Power efficiency through tuple ranking in wireless sensor network monitoring

In this paper, we present an innovative framework for efficiently monitoring Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Our framework, coined KSpot, utilizes a novel top-k query processing algorithm we developed, in conjunction with the concept of in-network views, in order to minimize the cost of query execution. For ease of exposition, consider a set of sensors acquiring data from their environment at a given time instance. The generated information can conceptually be thought as a horizontally fragmented base relation R. Furthermore, the results to a user-defined query Q, registered at some sink point, can conceptually be thought as a view V . Maintaining consistency between V and R is very expensive in terms of communication and energy. Thus, KSpot focuses on a subset V′ (⊆ V ) that unveils only the k highest-ranked answers at the sink, for some user defined parameter k. To illustrate the efficiency of our framework, we have implemented a real system in nesC, which combines the traditional advantages of declarative acquisition frameworks, like TinyDB, with the ideas presented in this work. Extensive real-world testing and experimentation with traces from University of California-Berkeley, the University of Washington and Intel Research Berkeley, show that KSpot provides an up to 66% of energy savings compared to TinyDB, minimizes both the size and number of packets transmitted over the network (up to 77%), and prolongs the longevity of a WSN deployment to new scales

Medi-Cal Expansion under the Affordable Care Act: Significant Increase in Coverage with Minimal Cost to the State

Since 2011, California has been taking steps towards expanding Medicaid under the Afordable Care Act (ACA) by implementing Low Income Health Programs (LIHPs) in most California counties. Under the "Bridge to Reform" Medicaid §1115 waiver, just over 500,000 California adults are currently enrolled in coverage in advance of ACA implementation using federal and county funds. he vast majority of these LIHP enrollees can become eligible for Medi-Cal coverage under the ACA beginning January 1, 2014, and the remainder will be eligible for subsidies through Covered California (the California Health Benefit Exchange).In early 2013, California legislators will consider bills to implement a key provision of the ACA that would expand Medi-Cal to low-income adults under age 65, including those without children living at home. Lawfully-present childless adults with income up to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level and parents with income between 106 percent and 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level will be newly eligible. Some unenrolled children and parents who are already income-eligible for the program under existing eligibility rules could also enroll due to the minimum coverage requirement to obtain insurance created by the ACA, improved eligibility, enrollment and redetermination processes, and enhanced awareness of coverage options.In this report, we estimate the growth in Medi-Cal enrollment among both the newly and already eligible using the UC Berkeley-UCLA California Simulation of Insurance Markets (CalSIM) model. We discuss the broader impact of the Medi-Cal Expansion in terms of health outcomes, providers and the economy. We estimate the federal and state spending on increased Medi-Cal enrollment, along with the state tax revenues generated by new federal Medi-Cal spending and potential savings in other areas of the budget

Influence of base and photoacid generator on deprotection blur in extreme ultraviolet photoresists and some thoughts on shot noise

A contact-hole deprotection blur metric has been used to monitor the deprotection blur of an experimental open platform resist (EH27) as the wt % of base and photoacid generator (PAG) were varied. A six times increase in base wt % is shown to reduce the size of successfully patterned 1:1 line-space features from 52 to 39 nm without changing deprotection blur. Corresponding isolated line edge roughness is reduced from 6.9 to 4.1 nm. A two times increase in PAG wt % is shown to improve 1:1 line-space patterning from 47 to 40 nm without changing deprotection blur or isolated line edge roughness. A discussion of improved patterning performance as related to shot noise and deprotection blur concludes with a speculation that the spatial distribution of PAG molecules has been playing some role, perhaps a dominant one, in determining the uniformity of photogenerated acids in the resists that have been studied. © 2008 American Vacuum Society

Closing the Loophole: A Case Study of Organizing for More Equitable and Affordable Access to Health Care in San Francisco

This paper presents in-depth case study of a successful hybrid political and community organizing campaign to ensure equitable access to health care through the perspective of a grassroots San Francisco community-based organization, the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), which has been organizing low-income Chinese immigrants for over four decades. First, it outlines the Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO), which, since its passage in 2006, has established a near-universal health care access program, helping to make health care accessible and affordable to individuals living and working in San Francisco. Then it presents the campaign to save the HCSO, focusing on CPA’s participation in the HCSO coalition. Finally, it discusses health care as it relates to the San Francisco’s affordability crisis and the political economic context in which it is taking place. Despite the limitations inherent in small case studies like this one, it nevertheless provides a valuable opportunity to better understand how one politically progressive city attempted to address the problem of grossly inequitable health care access through the lens of community organizing, advocacy, and coalition building. San Francisco, like many major American cities today, is being confronted with rapid gentrification and growing economic inequality—the backdrop to the HCSO. Through innovative experiments in social responsibility like the HCSO, however, the city has made leaps in health care access. It concludes with lessons learned from local organizing and advocacy to save the HCSO as these may inform other local efforts to promote health care for all

PEER Testbed Study on a Laboratory Building: Exercising Seismic Performance Assessment

From 2002 to 2004 (years five and six of a ten-year funding cycle), the PEER Center organized the majority of its research around six testbeds. Two buildings and two bridges, a campus, and a transportation network were selected as case studies to “exercise” the PEER performance-based earthquake engineering methodology. All projects involved interdisciplinary teams of researchers, each producing data to be used by other colleagues in their research. The testbeds demonstrated that it is possible to create the data necessary to populate the PEER performancebased framing equation, linking the hazard analysis, the structural analysis, the development of damage measures, loss analysis, and decision variables. This report describes one of the building testbeds—the UC Science Building. The project was chosen to focus attention on the consequences of losses of laboratory contents, particularly downtime. The UC Science testbed evaluated the earthquake hazard and the structural performance of a well-designed recently built reinforced concrete laboratory building using the OpenSees platform. Researchers conducted shake table tests on samples of critical laboratory contents in order to develop fragility curves used to analyze the probability of losses based on equipment failure. The UC Science testbed undertook an extreme case in performance assessment—linking performance of contents to operational failure. The research shows the interdependence of building structure, systems, and contents in performance assessment, and highlights where further research is needed. The Executive Summary provides a short description of the overall testbed research program, while the main body of the report includes summary chapters from individual researchers. More extensive research reports are cited in the reference section of each chapter

GenomeGraphs: integrated genomic data visualization with R.

BackgroundBiological studies involve a growing number of distinct high-throughput experiments to characterize samples of interest. There is a lack of methods to visualize these different genomic datasets in a versatile manner. In addition, genomic data analysis requires integrated visualization of experimental data along with constantly changing genomic annotation and statistical analyses.ResultsWe developed GenomeGraphs, as an add-on software package for the statistical programming environment R, to facilitate integrated visualization of genomic datasets. GenomeGraphs uses the biomaRt package to perform on-line annotation queries to Ensembl and translates these to gene/transcript structures in viewports of the grid graphics package. This allows genomic annotation to be plotted together with experimental data. GenomeGraphs can also be used to plot custom annotation tracks in combination with different experimental data types together in one plot using the same genomic coordinate system.ConclusionGenomeGraphs is a flexible and extensible software package which can be used to visualize a multitude of genomic datasets within the statistical programming environment R

Selection of chromosomal DNA libraries using a multiplex CRISPR system.

The directed evolution of biomolecules to improve or change their activity is central to many engineering and synthetic biology efforts. However, selecting improved variants from gene libraries in living cells requires plasmid expression systems that suffer from variable copy number effects, or the use of complex marker-dependent chromosomal integration strategies. We developed quantitative gene assembly and DNA library insertion into the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome by optimizing an efficient single-step and marker-free genome editing system using CRISPR-Cas9. With this Multiplex CRISPR (CRISPRm) system, we selected an improved cellobiose utilization pathway in diploid yeast in a single round of mutagenesis and selection, which increased cellobiose fermentation rates by over 10-fold. Mutations recovered in the best cellodextrin transporters reveal synergy between substrate binding and transporter dynamics, and demonstrate the power of CRISPRm to accelerate selection experiments and discoveries of the molecular determinants that enhance biomolecule function