A high efficiency, low background detector for measuring pair-decay branches in nuclear decay

We describe a high efficiency detector for measuring electron-positron pair transitions in nuclei. The device was built to be insensitive to gamma rays and to accommodate high overall event rates. The design was optimized for total pair kinetic energies up to about 7 MeV.Comment: Accepted for publication by Nucl. Inst. & Meth. in Phys. Res. A (NIM A

Immune cell counts in cerebrospinal fluid predict cognitive function in aging and neurodegenerative disease

IntroductionImmune dysfunction is important in aging and neurodegeneration; lacking clinically available tools limits research translation. We tested associations of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR)-innate immune activation surrogate-with cognition in an aging and dementia cohort, hypothesizing that elevated MLR is associated with poorer executive functioning.MethodsCSF MLR was calculated in well-characterized, genotyped participants enrolled in studies of aging and dementia at University of California, San Francisco Memory and Aging Center (n = 199, mean age 57.5 years, SD 11.9). Linear models tested associations with episodic memory and executive function (verbal fluency, speeded set-shifting).ResultsAging was associated with higher CSF monocyte, lower lymphocyte counts, and higher MLRs (p < 0.001). MLR was associated with verbal fluency (p < 0.05) only.DiscussionUsing clinical labs, we show an inverse association between CSF MLR and executive function in aging and dementia, supporting the utility of clinical labs in capturing associations between innate immune dysfunction and neurodegeneration

Exile Vol. XVII No. 1

FICTION The Backyard Burial by Heather Johnson 9-11 French Persuasion by John Benes 18-22 In His Time by Keith Mcwalter 27-37 Time Ticking Off, Not Stopping by Holly Battles 39-40 ARTWORK by Roxy Sisson 13 by Bill Lutz 16 by Carol Belfatto 17 by Ned Bittinger 23 by Gail Lutsch 41 by Diane Ulmer 43 PHOTOGRAPHY by Tim Heth 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 22, 38, 40, 44 by Rip Odell 15 by Maggie Hernandez 26, 42 POETRY For G. S. & A. B. T. by Paul Holbrook 2 Picture Writer by Julie Lockwood 6 Youth by Rufus Hurst 6 Today I Watched Flies Without Wings by Alice Merrill 6 Room 102 by Alice Merrill 6 The Flick by Debby Snyder 8 For P. E. H. by Timothy Cope 12 In Memory of Gertrude Stein by Michael Daugherty 14 Apogee Analogy by Paul Holbrook 15 First Impressions by Austin Hartman, Jr. 16 Count Jack Playing Peasant by Alice Merrill 24 Cherokee Arrowsmith by R. Crozier 24 road runs down valley by Fred Hoppe 25 Singularity by M. J. Wallace 25 Love\u27s Labour Lost by Tina Ostergard 25 Gnome by Cary Spear 25 Design and Layout: Keith McWalter 1 EXILE is the literary magazine of Denison University. It is entirely student-run and student edited, and receives operating funds from the Denison Campus Government Association. Submissions are edited anonymously and final actions are made independently by each staff. Printed by Ace News, Heath, Ohio.

KSU Men\u27s Ensemble, KSU Community & Alumni Choir and KSU Chamber Singers, Illumination

KSU School of Music presents Illumination with KSU Men\u27s Ensemble, The Kennesaw State University Community and Alumni Choir and KSU Chamber Singers featuring John Rutter\u27s Gloria!https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1249/thumbnail.jp

'Is your city pretty anyway?' Perspectives on graffiti and the urban landscape

Drawing on survey and focus group research completed in New Zealand in 2009 this article examines young peoples’ perspectives on graffiti and tagging. The results further demonstrate that graffiti writing is an activity invested with considerable cultural meaning by many of those engaged in it and that their understanding of graffiti is considerably at odds with prevailing political, media and policy discourse that sees it purely in terms of criminal damage and antisocial behaviour. While graffiti can be conceptualised as an alternative way of ‘reading’ urban space, the results of this study show that writers recognised that graffiti had damaging consequences and was inappropriate in some contexts. Graffiti was not simply nihilistic destructive behaviour but one in which perceptions of criminality were leavened by aesthetic judgements and the allure and excitement of potential local celebrity

The effect of alcohol advertising, marketing and portrayal on drinking behaviour in young people: systematic review of prospective cohort studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The effect of alcohol portrayals and advertising on the drinking behaviour of young people is a matter of much debate. We evaluated the relationship between exposure to alcohol advertising, marketing and portrayal on subsequent drinking behaviour in young people by systematic review of cohort (longitudinal) studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>studies were identified in October 2006 by searches of electronic databases, with no date restriction, supplemented with hand searches of reference lists of retrieved articles. Cohort studies that evaluated exposure to advertising or marketing or alcohol portrayals and drinking at baseline and assessed drinking behaviour at follow-up in young people were selected and reviewed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>seven cohort studies that followed up more than 13,000 young people aged 10 to 26 years old were reviewed. The studies evaluated a range of different alcohol advertisement and marketing exposures including print and broadcast media. Two studies measured the hours of TV and music video viewing. All measured drinking behaviour using a variety of outcome measures. Two studies evaluated drinkers and non-drinkers separately. Baseline non-drinkers were significantly more likely to have become a drinker at follow-up with greater exposure to alcohol advertisements. There was little difference in drinking frequency at follow-up in baseline drinkers. In studies that included drinkers and non-drinkers, increased exposure at baseline led to significant increased risk of drinking at follow-up. The strength of the relationship varied between studies but effect sizes were generally modest. All studies controlled for age and gender, however potential confounding factors adjusted for in analyses varied from study to study. Important risk factors such as peer drinking and parental attitudes and behaviour were not adequately accounted for in some studies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>data from prospective cohort studies suggest there is an association between exposure to alcohol advertising or promotional activity and subsequent alcohol consumption in young people. Inferences about the modest effect sizes found are limited by the potential influence of residual or unmeasured confounding.</p

Global Law as Intercontextuality and as Interlegality

Since the 1990s the effects of globalization on law and legal developments has been a central topic of scholarly debate. To date, the debate is however marked by three substantial deficiencies which this chapter seeks to remedy through a reconceptualization of global law as a law of inter-contextuality expressed through inter-legality and materialized through a particular body of legal norms which can be characterized as connectivity norms. The first deficiency is a historical and empirical one. Both critics as well as advocates of ‘non-state law’ share the assumption that ‘law beyond the state’ and related legal norms have gained in centrality when compared with previous historical times. While global law, including both public and private global governance law as well as regional occurrences such as EU law, has undergone profound transformations since the structural transformations which followed the de-colonialization processes of the mid-twentieth century, we do not have more global law relatively to other types of law today than in previous historical times. The second deficiency is a methodological one. The vast majority of scholarship on global law is either of an analytical nature, drawing on insights from philosophy, or empirically observing the existence of global law and the degree of compliance with global legal norms at a given moment in time. While both approaches bring something to the table they remain static approaches incapable of explaining and evaluating the transformation of global law over time. The third deficiency is a conceptual-theoretical one. In most instances, global law is understood as a unitary law producing singular legal norms with a planetary reach, or, alternatively, a radical pluralist perspective is adopted dismissing the existence of singular global norms. Both of these approaches however misapprehend the structural characteristics, function and societal effects of global law. Instead a third positon between unitary and radical pluralist perspectives can be adopted through an understanding of global law and its related legal norms as a de-centred kind of inter-contextual law characterised by inter-legality