DEMAND FOR DIFFERENTIATED VEGETABLES

To obtain a healthier diet, Americans need to consume not only more vegetables, but also a healthier mix of vegetables. Household demands for eight categories of vegetables are investigated, using ACNielsen's Homescan data. A maximum simulated likelihood estimation procedure results in elasticity estimates which are somewhat larger than those obtained from both time-series and cross-section data in the literature. Even these larger elasticities are not large enough to bridge the dietary consumption gap without, and possibly even with, substantial price or food expenditure subsidies. Furthermore, Homescan data do indicate some significant differences in preferences for types of vegetables by household characteristics, such as race and ethnicity. This information could be used in designing more effective public interventions for boosting vegetable consumption in the United States.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

From random walk to single-file diffusion

We report an experimental study of diffusion in a quasi-one-dimensional (q1D) colloid suspension which behaves like a Tonks gas. The mean squared displacement as a function of time is described well with an ansatz encompassing a time regime that is both shorter and longer than the mean time between collisions. This ansatz asserts that the inverse mean squared displacement is the sum of the inverse mean squared displacement for short time normal diffusion (random walk) and the inverse mean squared displacement for asymptotic single-file diffusion (SFD). The dependence of the single-file 1D mobility on the concentration of the colloids agrees quantitatively with that derived for a hard rod model, which confirms for the first time the validity of the hard rod SFD theory. We also show that a recent SFD theory by Kollmann leads to the hard rod SFD theory for a Tonks gas.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Incorporating Remote Electrical Neuromodulation (REN) Into Usual Care Reduces Acute Migraine Medication Use: An Open-Label Extension Study

© Copyright © 2020 Marmura, Lin, Harris, Ironi and Rosen. Background: A recent randomized controlled study showed that 66.7% (66/99) and 37.4% (37/99) of people undergoing remote electrical neuromodulation (REN), a novel non-pharmacological migraine treatment, achieve pain relief and pain freedom, respectively, at 2 h post-treatment. The participants who completed the 6-weeks double-blind phase of this study were offered to participate in an open-label extension (OLE) with an active REN device. Objective: This study investigated the clinical use of REN, focusing on its potential in reducing the use of acute migraine medications. Methods: The parent study for this open-label extension (OLE) was a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study of acute treatment conducted on 296 participants enrolled at 12 sites in the USA and Israel. This study included a run-in phase, in which migraine attacks were treated with usual care, and an 8-weeks double-blind treatment phase. One hundred sixty participants continued in an 8-weeks OLE phase in which they could incorporate a REN device into their usual care. Medication use rate (percentage of participants who treated their attacks only with REN and avoided medications in all their attacks) and pain outcomes at 2 h post-treatment were compared between the OLE and the run-in phase in a within-subject design. Results: The analyses were performed on 117 participants with episodic migraine. During the OLE, 89.7% of the participants treated their attacks only with REN and avoided medications in all their attacks compared with 15.4% in the run-in phase (p \u3c 0.0001). The rates of pain relief and pain-free in at least 50% of the treatments at 2 h post-treatment were comparable (pain relief: 58.1% in the run-in phase and 57.3% in the OLE, p = 0.999; pain-free: 23.1% in the run-in vs. 30.8% in the OLE, p = 0.175). Conclusions: REN may reduce the use of acute migraine medications. Thus, incorporating REN into usual care may reduce the risk for medication overuse headache (MOH). Future studies should evaluate whether REN reduces the use of acute migraine medications in a population at risk for MOH

Cryogenic mechanical loss of a single-crystalline GaP coating layer for precision measurement applications

The first direct observations of gravitational waves have been made by the Advanced LIGO detectors. However, the quest to improve the sensitivities of these detectors remains, and epitaxially grown single-crystal coatings show considerable promise as alternatives to the ion-beam sputtered amorphous mirror coatings typically used in these detectors and other such precision optical measurements. The mechanical loss of a 1 μm thick single-crystalline gallium phosphide (GaP) coating, incorporating a buffer layer region necessary for the growth of high quality epitaxial coatings, has been investigated over a broad range of frequencies and with fine temperature resolution. It is shown that at 20 K the mechanical loss of GaP is a factor of 40 less than an undoped tantala film heat-treated to 600 °C and is comparable to the loss of a multilayer GaP/AlGaP coating. This is shown to translate into possible reductions in coating thermal noise of a factor of 2 at 120 K and 5 at 20 K over the current best IBS coatings (alternating stacks of silica and titania-doped tantala). There is also evidence of a thermally activated dissipation process between 50 and 70 K

Satisfaction of Dental Students, Faculty, and Patients with Tooth Shade-Matching Using a Spectrophotometer

The aims of this study were to evaluate dental students’ clinical shade-matching outcomes (from subjective use of shade guide) with an objective electronic shade-matching tool (spectrophotometer); to assess patients’, students’, and supervising faculty members’ satisfaction with the clinical shade-matching outcomes; and to assess clinicians’ support for use of the spectrophotometer to improve esthetic outcomes. A total of 103 volunteer groups, each consisting of patient, dental student, and supervising faculty member at the University of Louisville, were recruited to participate in the study in 2015. Using the spectrophotometer, clinical shade-matching outcome (ΔEclinical) and laboratory shade-matching outcome (ΔElaboratory) were calculated. Two five-point survey items were used to assess the groups’ satisfaction with the clinical shade-matching outcome and support for an objective electronic shade-matching tool in the student clinic. The results showed that both ΔEclinical (6.5±2.4) and ΔElaboratory (4.3±2.0) were outside the clinical acceptability threshold ΔE values of 2.7, when visual shade-matching method (subjective usage of shade guide) was used to fabricate definitive restorations. Characteristics of the patients, dental students, supervising faculty members, and restorations had minimal to no effect on the ΔEclinical. The patients, dental students, and supervising faculty members generally had positive opinions about the clinical shade-matching outcome, despite the increased ΔEclinical observed. Overall, clinical shade-matching outcomes in this school need further improvement, but the patients’ positive opinions may indicate the need to revisit the acceptability threshold ΔE value of 2.7 in the academic setting

Constraints on Intervening Stellar Populations Toward the Large Magellanic Cloud

The suggestion by Zaritsky & Lin that a vertical extension of the red clump feature in color-magnitude diagrams of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is consistent with a significant population of foreground stars to the LMC that could account for the observed microlensing optical depth has been challenged by various investigators. We respond by (1) examining each of the challenges presented and (2) presenting new photometric and spectroscopic data. We conclude that although the CMD data do not mandate the existence of a foreground population, they are entirely consistent with a foreground population associated with the LMC that contributes significantly (~ 50%) to the observed microlensing optical depth. From our new data, we conclude that <~ 40% of the VRC stars are young, massive red clump stars because (1) synthetic color-magnitude diagrams created using the star formation history derived indepdently from HST data suggest that < 50% of the VRC stars are young, massive red clump stars, (2) the angular distribution of the VRC stars is more uniform than that of the young (age < 1 Gyr) main sequence stars, and (3) the velocity dispersion of the VRC stars in the region of the LMC examined by ZL is inconsistent with the expectation for a young disk population. Each of these arguments is predicated on assumptions and the conclusions are uncertain. Therefore, an exact determination of the contribution to the microlensing optical depth by the various hypothesized foreground populations, and the subsequent conclusions regarding the existence of halo MACHOs, requires a detailed knowledge of many complex astrophysical issues, such as the IMF, star formation history, and post-main sequence stellar evolution. (abridged)Comment: Scheduled for publication in AJ in May 199

Resonance structure in the Li^- photodetachment cross section

We report on the first observation of resonance structure in the total cross section for the photodetachment of Li^-. The structure arises from the autodetaching decay of doubly excited ^1P states of Li^- that are bound with respect to the 3p state of the Li atom. Calculations have been performed for both Li^- and H^- to assist in the identification of these resonances. The lowest lying resonance is a symmetrically excited intrashell resonance. Higher lying asymmetrically excited intershell states are observed which converge on the Li(3p) limit.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure, 19 references, RevTeX, figures in ep