Searches in Photon and Jet States

We present recent results from the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and D0 experiments using data from proton-antiproton collisions with sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV at Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron. New physics may appear in events with high transverse momentum objects, including photons and quark or gluon jets. The results described here are of signature-based searches and model-based searches probing supersymmetry, leptoquarks, 4th generation quarks, and large extra dimensions.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Proc. 42nd Rencontres de Moriond on Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Italy, March 10-17, 200

Screen Influences on Preteens

This precis analyzed the works conducted in Southern California in 2014 titled, “Five Days at Outdoor Education Camp Without Screens improves Preteens Skills with Nonverbal Emotion Cues.” The analysis begins by defining non-verbal emotional cues and continues to give a brief description of the 2014 experiment, including its sample size, experimental and control groups, and a means to account for similar demographic variables. The findings from the research conducted conclude that time spent away from screen-based media does in fact improve the recognition of nonverbal emotional cues. This precis concludes with the strengths and limitations found in the California study.Quimby, MichelannHuman Development and Family Science

Salivary testosterone measurement in women with and without polycystic ovary syndrome

Clinical and/or biochemical hyperandrogenism is one of the diagnostic criteria for PCOS. An evaluation of the role of salivary testosterone (salT) and androstenedione (salA) for the diagnosis of PCOS was undertaken in a cross sectional study involving 65 women without PCOS and 110 women with PCOS fulfilling all 3 diagnostic Rotterdam criteria. Serum and salivary androgen measurements were determined by LC-MS/MS. salT and salA were significantly elevated in PCOS compared to controls (P<001). No androgen marker was more predictive than another using ROC curves, but multiple logistic regression suggested salT was more predictive than free androgen index (FAI)(p<0.01). The combination of salT or FAI identified 100% of PCOS women. PCOS women with both biochemical and clinical hyperandrogenism as opposed to clinical hyperandrogenism alone showed a metabolic phenotype (p<0.05) and insulin resistance(p<0.001). PCOS patients with an isolated elevated FAI showed increased insulin resistance compared to those with an isolated salT(P<0.05). salT appeared to be at least as predictive as FAI for the diagnosis of the classical PCOS phenotype, and the combination of salT or FAI identified 100% of PCOS patients. This suggests that salT measurement by LC-MS/MS holds the promise of complementing existing laboratory tests as a means of assessing hyperandrogenemia

Networked, Collaborative, and Activist News Communities Online: A Case Study of Reddit and Daily Kos

Participatory democracy depends on formations of community and social relations, places and spaces for critical discourse, and the organizational and technical capacity for collective action. This study seeks to better understand how these processes are at work in the virtual realm, and more broadly examine the changing nature of political information and discourse in the online context. Toward this end, I examine two sites that embody different yet highly successful models of user participation, collective content production, and increasingly, political action: the political blogging community of Daily Kos and the social news site Reddit. This study is based on three broad theoretical frameworks of community, discourse, and action. I use work by Michele Willson (2006) to explore how community exists in the virtual realm. Drawing upon the scholarship of Jurgen Habermas (1991) and more recent adaptations and extensions of Habermasian public sphere theory from Aaron Barlow (2006), I ask can online communities set the foundation for a public spheres, and if so, how do they function as virtual public spheres? Building upon understandings of online community and virtual public sphere(s), I utilize work by Manuel Castells (1997) and Jeffrey Juris (2005) to understand how community and discourse can enable collective action. These lines of analysis provide the structure through which I examine Daily Kos and Reddit. Using ethnographic methods, I place the voices and perspectives of users within this theoretical structure to produce a comprehensive look at the function of collaborative online political information communities

Unemployment Insurance: The Washington Supreme Court and the Labor Dispute Disqualification

This comment discusses a disqualification common to all state statutes\u27 disqualifying from benefits workers unemployed because of a labor dispute, and focuses upon the Washington Supreme Court\u27s interpretation of the labor dispute disqualification in the Washington Unemployment Compensation Act. After discussing the court\u27s approach to the disqualification in the context of Washington case law, the comment examines various policy considerations underlying the labor dispute disqualification and contrasts the Washington court\u27s interpretation with the interpretation other state courts have accorded similar labor dispute disqualification statutes. Finally, the comment concludes that the Washington court\u27s singularly narrow interpretation of the labor dispute disqualification results from a basic misunderstanding of the disqualification\u27s function in unemployment insurance legislation

Unemployment Insurance: The Washington Supreme Court and the Labor Dispute Disqualification

This comment discusses a disqualification common to all state statutes\u27 disqualifying from benefits workers unemployed because of a labor dispute, and focuses upon the Washington Supreme Court\u27s interpretation of the labor dispute disqualification in the Washington Unemployment Compensation Act. After discussing the court\u27s approach to the disqualification in the context of Washington case law, the comment examines various policy considerations underlying the labor dispute disqualification and contrasts the Washington court\u27s interpretation with the interpretation other state courts have accorded similar labor dispute disqualification statutes. Finally, the comment concludes that the Washington court\u27s singularly narrow interpretation of the labor dispute disqualification results from a basic misunderstanding of the disqualification\u27s function in unemployment insurance legislation

Virtual reality visual feedback and its effect on brain excitability

This dissertation examines manipulation of visual feedback in virtual reality (VR) to increase excitability of distinct neural networks in the sensorimotor cortex. The objective is to explore neural responses to visual feedback of motor activities performed in complex virtual environments during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and to identify sensory manipulations that could further optimize VR rehabilitation of persons with hemiparesis. In addition, the effects of VR therapy on brain reorganization are investigated. An MRI-compatible VR system is used to provide subjects with online visual feedback of their hand movement. First, the author develops a protocol to analyze variability in movement kinematics between experimental sessions and conditions and its possible effect on modulating neural activity. Second, brain reorganization after 2 weeks of robot-assisted VR therapy is examined in 10 chronic stroke subjects in terms of change in extent of activation, interhemispheric dominance, connectivity network of ipsilesional primary motor cortex (iM1) and the interhemispheric interaction between iM 1 and contralesional M1 (cM 1). After training, brain activity during a simple paretic hand movement is re-localized in terms of bilateral change in activity or a shift of interhemispheric dominance (re-lateralization) toward the ipsilesional hemisphere that is positively correlated with improvement in clinical scores. Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) shows that interhemispheric coupling between the bilateral motor cortices tends to decrease after training and to negatively correlate with improvement in scores for clinical scales, and with the amount of re-lateralization. Third, the dissertation studies if visual discordance in VR of finger movement would facilitate activity in select brain networks. In a study of 12 healthy subjects, the amplitude of finger movement is manipulated (hypometric feedback) resulting in higher activation of contralateral M1. In a group of 11 stroke subjects, bidirectional, hypometric and hypermetric,VR visual discordance is used. Both feedback conditions cause small increase in activity of the iM1 contralateral to movement and stronger recruitment of both posterior parietal cortices and the ipsilesional fusiform gyrus (iFBA). Fourth, the effect of mirrored-visual feedback on the activity of the ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex of stroke subjects is examined. While subjects move the non-paretic hand during the fMRI experiment, they receive either veridical feedback of the movement or a mirrored feedback. The results show recruitment of iM1 and both posterior parietal cortices during the mirrored feedback. Effective connectivity analysis show increase correlation of iM1 and contralesional SPL (cSPL) with iFBA suggesting a role of the latter in the evaluation of feedback and in visuomotor processing. DCM analysis shows increased modulation of iM1 by cSPL area during the mirrored feedback, an observation that proves the influence of visual feedback on modulating primary motor cortex activation. This dissertation provides evidence that it is possible to enhance brain excitability through manipulation of virtual reality feedback and that brain reorganization can result from just two weeks of VR training. These findings should be exploited in the design of neuroscience-based rehabilitation protocols that could enhance brain reorganization and motor recovery