Dissecting the Workforce and Workplace for Clinical Endocrinology, and the Work of Endocrinologists Early in Their Careers

[Excerpt] No national mechanism is in place for an informed, penetrating, and systematic assessment of the physician workforce such as that achieved by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the periodic evaluation of the nation’s scientists and engineers. Likewise, knowledge of the workforce for clinical research is enigmatic and fragmentary despite the serial recommendations of “blue-ribbon” panels to establish a protocol for the recurrent assessment of clinical investigators early in their careers. Failure to adopt a national system for producing timely, high-quality data on the professional activities of physicians limits the application of improvement tools for advancing clinical investigation and ultimately improving clinical practice. The present study was designed as a pilot project to test the feasibility of using Web-based surveys to estimate the administrative, clinical, didactic, and research work of subspecialty physicians employed in academic, clinical, federal, and pharmaceutical workplaces. Physician members of The Endocrine Society (TES) were used as surrogate prototypes of a subspecialty workforce because of their manageable number and investigative tradition. The results establish that Web-based surveys provide a tool to assess the activities of a decentralized workforce employed in disparate workplaces and underscore the value of focusing on physician work within the context of particular workplaces within a subspecialty. Our report also provides a new and timely snapshot of the amount and types of research performed by clinically trained endocrinologists and offers an evidenced-based framework for improving the investigative workforce in this medical subspecialty

Unions and Productivity in the Public Sector: A Study of Municipal Libraries

This paper develops and illustrates the use of two methodologies to analyze the effect of unions on productivity in the public sector. Although the methodologies are applicable to a wide variety of public sector functions, the focus of the paper is on municipal libraries because of the availability of relevant data. The empirical analysis, which uses 1977 cross-section data on 260 libraries, suggests that collective bargaining coverage has not significantly affected productivity in municipal libraries

Evidence of discrete energy states and cluster-glass behavior in Sr2−x_{2-x}Lax_xCoNbO6_6

We report the detailed analysis of specific heat [C$_{\rm P}$(T)] and ac-susceptibility for magnetically frustrated Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CoNbO$_6$ ($x=$ 0--1) double perovskites to understand low temperature complex magnetic interactions and their evolution with $x$. Interestingly, the observed Schottky anomaly in the $x\leqslant$ 0.4 samples shifts gradually towards higher temperature with magnetic field as well as $x$, and the analysis reveal the persistence of the discrete energy states in these samples resulting from the spin-orbit coupling and octahedral distortion. Moreover, the extracted values of Land\'e g--factor indicate the existence of high-spin state Co$^{3+}$ ions close to non-magnetic low-spin state. The specific heat data show the $\lambda$-type anomaly for the $x\geqslant$ 0.6 samples due to evolution of the long range antiferromagnetic ordering. Our analysis of low temperature C$_{\rm P}$(T) data for the $x\geqslant$ 0.6 samples demonstrate the 3D isotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnetic (AFM) interactions and the temperature induced second order AFM--paramagnetic phase transition. More interestingly, we demonstrate the presence of the free Co$^{2+}$ like Kramers doublet ground state in the $x =$1 sample. Further, the ac susceptibility and time evolution of the magnetization data reveal the low temperature cluster-glass like behavior in the $x=$ 0--0.4 samples, where spin-spin correlation strength decreases with $x$.Comment: accepted for publication in PR

Influence of Process Parameters on the Electrochemical Properties of Hierarchically Structured Na₃V₂(PO₄)₃/C Composites

Sodium vanadium phosphate Na3V2(PO4)3 (NVP) is a promising next-generation cathode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIB) but the practical application as a cathode active material for SIBs is hindered by its poor electronic conductivity. To overcome this limitation and to improve the electrochemical performance in terms of rate capability and cycling stability, carbon coatings are a viable approach. In this work, we utilized a spray-drying synthesis process and systematically varied the processing parameters to optimize the electrochemical performance of NVP/carbon composite materials. The spray-drying process yields spherical, porous granules of NVP particles embedded in a carbon matrix, which is formed by the thermal decomposition of polyacrylic acid or β-lactose

A fast and less expensive test to determine permeability-related parameters on well’s drilled cuttings.

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Calculation of the Aharonov-Bohm wave function

A calculation of the Aharonov-Bohm wave function is presented. The result is a series of confluent hypergeometric functions which is finite at the forward direction.Comment: 12 pages in LaTeX, and 3 PostScript figure

The Paradoxical Forces for the Classical Electromagnetic Lag Associated with the Aharonov-Bohm Phase Shift

The classical electromagnetic lag assocated with the Aharonov-Bohm phase shift is obtained by using a Darwin-Lagrangian analysis similar to that given by Coleman and Van Vleck to identify the puzzling forces of the Shockley-James paradox. The classical forces cause changes in particle velocities and so produce a relative lag leading to the same phase shift as predicted by Aharonov and Bohm and observed in experiments. An experiment is proposed to test for this lag aspect implied by the classical analysis but not present in the currently-accepted quantum topological description of the phase shift.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure