Oceanographic observations at the Amundsen sea shelf break

Introduction: The continental shelf environment of the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas differs markedly from that of the other circumpolar seas, where water temperatures are close to the surface freezing point throughout. In the Amundsen/Bellingshausen sector near-freezing temperatures are encountered only in the upper few hundred metres of the water column. Below this surface layer a broad thermocline trends towards upper Circumpolar Deep Water (uCDW), which is found in a form that is almost unmodified from its off-shelf manifestation (Giulivi and Jacobs, 1996). This means that the ice shelves of the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas experience ocean temperatures some three degrees warmer than those experienced by the other Antarctic ice shelves, and the rates of basal melting are correspondingly high (Jacobs et al., 1996)

PULSATORY MIXING OF LAMINAR FLOW USING BUBBLE-DRIVEN MICRO-PUMPS

Microfluidics differ from conventional fluid flows in that viscous forces dominate. As a result, microfluidics offer unprecedented control over fluid flows. The precise manipulation of fluids can be applied anywhere from healthcare in medical diagnostics to pharmaceutical companies miniaturizing reactions to reduce reagent consumption. In order to apply microfluidics as a comprehensive solution, unit operations must be performed – such as mixing, sorting, dilution, and much more. This work investigates mixing using thermal inkjet technology. Unlike macroscopic fluid flows with turbulence, transport phenomena become restricted in microfluidics. Active mixing approaches apply external forces (such as thermal or electric) to enhance mixing. This work focuses on a utilizing thermal inkjet technology as an active mixing technique. Y-shaped microfluidic channels have been built utilizing CNC and laser cutting manufacturing techniques. Fluid is delivered to each port via external syringe pumps. Each Y-shaped channel contains thermal inkjet (TIJ) resistors built using conventional microfabrication techniques. The resistors vaporize water and generate drive bubbles that act as active micro-mixers. The extent of mixing was characterized and studied in order to access the feasibility of TIJ resistors as integrated, compact micro-mixers in microfluidics

Racial Disparities in Traffic Stops

Stark racial inequity has long been a deeply troubling aspect of our criminal justice system. In recent years, traffic stops have emerged as a key factor driving some of these inequities and an area of potential reform. Are there opportunities to identify kinds of traffic stops that could be enforced in alternative ways—potentially improving officer and civilian safety, enhancing police efficiency, and reducing racial disparities—without jeopardizing road safety?To explore this question, in this report we use data on 3.4 million traffic stops made in 2019 by California's 15 largest law enforcement agencies to examine racial disparities in stop outcomes and experiences across time of the day, type of law enforcement agency, and type of traffic violation

Appalachian Identity as Narrative Identity

Much work in the field of Appalachian Studies seems to require the assumption that there is something that it is to be an Appalachian person. This paper draws on Paul Ricoeur’s account of personal identity as narrative identity to attempt to understand what Appalachian identity is. Ricoeur argues that, although there is a pre-narrative quality to human life itself, a narrative is required to synthesize the many different heterogeneous elements that make up our lives into a coherent whole. In creating the narratives that are our life stories, we draw not only on the pre-narrative character of life, but also on larger social and historical narratives. From this account of Ricoeur’s, I move on to discuss the way that narratives about Appalachia form and inform a concept of identity. I then compare and contrast this account of Appalachian narrative identity with other accounts of identity formation. I argue that we can only understand Appalachian identity as a type of narrative identity; it is through the historical, fictional, sociological, and artistic stories we tell about Appalachia that we understand what it means to be an Appalachian person or institution. I then turn to the work of Edward Casey on place to sketch out the way in which the lived experience of place intertwines with and informs narratives. I conclude with an account of Appalachian identity that accounts both for the narrative formation of identity and the place-based nature both of these narratives and of the experiences which inform them

Production of Universal Red Blood Cells via Enzymatic Conversion

Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion units are considered one of the most essential healthcare components in the world. In the United States alone, approximately 21 million transfusion units are required every year. Despite this high demand, RBC units are becoming increasingly scarce since only a fraction of eligible donors provide RBCs to for medical use. Additionally, RBC transfusions are limited to immune compatibility in patients, making it difficult to serve all patients with such a limited supply. This proposed design provides a method in which RBCs of any blood group can be converted into the universal blood type, O, to eliminate any concerns regarding blood type compatibility between donor and patient. This conversion process uses bacterial glycosidades to cleave the sugar groups on the surface of RBCs that defines our blood type. This process will help increase hospitals’ supply of readily usable RBCs for any situation while also providing a solution to hospitals’ struggle to use their blood bags before they expire. This proposal seeks to design a start-up scale plant that will both prepare the glysocidases needed for the treatment process and execute the conversion. This project design expects a production capacity of 200,000 tranfusion units of successfully converted RBCs per year and will be located in Medford, MA. With an initial investment of $25.6 million, the designs yields a a twelve-year net present value of$8,461,700 and has an investor’s rate of return of 21.73%. A limited twelve-year lifespan was chosen in an attempt to more accurately represent the lifespan of a start-up and to more strictly analyze its financial feasibility. The proposed project is forecasted to breakeven in early 2028, at the beginning of its eighth year of its operation, with a return on investment of 17.17%. With initial evidence of profitability, this project design is recommended. Furthermore, the financial analysis performed in this report limits the scope of this project to satisfying the blood demands of one major hospital in a metropolitan area. In reality, however, it is expected that the start-up will expand to other major hospitals or blood collecting organizations within the first several years of operation, further increasing its potential value. It should be noted, however, that investors exercise caution as the blood market has been in constant flux for the past seven years, making it difficult to predict how valuable RBC transfusion units will be compared to other blood components. The process should be executed only if an acceptable pricing can be established to sustain the large costs associated with guaranteeing endotoxin and contamination free products

Mathematical modeling at the livestock-wildlife interface: scoping review of drivers of disease transmission between species

Modeling of infectious diseases at the livestock-wildlife interface is a unique subset of mathematical modeling with many innate challenges. To ascertain the characteristics of the models used in these scenarios, a scoping review of the scientific literature was conducted. Fifty-six studies qualified for inclusion. Only 14 diseases at this interface have benefited from the utility of mathematical modeling, despite a far greater number of shared diseases. The most represented species combinations were cattle and badgers (for bovine tuberculosis, 14), and pigs and wild boar [for African (8) and classical (3) swine fever, and foot-and-mouth and disease (1)]. Assessing control strategies was the overwhelming primary research objective (27), with most studies examining control strategies applied to wildlife hosts and the effect on domestic hosts (10) or both wild and domestic hosts (5). In spatially-explicit models, while livestock species can often be represented through explicit and identifiable location data (such as farm, herd, or pasture locations), wildlife locations are often inferred using habitat suitability as a proxy. Though there are innate assumptions that may not be fully accurate when using habitat suitability to represent wildlife presence, especially for wildlife the parsimony principle plays a large role in modeling diseases at this interface, where parameters are difficult to document or require a high level of data for inference. Explaining observed transmission dynamics was another common model objective, though the relative contribution of involved species to epizootic propagation was only ascertained in a few models. More direct evidence of disease spill-over, as can be obtained through genomic approaches based on pathogen sequences, could be a useful complement to further inform such modeling. As computational and programmatic capabilities advance, the resolution of the models and data used in these models will likely be able to increase as well, with a potential goal being the linking of modern complex ecological models with the depth of dynamics responsible for pathogen transmission. Controlling diseases at this interface is a critical step toward improving both livestock and wildlife health, and mechanistic models are becoming increasingly used to explore the strategies needed to confront these diseases

The role of the individual in the coming era of process-based therapy

For decades the development of evidence-based therapy has been based on experimental tests of protocols designed to impact psychiatric syndromes. As this paradigm weakens, a more process-based therapy approach is rising in its place, focused on how to best target and change core biopsychosocial processes in specific situations for given goals with given clients. This is an inherently more idiographic question than has normally been at issue in evidence-based therapy over the last few decades. In this article we explore methods of assessment and analysis that can integrate idiographic and nomothetic approaches in a process-based era.Accepted manuscrip