulated which makes the velocity power counting of operators manifest. Results obtained using the rescaled theory are compared with known results from NRQCD. The same ideas are then applied to study Yukawa bound states in 1+1 and 3+1 dimensions, and to analyze when the Yukawa potential can be replaced by a delta-function potential. The implications of these results for the study of nucleon-nucleon scattering in chiral perturbation theory is discussed.Comment: 23 pages, eps figures, uses revte

Effects of intraarticular IL1-Ra for acute anterior cruciate ligament knee injury: a randomized controlled pilot trial (NCT00332254)

SummaryObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical effectiveness of intraarticular IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear.MethodsEleven patients with acute ACL tear confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were randomized to receive a single intraarticular injection of IL-1Ra (anakinra 150 mg, n = 6) or equal volume of saline placebo (1 ml, n = 5). The double-blinded treatment was administered a mean 2 weeks after injury. Synovial fluid (SF) (n = 9 patients) and sera (all patients) were available at baseline (prior to injection) and immediately prior to surgery (mean 35 days later) and analyzed for SF IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-1Ra and serum hyaluronan (HA), an indicator of synovial inflammation. The primary outcome, standardized Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) questionnaire, was obtained at 0 (baseline), 4, and 14 days after injection.ResultsCompared with placebo, the IL-1Ra group had substantially greater improvement in key outcomes over 14 days (KOOS pain P = 0.001; activities of daily living P = 0.0015; KOOS sports function P = 0.0026; KOOS quality of life (QOL) P = 0.0048; and total KOOS P < 0.0001). There were no adverse reactions in either group. SF IL-1α (P = 0.05) and serum HA (P = 0.03), but not IL-1β, or IL-1Ra, decreased significantly in the IL-1Ra but not the placebo treated patients. Compared with placebo, IL-1α was borderline significantly different in the IL-1Ra treated group (P = 0.06).ConclusionsAdministered within the first month following severe knee injury, IL-1Ra reduced knee pain and improved function over a 2-week interval. This promising proof of concept study provides a new paradigm for studies of acute joint injury and suggests that a larger follow-up study is warranted

The transfer of fibres in the carding machine

The problem of understanding the transfer of fibres between carding-machine surfaces is addressed by considering the movement of a single fibre in an airflow. The structure of the aerodynamic flow field predicts how and when fibres migrate between the different process surfaces. In the case of a revolving-flats carding machine the theory predicts a “strong” aerodynamic mechanism between taker-in and cylinder and a “weak” mechanism between cylinder and removal cylinder resulting in effective transfer in the first case and a more limited transfer in the second

Reframing e-assessment: building professional nursing and academic attributes in a first year nursing course

This paper documents the relationships between pedagogy and e-assessment in two nursing courses offered at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. The courses are designed to build the academic, numeracy and technological attributes student nurses need if they are to succeed at university and in the nursing profession. The paper first outlines the management systems supporting the two courses and how they intersect with the e-learning and e-assessment components of course design. These pedagogical choices are then reviewed. While there are lessons to be learnt and improvements to be made, preliminary results suggest students and staff are extremely supportive of the courses. The e-assessment is very positively received with students reporting increased confidence and competency in numeracy, as well as IT, academic, research and communication skills

Search for High Spin Particle-Hole States in 20-Ne

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY 87-1440

Cladoceran birth and death rates estimates

I. Birth and death rates of natural cladoceran populations cannot be measured directly. Estimates of these population parameters must be calculated using methods that make assumptions about the form of population growth. These methods generally assume that the population has a stable age distribution. 2. To assess the effect of variable age distributions, we tested six egg ratio methods for estimating birth and death rates with data from thirty-seven laboratory populations of Daphnia pulicaria. The populations were grown under constant conditions, but the initial age distributions and egg ratios of the populations varied. Actual death rates were virtually zero, so the difference between the estimated and actual death rates measured the error in both birth and death rate estimates. 3. The results demonstrate that unstable population structures may produce large errors in the birth and death rates estimated by any of these methods. Among the methods tested, Taylor and Slatkin's formula and Paloheimo's formula were most reliable for the experimental data. 4. Further analyses of three of the methods were made using computer simulations of growth of age-structured populations with initially unstable age distributions. These analyses show that the time interval between sampling strongly influences the reliability of birth and death rate estimates. At a sampling interval of 2.5 days (equal to the duration of the egg stage), Paloheimo's formula was most accurate. At longer intervals (7.5–10 days), Taylor and Slatkin's formula which includes information on population structure was most accurate

Hausdorff dimension of operator semistable L\'evy processes

Let $X=\{X(t)\}_{t\geq0}$ be an operator semistable L\'evy process in \rd with exponent $E$, where $E$ is an invertible linear operator on \rd and $X$ is semi-selfsimilar with respect to $E$. By refining arguments given in Meerschaert and Xiao \cite{MX} for the special case of an operator stable (selfsimilar) L\'evy process, for an arbitrary Borel set B\subseteq\rr_+ we determine the Hausdorff dimension of the partial range $X(B)$ in terms of the real parts of the eigenvalues of $E$ and the Hausdorff dimension of $B$.Comment: 23 page