White discrimination in provision of black education: plantations and towns

We present a model of public provision of education for blacks in two discriminatory regimes, white plantation controlled, and white town controlled. We show that the ability to migrate to a non-discriminating district constrains the ability of both types of whites to discriminate. The model produces time series of educational outcomes for whites and blacks that mimic the behavior seen in Post Reconstruction South Carolina to the onset of the Civil Rights Act. It also fits the Post World War II black-white income differentials.discriminatory education provision; black-white education differences

Modeling volatile organic compound emission from materials used in passenger vehicle interiors

Travel is an everyday necessity for many people, making the environment of a passenger vehicle a place where they spend a significant amount of time. Previous studies have indicated that more than 100 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are present in ambient air within the cabins of new cars, some of which have been found to have adverse health effects. While previous VOC models have been produced, there is still uncertainty in these models with respect to changing variables such as temperature, sunlight, and the presence of multiple VOCs. An accurate and reliable model, capable of determining the concentration of different VOCs in a car cabin as a function of time, is the focus of this research. Using data from VOC determinations in environmental test chambers emitted from polymethylpentene (PMP) films, and previous chamber modeling studies, models for VOC air concentration were produced. These models were programmed using Python, an open-source programming language that can easily be used for scientific studies. Current models give accurate estimations for chambers with and without airflow. An equation to predict the surface temperature, based on incident solar irradiance, of materials was used to adjust the VOC emission models to account for sunlight. This theoretical adjustment, while still needing to be tested, provides a good foundation for accounting for sunlight in the interior of vehicles. Overall, this work builds a better understanding of vehicle indoor air quality (VIAQ) and exposes the difficulties of modeling the complicated interior environments of passenger vehicles

High pressure structural studies on EuS nano particles up to 52 GPa

Crystal size reduction in bulk materials changes the structural and magnetic properties considerably [1]. More importantly the transition pressure is strongly influenced by temperature, pressure, and the crystallite size effect. Rare earth europium chalcogenides crystallize in the NaCl (rock salt) type structure. The interest in Eu nanomaterials is motivated by the possibility of their use in magnetic devices [2,3]. Recent studies suggest that europium chalcogenide nanocrystals exhibit significant changes in their structural and magnetic properties, compared to bulk chalcogenides, when the nanocrystal diameter decreases. The crystal structure and phase transition behavior of EuS nanoparticles have been investigated and compared as a function of pressure with the bulk material

In Search of Evidence-Based Residency Program Candidate Selection Criteria

“In Search of Evidence-Based Residency Program Candidate Selection Criteria” George Velasco MD, George Wennerberg MD, Omar Canaday MD FACP Department of Internal Medicine; University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine Objective We sought to develop a residency candidate selection tool that was selective for qualitative attributes such as work ethic and motivation. Background/Design Examining residency selection criteria is timely given the switch to a pass/fail USMLE step 1 and the continual need to reassess resident selection and medical school curricula. There is a current need for discussion on qualitative assessment of residency work ethic qualities. We give an example of a resident-lead initiative at a single residency program that may be reproducible at other programs. Methods We completed a literature search to assess trends in residency selection, created a set of ideals for which interview questions will be formulated to assess (Appendix A), and propose metrics to measure outcomes in the future. We reviewed relevant literature on the subject and also examined metrics for measuring recruitment success. Discussion There has been no consensus on a residency application scoring system and most traditional metrics used in residency selection were not associated with performance on ACGME milestones. While desirable characteristics have long been established, programs should also assess for unwanted characteristics and applicant commitment to specialty. Work ethic and joy in medicine, in addition to academic strength, have been identified as values related to residency success. It has been demonstrated that prior nonmedical success predicts future medical success so a selection process should seek out that prior track record. Limitations lie in the fact that there is a paucity of research assessing selection outcomes and more research needs to be done to predict residency success and attrition. Potential assessment metrics could include ACGME milestones, attrition, fellowship match rate, missed work days, specialty engagement, and job placement satisfaction Results and Proposed Interventions Machine learning and AI are being explored as technologies to assess for selected applicant traits within the MSPE, evaluations, activities list, and the personal statement. New assessment methods such as case-based interview protocols, technical tests, multiple mini interviews (MMI), adoption of AI, and psychometric processes including personality testing should be integrated into the candidate selection process. We developed a resident-developed creed, The Nevada Criteria, that was used as guidance during the candidate interview process. Appendix A: The “Nevada Criteria” 1.Work ethic- We seek physicians who strongly believe working hard for their patients, their program, and their education is a good thing and an honorable thing. 2.Commitment to the specialty- We seek physicians who love internal medicine and honor it as a complex and exciting field. We are not seeking those who have demonstrated that they preferred another specialty where internal medicine is their back up choice or physicians who were unduly influenced into medicine by family members without choosing this profession on their own accord. 3.Sacrifice- We seek physicians who know that achieving something great long term means giving up some things in the short term 4.Attendance- We seek physicians who understand that training is a special time of growth and that sick days or leaving early limits one's educational opportunities 5.Productivity- We seek physicians who during their time here seek out opportunities such as attending meetings or submitting publications, beyond zero or the minimum 6.Gratitude for educational opportunity- We seek physicians who value lectures, presentations, and guest rotations as a valuable opportunity 7.Being a team player- We seek physicians who avoid adding work to their colleagues either by leaving before work is done or by taking an absence or sick day when they are not sick Conclusion The current literature suggests traditional notions in resident selection were poor prognosticators of actual work performance. Residency selection criteria should better mirror physician job candidate selection criteria that seeks out industriousness and a desire to contribute. New methods of candidate interview assessment from other disciplines are very promising and should be implemented and trialed for efficacy. References 1. Naides AI, Ayyala HS, Lee ES. How Do We Choose? A Review of Residency Application Scoring Systems. J Surg Educ. 2021 Sep-Oct;78(5):1461-1468. 2. Burkhardt JC, Parekh KP, Gallahue FE, London KS, Edens MA, Humbert AJ, Pillow MT, Santen SA, Hopson LR. A Critical Disconnect: Residency Selection Factors Lack Correlation With Intern Performance. J Grad Med Educ. 2020 Dec;12(6):696-704. 3. Busha ME, McMillen B, Greene J, Gibson K, Milnes C, Ziemkowski P. One Institution's evaluation of family medicine residency applicant data for academic predictors of success. BMC Med Educ. 2021 Feb 2;21(1):84. 4. Golden BP, Henschen BL, Liss DT, Kiely SL, Didwania AK. Association Between Internal Medicine Residency Applicant Characteristics and Performance on ACGME Milestones During Intern Year. J Grad Med Educ. 2021 Apr;13(2):213-222. 5. Jordan J, Sternberg K, Haas MRC, He S, Yarris LM, Chan TM, Deiorio NM. Reimagining Residency Selection: Part 3-A Practical Guide to Ranking Applicants in the Post-COVID-19 Era. J Grad Med Educ. 2020 Dec;12(6):666-670. 6. VanOrder T, Robbins W, Zemper E. Residency Program Directors' Interview Methods and Satisfaction With Resident Selection Across Multiple Specialties. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2017 Apr 1;117(4):226-232. 7. Drum B, Lamb S, Gradick C. Values-Based Resident Selection in an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program. J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Nov 7. 8. Hyman JH, Doolittle B. Thriving in Residency: a Qualitative Study. J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Jul;37(9):2173-2179. 9. Vaughan LA, Quick JA. Evidence-Based Selection of Surgical Residents. Surg Clin North Am. 2021 Aug;101(4):667-677. 10. Stephenson-Famy A, Houmard BS, Oberoi S, Manyak A, Chiang S, Kim S. Use of the Interview in Resident Candidate Selection: A Review of the Literature. J Grad Med Educ. 2015 Dec;7(4):539-48. 11. Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. First Scribner hardcover edition. New York, NY, Scribner, 2016. 12. Drum, B; Gradick, C; Lamb, S; Hurdle, JF. CREATING A VALUES-BASED APPROACH TO RESIDENCY SELECTION USING MACHINE LEARNING. Abstract published at SHM Converge 2021. Abstract 226. Journal of Hospital Medicine 13. Bedzra EKS, Goh JL. The Residency Selection Process in the New World; Time for a Rethink. Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2021 Autumn;33(3):825-829. 14. Cullen MJ, Zhang C, Marcus-Blank B, Braman JP, Tiryaki E, Konia M, Hunt MA, Lee MS, Van Heest A, Englander R, Sackett PR, Andrews JS. Improving Our Ability to Predict Resident Applicant Performance: Validity Evidence for a Situational Judgment Test. Teach Learn Med. 2020 Oct-Dec;32(5):508-521. 15. Lund S, D'Angelo JD, Baloul M, Yeh VJ, Stulak J, Rivera M. Simulation as Soothsayer: Simulated Surgical Skills MMIs During Residency Interviews are Associated With First Year Residency Performance. J Surg Educ. 2022 Nov-Dec;79(6):e235-e241. 16. Patel H, Yakkanti R, Bellam K, Agyeman K, Aiyer A. Innovation in Resident Selection: Life Without Step 1. J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2022 Mar 29;9:23821205221084936

VIRAL DETERMINANTS OF H1N1 LAIV ATTENUATION IN HUMAN NASAL EPITHELIAL CELLS

The influenza A virus H1N1 and H3N2 components of the live, attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) encodes HA and NA gene segments from circulating virus strains with the remaining gene segments derived from the cold-adapted master donor virus, A/Ann Arbor/6/1960 (H2N2). In addition to the temperature sensitivity mutations mapped to PB1, PB2, and NP, some studies demonstrate that the M segment can contribute to LAIV attenuation through an Ala to Ser mutation at M2 position 86 acquired during cold adaptation of A/Ann Arbor/6/1960; a mutation that is not found in any other influenza A virus strain. To test the hypothesis that the M2-S86A mutation contributes to LAIV attenuation, the M2-S86A mutation was introduced into LAIVs encoding H3N2 (A/Victoria/361/2011) or H1N1 (A/Michigan/45/2015) surface proteins and assessed the viruses’ growth and replication characteristics. The results showed opposite effects, in which H3N2 LAIV replication increased, but H1N1 LAIV replication decreased. The overall, regardless of insertion of the M2-S86A mutation, replication of the H1N1 LAIV was significantly reduced compared to H3N2 LAIV. Because the failure of recent H1N1 LAIVs led to it being not recommended for use in the U.S. from fall 2016 - spring 2018, I also constructed a panel of H1N1 LAIVs encoding HAs of H1N1 vaccine strains from 2015-2018 and am assessing their ability to replicate in hNEC cultures and tolerate the M2 S86A mutations. These data indicate that the surface proteins may contribute to the attenuation of LAIV and therefore impact virus replication and vaccine efficacy

Impacts of microenvironment variation during breeding and gestation on the reproduction and well-being of mature gilts

The effects of room temperature and light intensity prior to breeding and into early gestation were evaluated on the reproductive performance and well-being of gilts housed individually in crates. In eight replicates, estrus was synchronized in mature gilts (n = 198) and after last feeding of Matrix were randomly assigned to a room temperature of 15 °C (COLD), 21°C (NEUTRAL) or 30 °C (HOT), and a light intensity of 11 (DIM) or 433 (BRIGHT) lx. Estrus detection was performed daily and gilts inseminated twice. Blood samples were collected before and after breeding for determination of immune measures and cortisol concentrations. Gilt ADFI, BW and body temperature were measured. On d 30 post-breeding, gilts were slaughtered to recover reproductive tracts to evaluate pregnancy and litter characteristics. There were no temperature x light intensity interactions for any response variable. Reproductive measures of follicle development, expression of estrus, ovulation rate, pregnancy rate (83.2%), litter size (14.3 +/- 0.5), and fetal measures were not affected by temperature or lighting (P > 0.10). Gilts in COLD (37.6 C) had a lower (P < 0.05) rectal temperature than those in NEUTRAL (38.2 C) and HOT (38.6 +/- 0.04 C). Both BW gain and final BW were greater (P < 0.0001) for gilts kept in HOT than those in NEUTRAL or COLD environments. Gilts housed in the HOT environment made more postural changes than did those kept in either COLD or NEUTRAL temperatures. Gilts kept in the HOT temperature spent more total time lying and more time lying laterally compared to those gilts housed in the NEUTRAL or COLD rooms. Total white blood cells and the percentage of neutrophils, as well as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio were all influenced (P < 0.05) by temperature but there was no effect of light or interaction with temperature on other immune cells or measures. These results indicate that temperatures in the range of 15 to 30 C or light intensity at 11 to 433 lx do not impact reproduction during the follicular phase and into early gestation for mature gilts housed in gestation crates. However, room temperature does impact physiological, behavioral, and immune responses of mature gilts and should be considered as a potential factor that may influence gilt well-being during the first 30-d post-breeding

Mathematical Model of Strong Physically Unclonable Functions Based on Hybrid Boolean Networks

We introduce a mathematical framework for simulating Hybrid Boolean Network (HBN) Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs, HBN-PUFs). We verify that the model is able to reproduce the experimentally observed PUF statistics for uniqueness $\mu_{inter}$ and reliability $\mu_{intra}$ obtained from experiments of HBN-PUFs on Cyclone V FPGAs. Our results suggest that the HBN-PUF is a true `strong' PUF in the sense that its security properties depend exponentially on both the manufacturing variation and the challenge-response space. Our Python simulation methods are open-source and available at https://github.com/Noeloikeau/networkm.Comment: Presented at HOST 2022 conference. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl