Jumpstart 2000—The Maine Economic Improvement Strategy: A Targeted Investment in Research and Development

In recent years Maine has ranked 50th in per capita spending on university-based research and development in the United States, a distinction that an increasing number of Maine policymakers, citizens, business representatives and researchers find alarming. Citing the positive gains R&D investments have shown in other states, not the least of which is improved economic performance, the authors set forth an argument for investing in Maine’s public R&D infrastructure. Whether and how to make such investments have been the subjects of recent debate in many states

Assessing the public goods provided by organic agriculture: lessons learned from practice

The role of farms as providers of public goods has long been recognised, and measuring performance in this area is of increasing interest to policy makers, in light of the approaching Common Agricultural Policy reform. The Organic Research Centre has been working on this topic in recent years, through the development of sustainability assessment tools. The latest outcome from this process is a ‘Public Goods’ assessment tool, developed through a Natural England funded project which aimed to evaluate the benefits accruing from organic management and entering into an Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS) agreement. This paper describes the development of the Public Goods (PG) tool, and what has been learned in the process

Crisaborole Ointment Improves Quality of Life of Patients with Mild to Moderate Atopic Dermatitis and Their Families.

IntroductionThe impact of crisaborole ointment, a nonsteroidal phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor for the treatment of mild to moderate atopic dermatitis (AD), on quality of life (QoL) was assessed in two identically designed phase 3 studies (AD-301: NCT02118766; AD-302: NCT02118792, both at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov ).MethodsIn both studies, patients aged ≥ 2 years with mild to moderate AD per the Investigator's Static Global Assessment were randomly assigned 2:1 to receive crisaborole or vehicle twice daily for 28 days. QoL was assessed using the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) (2-15 years), the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) (≥ 16 years), and the Dermatitis Family Impact Questionnaire (DFI) (parents/caregivers/family of patients aged 2-17 years). Established QoL score severity bands provided clinical context.ResultsGreater mean improvement in QoL was observed in crisaborole-treated patients than in vehicle-treated patients at day 29 [mean change from baseline (∆BL), CDLQI: - 4.6 vs. - 3.0; P < 0.001; DLQI: - 5.2 vs. - 3.5; P = 0.015]. At baseline, more than half the patients had a "moderate effect" or higher of AD on QoL. At day 29, there was a trend toward more crisaborole- than vehicle-treated patients having "small effect" to "no effect", The QoL of parents/caregivers/family improved more for crisaborole-treated than for vehicle-treated patients (∆BL, DFI: - 3.7 vs. - 2.7; P = 0.003).ConclusionCrisaborole treatment results in clinically meaningful improvement in QoL for patients and their parents/caregivers/families.Trial registrationAD-301: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov , NCT02118766; AD-302: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov , NCT02118792.FundingAnacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer Inc., New York, NY

Solving Einstein's Equations With Dual Coordinate Frames

A method is introduced for solving Einstein's equations using two distinct coordinate systems. The coordinate basis vectors associated with one system are used to project out components of the metric and other fields, in analogy with the way fields are projected onto an orthonormal tetrad basis. These field components are then determined as functions of a second independent coordinate system. The transformation to the second coordinate system can be thought of as a mapping from the original ``inertial'' coordinate system to the computational domain. This dual-coordinate method is used to perform stable numerical evolutions of a black-hole spacetime using the generalized harmonic form of Einstein's equations in coordinates that rotate with respect to the inertial frame at infinity; such evolutions are found to be generically unstable using a single rotating coordinate frame. The dual-coordinate method is also used here to evolve binary black-hole spacetimes for several orbits. The great flexibility of this method allows comoving coordinates to be adjusted with a feedback control system that keeps the excision boundaries of the holes within their respective apparent horizons.Comment: Updated to agree with published versio