National Scientific Facilities and Their Science Impact on Non-Biomedical Research

H-index, proposed by Hirsch is a good indicator of the impact of a scientist's research. When evaluating departments, institutions or labs, the importance of h-index can be further enhanced when properly calibrated for size. Particularly acute is the issue of federally funded facilities whose number of actively publishing scientists frequently dwarfs that of academic departments. Recently Molinari and Molinari developed a methodology that shows the h-index has a universal growth rate for large numbers of papers, allowing for meaningful comparisons between institutions. An additional challenge when comparing large institutions is that fields have distinct internal cultures, with different typical rates of publication and citation; biology is more highly cited than physics, which is more highly cited than engineering. For this reason, this study has focused on the physical sciences, engineering, and technology, and has excluded bio-medical research. Comparisons between individual disciplines are reported here to provide contextual framework. Generally, it was found that the universal growth rate of Molinari and Molinari holds well across all the categories considered, testifying to the robustness of both their growth law and our results. The overall goal here is to set the highest standard of comparison for federal investment in science; comparisons are made with the nations preeminent private and public institutions. We find that many among the national facilities compare favorably in research impact with the nations leading universities.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Examination of the Monoamine Oxidase A Gene Promoter on Motivation to Exercise and Levels of Voluntary Physical Activity

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the genetic basis underlying voluntary exercise. Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) is an enzyme that acts on monoamine neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, to cause inactivation. There are several polymorphisms in the promoter region of the MAO-A gene, and these variations change transcriptional activity and the amount of MAO-A produced, leading to alterations in available dopamine levels. Interestingly, polymorphisms in MAO-A have been associated recently with physical activity level. This study sought to determine whether there is an association between motivation to exercise, levels of voluntary physical activity, and MAO-A gene polymorphisms. Methods: Seventy-one participants (age 18-24 years, 13 males & 58 females) completed the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2 (BREQ-2) to assess their motivation to exercise and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) to assess their level of physical activity. DNA was collected and isolated from a cheek cell sample. The MAO-A genotype was identified using PCR with gene specific primers. MAO-A 3/3 and 4/4 genotype individuals were used for analysis. Results: External motivation to exercise was significantly higher (p \u3c 0.01) in the high transcription 4/4 genotype (x̄=1.11 ± 0.8) compared to the low transcription 3/3 genotype (x̄= 0.39 ± 0.6). Internal motivation to exercise was not different between genotypes. Body mass index and weekly MET minutes estimated by IPAQ were also comparable between genotypes. Conclusion: The results suggest a polymorphism in this monoamine pathway may play a role in increasing sensitivity to external factors that motivate individuals to exercise

A comparison of three basal vocabularies and supplementary books on three reading levels

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Private Accreditation as a Substitute for Direct Government Regulation in Public Health Insurance Programs: When Is It Appropriate?

The appropriateness of the use of private accreditation in regulating and defining the quality of health care providers under government health insurance programs is examined. The characteristics of health care institutions and the patients they serve are important considerations

Water-filled heat pipe useful at moderate temperatures

Heat pipe is used in the primary heat exchanger for nuclear power plants, as a heat sink for high-power electronic devices, and in a closed-cycle heat rejection mechanism for cryogenic storage tanks. It serves simultaneously as a heat transfer device and as a structural member

Inflation From Symmetry Breaking Below the Planck Scale

We investigate general scalar field potentials \hbox{$V\left(\phi\right)$} for inflationary cosmology arising from spontaneous symmetry breaking. We find that potentials which are dominated by terms of order $\phi^m$ with \hbox{$m > 2$} can satisfy observational constraints at an arbitrary symmetry breaking scale. Of particular interest, the spectral index of density fluctuations is shown to be independent of the specific form of the potential, depending only on the order $m$ of the lowest non-vanishing derivative of $V(\phi)$ near its maximum. The results of a model with a broken ${\rm SO(3)}$ symmetry illustrate these features.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters. 7 Pages, REVTeX. No figure