Steyer Spends the Most, but Only Yang and Gabbard Focus Facebook Advertising on New Hampshire

In this data snapshot, author Jordan Hensley reports on presidential candidate spending on Facebook ads in New Hampshire

When the world grows smaller: Renewing instruction methods for international students

Please note: This is a conference proceeding from an interactive session at the 2008 LOEX Conference. Abstract: With globalization diversifying our university culture, American universities are welcoming an increasing population of international students. Librarians are searching for innovative instruction ideas that adapt to international learning styles while crossing cultural and language barriers. This interactive session taught using the Cephalonian method will combine audience participation, visuals and music in an effort to demonstrate and generate ideas among participants. Framed by the overhaul of the University of Illinois’ ESL instruction program, we’ll talk about characteristics of learning styles of international students, share ideas on pioneering instruction segments including online tutorials and games and discuss authentic assessment strategies.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Deadweight calibration of pressure gages without contamination

Calibration of pressure gages is accomplished by use of fluid chamber in conjunction with conventional single chamber hydraulic deadweight tester. System eliminates cleaning of gages with liquid oxygen after tests and is simple to construct and operate

Rene 41 heat treatment electron microscopy

Electron microscope helps prevent post-weld strain-age cracking of Rene 41 by identifying in advance microstructures that are detrimental to welding

Fitness vs Fatness and Cardiovascular Health in Adolescents

Background: Adolescent obesity has been on the rise with studies showing obesity tracks into adulthood. Obesity is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD); CVD is the leading cause of adult death in the U.S. Previous research shows a strong positive relationship between physical activity (PA) and cardiovascular (CV) health even in an obese adult population. Thus, the relationship between adolescent physical fitness and lifetime risk for CVD and all-cause mortality should be investigated. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine associations between PA and adiposity with cardiovascular health in obese and non-obese weight adolescents, with the hypothesis that physical activity will be positively associated with cardiovascular health independent of adiposity. Methodology: A convenience sample of 30 adolescents (ages 12-18) from the community completed assessments of height, weight, a dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan, resting blood pressure, and a flow-mediated dilation ultrasound (FMD) as a measure of endothelial function and cardiac health. Participants wore an accelerometer for one week to track PA. Participants were assigned to non-obese and obese categories from DXA, the gold standard, measure of body fat. Activity level was also grouped by minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) per day based on a median split of 15 minutes per day. FMD value was calculated as (maximum diameter – baseline diameter)/ baseline diameter x 100. Comparisons in FMD (dependent variable) between body fat and MVPA groups (independent variables) were made using t-tests and associations between body fat and MVPA were tested using linear regression adjusted for sex. Results: FMD data was only available for 10 participants: average age=14.6 (SD 1.8), 50% female, BMI=20.9 (2.6), FMD%=11.9 (8.5). There were no differences (p=.943) in FMD between the obese (mean FMD% = 12.2, SE 4.1) and non-obese (11.8, SE 3.4) groups. Similarly, when percent body fat was examined as a continuous variable, percent body fat was not associated with FMD (coefficient =0.16 (SE 0.31), p=.612). Those with greater than 15 minutes of MVPA per day had a higher FMD (15.0, SE 3.3) compared to those with less than 15 minutes of MVPA per day (8.9, SE 3.3, p=.024). When MVPA was examined as a continuous variable, MVPA was positively associated with MVPA (coefficient =.32 (SE 15), p=.067, however, not statistically significant. Discussion: Despite the small sample size, there does appear to be a positive association between FMD and MVPA in adolescents but not an association between FMD and percent body fat. These results suggest an important correlation between PA and cardiac health and may also support the notion that PA may be more important in overall CV health when compared to body composition. Clinicians should emphasize promoting physical activity among adolescents, and not just focus solely on body fat

Background Subtraction Uncertainty from Submillimetre to Millimetre Wavelengths

Photometric observations of galaxies at submillimetre to millimetre wavelengths (50 - 1000 GHz) are susceptible to spatial variations in both the background CMB temperature and CIB emission that can be comparable to the flux from the target galaxy. We quantify the residual uncertainty when background emission inside a circular aperture is estimated by the mean flux in a surrounding annular region, assumed to have no contribution from the source of interest. We present simple formulae to calculate this uncertainty as a function of wavelength and aperture size. Drawing on examples from the literature, we illustrate the use of our formalism in practice and highlight cases in which uncertainty in the background subtraction needs to be considered in the error analysis. We make the code used to calculate the uncertainties publicly available on the web.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, comments welcom

Mapping State Unemployment

In this data snapshot, authors Michael Ettlinger and Jordan Hensley report the relative level of initial unemployment claims for the week ending March 28 as a share of the labor force, and the “insured unemployment” as a share of the February labor force for the week ending March 21. Hawaii, Michigan, and Pennsylvania top the list of initial unemployment claims