The Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Graphene from Quantum Mechanics: Comparing Armchair and Zigzag Carbon Edges

Using density functional theory (PBE-D2 flavor), we report the mechanism for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on graphene sheets. We find that ORR starts with OO chemisorbing onto the carbon edges, rather than the basal plane face, which is not energetically favorable. The carbon edges were described as one-dimensional periodic graphene ribbons with both armchair and zigzag edges. We calculated the binding energies of the ORR products (OO, OOH, O, OH, HOH, HOOH) for the zigzag and armchair edges, examining both the Langmuir–Hinshelwood (LH) and Eley–Rideal (ER), to understand how OO is reduced. For the armchair edge, we calculate an onset potential of 0.55 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), which corresponds to −0.22 V at pH 13 in agreement with experiments. We find that the rate-determining step (RDS) to form peroxide (a 2e– process) is hydrogenation of adsorbed OO with a barrier of 0.92 eV. The process to make water (a 4e– process) was found to be unfavorable at the onset potential but becomes more favorable at lower potentials. Thus, undoped carbon catalysts prefer the 2e– mechanism to form peroxide, rather than the 4e– process to form water, which agrees with experiment. The predictions open the route for experimental studies to improve the sluggish ORR on carbon catalysts

A Profile of Health Insurance Exchange Enrollees

Based on the 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, examines the demographic, health status, and healthcare utilization characteristics of the population expected to obtain coverage through state-run exchanges in 2019. Considers policy implications

Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of the Chicago Area: Diversity and Habitat Use in an Urbanized Landscape

Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) were collected at 24 sites chosen to represent the diversity of urban and natural habitats in the Chicago metropolitan area. Species richness was assessed for each site. Patterns of habitat use were inferred from collection records. In urban areas, we collected 33 species, belonging to 15 genera and 5 families. Areas of preserved natural habitat yielded 44 species, in 20 genera, and 6 families. Twenty species were common to both urban areas and areas of preserved natural habitat. Species at each site were ranked by the number of times they were collected. The bees most often collected in urban areas were widely-distributed species documented in other urban areas. Areas of preserved natural habitat harbored a higher richness of species, and the species most-often collected in these areas were native to North America. Urban sites with native plant species harbored significantly more bees than urban sites lacking native vegetation (t-test, two-tailed assuming unequal variances, P \u3c 0.001). In urban areas, native bees were more likely to be captured on native flowers (c2, Yates statistic, P \u3c 0.01). Chicago’s bee fauna is comparable in richness to the bee fauna of other cities which have been surveyed, notably Phoenix, AZ (Mc Intyre and Hostelter 2001), Berkeley, CA (Frankie et al. 2005), and New York City, NY, (Matteson et al. 2008). A comparison of our species list to another, recently-published survey of Chicago bees by Toinetto et al. (2011), revealed only 24 species overlap, from a combined total list of 93 species. The combined species list from these two surveys shares only 44 species in common with the 169 species documented by Pearson (1933) in his extensive survey of Chicago bees

Is there an interplay between adherence to mediterranean diet, antioxidant status, and vascular disease in atrial fibrillation patients?

Mediterranean Diet (Med-Diet) is associated with reduced incidence of vascular events (VEs) in atrial fibrillation (AF), but the mechanism accounting for its beneficial effect is only partially known. We hypothesized that Med-Diet may reduce VEs by improving antioxidant status, as assessed by glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) and superoxide dismutase (SOD). We performed a prospective cohort study investigating the relationship between adherence to Med-Diet, serum baseline GPx3 and SOD activities, and the occurrence of VEs in 690 AF patients. GPx3 activity was directly associated with Med-Diet score (B = 0.192, p < 0.001) and inversely with age (B = −0.124, p = 0.001), after adjustment for potential confounders; Med-Diet weakly affected SOD levels. During a mean follow-up of 46.1 ± 28.2 months, 89 VEs were recorded; patients with VEs had lower GPx3 levels compared with those without VEs (p = 0.002); and no differences regarding SOD activity were found. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that age (Hazard ratio [HR]:1.065, p < 0.001), logGPx3 (above median, HR: 0.629, p < 0.05), and Med-Diet score (HR: 0.547, p < 0.05) predicted VEs. Med-Diet favorably modulates antioxidant activity of GPx3 in AF, resulting in reduced VEs rate. We hypothesize that the modulation of GPx3 levels by Med-Diet could represent an additional nutritional strategy to prevent VEs in AF patients

Adoption of robotic assisted partial nephrectomies: a population-based analysis of U.S. surgeons from 2004-2013

The advent of minimally invasive and robotic techniques has resulted in the rapid adoption of this novel technology, with the field of urology at the forefront. Since the first Robotic‐Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy (RALP) was performed in 2000 using  the da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA), surgeons have rapidly incorporated robotic technology for the use of radical prostatectomies for prostatic carcinoma. Prior to 2005, only a minority of surgeons‐‐fewer than 2.5%‐‐performing radical  prostatectomies utilized robotic assistance.  However, robotic assistance has become the predominant approach for radical prostatectomies, increasing from 22% to 85% between the years 2002 to 2013, representing a nearly five‐fold increase in utilization

Long-Term Population Monitoring of the Karner Blue (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in Wisconsin, 1990-2004

We monitored Wisconsin populations of the Karner blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis Nabokov, Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) during 1990-2004. We surveyed consecutive spring and summer broods in two contiguous central Wisconsin counties (Jackson, Wood), starting with three sites in summer 1990 and expanding to 14 sites by summer 1996 (“constant-site monitoring”). In northwestern Wisconsin (Burnett County), we started constant-site monitoring of consecutive summer broods with 11 sites in 1991, expanding to 15 sites by 1998. Population indices (Karner blue individuals per km on peak survey per site per brood) from constant sites were positively and significantly correlated with comparable indices for the same broods from “non-constant sites” (all other Karner blue sites we surveyed, which changed in number and location in each brood). The non-constant-site indices for summer 1998-2003 from the statewide Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) had no significant correlations with our constant-site and non-constant-site indices, or with constant-site indices from Fort McCoy (Monroe County, central Wisconsin). Fort McCoy indices had many significant correlations (all positive) with our constant-site indices, biased toward our indices from nearer sites, but not with our non-constant-site indices. Correlations using both spring and summer indices produced more significant effects than the same tests using only summer or spring broods. Burnett County indices never correlated significantly with indices from central Wisconsin counties ca. 250 km away, while indices from the central Wisconsin counties often covaried significantly. Thus, datasets comprising constant-site indices with \u3e6 years of surveys sampling both spring and summer broods had greater statistical power and showed stronger covariances among nearer sites. Brood size varied more in consecutive springs than consecutive summers, and the larger the geographic scale of an index, the lower this variability was. The longer the time period sampled, the larger the coefficients of variation (CV) for the mean of the indices per site, so that monitoring for shorter time periods would underestimate Karner blue population variability. For tests of trend (correlation of indices with year) with P \u3c 0.10, the sign of the coefficient was always the same for a given group of sites, no matter the type of correlation (linear or non-parametric), type of index (three-year running average or individual brood), or set of seasons used (spring and/or summer). Correlations using only summer indices or using both spring and summer indices produced similar levels of significance. Correlations using only spring indices produced fewer significant results. We classified our sites by management class used in the HCP: “shifting mosaic” (SM, in forest succession) and “permanency of habitat” (PH, rights-of-way not in succession). “Reserve” (R) had management activities exceeding the minimum required by the HCP, akin to nature reserve management. R sites had non-significant or positive near-significant trends. SM and PH had many negative significant and near-significant trends, both for fewer sites over more years and more sites for fewer years. SM sites had no tree-cutting during this study, and Karner blue abundance negatively relates to forest canopy. Conversely, routine mowing and brush-cutting in PH sites are favorable for Karner blues. But most PH sites also experienced soil-exposing events in 1996 and/or 2000-2004 that destroyed vegetation. At Crex Meadows, Karner blues appeared to increase more in the permanent non-fire refugium than at other sites there, which continued in fire management with modifications favorable for Karner blues but both the refugium and other sites has similar positive significant trends

Tempting food words activate eating simulations

This study shows that tempting food words activate simulations of eating the food, including simulations of the taste and texture of the food, simulations of eating situations, and simulations of hedonic enjoyment. In a feature listing task, participants generated features that are typically true of four tempting foods (e.g., chips) and four neutral foods (e.g., rice). The resulting features were coded as features of eating simulations if they referred to the taste, texture, and temperature of the food (e.g., “crunchy”; “sticky”), to situations of eating the food (e.g., “movie”; “good for Wok dishes”), and to the hedonic experience when eating the food (e.g., “tasty”). Based on the grounded cognition perspective, it was predicted that tempting foods are more likely to be represented in terms of actually eating them, so that participants would list more features referring to eating simulations for tempting than for neutral foods. Confirming this hypothesis, results showed that eating simulation features constituted 53% of the features for tempting food, and 26% of the features for neutral food. Visual features, in contrast, were mentioned more often for neutral foods (45%) than for tempting foods (19%). Exploratory analyses revealed that the proportion of eating simulation features for tempting foods was positively correlated with perceived attractiveness of the foods, and negatively with participants’ dieting concerns, suggesting that eating simulations may depend on individuals’ goals with regard to eating. These findings are discussed with regard to their implications for understanding the processes guiding eating behavior, and for interventions designed to reduce the consumption of attractive, unhealthy food

Kaempferol Treatment after Traumatic Brain Injury during Early Development Mitigates Brain Parenchymal Microstructure and Neural Functional Connectivity Deterioration at Adolescence.

Targeting mitochondrial ion homeostasis using Kaempferol, a mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter channel activator, improves energy metabolism and behavior soon after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in developing rats. Because of broad TBI pathophysiology and brain mitochondrial heterogeneity, Kaempferol-mediated early-stage behavioral and brain metabolic benefits may accrue from diverse sources within the brain. We hypothesized that Kaempferol influences TBI outcome by differentially impacting the neural, vascular, and synaptic/axonal compartments. After TBI at early development (P31), functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were applied to determine imaging outcomes at adolescence (2 months post-injury). Vehicle and Kaempferol treatments were made at 1, 24, and 48 h post-TBI, and their effects were assessed at adolescence. A significant increase in neural connectivity was observed after Kaempferol treatment as assessed by the spatial extent and strength of the somatosensory cortical and hippocampal resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) networks. However, no significant RSFC changes were observed in the thalamus. DTI measures of fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient, representing synaptic/axonal and microstructural integrity, showed significant improvements after Kaempferol treatment, with highest changes in the frontal and parietal cortices and hippocampus. Kaempferol treatment also increased corpus callosal FA, indicating measurable improvement in the interhemispheric structural connectivity. TBI prognosis was significantly altered at adolescence by early Kaempferol treatment, with improved neural connectivity, neurovascular coupling, and parenchymal microstructure in select brain regions. However, Kaempferol failed to improve vasomotive function across the whole brain, as measured by cerebrovascular reactivity. The differential effects of Kaempferol treatment on various brain functional compartments support diverse cellular-level mitochondrial functional outcomes in vivo

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2014

A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report examines crime occurring in schools and colleges. This report presents data on crime at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general population from an array of sources--the National Crime Victimization Survey, the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the School Survey on Crime and Safety, the Schools and Staffing Survey, EDFacts, and the Campus Safety and Security Survey. The report covers topics such as victimization, bullying, school conditions, fights, weapons, the presence of security staff at school, availability and student use of drugs and alcohol, student perceptions of personal safety at school, and criminal incidents at postsecondary institutions