Letter from P. A. Doran to John Muir, 1903 Apr 21

San Francisco April 21st 1903 Professor John Muir. Martinez My Dear Professor Leaving here Thursday morning next with the Columbia will be my last trip for some time, and I go east from Portland, and possibly heave to in Europe/ Mrs. Doran will be accompanying me. I intended calling on you last month, but the annual drydocking and overhauling threw us so far behind thime that it looks nearly like the whole month to catch our old schedule. And this month Mrs. Doran has been busy preparing for our journey. I am sorry I canΓÇÖt see Helen before I leave, as I have some huge stories of our friends the ΓÇ£Huge Levithians of the deep.ΓÇ¥ But I will expect to see some on the Atlantic and will tell her all about them when I return. Mrs. Doran joins me in kindest regards to yourself and your family. Wishing you a successful voyage and that you may discover several new ΓÇ£Huge LeviathasrsΓÇ¥ I am Sincerely yours P. A. Doran S.S. Columbi

Letter from P. A. Doran to John Muir, 1901 Dec 21.

San Francisco Dec 21st, 1901.Professor John Muir,Martinez,My dear Professor,I beg to acknowledge receipt of you new book for which I thank you. I shall take it with me this voyage, and have the pleasure of a stroll through the forests while on the dark blue. Trusting you are all well, and with kindest regards to Wanda and Helen, and best wishes for a Happy New Year I amRespectfully yoursP. A. Doran.2110 Union St.0290

Letter from P. A. Doran to John Muir, 1905 Sep 28.

[letterhead]S. S. Columbia Sept. 28, 1905My dear Professor Muir,I am very much pleased to know that Helen is improving and hope, for your sake as well as her own, she will continue so and grow entirely well.I wish I could prescribe for her with the same success as in your case. However, when she is again well and strong, I would recommend a trip on the Columbia, and I shall arrange matters with old ocean, and ours esteemed friends the huge leviathans, for a pleasant voyage.Trusting this will find you in good health and confidence regarding Helen\u27s speedy recover I amYours very truly, P. A. Dorans. S. ColumbiaSpear St. WharfS. F.0363

The Role of Awakening Cortisol and Psychological Distress in Diurnal Variations in Affect: A Day Reconstruction Study

People often feel unhappy in the morning but better later in the day, and this pattern may be amplified in the distressed. Past work suggests that one function of cortisol is to energize people in the mornings. In a study of 174 students we tested to see if daily affect patterns, psychological distress, and awakening cortisol levels were interlinked. Affect levels were assessed using the Day Reconstruction Method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004) and psychological distress was measured using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (Antony, Bieling, Cox, Enns, & Swinson, 1998). On average positive affect increased markedly in a linear pattern across the day whilst negative affect decreased linearly. For the highly distressed this pattern was stronger for positive affect. Lower than average morning cortisol, as assessed by two saliva samples at waking and two samples 30 minutes after waking, predicted a clear increasing pattern of positive affect throughout the day. When we examined the interlinkages between affect patterns, distress, and cortisol our results showed that a pronounced linear increase in positive affect from morning through to evening occurred chiefly among distressed people with below average cortisol levels upon awakening. Psychological distress, whilst not strongly associated with morning cortisol levels, does appear to interact with cortisol levels to profoundly influence affect.Cortisol, Psychological Distress, Positive Affect, Diurnal Variation, Day Reconstruction Method

Theory Challenges of the Accelerating Universe

The accelerating expansion of the universe presents an exciting, fundamental challenge to the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. I highlight some of the outstanding challenges in both developing theoretical models and interpreting without bias the observational results from precision cosmology experiments in the next decade that will return data to help reveal the nature of the new physics. Examples given focus on distinguishing a new component of energy from a new law of gravity, and the effect of early dark energy on baryon acoustic oscillations.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; minor changes to match J. Phys. A versio

Letter from P. A. Doran to John Muir, 1899 Sep 8.

san Francisco Sept 8th, 99.Professor John Muir,Martinez, Cal.My Dear Professor; I received your book and many thanks to you. I can see your many characteristics throughout the work, and every page reminds me of the pleasant hours spent together during our voyage to Alaska. To say the least it is a noble and interesting work, and we are all delighted with it. I forward you a copy of the H.A.E. poems. I would have send them before but I was called to Portland unexpectedly, to take command of S.S. Columbia . Should you contemplate a trip to Portland, I would be very pleased to have you come on the Columbia , and I promise you our morning coffee shall be the best.Hoping we will be shipmates again in the near future and commemorate the 02619 H.A.E. by sliding over a few glaciers Slivers I am Yours very respectfullyP.A. DoranS.S. ColumbiaSan Francisco0261

Fermion absorption cross section of a Schwarzschild black hole

We study the absorption of massive spin-half particles by a small Schwarzschild black hole by numerically solving the single-particle Dirac equation in Painleve-Gullstrand coordinates. We calculate the absorption cross section for a range of gravitational couplings Mm/m_P^2 and incident particle energies E. At high couplings, where the Schwarzschild radius R_S is much greater than the wavelength lambda, we find that the cross section approaches the classical result for a point particle. At intermediate couplings we find oscillations around the classical limit whose precise form depends on the particle mass. These oscillations give quantum violations of the equivalence principle. At high energies the cross section converges on the geometric-optics value of 27 \pi R_S^2/4, and at low energies we find agreement with an approximation derived by Unruh. When the hole is much smaller than the particle wavelength we confirm that the minimum possible cross section approaches \pi R_S^2/2.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

How to identify when a performance indicator has run its course

The official published version can be found at the link below.Increasing numbers of countries are using indicators to evaluate the quality of clinical care, with some linking payment to achievement. For performance frameworks to remain effective the indicators need to be regularly reviewed. The frameworks cannot cover all clinical areas, and achievement on chosen indicators will eventually reach a ceiling beyond which further improvement is not feasible. However, there has been little work on how to select indictors for replacement. The Department of Health decided in 2008 that it would regularly replace indicators in the national primary care pay for performance scheme, the Quality and Outcomes Framework, making a rigorous approach to removal a priority. We draw on our previous work on pay for performance and our current work advising the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on the Quality and Outcomes Framework to suggest what should be considered when planning to remove indicators from a clinical performance framework