Letter, Montgomery C. Meigs to Peleg Clarke Jr., November 22, 1865

This handwritten letter, dated November 22, 1865, is written from Montgomery C. Meigs to Peleg Clarke Jr. insisting that the United States Army does not owe Clarke any money for the lumber, supplies, and corn Clarke is claiming were taken by the Army due to Clarke\u27s alleged dealings with the Rebels. Meigs claims that the items were taken as prize of war after the Rebels were forced to abandon them when the Union forced them out of Fredericksburg. The letter is written on Quartermaster General\u27s Office letterhead.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-manuscripts-clarke/1053/thumbnail.jp

Letter, M. C. Meigs to R. J. Atkinson with Atkinson\u27s Response, March 12, 1863

This handwritten letter, dated May 12, 1863, is from M. C. Meigs to R. J. Atkinson requesting permission for Peleg Clarke to obtain copies of the returns of Captain Springsteed relating to Peleg\u27s property that Springsteed was in possession of. Atkinson\u27s reply on the back of the letter informs Meigs that he had already informed Clarke that he would not be able to share the returns with him and explained how and with whom to make his case.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-manuscripts-clarke/1041/thumbnail.jp

Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate Among Latinos in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study.

Low blood dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels have strong positive associations with stroke and coronary heart disease. However, it is unclear whether DHEAS is independently associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Therefore, we examined the association between cardiovascular risk factors and DHEAS concentration among a high-risk population of Latinos (Puerto Ricans aged 45 to 75 years at baseline) in a cross-sectional analysis of the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study. Of eligible participants, 72% completed baseline interviews and provided blood samples. Complete data were available for 1355 participants. Associations between cardiovascular risk factors (age, sex, total cholesterol, high-density lipid cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose) and log-transformed DHEAS (μg/dL) were assessed. In robust multivariable regression analyses, DHEAS was significantly inversely associated with age (β = -12.4; 95% CI: -15.2, -9.7; per 5 years), being female (vs. male) (β = -46; 95% CI: -55.3, -36.6), and plasma triglyceride concentration (β = -0.2; 95% CI: -0.3, -0.1; per 10 mg/dL) and was positively associated with total cholesterol and plasma glucose levels (β = 1.8; 95% CI: 0.6, 3 and β = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.3, respectively, per 10 mg/dL) after adjustment for smoking, alcohol, and physical activity and for postmenopausal hormone use in women. Estimates were unchanged after adjustment for measures of chronic disease and inflammation. Women exhibited a stronger age-related decline in DHEAS and a positive association with glucose in contrast to findings among men (P interaction < 0.05). In conclusion, in this large study of Latinos with a heavy cardiovascular risk factor burden, we observed significant associations between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and DHEAS, with variations by sex. These findings improve our understanding of the role DHEAS may play in CVD etiology

Genome-Wide Association with Diabetes-Related Traits in the Framingham Heart Study

BACKGROUND: Susceptibility to type 2 diabetes may be conferred by genetic variants having modest effects on risk. Genome-wide fixed marker arrays offer a novel approach to detect these variants. METHODS: We used the Affymetrix 100K SNP array in 1,087 Framingham Offspring Study family members to examine genetic associations with three diabetes-related quantitative glucose traits (fasting plasma glucose (FPG), hemoglobin A1c, 28-yr time-averaged FPG (tFPG)), three insulin traits (fasting insulin, HOMA-insulin resistance, and 0–120 min insulin sensitivity index); and with risk for diabetes. We used additive generalized estimating equations (GEE) and family-based association test (FBAT) models to test associations of SNP genotypes with sex-age-age2-adjusted residual trait values, and Cox survival models to test incident diabetes. RESULTS: We found 415 SNPs associated (at p 1%) 100K SNPs in LD (r2 > 0.05) with ABCC8 A1369S (rs757110), KCNJ11 E23K (rs5219), or SNPs in CAPN10 or HNFa. PPARG P12A (rs1801282) was not significantly associated with diabetes or related traits. CONCLUSION: Framingham 100K SNP data is a resource for association tests of known and novel genes with diabetes and related traits posted at. Framingham 100K data replicate the TCF7L2 association with diabetes.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study (N01-HC-25195); National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources Shared Instrumentation grant (1S10RR163736-01A1); National Center for Research Resources General Clinical Research Center (M01-RR-01066); American Diabetes Association Career Developement Award; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck; Lilly; National Institutes of Health Research Career Award (K23 DK659678-03

Collaborative lifelong learning and professional transfer. Case study: ECO European Project

This research reviews the formative model of the sMOOCs (social MOOC) characterized by the interaction and the implication of the participants who, relying on collective intelligence, look for the co-creation of knowledge in every educational action. The fieldwork focuses on the analysis of the “Step by Step” sMOOC of ECO Project (the second and third editions), that aims at the training of e-teachers and the transfer of learning to the professional field. The research methodology is mixed, with quantitative and qualitative techniques: it uses a semi-structured questionnaire, in order to compare possible bivariate correlations between the different variables; it conducts a content analysis of the fragments of messages written by the participants in the forums of the course. One of the most significant conclusions is the high degree of satisfaction of the participants with regard to the value of the course for their professional life. This form of transfer of the learning process leads to the proposal of a new modality for MOOCs, the tMOOC as “transferMOOC”

High-resolution K-shell photoabsorption measurements of simple molecules

K-shell adsorption spectra of CO, 13C18O, NO, O2, CO2, N2O, C2H2, C2D2, C2H4, C2D4, C2H6, C2D6, measured with unprecedented energy resolution and signal-to-noise ratio are presented. These spectra reveal many new features in core-excited valence and Rydberg states. Detailed vibrational structures are observed in these spectra, providing valuable information on the geometrical and vibrational properties of the core-excited molecules. In addition, C 1s and N 1s core-hole lifetimes are found to be ∼120 and ∼135 meV in these molecules with little dependence on their bonding environments. These results and the tentative peak assignments are discussed briefly in terms of the equivalent core model, multielectron excitations, exchange interactions, and the geometry of the excited molecules

Effect of toroidal field ripple on plasma rotation in JET

Dedicated experiments on TF ripple effects on the performance of tokamak plasmas have been carried out at JET. The TF ripple was found to have a profound effect on the plasma rotation. The central Mach number, M, defined as the ratio of the rotation velocity and the thermal velocity, was found to drop as a function of TF ripple amplitude (3) from an average value of M = 0.40-0.55 for operations at the standard JET ripple of 6 = 0.08% to M = 0.25-0.40 for 6 = 0.5% and M = 0.1-0.3 for delta = 1%. TF ripple effects should be considered when estimating the plasma rotation in ITER. With standard co-current injection of neutral beam injection (NBI), plasmas were found to rotate in the co-current direction. However, for higher TF ripple amplitudes (delta similar to 1%) an area of counter rotation developed at the edge of the plasma, while the core kept its co-rotation. The edge counter rotation was found to depend, besides on the TF ripple amplitude, on the edge temperature. The observed reduction of toroidal plasma rotation with increasing TF ripple could partly be explained by TF ripple induced losses of energetic ions, injected by NBI. However, the calculated torque due to these losses was insufficient to explain the observed counter rotation and its scaling with edge parameters. It is suggested that additional TF ripple induced losses of thermal ions contribute to this effect