Daily alcohol use and relationship functioning in young adult romantic relationships

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 5, 2008)Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2008.Alcohol use is thought to have a range of effects on functioning in romantic relationships, from positive to negative. However, few studies have attempted to explain why and under what circumstances these effects occur, or examined the possibility of bi-directional influences between relationship functioning and alcohol use. The present study sought to address these limitations by examining bi-directional effects of alcohol use and relationship processes in a normal population sample of 81 couples who completed daily reports of both behaviors for a period of about 3 weeks. Results from analyses conducted using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) showed uniformly positive effects of drinking with one's partner, but largely negative effects of drinking and of drinking to intoxication on later relationship functioning. Negative relationship processes also shaped later alcohol use among both men and women. However, interaction analyses showed that these bi-directional effects were more numerous among women than men. Indeed, only women drank in response to feeling disconnected to their partners and only women drank with their partners in what might be considered a strategic effort to regulate relationship dynamics. Overall the results of the current study indicate that the associations between drinking and relationship processes are complex and bi-directional and their importance is perhaps greater for women than men.Includes bibliographical reference

Laboratory Simulation of the Effect of Rocket Thrust on a Precessing Space Vehicle

Ground tests of solid propellant rocket motors have shown that metal-containing propellants produce various amounts of slag (primarily aluminum oxide) which is trapped in the motor case, causing a loss of specific impulse. Although not yet definitely established, the presence of a liquid pool of slag also may contribute to nutational instabilities that have been observed with certain spin-stabilized, upper-stage vehicles. Because of the rocket's axial acceleration, absent in the ground tests, estimates of in-flight slag mass have been very uncertain. Yet such estimates are needed to determine the magnitude of the control authority of the systems required for eliminating the instability. A test rig with an eccentrically mounted hemispherical bowl was designed and built which incorporates a follower force that properly aligns the thrust vector along the axis of spin. A program that computes the motion of a point mass in the spinning and precessing bowl was written. Using various RPMs, friction factors, and initial starting conditions, plots were generated showing the trace of the point mass around the inside of the fuel tank. The apparatus will incorporate future design features such as a variable nutation angle and a film height measuring instrument. Data obtained on the nutational instability characteristics will be used to determine order of magnitude estimates of control authority needed to minimize the sloshing effect

Concomitant medication use and clinical outcome of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) treatment of Major Depressive Disorder.

BackgroundRepetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is commonly administered to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients taking psychotropic medications, yet the effects on treatment outcomes remain unknown. We explored how concomitant medication use relates to clinical response to a standard course of rTMS.MethodsMedications were tabulated for 181 MDD patients who underwent a six-week rTMS treatment course. All patients received 10 Hz rTMS administered to left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), with 1 Hz administered to right DLPFC in patients with inadequate response to and/or intolerance of left-sided stimulation. Primary outcomes were change in Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self Report (IDS-SR30) total score after 2, 4, and 6 weeks.ResultsUse of benzodiazepines was associated with less improvement at week 2, whereas use of psychostimulants was associated with greater improvement at week 2 and across 6 weeks. These effects were significant controlling for baseline variables including age, overall symptom severity, and severity of anxiety symptoms. Response rates at week 6 were lower in benzodiazepine users versus non-users (16.4% vs. 35.5%, p = 0.008), and higher in psychostimulant users versus non-users (39.2% vs. 22.0%, p = 0.02).ConclusionsConcomitant medication use may impact rTMS treatment outcome. While the differences reported here could be considered clinically significant, results were not corrected for multiple comparisons and findings should be replicated before clinicians incorporate the evidence into clinical practice. Prospective, hypothesis-based treatment studies will aid in determining causal relationships between medication treatments and outcome

Solvent-induced organization: A physical model of folding myoglobin

The essential features of the in vitro refolding of myoglobin are expressed in a solvable physical model. Alpha helices are taken as the fundamental collective coordinates of the system, while the refolding is assumed to be mainly driven by solvent-induced hydrophobic forces. A quantitative model of these forces is developed and compared with experimental and theoretical results. The model is then tested by being employed in a simulation scheme designed to mimic solvent effects. Realistic dynamic trajectories of myoglobin are shown as it folds from an extended conformation to a close approximation of the native state. Various suggestive features of the process are discussed. The tenets of the model are further tested by folding the single-chain plant protein leghemoglobin.Comment: Rockefeller preprint RU 93-3-B 28 pages, plain LATEX Figures available by request to [email protected]

Projective structures, grafting, and measured laminations

We show that grafting any fixed hyperbolic surface defines a homeomorphism from the space of measured laminations to Teichmuller space, complementing a result of Scannell-Wolf on grafting by a fixed lamination. This result is used to study the relationship between the complex-analytic and geometric coordinate systems for the space of complex projective (\CP^1) structures on a surface. We also study the rays in Teichmuller space associated to the grafting coordinates, obtaining estimates for extremal and hyperbolic length functions and their derivatives along these grafting rays.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figure

Land Grant Application- Levitt, David (Cornwall, NY)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office for David Levitt for service in the Revolutionary War.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_mass/1217/thumbnail.jp

Application of Optimal Control to CPMG Refocusing Pulse Design

We apply optimal control theory (OCT) to the design of refocusing pulses suitable for the CPMG sequence that are robust over a wide range of B0 and B1 offsets. We also introduce a model, based on recent progress in the analysis of unitary dynamics in the field of quantum information processing (QIP), that describes the multiple refocusing dynamics of the CPMG sequence as a dephasing Pauli channel. This model provides a compact characterization of the consequences and severity of residual pulse errors. We illustrate the methods by considering a specific example of designing and analyzing broadband OCT refocusing pulses of length 10 t180 that are constrained by the maximum instantaneous pulse power. We show that with this refocusing pulse, the CPMG sequence can refocus over 98% of magnetization for resonance offsets up to 3.2 times the maximum RF amplitude, even in the presence of +/- 10% RF inhomogeneity.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures; Revised and reformatted version with new title and significant changes to Introduction and Conclusions section

Multivariate models from RNA-Seq SNVs yield candidate molecular targets for biomarker discovery: SNV-DA

Breast: up and downstream SNVs model. (CSV 22.1 kb