A summary report on system effectiveness and optimization study

Report treats optimization and effectiveness separately. Report illustrates example of dynamic programming solution to system optimization. Computer algorithm has been developed to solve effectiveness problem and is included in report

Lean-inspired development work in agriculture: Implications for the work environment

Farmers operate in a turbulent environment that includes international competition, weather conditions and animal behaviour, for example, and is difficult for them to control. However, economy and productivity always have a high priority. As a consequence, farms have started to implement lean-inspired work systems. At the same time, health and safety are of urgent concern in the sector. This article explores how famers apply lean-inspired work processes. It identifies work environment changes during and after a lean implementation, as well as possible developments in the work environment following implementation of the lean philosophy. Data were collected from three groups: lean, lean-light and development-inclined reference farms (in total 54 farms), using a questionnaire and interviews. The results indicate that a majority of the lean farms were applying several lean principles and tools, and the lean philosophy. The leanlight farms applied parts of the lean concept, while the reference farms applied some of the more general tools, used in lean and elsewhere, such as visualisation in various forms and to various extents. The results showed positive effects of lean on the psychosocial work environment, better work structure and improved information, communication and co-operation. The physical work environment was improved to some extent by lean, where advantages such as a more structured and practical work environment with less physical movements and locomotion could be noticed. The lean concept provided a more structured and systematic approach to dealing with work and production environmental issues, for managers as well as for employees

Sex and Gender Topics in Medical Student Learners: Follow up

TOP WINNER Background: In an era of patient-centered, individualized medicine, it is important to consider of the impact of sex and gender on mechanisms of health and disease. Objectives: This study aimed to assess medical students’ current knowledge of sex and gender-based medical concepts and to compare responses to the prior assessment at Mayo Clinic in order to better inform ongoing efforts to improve medical education curricular materials. Methods: An electronic survey that assessed current knowledge of sex and genderbased medicine was sent to all 1st – 4th year medical students at the Mayo Clinic Minnesota and Arizona campuses. Descriptive and qualitative thematic results were compared to the same survey administered in 2012 to assess the efficacy of curriculum changes in better covering sex and gender-based medicine topics. Results: A total of 100 of 365 (27% response rate) of students responded, with 2:1 female to male with representation from all 4 years. The terms sex and gender were correctly identified by most respondents (93%). Various medical knowledge questions were answered incorrectly. Students reported many areas where concepts of sex and gender were not routinely covered n including orthopedics and nephrology, although these percentages have increased since 2012. Sixty two percent of students favored increasing sex and gender health concepts in the current curriculum. Conclusions: Medical students appear to understand the definition of and importance of sex and gender. While some improvements in coverage by topic area have occurred, opportunity remains to more fully integrate these concepts in medical school curricula.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/sexandgenderhealth/1023/thumbnail.jp

Numerical Studies of a Confocal Resonator Pick-Up with FEMLAB

Diagnostic devices aimed at measuring beam profiles in high intensity accelerators are often perturbed by microwave fields generated by the beam itself upstream of the detection device, which propagate inside the vacuum pipe. These parasitic waveguide modes can significantly reduce the signal-to-noise ratio and thus the sensitivity of the beam monitor. This warrants investigation of detection devices that are sensitive to the direct electromagnetic fields of the beam, but largely ignore the parasitic waveguide modes. A new pick-up based on a confocal resonator configuration situated transversely to the direction of propagation of the beam is currently under development at Uppsala University, Sweden. Since a confocal resonator can have a high quality factor for the diffraction losses, then reciprocity suggests that it only couples weakly to external fields while keeping anyway a significant coupling to the direct fields of the beam. Numerical simulations were performed with FEMLAB to better characterize the electromagnetic properties of a confocal resonator pick-up to be operated in the multi-GHz range, especially in terms of eigen-frequencies and coupling to external electromagnetic fields. Our results were then compared to analytical predictions and a good agreement was found, despite a few limitations in the computation of the resonant modes. Having recently built a first confocal resonator prototype, we also performed experimental cross-checks of our numerical studies with a microwave network analyzer. Our results are presented in detail in this report and we discuss further applications of the confocal resonator microwave pick-up

The use of an artificial nucleotide for polymerase-based recognition of carcinogenic O6-alkylguanine DNA adducts.

Enzymatic approaches for locating alkylation adducts at single-base resolution in DNA could enable new technologies for understanding carcinogenesis and supporting personalized chemotherapy. Artificial nucleotides that specifically pair with alkylated bases offer a possible strategy for recognition and amplification of adducted DNA, and adduct-templated incorporation of an artificial nucleotide has been demonstrated for a model DNA adduct O(6)-benzylguanine by a DNA polymerase. In this study, DNA adducts of biological relevance, O(6)-methylguanine (O(6)-MeG) and O(6)-carboxymethylguanine (O(6)-CMG), were characterized to be effective templates for the incorporation of benzimidazole-derived 2'-deoxynucleoside-5'-O-triphosphates ( BENZI: TP and BIM: TP) by an engineered KlenTaq DNA polymerase. The enzyme catalyzed specific incorporation of the artificial nucleotide BENZI: opposite adducts, with up to 150-fold higher catalytic efficiency for O(6)-MeG over guanine in the template. Furthermore, addition of artificial nucleotide BENZI: was required for full-length DNA synthesis during bypass of O(6)-CMG. Selective incorporation of the artificial nucleotide opposite an O(6)-alkylguanine DNA adduct was verified using a novel 2',3'-dideoxy derivative of BENZI: TP. The strategy was used to recognize adducts in the presence of excess unmodified DNA. The specific processing of BENZI: TP opposite biologically relevant O(6)-alkylguanine adducts is characterized herein as a basis for potential future DNA adduct sequencing technologies

Atomic Supersymmetry, Rydberg Wave Packets, and Radial Squeezed States

We study radial wave packets produced by short-pulsed laser fields acting on Rydberg atoms, using analytical tools from supersymmetry-based quantum-defect theory. We begin with a time-dependent perturbative calculation for alkali-metal atoms, incorporating the atomic-excitation process. This provides insight into the general wave packet behavior and demonstrates agreement with conventional theory. We then obtain an alternative analytical description of a radial wave packet as a member of a particular family of squeezed states, which we call radial squeezed states. By construction, these have close to minimum uncertainty in the radial coordinates during the first pass through the outer apsidal point. The properties of radial squeezed states are investigated, and they are shown to provide a description of certain aspects of Rydberg atoms excited by short-pulsed laser fields. We derive expressions for the time evolution and the autocorrelation of the radial squeezed states, and we study numerically and analytically their behavior in several alkali-metal atoms. Full and fractional revivals are observed. Comparisons show agreement with other theoretical results and with experiment.Comment: published in Physical Review

Semiconducting Monolayer Materials as a Tunable Platform for Excitonic Solar Cells

The recent advent of two-dimensional monolayer materials with tunable optoelectronic properties and high carrier mobility offers renewed opportunities for efficient, ultra-thin excitonic solar cells alternative to those based on conjugated polymer and small molecule donors. Using first-principles density functional theory and many-body calculations, we demonstrate that monolayers of hexagonal BN and graphene (CBN) combined with commonly used acceptors such as PCBM fullerene or semiconducting carbon nanotubes can provide excitonic solar cells with tunable absorber gap, donor-acceptor interface band alignment, and power conversion efficiency, as well as novel device architectures. For the case of CBN-PCBM devices, we predict the limit of power conversion efficiencies to be in the 10 - 20% range depending on the CBN monolayer structure. Our results demonstrate the possibility of using monolayer materials in tunable, efficient, polymer-free thin-film solar cells in which unexplored exciton and carrier transport regimes are at play.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Graphite and Hexagonal Boron-Nitride Possess the Same Interlayer Distance. Why?

Graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) are two prominent members of the family of layered materials possessing a hexagonal lattice. While graphite has non-polar homo-nuclear C-C intra-layer bonds, h-BN presents highly polar B-N bonds resulting in different optimal stacking modes of the two materials in bulk form. Furthermore, the static polarizabilities of the constituent atoms considerably differ from each other suggesting large differences in the dispersive component of the interlayer bonding. Despite these major differences both materials present practically identical interlayer distances. To understand this finding, a comparative study of the nature of the interlayer bonding in both materials is presented. A full lattice sum of the interactions between the partially charged atomic centers in h-BN results in vanishingly small monopolar electrostatic contributions to the interlayer binding energy. Higher order electrostatic multipoles, exchange, and short-range correlation contributions are found to be very similar in both materials and to almost completely cancel out by the Pauli repulsions at physically relevant interlayer distances resulting in a marginal effective contribution to the interlayer binding. Further analysis of the dispersive energy term reveals that despite the large differences in the individual atomic polarizabilities the hetero-atomic B-N C6 coefficient is very similar to the homo-atomic C-C coefficient in the hexagonal bulk form resulting in very similar dispersive contribution to the interlayer binding. The overall binding energy curves of both materials are thus very similar predicting practically the same interlayer distance and very similar binding energies.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

The interlayer cohesive energy of graphite from thermal desorption of polyaromatic hydrocarbons

We have studied the interaction of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with the basal plane of graphite using thermal desorption spectroscopy. Desorption kinetics of benzene, naphthalene, coronene and ovalene at sub-monolayer coverages yield activation energies of 0.50 eV, 0.85 eV, 1.40 eV and 2.1 eV, respectively. Benzene and naphthalene follow simple first order desorption kinetics while coronene and ovalene exhibit fractional order kinetics owing to the stability of 2-D adsorbate islands up to the desorption temperature. Pre-exponential frequency factors are found to be in the range $10^{14}$-$10^{21} s^{-1}$ as obtained from both Falconer--Madix (isothermal desorption) analysis and Antoine's fit to vapour pressure data. The resulting binding energy per carbon atom of the PAH is $52\pm$5 meV and can be identified with the interlayer cohesive energy of graphite. The resulting cleavage energy of graphite is $61\pm5$~meV/atom which is considerably larger than previously reported experimental values.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Passive and active suicidal ideation in a population-based sample of older adults: Associations with polygenic risk scores of relevance for suicidal behavior

Introduction: There are few studies investigating genetic factors related to suicidal ideation or behavior in older adult populations. Our aim was to test associations between passive and active suicidal ideation and polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for suicidality and other traits of relevance for suicidality in old age (i.e. depression, neuroticism, loneliness, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive performance, educational attainment, and several specified vascular diseases) in a population-based sample aged 70 years and older. / Methods: Participants in the prospective H70 study in Gothenburg, Sweden, took part in a psychiatric examination that included the Paykel questions on active and passive suicidal ideation. Genotyping was performed with the Neurochip (Illumina). After quality control of the genetic data the sample included 3467 participants. PRSs for suicidality and other related traits were calculated based on summary statistics from recent GWASs of relevance. Exclusion of persons with dementia or incomplete data on suicidal ideation yielded 3019 participants, age range 70–101 years. Associations between past year suicidal ideation (any level) and selected PRSs were analysed using general estimation equation (GEE) models, adjusted for sex and age. / Results: We observed associations between passive/active suicidal ideation and PRSs for depression (three versions), neuroticism, and general cognitive performance. After excluding individuals with current major depressive disorder (MDD), similar associations were seen with PRS for neuroticism, general cognitive performance and two PRSs for depression. No associations were found between suicidal ideation and PRSs for suicidality, loneliness, Alzheimer’s disease, educational attainment, or vascular disease. / Discussion: Our results could indicate which types of genetic susceptibility that are of importance for suicidality in old age, and these findings can help to shed light on potential mechanisms that may be involved in passive and active suicidal ideation in late-life, also in those with no current MDD. However, due to the limited sample size, the results need to be interpreted with caution until replicated in larger samples