Experimental studies of ionospheric irregularities and related plasma processes

Utah State University (USU) continued its program of measuring and interpreting electron density and its variations in a variety of ionospheric conditions with the Experimental Studies of Ionospheric Irregularities and Related Plasma Processes program. The program represented a nearly ten year effort to provide key measurements of electron density and its fluctuations using sounding rockets. The program also involved the joint interpretation of the results in terms of ionospheric processes. A complete campaign summary and a brief description of the major rocket campaigns are also included

Determining Appropriate Outcome Measures in a Psychosocial Rehabilitation Model for the Mentally Ill: a Knowledgeable Citizen\u27s Perspective

This dissertation research focused on the determination of appropriate outcome measures for community-based psychosocial rehabilitation programs for the mentally ill from the perspective of knowledgeable citizens. Specifically, this research identified a conflict between the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, as the certifying agency, and the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, as the funding agency, with regard to the transitional employment component of the psychosocial rehabilitation program. In order to ascertain whether transitional employment should be retained in the psychosocial rehabilitation program, survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews were completed with one hundred and sixty-eight consumers and twenty-three staff in six psychosocial rehabilitation Clubhouse programs in north central Mississippi. The survey questionnaires and interviews focused primarily on the effects of demographics, diagnosis, and barriers to employment on the willingness of consumers with mental illness to participate in transitional employment. Eleven independent variables were identified including age, living arrangements, years of attendance in the psychosocial rehabilitation program, diagnosis, stigma/attitudes, external influence, symptoms of mental illness, training/experience/education deficits, social/cognitive/behavior deficits, financial barriers, and total barriers to employment. Mixed methodology found convergence between quantitative and qualitative findings with regard to seven independent variables and differences with regard to four. Mixed methods found age, living arrangements, and years of attendance in the psychosocial rehabilitation program were not predictive of willingness to participate in transitional employment. Mixed methods found that stigma/attitudes, external influence, symptoms of mental illness, and total barriers to employment were predictive of willingness to participate in transitional employment. Symptoms of mental illness were found to have the greatest impact. Mixed methods also differed in the findings with regard to four variables. While no statistical significance was found to support diagnosis, training/experience/education deficits, social/cognitive/behavior deficits, or financial barriers as predictors of willingness to participate in transitional employment, substantively these variables are important. Based on the findings, the study recommends adjustments and considerations by the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, and the psychosocial rehabilitation programs that will reconcile the differences and lead to the development and implementation of appropriate outcome measures

Emma Bell Miles symposium on Southern Appalachian culture Walden\u27s Ridge and Signal Mountain tour program

Program of the tour of Walden\u27s Ridge and Signal Mountain, Tennessee held during the second annual Emma Bell Miles Symposium on Southern Appalachian Culture and Nature at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on September 9 and 10, 2011

Trade and investment liberalization and Asia's noncommunicable disease epidemic: a synthesis of data and existing literature.

BACKGROUND: Trade and investment liberalization (trade liberalization) can promote or harm health. Undoubtedly it has contributed, although unevenly, to Asia's social and economic development over recent decades with resultant gains in life expectancy and living standards. In the absence of public health protections, however, it is also a significant upstream driver of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes through facilitating increased consumption of the 'risk commodities' tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods, and by constraining access to NCD medicines. In this paper we describe the NCD burden in Asian countries, trends in risk commodity consumption and the processes by which trade liberalization has occurred in the region and contributed to these trends. We further establish pressing questions for future research on strengthening regulatory capacity to address trade liberalization impacts on risk commodity consumption and health. METHODS: A semi-structured search of scholarly databases, institutional websites and internet sources for academic and grey literature. Data for descriptive statistics were sourced from Euromonitor International, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade Organization. RESULTS: Consumption of tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods was prevalent in the region and increasing in many countries. We find that trade liberalization can facilitate increased trade in goods, services and investments in ways that can promote risk commodity consumption, as well as constrain the available resources and capacities of governments to enact policies and programmes to mitigate such consumption. Intellectual property provisions of trade agreements may also constrain access to NCD medicines. Successive layers of the evolving global and regional trade regimes including structural adjustment, multilateral trade agreements, and preferential trade agreements have enabled transnational corporations that manufacture, market and distribute risk commodities to increasingly penetrate and promote consumption in Asian markets. CONCLUSIONS: Trade liberalization is a significant driver of the NCD epidemic in Asia. Increased participation in trade agreements requires countries to strengthen regulatory capacity to ensure adequate protections for public health. How best to achieve this through multilateral, regional and unilateral actions is a pressing question for ongoing research

Physical controls on orographic cirrus inhomogeneity

Optical depth distributions (P(σ)) are a useful measure of radiatively important cirrus (Ci) inhomogeneity. Yet, the relationship between P(σ) and underlying cloud physical processes remains unclear. In this study, we investigate the influence of homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing processes, ice particle growth and fallout, and mesoscale vertical velocity fluctuations on P(σ) shape during an orographic Ci event. We evaluate Lagrangian Ci evolution along kinematic trajectories from a mesoscale weather model (MM5) using an adiabatic parcel model with binned ice microphysics. Although the presence of ice nuclei increased model cloud cover, our results highlight the importance of homogeneous freezing and mesoscale vertical velocity variability in controlling Ci P(σ) shape along realistic upper tropospheric trajectories

A modified Oster-Murray-Harris mechanical model of morphogenesis

There are two main modeling paradigms for biological pattern formation in developmental biology: chemical prepattern models and cell aggregation models. This paper focuses on an example of a cell aggregation model, the mechanical model developed by Oster, Murray, and Harris [Development, 78 (1983), pp. 83--125]. We revisit the Oster--Murray--Harris model and find that, due to the infinitesimal displacement assumption made in the original version of this model, there is a restriction on the types of boundary conditions that can be prescribed. We derive a modified form of the model which relaxes the infinitesimal displacement assumption. We analyze the dynamics of this model using linear and multiscale nonlinear analysis and show that it has the same linear behavior as the original Oster--Murray--Harris model. Nonlinear analysis, however, predicts that the modified model will allow for a wider range of parameters where the solution evolves to a bounded steady state. The results from both analyses are verified through numerical simulations of the full nonlinear model in one and two dimensions. The increased range of boundary conditions that are well-posed, as well as a wider range of parameters that yield bounded steady states, renders the modified model more applicable to, and more robust for, comparisons with experiments

Emotional and Behavioral Reactions to Emotional and Physical Infidelity: An Evolutionary Perspective

The current study examined the effect of sex on how people react, emotionally and behaviorally, to different types of partner infidelity. We expected to replicate previous findings that men experience more jealousy in reaction to their partner\u27s sexual infidelity, and women experience more jealousy in reaction to their partners\u27 emotional infidelity. We hypothesized that sex will affect behavioral reactions to infidelity as well. Specifically, we expected men to respond to sexual infidelity by terminating the relationship and to emotional infidelity by employing mate-guarding behaviors to prevent further infidelity. We hypothesized women would display the opposite pattern, leaving a relationship in response to emotional infidelity and engaging in mate guarding in response to sexual infidelity. One hundred and seventy five participants completed measures to assess these hypotheses and other related variables (emotional reactions to infidelity, behavioral reactions to infidelity, tendency towards jealousy, mate value, personality characteristics). We replicated previously discovered sex difference in emotional responses to jealousy. Additionally, we found differences in regards to partner retention in that women were more likely to retain in response to sexual infidelity and men more likely to retain in response to emotional infidelity. When examining abandonment behaviors, however, we found that both genders endorsed more leaving in response to sexual infidelity

Il tema del “doppio” nel romanzo di A. Skaldin Stranstvia i priključenija Nikodima Staršego

L’«inspiegabile divisione» (неизъяснимое разделение) psicofisica della personalità sperimentata dal giovane barin Nikodim Michajlovič Ipat’ev, protagonista del romanzo filosofico di Aleksej Skaldin Stranstvija i priključenija Nikodima Staršego [Peregrinazioni e avventure di Nikodim il Vecchio]4, va certamente letta come un tributo dell’ultimo (in ordine cronologico) dei simbolisti russi ad un tema di antica memoria, caro alla mitologia e alla classicità – quello del “doppio” –, che, a partire da Pogorel’skij, passando per Puškin, Odoevskij, Gogol’ e Dostoevskij, aveva imperversato nell’Ottocento russo e, prima ancora, nell’ambiente letterario europeo barocco e romantico, confermandosi nel Novecento, secolo del relativismo e della crisi dell’io, come il tratto distintivo della modernità. Eppure lo sdoppiamento, a detta di Pasolini «la più grande delle invenzioni letterarie», se ricollega Skaldin alla grande tradizione culturale otto-novecentesca, è un Leitmotiv che l’autore desume non da fonti esterne ma dall’intimo della propria esperienza personale. La mia analisi della scissione identitaria del Nikodim skaldiniano si basa appunto sull’ipotesi di una totale o parziale identificazione dello scrittore con il suo personaggio, nella convinzione che solo un accurato esame del substratum autobiografico dell’opera ci possa restituire il significato e la funzione che in essa riveste il topos della destrutturazione e moltiplicazione dell’io

A brief cognitive behavioural intervention for regular amphetamine users. A treatment guide.

A brief intervention using motivational and cognitive behavioural approaches to help change drug use. Also offer alternative brief interventions for clients not suited to the current approach. This manual is divided into five sections: Section 1. Context • Key points from the National Drug Strategy Monograph No 51. Models of Intervention and Care for Psychostimulant Users are included to present the evidence supporting this type of intervention for regular amphetamine users. • A flow-chart to place the intervention in a treatment context. Section 2. Brief background to the study and summary of results of evaluation • A brief description of how the study was developed, undertaken and evaluated. • A brief description of the evaluation outcome data (detailed results will be published separately). Section 3. The intervention • The CBT intervention is presented in a clear and easy to use format for practitioners. Section 4. Suggested alternative brief interventions for those not suitable for the current intervention • This section provides an overview of recommendations for alternative interventions for psychostimulant users who are unsuitable for the CBT intervention (e.g. those who are not considering change, experimental users etc). Section 5. Other available resources • This section lists a range of other resources that are currently available for practitioners working with psychostimulant users. This treatment guide has not been designed to stand alone. Rather, practitioners are encouraged to: 1. Acquaint themselves with the current research and clinical literature. The recently completed monograph Models of Intervention and Care for Psychostimulant Users is an excellent resource for current evidence supporting practice in this area. 2. Undertake training in CBT and motivational enhancement techniques if unfamiliar with these approaches. 3. Obtain ongoing clinical supervision