Faculty Performance: A Romantic Evening

Faculty Performance: A Romantic Evening Programhttps://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2489/thumbnail.jp

Junior Recital: George Blevins, trombone

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Blevins studies trombone with Thomas Gibson.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1176/thumbnail.jp

Interchange IV: Portraits

The KSU School of Music and Zuckerman Museum of Art present Interchange IV: Portraits, our fourth annual collaborative, roving recital featuring music performed in the museum. This special performance features musical works selected to correspond with artwork and concepts presented in the ZMA\u27s fall exhibitions Figure Forward and Class Pictures. Journey through the museum\u27s galleries while listening to thematically-related compositions performed by KSU faculty performers including tenor Nathan Munson, mezzo-soprano Heather Witt, clarinetist John Warren, percussionist John Lawless, and pianist Ben Wadsworth.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2096/thumbnail.jp

Intrinsically narrowband pair photon generation in microstructured fibres

In this paper we study the tailoring of photon spectral properties generated by four-wave mixing in a birefringent photonic crystal fibre (PCF). The aim is to produce intrinsically narrow-band photons and hence to achieve high non-classical interference visibility and generate high fidelity entanglement without any requirement for spectral filtering, leading to high effective detection efficiencies. We show unfiltered Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibilities of 77% between photons from the same PCF, and 80% between separate sources. We compare results from modelling the PCF to these experiments and analyse photon purities.Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures, Comments Welcom

Senior Capstone Lecture Recital: Chloe Lincoln, composition

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Arts in Music. Ms. Lincoln studies composition with Laurence Sherr.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1514/thumbnail.jp

The influence of temperature (up to 120 °C) on the thermal conductivity of variably porous andesite

The thermal conductivity of volcanic rock is an essential input parameter in a wide range of models designed to better understand volcanic and geothermal processes. However, although volcanoes and geothermal reservoirs are often characterised by temperatures above ambient, laboratory thermal conductivity measurements are often performed at ambient temperature. In addition, there are currently few data on the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity for andesite, a common volcanic rock. Here, we provide elevated-temperature (up to 120 °C) laboratory measurements of thermal conductivity for variably porous (∼0.05 to ∼0.6) and variably glassy andesites from Mt. Ruapheu (New Zealand) using the transient hot-strip method. Our data show that (1) the thermal conductivity of these andesites has little to no temperature dependence and, therefore, (2) there is also no influence of porosity on the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity. We compare our new data with compiled published data to show that the thermal conductivity of volcanic rocks may decrease, remain constant, or increase as a function of temperature. We show that the thermal conductivity of amorphous glass and crystalline material increase and decrease, respectively, as temperature increases. We therefore interpret the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of volcanic rock to be dependent on glass content. The thermal conductivity of the studied andesites, the microstructure of which can be characterised by phenocrysts within a variably glassy groundmass, has little to no temperature dependence because the decrease in the thermal conductivity of the crystalline materials, due to decreases in lattice thermal conductivity, is offset by the increase in the thermal conductivity of the amorphous glass. A simple modelling approach, using the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of glass and crystalline material, provides a crystal content of 0.26 for a thermal conductivity independent of temperature, a common crystal content for andesite dome rock. Our findings imply that calculations of heat transfer through partially glassy volcanic rocks need not consider a temperature-dependent thermal conductivity, but that decreases and increases in thermal conductivity with temperature should be expected for fully crystallised or devitrified volcanic rocks and completely glassy volcanic rocks, respectively. We highlight that more experimental studies are now required to assess the evolution of thermal conductivity as a function of temperature in a wide range of volcanic rocks with different crystallinities

Improving response rates using a monetary incentive for patient completion of questionnaires: an observational study

Background: Poor response rates to postal questionnaires can introduce bias and reduce the statistical power of a study. To improve response rates in our trial in primary care we tested the effect of introducing an unconditional direct payment of 5 pound for the completion of postal questionnaires. Methods: We recruited patients in general practice with knee problems from sites across the United Kingdom. An evidence-based strategy was used to follow-up patients at twelve months with postal questionnaires. This included an unconditional direct payment of 5 pound to patients for the completion and return of questionnaires. The first 105 patients did not receive the 5 pound incentive, but the subsequent 442 patients did. We used logistic regression to analyse the effect of introducing a monetary incentive to increase the response to postal questionnaires. Results: The response rate following reminders for the historical controls was 78.1% ( 82 of 105) compared with 88.0% ( 389 of 442) for those patients who received the 5 pound payment (diff = 9.9%, 95% CI 2.3% to 19.1%). Direct payments significantly increased the odds of response ( adjusted odds ratio = 2.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.0, P = 0.009) with only 12 of 442 patients declining the payment. The incentive did not save costs to the trial - the extra cost per additional respondent was almost 50 pound. Conclusion: The direct payment of 5 pound significantly increased the completion of postal questionnaires at negligible increase in cost for an adequately powered study

Childhood socioeconomic position and objectively measured physical capability levels in adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis

<p><b>Background:</b> Grip strength, walking speed, chair rising and standing balance time are objective measures of physical capability that characterise current health and predict survival in older populations. Socioeconomic position (SEP) in childhood may influence the peak level of physical capability achieved in early adulthood, thereby affecting levels in later adulthood. We have undertaken a systematic review with meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that adverse childhood SEP is associated with lower levels of objectively measured physical capability in adulthood.</p> <p><b>Methods and Findings:</b> Relevant studies published by May 2010 were identified through literature searches using EMBASE and MEDLINE. Unpublished results were obtained from study investigators. Results were provided by all study investigators in a standard format and pooled using random-effects meta-analyses. 19 studies were included in the review. Total sample sizes in meta-analyses ranged from N = 17,215 for chair rise time to N = 1,061,855 for grip strength. Although heterogeneity was detected, there was consistent evidence in age adjusted models that lower childhood SEP was associated with modest reductions in physical capability levels in adulthood: comparing the lowest with the highest childhood SEP there was a reduction in grip strength of 0.13 standard deviations (95% CI: 0.06, 0.21), a reduction in mean walking speed of 0.07 m/s (0.05, 0.10), an increase in mean chair rise time of 6% (4%, 8%) and an odds ratio of an inability to balance for 5s of 1.26 (1.02, 1.55). Adjustment for the potential mediating factors, adult SEP and body size attenuated associations greatly. However, despite this attenuation, for walking speed and chair rise time, there was still evidence of moderate associations.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Policies targeting socioeconomic inequalities in childhood may have additional benefits in promoting the maintenance of independence in later life.</p&gt

Evolutionary paths to macrolide resistance in a Neisseria commensal converge on ribosomal genes through short sequence duplications

Neisseria commensals are an indisputable source of resistance for their pathogenic relatives. However, the evolutionary paths commensal species take to reduced susceptibility in this genus have been relatively underexplored. Here, we leverage in vitro selection as a powerful screen to identify the genetic adaptations that produce azithromycin resistance (� 2 μg/mL) in the Neisseria commensal, N. elongata. Across multiple lineages (n = 7/16), we find mutations that reduce susceptibility to azithromycin converge on the locus encoding the 50S ribosomal L34 protein (rpmH) and the intergenic region proximal to the 30S ribosomal S3 protein (rpsC) through short tandem duplication events. Interestingly, one of the laboratory evolved mutations in rpmH is identical (7LKRTYQ12), and two nearly identical, to those recently reported to contribute to high-level azithromycin resistance in N. gonorrhoeae. Transformations into the ancestral N. elongata lineage confirmed the causality of both rpmH and rpsC mutations. Though most lineages inheriting duplications suffered in vitro fitness costs, one variant showed no growth defect, suggesting the possibility that it may be sustained in natural populations. Ultimately, studies like this will be critical for predicting commensal alleles that could rapidly disseminate into pathogen populations via allelic exchange across recombinogenic microbial genera

Early life factors, childhood cognition and postal questionnaire response rate in middle age: the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s study

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the relationship between early life factors and survey response in epidemiological studies of adults. METHODS: The Children of the 1950s cohort is composed of 12,150 children (boys 51.7%) born in Aberdeen 1950–56 and in primary schools in the city in 1962. Information on birth weight, gestational age, growth, behaviour and socio-economic position at birth and in childhood were obtained from contemporaneous records. Cognitive test scores at ages 7,9 and 11 years were also available from school records. The outcome was response to a postal questionnaire sent (2001–2003) to surviving cohort members in middle age. RESULTS: Of 11,282 potentially mailed subjects, 7,183 (63.7%) returned questionnaires. Response rates were highest among females, and those whose parents were married at birth, were in a non-manual social class at birth or in childhood, had fewer siblings, were taller and heavier in childhood for their age and had lower Rutter B behavioural scores. Childhood cognitive test scores at every age were strongly and positively related to the response rate to a postal questionnaire independently of other early life factors monotonically across the entire range of test scores. Those in the bottom fifth at age 11 had a response rate of 49% while those in the top fifth 75%. CONCLUSION: The strength and consistency of the association of childhood cognition with questionnaire response rate in middle age is surprisingly large. It suggests that childhood cognition across the entire normal range is a powerful influence on the complex set of later behaviours that comprise questionnaire response. The extent of possible response bias in epidemiological studies of the associations between childhood characteristics (particularly those related to cognition) and later health is probably larger than is generally realised, at least in situations where the survey instrument is a postal questionnaire