Localized Vibrational Modes in High-Entropy Oxides

The existence of localized vibrational modes in the high-entropy oxide (MgCoNiCuZn)O is investigated using classical lattice dynamics. New empirical interatomic potentials for the cation-oxygen interactions in (MgCoNiCuZn)O are developed and are shown to yield superior agreement with the experimental crystal structures, dielectric constants, and phonon frequencies of the parent binary oxides. Various probes for localization are calculated and suggest (MgCoNiCuZn)O supports localized modes beyond a high-frequency mobility edge in the vibrational density-of-states

Studies on the Synthesis of Layer Silicates

A study on the low temperature synthesis of layer silicates was undertaken on the systems SiO2/Mg2+, SiO2/Al3+ and SiO2/MgO/LiF. Initial work was carried out on the uptake of silica from dilute solutions of magnesium at room temperature and atmospheric pressure to ascertain the amount of silica adsorbed in precipitates formed under these conditions. Reflux of these solutions gave products analogous to the serpentine minerals, chrysotile and antigorite. Electron microscopy was used to study these products. Electron diffraction provided a means of identifying some of the phases and morphological features observed were discussed in terms of silicate structures. Similar studies were made on the SiO2/Al3+ system at room temperature and atmospheric pressure and under reflux conditions. The products of these reactions were mainly hydroxides of aluminium. Attempts were made to chelate mildly the aluminium in solution to hinder the precipitation of hydroxides and encourage silicate synthesis. A series of organic and inorganic additives were used and the solutions heated at 8

Is voice therapy an effective treatment for dysphonia? A randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVES: To assess the overall efficacy of voice therapy for dysphonia. DESIGN: Single blind randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Outpatient clinic in a teaching hospital. Participants: 204 outpatients aged 17-87 with a primary symptom of persistent hoarseness for at least two months. INTERVENTIONS: After baseline assessments, patients were randomised to six weeks of either voice therapy or no treatment. Assessments were repeated at six weeks on the 145 (71%) patients who continued to this stage and at 12-14 weeks on the 133 (65%) patients who completed the study. The assessments at the three time points for the 70 patients who completed treatment and the 63 patients in the group given no treatment were compared. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ratings of laryngeal features, Buffalo voice profile, amplitude and pitch perturbation, voice profile questionnaire, hospital anxiety and depression scale, clinical interview schedule, SF-36. RESULTS: Voice therapy improved voice quality as assessed by rating by patients (P=0.001) and rating by observer (P<0.001). The treatment effects for these two outcomes were 4.1 (95% confidence interval 1.7 to 6.6) points and 0.82 (0.50 to 1.13) points. Amplitude perturbation showed improvement at six weeks (P=0.005) but not on completion of the study. Patients with dysphonia had appreciable psychological distress and lower quality of life than controls, but voice therapy had no significant impact on either of these variables. CONCLUSION: Voice therapy is effective in improving voice quality as assessed by self rated and observer rated methods

Improved Currents for Heavy Quarks

We discuss lattice artifacts for matrix elements of hadrons containing one or more heavy quark. In particular, we analyze interrelations between lattice artifacts and the $1/m_Q$ expansion. The implications for calculations of heavy-light decay constants and of semi-leptonic form factors are discussed.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, uuencoded PostScript, proceedings of Lattice '94. LaTeX at ftp://fnth06.fnal.gov/pub/Fermilab-Pub/95.00

Using occupancy analysis to validate the use of footprint tunnels as a method for monitoring the hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus

Indirect survey methods are often used in studies of mammals, but are susceptible to biases caused by failure to detect species where they are present. Occupancy analysis is an analytical technique which enables non-detection rates to be estimated and which can be used to develop and refine novel survey methods. In this study, we investigated the use of footprint tunnels by volunteers as a method for surveying occupancy of sites by hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus. The survey protocol led to a very low non-detection rate and could reasonably be used to detect occupancy changes of 25% with statistical power of 0.95 in a national survey

Binding Energies in Nonrelativistic Field Theories

Relativistic corrections communicate the binding energy of a bound state to its kinetic mass. This mechanism is reviewed and used to explain anomalous results of Collins, Edwards, Heller, and Sloan (hep-lat/9512026), which compared rest and kinetic masses of heavy-light mesons and quarkonia.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, poster presented at LATTICE96(heavy quarks

Youthworx media: youth media and social enterprise as intervention and innovation

This research explores the impact of Youthworx, a community-based cross-sector response to the problem of youth marginalisation and social exclusion. Preface Youthworx is a successful model of a practical, community-based, cross-sector response to the problem of youth marginalisation and social exclusion. It combines professional expertise, networks and material resources across social service delivery agencies (Salvation Army and Youth Development Australia (YDA)), youth-run community media (SYN Media), an educational provider (North Melbourne Institute of Technology TAFE (NMIT)) and research organisations (the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research (SISR)). Media training and production is used to build capacity to re-engage with learning, education and employment. After some years in development between 2008, when Youthworx effectively began operations, and 2013, the program has provided open access multimedia workshops, accredited training and, more recently, paid traineeships for more than 400 youth disconnected from formal learning, with experience of homelessness, juvenile justice or alcohol and drug abuse. Participants broadcast and distribute their works through SYN Media, local festivals and screenings, as well as online. They also make commissioned creative products for external clients and not-for-profit organisations. Research undertaken by Swinburne University’s SISR between 2005 and 2013 explored impact of Youthworx on these young people and the broader lessons for debates on social innovation, community media and creative economies, informal learning, opportunity and enterprise. The integrated R&D is a unique element of Youthworx, allowing documentation, analysis and capacity-building. It combined longitudinal on-site research, a comparative study of best practices across parallel international youth media initiatives, and mobilisation of established academic and industry networks. Although our findings to date have appeared in a range of publications, this document offers the first comprehensive report on the project. It discusses the development of Youthworx and the results of the 2008-13 period. The presented findings draw on a qualitative fieldwork at Youthworx and semistructured follow-up interviews with a group of Youthworx graduates who participated in the program between 2009-2011. In combination, this material is used to document and explore the specific institutional structure and cultural context in which Youthworx’s media training and production took place, the ways in which young people experienced, engaged with and valued the project, as well as the project’s social outcomes. The longitudinal account of Youthworx presented here integrates and summarises multiple voices, including industry partners, service organisations, practitioners, researchers and, importantly, young people themselves. It reflects arguments developed across the team, including material previously published

The effectiveness of incarceration-based drug treatment on criminal behavior.

Background - Many, if not most, incarcerated offenders have substance abuse problems. Without effective treatment, these substance-abusing offenders are likely to persist in non-drug offending. The period of incarceration offers an opportunity to intervene in the cycle of drug abuse and crime. Although many types of incarceration-based drug treatment programs are available (e.g., therapeutic communities and group counseling), the effectiveness of these programs is unclear. Objectives - The objective of this research synthesis is to systematically review quasi-experimental and experimental (RCT) evaluations of the effectiveness of incarceration-based drug treatment programs in reducing post-release recidivism and drug relapse. A secondary objective of this synthesis is to examine variation in effectiveness by programmatic, sample, and methodological features. In this update of the original 2006 review (see Mitchell, Wilson, and MacKenzie, 2006), studies made available since the original review were included in an effort to keep current with emerging research. Main results - Seventy-four evaluations met our eligibility criteria. The overall average effect of these programs was approximately a 15 to 17% reduction in recidivism and drug relapse. The effectiveness of such programs, however, varied by program type. Therapeutic communities had relatively consistent but modest reductions in recidivism and drug relapse. Counseling and narcotic maintenance programs had mixed effects. Specifically, counseling programs on average reduced recidivism but not drug relapse, narcotic maintenance programs had sizeable reductions in drug relapse but not recidivism, and boot camps had negligible effects on both recidivism and drug relapse. Conclusions - This synthesis of evaluations of incarceration-based drug treatment programs found that such programs are modestly effective in reducing recidivism. These findings most strongly support the effectiveness of therapeutic communities, as these programs produced relatively consistent reductions in recidivism and drug use. Both counseling and incarceration-based narcotic maintenance programs had mixed effects. Counseling programs were associated with reductions in recidivism but not drug use; whereas, incarceration-based narcotic maintenance programs were associated with reductions in drug use but not recidivism. Note that our findings regarding the effectiveness of incarceration-based narcotic maintenance programs differ from a larger review of community-based narcotic maintenance programs (see Egli, Pina, Christensen, Aebi, and Killias, 2009). Finally, boot camp programs for drug offenders had negligible effects on both recidivism and drug use

A More Improved Lattice Action for Heavy Quarks

We extend the Fermilab formalism for heavy quarks to develop a more improved action. We give results of matching calculations of the improvement couplings at tree level. Finally, we estimate the discretization errors associated with the new action.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, Lattice 2003 Tsukuba Japa

Co-integrating thermal and hemodynamic imaging for physiological monitoring

Photoplethysmographic imaging (PPGI) has gained popularity fornon-intrusive cardiovascular monitoring. However, certain symptoms(e.g., fever) may not be easily detectable using cardiovascularbiomarkers. Here, we investigate the co-integration of PPGIand thermal imaging to create a non-contact, widefield, multimodalphysiological monitoring system. To achieve strong PPGI performance,high-power infrared LED stability was investigated by evaluatingtwo LED driver boards. Results show that the multimodalimaging system was able to acquire spatially consistent hemodynamicpulsatility and heat distributions in a case study. This multimodalsystem may lead to improved systemic disease detectionand monitoring