Appraisal Confusion: The Intended and Unintended Consequences of Delaware\u27s Nascent Pristine Deal Process Standard

In a merger, shareholders who believe the consideration being offered is too low have a statutory right to seek fair value for their shares through a judicial process called appraisal. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of appraisal actions leading some to argue that the remedy was being abused. In this Article, we argue that a recent line of cases by the Delaware Supreme Court that places heavy reliance on merger price as part of the judicial determination of fair value in appraisal proceedings is misguided and may lead to unintended consequences. Rather than rely on merger price in the determinations of fair value for publicly traded companies, courts should either eliminate the appraisal remedy for publicly traded corporations altogether or look to the unaffected stock market price of merger targets

Network meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies identifies and ranks the optimal diagnostic tests and thresholds for healthcare policy and decision making

Objective: Network meta-analyses have extensively been used to compare the effectiveness of multiple interventions for healthcare policy and decision-making. However, methods for evaluating the performance of multiple diagnostic tests are less established. In a decision-making context, we are often interested in comparing and ranking the performance of multiple diagnostic tests, at varying levels of test thresholds, in one simultaneous analysis. Study design and setting: Motivated by an example of cognitive impairment diagnosis following stroke, we synthesized data from 13 studies assessing the efficiency of two diagnostic tests: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), at two test thresholds: MMSE <25/30 and <27/30, and MoCA <22/30 and <26/30. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, we fitted a bivariate network meta-analysis model incorporating constraints on increasing test threshold, and accounting for the correlations between multiple test accuracy measures from the same study. Results: We developed and successfully fitted a model comparing multiple tests/threshold combinations while imposing threshold constraints. Using this model, we found that MoCA at threshold <26/30 appeared to have the best true positive rate, whilst MMSE at threshold <25/30 appeared to have the best true negative rate. Conclusion: The combined analysis of multiple tests at multiple thresholds allowed for more rigorous comparisons between competing diagnostics tests for decision making

UV-Incorporated Sanitation Lining for Disinfection of Carpentry tools in Grade Schools

This project will focus on the issues caused by a pandemic, particularly, sanitation issues and difficulties in a public area. After a considerable amount of research, it became evident that current sanitation methods are time inefficient, not always effective and wasteful. There are numerous misconceptions on how these methods work and skepticism of the products themselves. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 is an extremely relevant issue that has affected schools, hospitals and other high traffic areas. This project will focus on K-12 grade schools that struggle with quick, easy and effective cleaning methods in between and after class. We aim to achieve a method or product that is safe, adaptable, reduces the spread of infection, eco-friendly and affordable. The FDA approved design process will be followed for the length of this project. Our project will include working with teachers at the local Massillon middle school and doctors/nurses from local Akron hospitals. We will also be testing and verifying our solution throughout the course of this project

Biogeochemistry, Contaminant Transport, and Atmospheric Exchange in Glacial Cryoconite Meltwater of the Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

Polar regions serve as a global sink for many forms of semi-volatile pollution emitted from low- or midlatitudes of the populated world. This study examined the longrange atmospheric transport, fate, and phase partitioning of semi-volatile organic contaminants from air masses into meltwater and aeolian sediment on six glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. A novel low-cost, field-portable instrument was developed for the in-situ solid-phase extraction of trace contaminants in extreme environmental conditions without access to electricity or traditional laboratory facilities. Beyond polar research, this equipment is applicable for rapid field extraction and stabilization of samples assessing air and water quality after natural disasters. This is the first published study to identify the presence of anthropogenic perfluorinated compounds in the Transantarctic Mountain region and indicates a longer range of poleward contaminant transport than prior estimates in the Southern Hemisphere. Additional research examined the biochemistry and climatic variability of open and sealed cryoconite holes on glacial surfaces throughout the initial melt, equilibrium, and refreezing periods in 2013- 2015. High solute concentrations relative to glacial ice indicate that the pools can remain isolated from hydrologic connectivity for more than a decade. Microbial carbon cycling in pools enclosed by ice led to atmospheric disequilibrium and extreme pH. Analysis of unique air, liquid, and ice stratification in cryoconite holes revealed vertical patterns representing a highly accurate, multi-year record of past weather conditions sensitive enough to identify individual dates. This research identifies fluctuations in atmospheric contaminant transport, specific timeframes for deposition events, and may be used in back-trajectory models to help identify the source and variability of semi-volatile emissions in the Southern hemisphere.</p

Concurrent Sessions A: Passage Effectiveness Monitoring in Small Streams II - An Evaluation of the Stream Simulation Culvert Design Method in Washington State

Over the past decade, stream simulation has become the standard for culvert design in Washington State and in many other states and countries. Stream simulation culverts are based on the assumption that the geologic and hydraulic conditions in natural channels define passage requirements for migrating fish in a given stream and that water crossing structures that imitate these conditions can then achieve those same passage requirements. In early stages of development during the late 1990s, the design method contained various assumptions about how to effectively imitate the channel environment, such as the relationship between the culvert width and the natural channel width. In 2003, a preliminary effectiveness study was done on 19 culverts to explore the veracity of these assumptions. This study expands the initial effort to 50 culverts and includes refined methods and analysis comparing hydraulic characteristics based on cross sections, profile variation, and bed texture between each culvert and its paired reference reach situated in an adjacent section of the natural channel of each stream. Taken as a group, these culverts simulate bed texture, 100-year recurrence interval flood velocity and 2-year flood width, but do not simulate thalweg complexity or other hydraulic metrics. Culvert span, relative to the bank full width of the stream, does not by itself determine whether the culvert simulates the reference reach. Of the 50 culverts, many of which experienced record floods, only one experienced significant bed degradation

Inference of single-cell phylogenies from lineage tracing data using Cassiopeia.

The pairing of CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing with massively parallel single-cell readouts now enables large-scale lineage tracing. However, the rapid growth in complexity of data from these assays has outpaced our ability to accurately infer phylogenetic relationships. First, we introduce Cassiopeia-a suite of scalable maximum parsimony approaches for tree reconstruction. Second, we provide a simulation framework for evaluating algorithms and exploring lineage tracer design principles. Finally, we generate the most complex experimental lineage tracing dataset to date, 34,557 human cells continuously traced over 15 generations, and use it for benchmarking phylogenetic inference approaches. We show that Cassiopeia outperforms traditional methods by several metrics and under a wide variety of parameter regimes, and provide insight into the principles for the design of improved Cas9-enabled recorders. Together, these should broadly enable large-scale mammalian lineage tracing efforts. Cassiopeia and its benchmarking resources are publicly available at www.github.com/YosefLab/Cassiopeia