States In Different Ways Research Articles

A Brain Signature to Differentiate Acute and Chronic Pain in Rats.

The transition from acute pain to chronic pain entails considerable changes of patients at multiple levels of the nervous system and in psychological states. An accurate differentiation between acute and chronic pain is essential in pain management as it may help optimize analgesic treatments according to the pain state of patients. Given that acute and chronic pain could modulate brain states in different ways and that brain states could greatly shape the neural processing of external inputs, we hypothesized that acute and chronic pain would show differential effects on cortical responses to non-nociceptive sensory information. Here by analyzing auditory-evoked potentials (AEPs) to pure tones in rats with acute or chronic pain, we found opposite influences of acute and chronic pain on cortical responses to auditory inputs. In particular, compared to no-pain controls, the N100 wave of rat AEPs was significantly enhanced in rats with acute pain but significantly reduced in rats with chronic pain, indicating that acute pain facilitated cortical processing of auditory information while chronic pain exerted an inhibitory effect. These findings could be justified by the fact that individuals suffering from acute or chronic pain would have different vigilance states, i.e., the vigilance level to external sensory stimuli would be increased with acute pain, but decreased with chronic pain. Therefore, this auditory response holds promise of being a brain signature to differentiate acute and chronic pain. Instead of investigating the pain system per se, the study of pain-induced influences on cortical processing of non-nocicpetive sensory information might represent a potential strategy to monitor the progress of pain chronification in clinical applications.

Police assistance as foreign policy: Explaining donor practices

AbstractPolice assistance is an important, albeit understudied aspect of foreign policy. While many scholars have studied international and transnational policing, it remains largely unknown why donor police forces often support their colleagues in fragile states in different ways. This article discusses a variety of potential explanations of police assistance: a domestic rational actor model; a constructivist focus on international norms; and theories on the use of force by democracies. While all of these explanations are relevant, this article shows that they remain incomplete without studying police organisations and how these implement assistance on the ground. As the organisational cultures of donor police agencies differ, so do their assistance practices. The case of German and Italian police assistance in Afghanistan illustrates the relevance of an organisational approach: despite operating in the same environment, German police officers promoted civilian and Italian Carabinieri militarised policing. The article stresses that explaining security assistance, an important form of indirect intervention in fragile states, requires zooming in on policy implementation and policy implementers.

Price distortions under coarse reasoning with frequent trade

We study the effect of frequent trading opportunities and categorization on pricing of a risky asset. Frequent opportunities to trade can lead to large distortions in prices if some agents forecast future prices using a simplified model of the world that fails to distinguish between some states. In the limit as the period length vanishes, these distortions take a particular form: the price must be the same in any two states that a positive mass of agents categorize together. Price distortions therefore tend to be large when different agents categorize states in different ways, even if each individual's categorization is not very coarse.

High-efficiency deep-blue organic light-emitting diodes based on a thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitter

Highly efficient deep-blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is observed from a charge-transfer compound bis[4-(3,6-dimethoxycarbazole)phenyl]sulfone (DMOC-DPS). In comparison with the previously reported carbazole/sulfone derivative with tert-butyl substituents on the carbazole donors, DMOC-DPS exhibits a much shorter excited-state lifetime in both an aromatic solution and an organic thin film, because the change of the substituent on the donor affects the molecular energy levels of the first singlet (S1) and triplet (T1) excited states in different ways, decreasing the energy gap between S1 and T1 (ΔEST). An organic light emitting diode (OLED) based on DMOC-DPS achieves a maximum external electroluminescence quantum efficiency (EQE) of 14.5% and reduced efficiency roll-off, with Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.16, 0.16), owing to efficient exciton harvesting that occurs through triplet-to-singlet up-conversion.

Constructing walls of carbon – the complexities of community, carbon sequestration and protected areas in Uganda

Carbon forestry represents a degree of continuity and discontinuity with traditional conservation practices, rescripting forestry management/governance and land access through projects on the ground in variegated, context-dependent ways. Utilising the comparative lens of two distinct projects operating on state-led protected areas in the east of Uganda, and focusing on their contested boundaries, this paper reflects on these dynamics and tries to make sense of the implications for the rural communities within the project vicinities. The projects and their framings reassert the claims to territory of the state in different ways which are contingent upon and emergent from the local institutional and historical context, or ‘legacies of the land’, which can be seen in context to be disputed and contested. Whilst it must be said that there can be selectively progressive elements within carbon forestry initiatives, it can be observed that techno-centric interventions, which depoliticise their local contexts and selectively transnationalise access to land and forestry resources, can further marginalise local communities in the process.

Charter Schools and Student Compositions of Traditional Public Schools

One of the most contentious urban education policy issues in the United States today is the expansion of charter schools and its repercussions. Does the expansion of charter schools affect the racial and socioeconomic composition of traditional public schools in the United States? This study provides empirical evidence on this question by relying on a panel design that uses school-level data from two states that have experimented with charter schools for more than 15 years: Ohio and Texas. Using county-level, spatial, and enrollment-based measures of charter exposure, the changes from pre- to post-charter-legislation stages in the student compositions of public schools that do and do not face competition from charters are examined. The results suggest that charter school presence contributes to aggregate-level changes in the share of non-Hispanic White and free-lunch-eligible students in traditional public schools in both states in different ways.

Opportunities in Spanish Energy Efficiency. Current Situation, Trends and Potential in the Building Sector

The EU energy policy sets an energy efficiency increase target of 20%, which is being implemented in the legislation of Member States in different ways. The greatest potential for energy savings of nearly 40% lies in buildings. The Spanish building sector has developed several instruments for significant savings. The purpose of this study is to analyze those instruments and their effectiveness and efficiency. In Spain, energy efficiency in buildings is improving more slowly than in other EU Member States, but the new regulation will open a new opportunity to recover the lost years. However, the current economic crisis, demotivation of its citizens, decentralization of power in energy matters and the large stock of housing for sale, impede achievement of energy efficiency goals

Tracing Imaginations of the State: The Spatial Consequences of Different State Concepts among Asylum Activist Organisations

Abstract: This paper examines the spatial consequences for activism of viewing the state through either a statist or post‐structural lens. It is argued that understanding the state in different ways produces very different spatial strategies among activists. Drawing upon detailed case studies of two asylum‐seeking activist organisations in the UK, the connections between imaginations of the state, spatial strategies towards institutionalised authority, and the pros and cons of these strategies for activism itself are examined. Through these cases, the paper emphasises the importance of everyday theories about the state not only for understanding what the state is, but also for understanding how relationships with the state are formed and points towards the constructive power of imaginations of the state in their own right.

Budgeting on Shifting Sand

THE headlines are daunting. Plunging home values, skyrocketing fuel costs, declining state revenues, and a multitude of other budget worries add up to nightmares for state budget officials and school business directors. Even the most conservative observers will admit that budget cuts in most districts go beyond trimming fat and are cutting deep into the meat. According to Mike Griffith, senior school finance analyst for the Education Commission of the States, each economic slowdown affects different states in different ways. For example, the impact of the current slowdown is less severe in states that rely on mineral extraction taxes or in states with a large agricultural base. In addition, those states that did not experience the boom in the housing market are not being affected as much by the current bust. But states that rely on businesses other than mineral extraction or agriculture--especially those that rely on manufacturing--are already feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. Governors and state legislatures have used a variety of means to try to stave off the impact on districts of reductions in current and future revenues, but looking for efficiencies appears to be one of the more common approaches. Proactive policies can be implemented prior to bad economic times, and reactive policies can be used in response to a downturn. Purchasing cooperatives. A study conducted on behalf of the Leadership for Education Achievement in Delaware Committee found that, if school districts pooled their purchasing power, they could reduce their costs by between 8% and 14%. In 2006 the Rhode Island legislature passed P.L. 298. This legislation directed the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, working with the Department of Administration, to establish a statewide purchasing system for products and services pertaining to public schools. These include telecommunications, wireless services, general insurance products and services, and school transportation for children with special needs. Shared services. While shared services might include purchasing, this type of collaboration can also include management and instruction. Iowa was one of the first states to offer incentives for districts to share services, and the legislature continues to tweak laws to encourage such collaboration. S.F. 447, passed one year ago, reinstated earlier incentives for reorganization and whole-grade sharing, created operational sharing incentives, and mandated a statewide study of efficiencies and sharing. S.F. 447 provides additional funding for districts that share one or more operational functions for at least 20% of the school year in such areas as management, business, human resources, transportation, or operation and maintenance. The additional funding is available to a district for a maximum of five years during the period covering the budget years 2008-09 through 2012-13. Also passed one year ago, Indiana S.B. 526 was an omnibus bill that included provisions related to shared services. Article 42.5 of this bill authorizes school corporations (districts) to take specific actions to reduce noninstructional expenditures and allocate the resulting savings to student instruction and learning. Authorized actions include creating insurance pools with other school corporations, aggregating purchases of natural gas, and consolidating specified purchases. Such shared services can even include arrangements to provide instructional services and management. Educational service centers are required to report annually on the results of their efforts during the preceding school year to help school corporations pool resources. Last September, the Michigan legislature enacted H.B. 4592. This bill requires each intermediate school district to conduct a study of opportunities for its constituent districts to share services with other districts or other units of local government. Among the services that might be shared are transportation, human resources, purchasing, technology support, professional development, accounting, and event management. …

Ab initioelectron propagators in molecules with strong electron-phonon interaction: II. Electron Green’s function

Ab initio electron propagator methods are developed to study electronic properties of molecular systems with strong electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions. For the calculation of electron Green's functions we apply a canonical small polaron transformation that intrinsically contains strong electron-phonon effects. In the transformed Hamiltonian, the energy levels for the noninteracting particles are shifted down by the relaxation (solvation) energies. The Coulomb integrals are also renormalized by the electron-phonon interaction. For certain values of the electron-phonon coupling constants, the renormalized Coulomb integrals can be negative which implies the attraction between two electrons. Within the small polaron transformation we develop a diagrammatic technique for the calculation of electron Green's function in which the electron-phonon interaction is already included into the multiple phonon correlation functions. Since the decoupling of the phonon correlation functions is impossible, and therefore, a Wick's theorem for such correlation functions is invalid, there is no Dyson equation for the electron Green's function. To find the electron Green's function, we use different approximations. One of them is a link-cluster approximation that includes diagonal transitions for the renormalized zeroth Green's function. In the linked-cluster approach the Dyson equation is derived in the most general case, where the self-energy operator is an arbitrary functional (not only in the Hartree-Fock approximation). It is shown that even a Hartree-Fock electron (hole) is not a particle any longer. It is a quasiparticle with a finite lifetime that depends on energy of particle and hole states in different ways. As a consequence of this, a standard description of a Hartree-Fock approximation in terms of wave functions becomes inappropriate in this problem. To challenge the linked-cluster approximation we develop a different approach: a sequential propagation approximation where scattering events occur only for sequential transitions. A self-consistent Hartree-Fock equation for a four-index Green's function matrix is derived. In conclusion, the proposed schemes can be considered for future method developments for quantum chemical calculations for large molecules with strong nonadiabatic effects, e-e correlated electron transfer reactions, and electron transport in molecular transport junctions.

Spin-1 chain with spin-12excitations in the bulk

We present a spin-1 chain with a Hamiltonian which has three exactly solvable ground states. Two of these are fully dimerized, analogous to the Majumdar-Ghosh (MG) states of a spin-1/2 chain, while the third is of the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) type. We use variational and numerical methods to study the low-energy excitations which interpolate between these ground states in different ways. In particular, there is a spin-1/2 excitation which interpolates between the MG and AKLT ground states; this is the lowest excitation of the system and it has a surprisingly small gap. We discuss generalizations of our model of spin fractionalization to higher spin chains and higher dimensions.

Molecular behavior of a microbial lipopeptide monolayer at the air–water interface

The monolayer of a microbial lipopeptide has been studied as functions of subphase temperature and pH with a Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) film balance. The surface pressure–area ( π– A) isotherm and the surface compressibility–area ( C s– A) curve indicate that the lipopeptide monolayer exists in four different physical states classified as: liquid-expanded (LE) film, liquid-condensed (LC) film, LE–LC transition and a plateau region. Physical states of the monolayer are greatly influenced by subphase temperature and pH. Significantly, these two factors exert influences on physical states in different ways. The LE film and LE–LC transition are much affected by subphase temperature, while the shapes of the plateau region are mainly influenced by subphase pH. LE film turns more condensed and LE–LC transition becomes clearly evident when temperature increased from 5 to 15 °C. The plateau region becomes less horizontal and begins at lower pressure when subphase pH increased from 2 to 10. The variation of the effects may be related to that subphase temperature alters the mobility of fatty acid chains and subphase pH impacts the ionization of peptide loop. The lipopeptide films transferred from air–water interface onto mica substrate are also investigated with atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM images provide direct evidence that the lipopeptide molecules take up distinct organizations at different physical states, and the plateau region in π– A isotherm is a phase transition from monolayer to multilayer on acidic subphase.

How do patients with HIV/AIDS understand and respond to health value questions?

Utility assessment involves assigning values to experienced or unfamiliar health states. Pivotal to utility assessment, then, is how one conceptualizes health states such as "current health" and "perfect health." The purpose of this study was to ascertain how patients with HIV think about and value health and health states. We conducted open-ended in-depth interviews with 32 patients with HIV infection purposefully sampled from a multicenter study of quality of life in HIV. After undergoing computer-assisted utility assessment using the rating scale, time tradeoff, and standard gamble methods, patients were asked how they thought about the utility tasks and about the terms "current health" and "perfect health." Patients understood the health valuation tasks but conceptualized health states in different ways. Many patients believed that "perfect health" was a mythical health state, and some questioned whether it was even desirable. "Current health" was variably interpreted as the status quo; deteriorating over time; or potentially improving with the hope of a cure. Patients with HIV infection vary in the way they conceptualize health states central to utility assessment, such as perfect health and current health. Better understanding of these issues could make important methodologic and policy-level contributions.

Training for vigilance: The effect of knowledge of results format and dispositional optimism and pessimism on performance and stress

This study investigated the impact of knowledge of results (KR) format on the performance and stress associated with a vigilance task. Also examined was the effect of the interaction of KR-format (Hit-KR, False Alarm-KR, Miss-KR, and a composite of all three formats) with dispositional optimism and pessimism on performance outcome and reported stress state. Hypotheses based upon a theory of feedback intervention were tested. KR regarding correct detections and the composite-KR (KR regarding correct detections, false alarms, and missed signals) enhanced perceptual sensitivity. However, False Alarm-KR and Miss-KR did not. Contrary to expectations based on the theory, performance was unrelated to the traits across all KR conditions. However, the effects of KR-format on self-reports of stress depended on the individual's level of pessimism and optimism. In addition, KR format and personality affected the multiple dimensions of stress state in different ways.

Comparison of the effects of dimethyl and dichloro benzoate counterions on drag reduction, rheological behaviors, and microstructures of a cationic surfactant

Arquad 16–50 (commercial CTAC, cetyltrimethylammonium chloride) (5 mM) with the counterions 3, 4-dichlorobenzoate (5 and 10 mM), 3, 4-dimethylbenzoate (5 and 10 mM) and 3, 5-dichlorosalicylate (5 mM) were studied to compare the effect of concentration of the counterion and its ratio to surfactant concentration (ξ) on drag reduction, rheological behavior, and microstructures. The first four solutions are good drag reducers at different temperature ranges. The 3, 4-dimethylbenzoate system (ξ=1) is effective at 5–40 °C and the 3, 4-dichlorobenzoate system (ξ=1) at 20–70 °C. Increasing the concentration ratio to ξ=2 increased the upper temperature limit 10 °C for each system. The counterion concentration changes affect microstructures in the quiescent state in different ways. The viscoelastic ξ=1 solution of 3, 4-dimethylbenzoate has a microstructure of both vesicles and threads in the quiescent state which probably transform to a threadlike micellar network under shear. However, its ratio of apparent extensional viscosity to shear viscosity is very low, unusual for a surfactant drag reducer. Its ξ=2 solution has typical surfactant drag reducer properties, viscoelastic, high extensional viscosity, and threadlike micellar networks. The ξ=1 solution of 3, 4-Cl-benzoate is like the ξ=2 solution of 3, 4-CH3-benzoate while its ξ=2 solution is nonviscoelastic with vesicles and spherical micelle microstructures in the quiescent state which also probably transform to a network structure in strong shear fields. The only system tested with a counterion having four-substituent groups, 3, 5-dichlorosalicylate, is not effective as a drag reducer, has water-like behavior, and contains very large vesicles.Arquad 16–50 (commercial CTAC, cetyltrimethylammonium chloride) (5 mM) with the counterions 3, 4-dichlorobenzoate (5 and 10 mM), 3, 4-dimethylbenzoate (5 and 10 mM) and 3, 5-dichlorosalicylate (5 mM) were studied to compare the effect of concentration of the counterion and its ratio to surfactant concentration (ξ) on drag reduction, rheological behavior, and microstructures. The first four solutions are good drag reducers at different temperature ranges. The 3, 4-dimethylbenzoate system (ξ=1) is effective at 5–40 °C and the 3, 4-dichlorobenzoate system (ξ=1) at 20–70 °C. Increasing the concentration ratio to ξ=2 increased the upper temperature limit 10 °C for each system. The counterion concentration changes affect microstructures in the quiescent state in different ways. The viscoelastic ξ=1 solution of 3, 4-dimethylbenzoate has a microstructure of both vesicles and threads in the quiescent state which probably transform to a threadlike micellar network under shear. However, its ratio of apparent extensi...

Pairwise gibbs energies of interaction involving N-alkyl-2-pyrrolidinones and related compounds in aqueous solution obtained from kinetic medium effects

Kinetic solvent effects of N-alkyl-2-pyrrolidinones and structurally related compounds on the water-catalyzed hydrolysis reactions of p-methoxyphenyl dichloroacetate (MPDA), 1-benzoyl-3-phenyl-1,2, 4-triazole (BPhT), and 1-benzoyl-1,2,4-triazole (BT) in highly dilute aqueous solutions at pH 4 and 298.15 K have been determined by UV/vis spectroscopy. Using a thermodynamic description of solute-solute interactions in aqueous solutions, the kinetic results have been analyzed in terms of pairwise Gibbs energy interaction parameters: G(c) values. These are negative, indicating that hydrophobic interactions in the initial state dominate the medium effects. The interaction parameters increase in the order MPDA<BT<BPhT, suggesting increasing hydrophobic stabilization in the order of MPDA>BT>BPhT. However, when differences in reactivity and transition state effects are taken into account, it appears that BPhT is more successful in establishing hydrophobic interactions with the cosolutes than are MPDA and BT. Using the SWAG-approach for additivity of group interactions, additivity is observed for the first three consecutive CH(2) groups in the cosolute in all three hydrolysis reactions. Larger alkyl substituents cause larger retardations than anticipated on basis of this additivity. The results are explained by intramolecular destructive overlap of the polar hydration shell of the amide functionality and the apolar (hydrophobic) hydration shell of the alkyl group, which extends to the third CH(2) group in the N-alkyl group of the cosolute molecule. The inner apolar groups, therefore, have a reduced apparent hydrophobicity. More remote CH(2) groups develop independent hydrophobic hydration shells. The effect of the position of a CH(2) group in the cosolute molecule is also considered. Kinetic solvent effects with structurally related esters show that amide-amide, ester-ester, and amide-ester group interactions affect the transition state in different ways. Finally, the effects of PVP polymers on the three hydrolysis reactions have been examined. The data presented enhance the understanding of pairwise hydrophobic interactions in aqueous solutions. In addition the results provide insights into the interactions between hydrophobic and hydrophilic hydration shells as well as into the energetics of amide hydration and interactions involving amides in aqueous solution, both playing important roles in protein stabilization.

A new response surface approach for interpreting Eulerian air quality model sensitivities

The Regional Acid Deposition Model (RADM) was used in a sensitivity study at 80 km and 20 km grid resolutions to simulate urban and regional tropospheric conditions in the eastern U.S. for the time period 19 July to 12 August 1988. Using one-at-a-time (OAT) sensitivity perturbations and a mini-global analysis we varied three model inputs in the range of their known uncertainties: mixing height; emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and volatile organic compounds (VOC); and the rate constant for the reaction OH + NO 2 → HNO 3. Two measures, ozone concentration ([O 3]) and the ratio [O 3]/[NO x ], were used to assess the photochemical system's sensitivity response on an O 3 response surface. We find that: (1) these input uncertainties change the system's state in different ways, altering either the [O 3] or the system's response to emissions reductions, or changing both responses together; (2) the [O 3]/[NO x ] measure successfully predicts the direction and relative degree of change in the system state while [O 3] does not; and (3) for most of the days and locations we have examined, the system's responses to uncertainties simulated OAT are nearly additive when compared with the mini-global case, and that both of the sensitivity measures we assessed correctly tracked this additivity. We conclude that incorporating the [O 3]/[NO x ] ratio is a significant first step in constructing a useful sensitivity “vector” for understanding systems-level changes in the model. However, additional measures that can successfully track the change of shape of the response surface are still needed.

Globalization and the end of the nation state?

Nation states have never been completely autonomous. There have always been exterior forces (regional, continental and even global—think of the world religions, for instance) which permeated through their borders. With important exceptions to the rule, militarily and politically nation states usually were highly resistant; their economic borders were, in most of the cases, more permeable; they could protect themselves at least in the field of cultural influences. The process of gloablization may take various directions and these various scenarios would affect the autonomy of the nation state in different ways. The paper surveys some of these scenarios and discusses in some detail the possible impact of an emerging new global civilization on the future of the nation state.

Fold lines for sensitivity analyses in structural instability

The paper describes how a two-parameter formulation of a structural equilibrium problem can be used for a more accurate description of the occurring critical states. A fold line concept is used to evaluate the dependence of these states on an added variable, describing a disturbing load case or a disturbed geometry. The concept describes the local behaviour for small disturbances, but can also be used for parameter dependence analyses, e.g. in connection with optimization algorithms. Two different augmentations of the equilibrium relations are discussed; they describe the criticality of a solution state in different ways. Numerical adoption for a general equilibrium path following algorithm is discussed. A postponed factorization method for solution of the augmented sets of equations is proposed. Two simple examples are used to show the properties and the possibilities of the fold line concept. It is concluded that the suggested numerical procedure can give a better description of critical structural behaviour, especially with respect to imperfections in the structure and idealizations in the model.

Band parameters of CdS and CdSe single crystals determined from optical exciton spectra

AbstractAn investigation is made of the energy spectra of A and B excitons in CdS by measuring the transmission and reflectivity of very thin highly perfect crystals at 1.8 K. The excited states of both series follow hydrogen‐like series in a good approximation yielding different Rydberg's R = (28 ± 0.4) and R = (31.3 ± 0.4) meV, whereas the ground states are shifted in opposite direction with respect to the series, δE = −2.2, δE = +0.5 meV, resulting in exciton binding energies E = 30.2 and E = 30.8 meV, which are different from the corresponding Rydberg energies. This effect could not be attributed to a single perturbation acting on the ground state in different ways. Moreover, oscillator strengths are determined. A discussion is given in terms of the quasi‐cubic model. For CdSe, the exciton‐LO‐phonon interaction is investigated using a line‐shape analysis of the absorption lines at different temperatures. Analogous to other II–VI compounds, at higher temperatures (T &gt; 77 K) this interaction is the dominate one for the exciton absorption spectra.