Daily measurement of slow slip from low-frequency earthquakes is consistent with ordinary earthquake scaling.

Slow slip transients on faults can last from seconds to months and stitch together the earthquake cycle. However, no single geophysical instrument is able to observe the full range of slow slip because of bandwidth limitations. Here, we connect seismic and geodetic data from the Mexican subduction zone to explore an instrumental blind spot. We establish a calibration of the daily median amplitude of the seismically recorded low-frequency earthquakes to the daily geodetically recorded moment rate of previously established slow slip events. This calibration allows us to use the precise evolution of low-frequency earthquake activity to quantitatively measure the moment of smaller, subdaily slip events that are unresolvable by geodesy alone. The resulting inferred slow slip moments scale with duration and inter-event time like ordinary earthquakes. These new quantifications help connect slow and fast events in a broad spectrum of transient slip and suggest that slow slip events behave much like ordinary earthquakes

Intranasal ciclesonide for allergic rhinitis

Ciclesonide is a novel corticosteroid which is optimized for topical use. It is a pro-drug which is activated locally in the airway mucosa, lipid-conjugated for local retention, and has very high protein binding in circulation leading to low systemic bioavailability. These characteristics should lead to highly selective activity with reduced local and systemic side effects. It has been established as an inhaled medication for asthma and has also been shown in double-blind trials to be efficacious for the treatment of seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis. However no data have yet demonstrated superiority over existing nasal topical corticosteroids, either in terms of efficacy or adverse effects, and trials have not yet clearly shown efficacy in rhinitis in children. Therefore the place of ciclesonide in the treatment of allergic rhinitis relative to other existing products remains unclear

Refinement Types for Logical Frameworks and Their Interpretation as Proof Irrelevance

Refinement types sharpen systems of simple and dependent types by offering expressive means to more precisely classify well-typed terms. We present a system of refinement types for LF in the style of recent formulations where only canonical forms are well-typed. Both the usual LF rules and the rules for type refinements are bidirectional, leading to a straightforward proof of decidability of typechecking even in the presence of intersection types. Because we insist on canonical forms, structural rules for subtyping can now be derived rather than being assumed as primitive. We illustrate the expressive power of our system with examples and validate its design by demonstrating a precise correspondence with traditional presentations of subtyping. Proof irrelevance provides a mechanism for selectively hiding the identities of terms in type theories. We show that LF refinement types can be interpreted as predicates using proof irrelevance, establishing a uniform relationship between two previously studied concepts in type theory. The interpretation and its correctness proof are surprisingly complex, lending support to the claim that refinement types are a fundamental construct rather than just a convenient surface syntax for certain uses of proof irrelevance

Ethical Dimensions of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection During Pregnancy

Physicians encounter complex and sensitive ethical challenges in the medical care of pregnant women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. This paper identifies those ethical challenges and provides concrete clinical guidance for how they should be addressed in obstetric care. The paper begins with a brief historical review, to highlight and to call into question the civil rights model of the ethics of HIV infection that has dominated the literature, clinical practice, and public policy. The authors propose an alternative ethical framework. This framework begins by underscoring the public health obligations of both physicians and pregnant women with HIV infection. The framework is based on a clinical ethics that appeals to both beneficence-based and autonomy-based obligations of the physician to the pregnant woman and the beneficence-based obligations of both the physician and the pregnant woman to the fetal patient. This framework is then deployed in a clinical ethical analysis of termination of pregnancy and contraception, partner notification, disclosure and confidentiality of her serostatus by the patient to the health care team, disclosure and confidentiality of her serostatus to other health care professionals, prevention of vertical transmission, and advance directives

Simultaneous removal of oil and gases from liquid sources using a hollow fiber membrane

The present invention includes an apparatus and method for removing oil from a oil-containing liquid comprising oil and gas comprising: a source of oil-containing liquid; and a membrane contactor system in fluid communication with the source of oil-containing liquid, the membrane contactor system comprising one or more membrane contactors having a first and a second surface, wherein the first surface coalesces oil and removes gas from the oil-containing liquid, and the oil and gas are collected on the second surface from the oil-containing liquid.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

The Orbiter Stability Experiment on STS-40

The Orbiter Stability Experiment (OSE) was developed to evaluate the steadiness of the STS Orbiter as a potential platform for instrumentation that would image the Sun in its extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray radiations. We were interested in any high frequency motions of the Orbiter's orientation due to normal operations and manned activities. Preliminary results are presented of the observations. Other than the expected slow motion of the Orbiter within the specified angular deadband of 0.1 degrees during the observations, it was found that high frequency (above 1 Hz) angular motions (jitter) were not detectable at the 0.25 arc sec detection limit of the most sensitive detector, for most of the period of observation. No high frequency motions were recorded during intervals that were identified with vernier thruster firings. However, one short interval with detectable spectral power to a frequency of 10 Hz has been found to date. It has not yet been correlated with a particular activity going on at the time. The results of the observations may also be of value in assessing perturbations to the Orbiter's micro-gravity environment produced by normal operations

Canton Connections: A University-Community Partnership for Post-Disaster Revitalization

Back-to-back hurricanes prompted the creation of a partnership between Western Carolina University and an affected community in western North Carolina. The partnership was designed to promote the economic, social, and cultural revitalization of the community while creating opportunities for civic engagement and enriched student learning. The principal stakeholders in the partnership were the university and the municipal government, representing the community at large. The partners undertook several projects over a three-year period as part of a comprehensive, multifaceted initiative. In this article, the authors discuss the benefits and impact of the projects on participants and the community. They also share the insights gained and lessons learned from the initiative and comment briefly on factors inherent in effective university-community partnerships