Variations in Dropout Rates Across Virginia

Using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis, this study attempts to capture variation in dropout rates across Virginia counties and cities. With the respective dropout rates as the dependent variable, seven independent variables are used accordingly in order to provide as much explanatory power as possible. At the 10 percent significance level, four of seven variables are statistically significant with an adjusted R2 of .374. Important policy implications can be derived from the model and its statistically significant variables. The model finds that the percentage of blacks in the population, university access, the unemployment rate and single female-headed households to be statistically significant with coefficients that have a relatively large impact on dropout rates. Median household income, percentage of the population with advanced degrees, and student to teacher ratios were found to be insignificant. Using these regression results, local government can more effectively move funds to areas that will help to decrease dropout rates. Investigating into the black population and their increased propensity to drop out as well as focusing on mentoring programs to help relieve extra stress and decreased parental supervision found in single female-headed households will provide the most effective decrease in dropout rates the model

Targeting Hypoxia Signaling for Perioperative Organ Injury

Perioperative organ injury has a significant impact on surgical outcomes and presents a leading cause of death in the United States. Recent research has pointed out an important role of hypoxia signaling in the protection from organ injury, including for example myocardial infarction, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute kidney, or gut injury. Hypoxia induces the stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), thereby leading to the induction of HIF target genes, which facilitates adaptive responses to low oxygen. In this review, we focus on current therapeutic strategies targeting hypoxia signaling in various organ injury models and emphasize potential clinical approaches to integrate these findings into the care of surgical patients. Conceptually, there are 2 options to target the HIF pathway for organ protection. First, drugs became recently available that promote the stabilization of HIFs, most prominently via inhibition of prolyl hydroxylase. These compounds are currently trialed in patients, for example, for anemia treatment or prevention of ischemia and reperfusion injury. Second, HIF target genes (such as adenosine receptors) could be activated directly. We hope that some of these approaches may lead to novel pharmacologic strategies to prevent or treat organ injury in surgical patients

Search for the intermediate Mass Higgs Signal at TeV eγe\gamma colliders

The intermediate mass Higgs (IMH) can be abundantly produced through the process $e^-\gamma \rightarrow W^-H\nu$ at TeV $e^-\gamma$ colliders, which are realized by the laser back-scattering method. We search for the signature of $W^-H \rightarrow (jj)(b\bar b)$ plus missing transverse momentum, with and without considering the $b$-tagging. We also analyse all the potential backgrounds from $e^-\gamma \rightarrow W^-Z\nu,\,W^-W^+e^-,\,ZZe^-,\, \bar t b\nu$ and $t\bar t e^-$. With our selective acceptance cuts these backgrounds are reduced to a manageable level. We find that for the entire intermediate mass range 60 -- 150~GeV the Higgs discovery should be viable. We also present detail formulas for the helicity amplitudes of these processes.Comment: Latex(Revtex), 30 pages, 8 figures in postscript format (uuencoded), NUHEP-TH-93-

Community-based Data Validation Practices in Citizen Science

Technology-supported citizen science has created huge volumes of data with increasing potential to facilitate scientific progress, however, verifying data quality is still a substantial hurdle due to the limitations of existing data quality mechanisms. In this study, we adopted a mixed methods approach to investigate community-based data validation practices and the characteristics of records of wildlife species observations that affected the outcomes of collaborative data quality management in an online community where people record what they see in the nature. The findings describe the processes that both relied upon and added to information provenance through information stewardship behaviors, which led to improved reliability and informativity. The likelihood of community-based validation interactions were predicted by several factors, including the types of organisms observed and whether the data were submitted from a mobile device. We conclude with implications for technology design, citizen science practices, and research.NSF CCF 144266

Higgs-photon associated production at eeˉe\bar{e} colliders

We present complete analytical expressions for the amplitudes of the process $e\bar{e}\rightarrow H\gamma$. The calculation is performed using nonlinear gauges, which significantly simplifies both the actual analytical calculation and the check of its gauge invariance. After comparing our results with a previous numerical calculation, we extend the range of Higgs masses and center of mass energies to those appropriate to LEP 200 and a future linear collider.Comment: To appear in PRD. 18 pages latex, uses REVTEX; 5 postscript figure

Direct CP-asymmetry in Inclusive Rare B-decays in 2HDM

The direct CP-asymmetry in the inclusive $B \to X_d \gamma$ and $B \to X_d e^+ e^ -$ decays is investigated in the two-Higgs doublet extension of the Standard Model (2HDM). The investigation is performed in the lowest non-vanishing order of the perturbation theory using the existing restrictions on the 2HDM parameters space. It is shown that the direct CP-asymmetry in the $B \to X_d \gamma$ decay can deviate significantly from the Standard Model predictions. In the presence of only one source of CP-violation (the CKM matrix weak phase) $a_{CP}(B \to X_d \gamma)$ can have the sign opposite to that in the SM. The new source of CP-violation can make $|a_{CP}(B \to X_d \gamma)|$ arbitrary small (unlike the SM case) and hence unmeasurable. Quantitatively, the obtained results suffer from the uncertainty of the choice of renormalization scale. As for the $B \to X_d e^+ e^ -$ rate asymmetry, its renormalization scale dependence in the lowest non-vanishing order does not allow to conclude if this quantity is efficient for testing New Physics beyond the Standard Model.Comment: 16 pages including 2 figure

Enhancing the top signal at Tevatron using Neural Nets

We show that Neural Nets can be useful for top analysis at Tevatron. The main features of $t\bar t$ and background events on a mixed sample are projected in a single output, which controls the efficiency and purity of the $t\bar t$ signal.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures (not included and available from the authors), Latex, UB-ECM-PF 94/1

Texture of Yukawa coupling matrices in general two-Higgs-doublet model

We discuss possible parallel textures of the Yukawa coupling matrices in the generaltwo-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM). In those textures the flavor changing neutral currentsare naturally suppressed. Motivated by a phenomenologically successful texturewith four texture zeros in the standard model, we propose a predictive ansatz for the Yukawa coupling matrices with the same texture in the general 2HDM. Compared with the six texture-zero based ansatz proposed by Cheng and Sher, it is in a better agreement with the data of quark mixings and CP violation. The four texture-zero based ansatz predicts a different hierarchy in the Yukawa coupling matrix elements. As a consequence, in the lepton sector, the related Yukawa couplings are less constrained by the experimental upper bound of $\mu\to e\gamma$, which allows significantly larger predictions for other processes. The contributions from neutral scalar interactions to the lepton number violation decay modes $\ell\to \ell_{1}\ell_{2}\ell_{3}$ are calculated in both ansatz. It is shown that the predictions from the four texture-zero based ansatz could be two order of magnitude greater than that from the six texture-zero based one. The branching ratio of $\mu\to 3e$ and $\tau\to 3\mu$ can reach $7.5 \times 10^{-17}$ and 1.3\tiems 10^{-10} respectively. The predicted ratio of $Br(\mu\to 3e)/Br(\tau\to 3e)$ is also larger and almost parameter independent. Those differences make the two ansatz to be easily distinguished by the future experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Global alterations to the choroid plexus blood-CSF barrier in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

© 2020 The Author(s). The choroid plexus (CP) is a highly vascularized structure located in the ventricles that forms the blood-CSF barrier (BCSFB) and separates the blood from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In addition to its role as a physical barrier, the CP functions in CSF secretion, transport of nutrients into the central nervous system (CNS) and a gated point of entry of circulating immune cells into the CNS. Aging and neurodegeneration have been reported to affect CP morphology and function and increase protein leakage from blood to the CSF. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with both upper and lower motor neuron loss, as well as altered proteomic and metabolomic signatures in the CSF. The role of the BCSFB and the CP in ALS is unknown. Here we describe a transcriptomic and ultrastructural analysis of BCSFB and CP alterations in human postmortem tissues from ALS and non-neurologic disease controls. ALS-CP exhibited widespread disruptions in tight junctional components of the CP epithelial layer and vascular integrity. In addition, we detected loss of pericytes around ALS blood vessels, accompanied by activation of platelet aggregation markers vWF and Fibrinogen, reminiscent of vascular injury. To investigate the immune component of ALS-CP, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of cytokines and chemokine panels in CP lysates and found a significant down-regulation of M-CSF and V-CAM1 in ALS, as well as up-regulation of VEGF-A protein. This phenotype was accompanied by an infiltration of MERTK positive macrophages into the parenchyma of the ALS-CP when compared to controls. Taken together, we demonstrate widespread structural and functional disruptions of the BCSFB in human ALS increasing our understanding of the disease pathology and identifying potential new targets for ALS therapeutic development