Fearless: V Rosenberger and Tori Reynolds

“Getting Out,” the compelling prison drama by Marsha Norman, is opening tonight at 7:30pm on Kline Theater at Gettysburg, and bringing this play to life are two very fearless women. [excerpt

On the computation of the term w21z2zˉw_{21}z^2\bar{z} of the series defining the center manifold for a scalar delay differential equation

In computing the third order terms of the series of powers of the center manifold at an equilibrium point of a scalar delay differential equation, with a single constant delay $r>0,$ some problems occur at the term $w_{21}z^2\bar{z}.$ More precisely, in order to determine the values at 0, respectively $-r$ of the function $w_{21}(\,.\,),$ an algebraic system of equations must be solved. We show that the two equations are dependent, hence the system has an infinity of solutions. Then we show how we can overcome this lack of uniqueness and provide a formula for $w_{21}(0).$Comment: Presented at the Conference on Applied and Industrial Mathematics- CAIM 2011, Iasi, Romania, 22-25 September, 2011. Preprin

STATE-MANDATED FOOD SAFETY CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR RESTAURANTS: A 2002 REVIEW OF STATES

The Food and Drug Administration publishes a Standard Food Code which individual states either ratify, or amend and ratify, as the State Food Code. New Jersey has not adopted any revisions to the FDA Standard Food Code since 1993. Currently, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services is considering the implementation of a mandatory food safety certification program for all of the state's foodservice establishments beginning in April 2003. Foodservice businesses serving "high risk" populations, such as the young, ill, or elderly, will be the first segment of the industry required to comply with the new guidelines. Other segments of the industry would be phased in over three years. The exact nature of the revision is yet to be determined; however, it will likely require at least one individual from each foodservice establishment to be certified in proper food safety/food handling techniques. This revision will affect more than 21,000 foodservice businesses that collectively employ 180,000 workers. To proactively respond to the upcoming changes in the State Food Code, the New Jersey Restaurant Association (NJRA) requires information on the status and nature of other state-mandated food safety certification programs. As a service to the foodservice industry, and at the request of the NJRA, the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University conducted a study to determine the status of state food safety certification requirements across the country. The Institute interviewed all 50 state restaurant associations and found that 16 states presently have some form of state-mandated food safety certification requirement for restaurant workers. Local (municipal or county) food safety certification requirements exist in many states, even in the absence of a state mandate, but these are beyond the scope of this review.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

A qualitative study evaluating experiences of a lifestyle intervention in men with prostate cancer undergoing androgen suppression therapy

BACKGROUND The severe iatrogenic hypogonadal state induced by medical castration used for treatment of prostate cancer is associated with adverse effects including fatigue, increased fracture risk, and a decrease in skeletal muscle function, which negatively impact quality of life. We have previously reported beneficial changes in healthy lifestyle behaviors, physical function and fatigue as a result of a novel combined exercise and dietary advice intervention (a lifestyle intervention) in men with prostate cancer on androgen suppression therapy (AST). The aim of this research was to conduct a qualitative evaluation of the lifestyle intervention in these men with advanced prostate cancer receiving androgen suppression therapy (AST). METHODS Twelve men with prostate cancer on AST took part in three focus groups in a UK higher education institution following the 12 week intervention. Sessions lasted between 45 and 60 minutes in duration. All discussions were audio-taped and transcribed. A framework analysis approach was applied to the focus group data. An initial coding framework was developed from a priori issues listed in the topic guide and extended and refined following initial familiarization with the focus group transcripts. Line by line indexing of the transcripts was undertaken iteratively to allow for the incorporation of new codes. Coded sections of text were grouped together (charted) into themes and subthemes prior to a further process of comparison and interpretation. RESULTS None of the participants involved in the trial were provided with information on how lifestyle changes might be beneficial to men with prostate cancer during the course of their standard medical treatment. We present novel findings that this intervention was considered beneficial for reducing anxiety around treatment and fear of disease progression. Men were supportive of the benefits of the intervention over conventional cancer survival discussion group arrangements as it facilitated peer support in addition to physical rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS The benefits of lifestyle changes in men with prostate cancer are not well appreciated by care providers despite a range of benefits becoming apparent. Strategies to implement exercise and dietary interventions in standard care should be further evaluated. TRIAL REGISTRATION Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN88605738

Space Object Query Tool

STI is for a fact sheet on the Space Object Query Tool being created by the MDC. When planning launches, NASA must first factor in the tens of thousands of objects already in orbit around the Earth. The number of human-made objects, including nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris and fragmentation debris orbiting Earth has grown steadily since Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957. Currently, the U.S. Department of Defenses Joint Space Operations Center, or JSpOC, tracks over 15,000 distinct objects and provides data for more than 40,000 objects via its Space-Track program, found at space-track.org

Pricing Attributes of Wines from Emerging Suppliers on the British Columbia Market

We examine British Columbia (BC) wine consumers’ valuation of wine imported from emerging suppliers (Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia and Hungary) through the estimation of a hedonic price function. Retail sales data employed in this study comes from the BC Liquor Distribution Branch and covers weekly sales of table wine that was imported from all five countries into the province of British Columbia. The results indicate that the grape variety is an important factor influencing consumers’ willingness to pay. In particular, white and red wines from Chile are associated with larger price premia while wines from Argentina command a premium only among red wines. Wines from Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary, although sold in large quantities in the BC market, are associated with significant price discounts compared to wines from New World suppliers.hedonic pricing, objective characteristics, New World countries, wine, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

A comparison of statistical and machine learning methods for creating national daily maps of ambient PM2.5_{2.5} concentration

A typical problem in air pollution epidemiology is exposure assessment for individuals for which health data are available. Due to the sparsity of monitoring sites and the limited temporal frequency with which measurements of air pollutants concentrations are collected (for most pollutants, once every 3 or 6 days), epidemiologists have been moving away from characterizing ambient air pollution exposure solely using measurements. In the last few years, substantial research efforts have been placed in developing statistical methods or machine learning techniques to generate estimates of air pollution at finer spatial and temporal scales (daily, usually) with complete coverage. Some of these methods include: geostatistical techniques, such as kriging; spatial statistical models that use the information contained in air quality model outputs (statistical downscaling models); linear regression modeling approaches that leverage the information in GIS covariates (land use regression); or machine learning methods that mine the information contained in relevant variables (neural network and deep learning approaches). Although some of these exposure modeling approaches have been used in several air pollution epidemiological studies, it is not clear how much the predicted exposures generated by these methods differ, and which method generates more reliable estimates. In this paper, we aim to address this gap by evaluating a variety of exposure modeling approaches, comparing their predictive performance and computational difficulty. Using PM$_{2.5}$ in year 2011 over the continental U.S. as case study, we examine the methods' performances across seasons, rural vs urban settings, and levels of PM$_{2.5}$ concentrations (low, medium, high)

3.3 Gigahertz Clocked Quantum Key Distribution System

A fibre-based quantum key distribution system operating up to a clock frequency of 3.3GHz is presented. The system demonstrates significantly increased key exchange rate potential and operates at a wavelength of 850nm.Comment: Presented at ECOC 05, Glasgow, UK, (September 2005