First Principles Study of Work Functions of Double Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Using first-principles density functional calculations, we investigated work functions (WFs) of thin double-walled nanotubes (DWNTs) with outer tube diameters ranging from 1nm to 1.5nm. The results indicate that work function change within this diameter range can be up to 0.5 eV, even for DWNTs with same outer diameter. This is in contrast with single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) which show negligible WF change for diameters larger than 1nm. We explain the WF change and related charge redistribution in DWNTs using charge equilibration model (CEM). The predicted work function variation of DWNTs indicates a potential difficulty in their nanoelectronic device applications.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, to appear as rapid communication on Physical Review

Food Safety Practices among Chinese in the U.S.

Improper food handling of Chinese has caused problems that cannot be ignored. Because of great favor on Chinese food and the indispensable role Chinese people play in the U.S., it is thus of our interest to study the knowledge, practices, and attitudes of Chinese population in the U.S. in the aspect of safe food handling. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Health Belief Model (HBM) have been applied widely in researches of health-related behaviors, but they haven’t been extensively used in empirical studies aiming at understanding people’s beliefs and practices of food safety. Based on TPB and HBM models, nine hypotheses were proposed. An English questionnaire was developed, translated to Chinese and distributed via an Internet survey web site. A total of 102 valid responses were collected. Using a linear regression model, attitude toward behavior and self-efficacy were identified as significant indicators of safe food handling practices

A longitudinal behavior genetic model for ordered categorical variables

"July 2011"Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on May 17, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Phillip K. WoodVita.A model for the analysis of longitudinal twin data consisting of ordered categorical variables was proposed. Proportional changes in response categories across time were modeled within growth curve by means of mean and variance changes in underlying continuous variables. Variances of the growth factors were decomposed into genetic and environmental components. In simulation analyses, parameters were successfully estimated in all conditions although estimates of standard errors were biased and statistical powers to detect non-zero parameters were not sufficient for some parameters. A potential solution for these irregularities was discussed. Despite these limitations, the relative contributions of genetic and environmental components on growth factors were well estimated. Possible refinement of simulation analysis and expansion of the proposed model for multiple indicators at each measurement occasion were discussed.Includes bibliographical reference

Use of dyes to increase phase contrast for biological holographic microscopy

Holographic microscopy is an emerging biological technique that provides amplitude and quantitative phase imaging, though the contrast provided by many cell types and organelles is low, and until now no dyes were known that increased contrast. Here we show that the metallocorrole Ga(tpfc)(SO_3H)_2, which has a strong Soret band absorption, increases contrast in both amplitude and phase and facilitates tracking of Escherichia coli with minimal toxicity. The change in phase contrast may be calculated from the dye-absorbance spectrum using the Kramers–Kronig relations, and represents a general principle that may be applied to any dye or cell type. This enables the use of holographic microscopy for all applications in which specific labeling is desired

Peran Assistant Director dalam Production House PT. Sinergi Kolektif Indonesia (SYN FILMS)

Kerja magang merupakan salah satu tahap pembelajaran yang berharga sebelum memasuki dunia kerja yang sebenarnya. Pada kesempatan kerja magang ini penulis memilih SYN Films sebagai tempat berjalannya praktek kerja magang karena penulis ingin mempelajari lebih dalam tentang Directing pada music video dan video dokumenter yang diterapkan oleh SYN Films. Melalui praktek kerja magang ini penulis diberi kesempatan menjadi Assistant Director pada project IWearZule, The Overtunes – Tak Bisa Kupercaya, Nusantarun – The Power of Contribution. Melalui kesempatan menjadi Assistant Director dalam setiap project tersebut membuat penulis menjadi paham akan dunia pekerjaan sebenarnya seperti proses kerja pada saat shooting dari tahap pre-production sampai tahap post-production. Kendala – kendala yang dialami penulis pada saat melakukan kerja magang seperti komunikasi antar rekan kerja, pengambilan keputusan yang cepat pada saat berada di lapangan, dan kendala lainnya diharapkan dapat menjadi pelajaran berharga baik untuk penulis maupun orang lain yang akan membaca penulisan laporan magang ini

Tracing diagnosis trajectories over millions of patients reveal an unexpected risk in schizophrenia.

The identification of novel disease associations using big-data for patient care has had limited success. In this study, we created a longitudinal disease network of traced readmissions (disease trajectories), merging data from over 10.4 million inpatients through the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, which allowed the representation of disease progression mapping over 300 diseases. From these disease trajectories, we discovered an interesting association between schizophrenia and rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle disease (incidence < 1E-04) (relative risk, 2.21 [1.80-2.71, confidence interval = 0.95], P-value 9.54E-15). We validated this association by using independent electronic medical records from over 830,000 patients at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) medical center. A case review of 29 rhabdomyolysis incidents in schizophrenia patients at UCSF demonstrated that 62% are idiopathic, without the use of any drug known to lead to this adverse event, suggesting a warning to physicians to watch for this unexpected risk of schizophrenia. Large-scale analysis of disease trajectories can help physicians understand potential sequential events in their patients

Stage of cancer diagnoses among migrants from the former Soviet Union in comparison to the German population – are diagnoses among migrants delayed?

Background: In this study, we compared stage at diagnosis, standardized incidence ratio (SIR) and standardized mortality ratio (SMR) of most frequent cancer diagnoses between re-settlers (Aussiedler) from the former Soviet Union and the general population in the Saarland in Germany to assess possible delays in diagnosis of cancer among this migrant group. Methods: Lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, malignant melanoma of the skin and stomach cancer diagnoses among a cohort of 18,619 re-settlers living in the Saarland between 1990 and 2009 were identified by the federal state’s cancer registry. Vital status was available for the respective time-period and used to calculate SIR and SMR in comparison to the autochthonous population. Tumor stages were condensed into local and advanced stages. Odds ratios (OR) for an advanced tumor stage were modeled in dependence of re-settler-status and relevant covariates by logistic regression. Missing values were addressed in a sensitivity analysis. The influence of duration of stay in Germany on advanced stage diagnosis was analyzed among re-settlers. Results: SIR and SMR of lung and breast cancer were lower among female re-settlers, while SIR and SMR of colorectal and prostate cancer were lower among male re-settlers. SIR and SMR of stomach cancer were elevated among both sexes. Female re-settlers showed an elevated OR for being diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer. Both male and female re-settlers showed an elevated OR when observing all six sites combined (OR among males 1.47, p = 0.04; OR among females 1.37, p = 0.05). The result of elevated ORs was supported in the sensitivity analysis. Finally, male re-settlers showed a weak association between duration of stay in Germany and reduced risk for advanced stage diagnosis. Conclusion: Re-settlers were more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced tumor stage. These findings are in line with previous research having shown unfavorable health care utilization of re-settlers. Overall, low mortality rates despite an increased risk of advanced stage at diagnosis argue for a sufficient follow-up care, comparable to the autochthonous population

Decomposing individual and group differences of categorical variables with genetic factor model

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 3, 2008)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Psychology.The method of decomposing individual and group differences on ordered categorical variables into genetic and environmental factors is introduced. Although the genetic factor model is used to identify the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors on individual differences of phenotypic behavior, Dolan (1989) and Dolan, Molenaar, and Boomsma (1992) developed the method to decompose phenotypic means of variables with the genetic and environmental factors. Often, psychological constructs are measured by ordered categorical variables which can restrict the application of genetic factor model. Assuming an ordered categorical variable as a discretization of underlying latent continuous variable, the latent continuous variable can be modeled by applying (LRV) formulation. The present paper proposes a genetic factor decomposition similar to that proposed by Dolan and colleagues but for ordered polytomous variables in which mean structures of phenotype indicators are included. An example of the approach is described using the data from Australian Twin Registry on conservatism scale. Mean differences between men and women are modeled with genetic and environmental factors. Although the patterns of factor loadings and factor means are different for each sub-dimension of conservatism, the model with means fits well to each sub-dimension which indicates that the source of individual and group differences of conservatism measure are similar