Introducing the Past Perfect

The past perfect has traditionally been described as one of the twelve tenses in English. A strictly grammatical definition of this verb form is inadequate for two reasons. First, the past perfect is not only a tense, but also an aspect. Often not explicitly stated, the interpretations dictated by the aspectual system are an integral part of past perfect meaning. Second, its use is often optional when contextual clues provide the relevant tense and aspect related information. Students may come to rely on these clues and fail to develop a complete understanding of this verb form. In this paper I will show the necessity of supplementing descriptions of the past perfect as a tense with consideration of its aspectual meaning. Exercises which focus on both tense and aspect, without relying on redundant contextual information, will be presented

Income tax in the United States prior to the sixteenth amendment

The issue of taxation has been the subject of debate since the establishment of the thirteen colonies. Citizens have consistently disapproved of being taxed (once to the extent of going to war about taxation, among other issues). To be taxed was viewed as being forced to give up a portion of the taxpayer\u27s wealth. However, the philosophy stated by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ( Taxes are the price we pay for civilization. ) prevailed with the enactment of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913

Pilot evaluation of the Text4Baby mobile health program

Background Mobile phone technologies for health promotion and disease prevention have evolved rapidly, but few studies have tested the efficacy of mobile health in full-fledged programs. Text4baby is an example of mobile health based on behavioral theory, and it delivers text messages to traditionally underserved pregnant women and new mothers to change their health, health care beliefs, practices, and behaviors in order to improve clinical outcomes. The purpose of this pilot evaluation study is to assess the efficacy of this text messaging campaign. Methods We conducted a randomized pilot evaluation study. All participants were pregnant women first presenting for care at the Fairfax County, Virginia Health Department. We randomized participants to enroll in text4baby and receive usual health care (intervention), or continue simply to receive usual care (control). We then conducted a 24-item survey by telephone of attitudes and behaviors related to text4baby. We surveyed participants at baseline, before text4baby was delivered to the intervention group, and at follow-up at approximately 28 weeks of baby’s gestational age. Results We completed 123 baseline interviews in English and in Spanish. Overall, the sample was predominantly of Hispanic origin (79.7%) with an average age of 27.6 years. We completed 90 follow-up interviews, and achieved a 73% retention rate. We used a logistic generalized estimating equation model to evaluate intervention effects on measured outcomes. We found a significant effect of text4baby intervention exposure on increased agreement with the attitude statement “I am prepared to be a new mother” (OR = 2.73, CI = 1.04, 7.18, p = 0.042) between baseline and follow-up. For those who had attained a high school education or greater, we observed a significantly higher overall agreement to attitudes against alcohol consumption during pregnancy (OR = 2.80, CI = 1.13, 6.90, p = 0.026). We also observed a significant improvement of attitudes toward alcohol consumption from baseline to follow-up (OR = 3.57, CI = 1.13 – 11.24, p = 0.029). Conclusions This pilot study is the first randomized evaluation of text4baby. It is a promising program in that exposure to the text messages was associated with changes in specific beliefs targeted by the messages

Reducing Postoperative Opioids After Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery with Multimodal Pain Control

Introduction: We evaluated the efficacy of a multimodal pain regimen that approaches pain control by utilizing different mechanisms of action. This novel protocol utilizing liposomal bupivacaine, acetaminophen, tramadol and oxycodone as needed in reducing the overall opioid use by patients after undergoing robotic-assisted total laparoscopic hysterectomy in an obese population that is heavily afflicted by the opioid epidemic. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study wherein a sample of 100 (50 multimodal group and 50 controls) were taken from 433 eligible cases conducted over a 1 year period. Patient medical records were evaluated for demographics, surgical characteristics, opioid type and dose, pain scores, length of stay and complications. Opioids were converted to oral morphine dose equivalents. Results: Overall opioid use in the multimodal group decreased by 54% (75.1mg versus 35.5mg, p Discussion: A multimodal approach to pain control is an acceptable alternative to traditional methods of pain control, regardless of BMI, for those with benign or malignant disease and decreases opioid use by 44 to 62 percent with no concomitant increase in pain scores and may decrease pain by 9 to 24 percent

Intraflagellar transport particle size scales inversely with flagellar length: revisiting the balance-point length control model

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii IFT particle trains, important for flagella maintenance and assembly, are observed to decrease in size as a function of cilia length

Automated Crevasse Mapping Using Deep Learning Foundation Models to Analyse Climate Change and Glaciology

Wallace, S., Durrant, A., Harcourt, W. D., and Leontidis, G.: Automated Crevasse Mapping Using Deep Learning Foundation Models to Analyse Climate Change and Glaciology , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-12922, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-12922, 2024

National Housing Policy and the Role of Committees of Inquiry

The objective is to examine, in relation to national housing policy, the role of committees of inquiry, both government appointed committees, and departmental select committees of the House of Commons first established in 1979, The period involved in the study is from 1945 to about 1985 with the government established inquiries being conducted by statutory advisory committees and departmental/interdepartmental committees in the years prior to the mid 1970s, and the select committee inquiries by the Environment Committee and the Scottish Affairs Committee in the early 1980s

Topical decolonization does not eradicate the skin microbiota of community-dwelling or hospitalized adults

Topical antimicrobials are often employed for decolonization and infection prevention and may alter the endogenous microbiota of the skin. The objective of this study was to compare the microbial communities and levels of richness and diversity in community-dwelling subjects and intensive care unit (ICU) patients before and after the use of topical decolonization protocols. We enrolled 15 adults at risk for Staphylococcus aureus infection. Community subjects (n = 8) underwent a 5-day decolonization protocol (twice daily intranasal mupirocin and daily dilute bleach-water baths), and ICU patients (n = 7) received daily chlorhexidine baths. Swab samples were collected from 5 anatomic sites immediately before and again after decolonization. A variety of culture media and incubation environments were used to recover bacteria and fungi; isolates were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry. Overall, 174 unique organisms were recovered. Unique communities of organisms were recovered from the community-dwelling and hospitalized cohorts. In the community-dwelling cohort, microbial richness and diversity did not differ significantly between collections across time points, although the number of body sites colonized with S. aureus decreased significantly over time (P = 0.004). Within the hospitalized cohort, richness and diversity decreased over time compared to those for the enrollment sampling (from enrollment to final sampling, P = 0.01 for both richness and diversity). Topical antimicrobials reduced the burden of S. aureus while preserving other components of the skin and nasal microbiota

Theology, News and Notes - Vol. 23, No. 04

Theology News & Notes was a theological journal published by Fuller Theological Seminary from 1954 through 2014.https://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/tnn/1061/thumbnail.jp