Methodist circuit-riders in America, 1766-1844

The Methodist Episcopal Church became the largest religious denomination in the United States during the 1820\u27s. Local expressions of the national body were established in nearly every American community. Methodist expansion was largely a result of the activity of circuitriders. These itinerants traveled and proclaimed the gospel to citizens, many of whom joined the Church and became part of a religious movement which influenced the l development of culture in the United States. The traveling minister in the Methodist Church was noted for his self-sacrificing spirit. He endured hardships in the ministry which few men of the present age can fathom. Richard Hofstadter, the widely respected American historian, once stated, The bulwark and the pride of the early American ~ethodists were the famous circuit-riding preachers who made up in mobility, flexibility, courage, hard work, and dedication what they might lack in ministerial training or dignity. These itinerants, he continued, were justly proud of the strenuous sacrifices they made to bring the gospel to the people. Five hundred of the first six hundred and fifty Methodist circuit-riders retired prematurely from the ministry. Nearly one fourth of the first eight hundred ministers who died were under the age of thirty five. Over one hundred and twentyfive itinerants were between the ages of thirty-five and f~rty-five when they died; and over half of. the eight hundred died before they reached thirty! About two hundred traveling preachers died within the first five years of their entrance into the ministry and nearly two thirds died before they 2 had preached twelve years. The life style of the early Methodist traveling preacher perished in the United States with the settlement and growth of the nations however, his dedication is an inspiration to every generation

Property

Covers cases on easements by implied reservations, on condemnation of public property, on proof of intent to claim adversely (Powell), on the validity of antenuptial agreements that alter the status of property acquired after the marriage (Power), and on the extent of the duty to rebuild under a lease with a convenant to rebuild (Robinson)

Studies on the Contact Sensitization of Man with Simple Chemicals

Dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) coupled to peripheral blood erythrocytes or leukocytes forms a particulate complex, DNCB-antigen. The addition of DNCB-antigen induced blastogenesis and DNA synthesis in leukocyte cultures from DNCB-sensitized human subjects and not in leukocyte cultures from nonsensitized controls. In general, sensitized subjects who displayed a higher degree of cutaneous reactivity to DNCB, as manifested by duration and intensity of dermatitis, also showed a greater blastogenic response to DNCB-antigen in vitro. This quantitative correlation, however, was not invariant. Certain soluble factor(s), or lymphokines are released following the addition of DNCB-antigen to leukocyte cultures prepared from some sensitive subjects who were rechallenged one or more times with DNCB. These lymphokines induce blastogenesis in secondary target leukocyte populations from nonsensitized subjects. Extended studies are presented which show little or no lymphokine activity in peripheral blood leukocyte cultures during a primary immune response, despite high degrees of blastogenic activity in response to DNCB-antigen. Significant lymphokine activity was observed only following additional rechallenge with DNCB.Blastogenesis and skin reactivity specific for DNCB have been shown to develop at about the same time during a primary immune response. This, along with the quantitative correlation shown in this communication, suggests that both processes probably reflect thymic-dependent cellular immunity. The appearance of lymphokine activity following rechallenge with DNCB suggests that DNCB-induced lymphokines may represent an amplifying mechanism of the cellular immune response that involves recruitment of previously uncommitted lymphocytes

The pre-inflationary vacuum in the cosmic microwave background

We consider the effects on the primordial power spectrum of a period of radiation-dominated expansion prior to the inflationary era. If inflation lasts a total of only 60 e-folds or so, the boundary condition for quantum modes cannot be taken in the short-wavelength limit as in the standard perturbation calculation. Instead, the boundary condition is set by the vacuum state of the prior radiation-dominated epoch, which only corresponds to the inflationary vacuum state in the ultraviolet limit. This altered vacuum state results in a modulation of the inflationary power spectrum. We calculate the modification to a best-fit model from the WMAP3 data set, and find that power is suppressed at large scales. The modified power spectrum is favored only very weakly by the data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, references added. Version submitted to PRL. (v3: 9 pages, 4 figures, detailed justification of Eq. 11 of v2. Version accepted for publication by PRD.

Defining the performance gap: Conducting a self-assessment

This paper presents two different approaches to performing self-assessments of continuous improvement activities. Case Study 1 describes the activities performed by JSC to assess the implementation of continuous improvement efforts at the NASA Center. The JSC approach included surveys administered to randomly selected NASA personnel and personal interviews with NASA and contractor management personnel. Case Study 2 describes the continuous improvement survey performed by the JSC Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance (SR&QA) organization. This survey consisted of a short questionnaire (50 questions) administered to all NASA and contractor SR&QA personnel. The questionnaire is based on the eight categories of the President's Award for Quality and Productivity Improvement. It is designed to objectively determine placement on the TQ benchmark and identify a roadmap for improvement

Revised Calibration Strategy for the CALIOP 532 nm Channel

The CALIPSO lidar (CALIOP) makes backscatter measurements at 532 nm and 1064 nm and linear depolarization ratios at 532 nm. Accurate calibration of the backscatter measurements is essential in the retrieval of optical properties. An assessment of the nighttime 532 nm parallel channel calibration showed that the calibration strategy used for the initial release (Release 1) of the CALIOP lidar level 1B data was acceptable. In general, the nighttime calibration coefficients are relatively constant over the darkest segment of the orbit, but then change rapidly over a short period as the satellite enters sunlight. The daytime 532 nm parallel channel calibration scheme implemented in Release 1 derived the daytime calibration coefficients from the previous nighttime coefficients. A subsequent review of the daytime 532 nm parallel channel calibration revealed that the daytime calibration coefficients do not remain constant, but vary considerably over the course of the orbit, due to thermally-induced misalignment of the transmitter and receiver. A correction to the daytime calibration scheme is applied in Release 2 of the data. Results of both nighttime and daytime calibration performance are presented in this paper

Slow roll in simple non-canonical inflation

We consider inflation using a class of non-canonical Lagrangians for which the modification to the kinetic term depends on the field, but not its derivatives. We generalize the standard Hubble slow roll expansion to the non-canonical case and derive expressions for observables in terms of the generalized slow roll parameters. We apply the general results to the illustrative case of ``Slinky'' inflation, which has a simple, exactly solvable, non-canonical representation. However, when transformed into a canonical basis, Slinky inflation consists of a field oscillating on a multi-valued potential. We calculate the power spectrum of curvature perturbations for Slinky inflation directly in the non-canonical basis, and show that the spectrum is approximately a power law on large scales, with a ``blue'' power spectrum. On small scales, the power spectrum exhibits strong oscillatory behavior. This is an example of a model in which the widely used solution of Garriga and Mukhanov gives the wrong answer for the power spectrum.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, four figures. (V2: minor changes to text. Version submitted to JCAP.

Impact of operative indication and surgical complexity on outcomes after thoracic endovascular aortic repair at National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Centers

IntroductionThoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) devices are increasingly being utilized to treat aortic pathologies outside of the original Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval for nonruptured descending thoracic aorta aneurysms (DTAs). The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of patients undergoing TEVAR, elucidating the role of surgical and pathologic variables on morbidity and mortality.MethodsNational Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) data were reviewed for all patients undergoing endovascular thoracic aorta repair from 2005 to 2007. The patients' operative indication and surgical complexity were used to divide them into study and control populations. Comorbid profiles were assessed utilizing a modified Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Thirty-day occurrences of mortality and serious adverse events (SAEs) were used as study endpoints. Univariate and multivariate models were created using demographic and clinical variables to assess for significant differences in endpoints (P ≤ .05).ResultsA total of 440 patients undergoing TEVAR were identified. When evaluating patients based on operative indication, the ruptured population had increased mortality and SAE rates compared to the nonruptured DTA population (22.6% vs 6.2%;P < .01 and 35.5% vs 9.1%;P < .01, respectively). Further analysis by surgical complexity revealed increased mortality and SAE rates when comparing the brachiocephalic aortic debranching population to the noncovered left subclavian artery population (23.1% vs 6.5%; P = .02 and 30.8% vs 9.1%; P < .01, respectively). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that operative indication was not a correlate of mortality or SAEs (odds ratio [OR], 0.95; P = .92 and OR, 1.42; P = .39, respectively); however, brachiocephalic aortic debranching exhibited a deleterious effect on mortality (OR, 8.75; P < .01) and SAE rate (OR, 6.67; P = .01).ConclusionThe operative indication for a TEVAR procedure was not found to be a predictor of poor patient outcome. Surgical complexity, specifically the need for brachiocephalic aortic debranching and aortoiliac conduit, was shown to influence the occurrence of SAEs in a multivariate model. Comparative data, such as these, illustrate real-world outcomes of patients undergoing TEVAR outside of the original FDA-approved indications. This information is of paramount importance to various stakeholders, including third-party payers, the device industry, regulatory agencies, surgeons, and their patients