Ripple Effects of a Minority Leadership Training Program: Beyond its target

Chair: Michiko Iwasaki, Ph.D. ([email protected]) – Loyola University Maryland Discussant: Y. Barry Chung, Ph.D. ([email protected]) – Indiana University The APA Commission of Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training in Psychology (2008) pointed out the underrepresentation of minorities in the field of psychology, particularly in leadership positions. In response to the shortage of minority leaders, the Council of National Psychological Associations for the Advancement of Ethnic Minority Interests (CNPAAEMI) initiated a Leadership Development Institute (LDI) in 2012. The major purpose of the LDI was to foster and nurture ongoing leadership development among early career ethnic minority psychologists. This symposium addresses the ripple effects of this leadership development program. Although the LDI aimed to foster leadership development among a cohort of six early-career ethnic minority professionals, the training program had ripple effects that extended well beyond its primary purpose. This symposium draws from a collaborative project – interviewing ethnic minority leaders in psychology – initiated by the LDI fellows that provided unanticipated learning opportunities for both the fellows and students assisting the project. The first presentation, led by a LDI fellow, will delineate the LDI mechanism and discusses the importance of connecting in-group and out-group members in minority leadership. The second presentation, led by racial minority graduate students, will emphasize the significance of empowerment and presence of role models when considering the pipeline of minority leadership development. The final presentation, led by White minority graduate and undergraduate students, will discuss the nature of White privilege at academic institutions as well as their own personal growth. This symposium targets the following sub-themes of the 2014 Counseling Psychology Conference: training context and domestic/international diversity. A past president of the Society of Counseling Psychology will be a discussant. This symposium offers valuable information regarding leadership training mechanisms in order to enhance cultural sensitivity among all individuals in the psychology field regardless of their color, sexual orientation, or professional/academic levels

Effect of the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential on the transverse and elliptic flows

In the framework of the isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model, effect of the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential on nuclear transverse and elliptic flows in the neutron-rich reaction $^{132}$Sn+$^{124}$Sn at a beam energy of 400 MeV/nucleon is studied. We find that the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential affects the rapidity distribution of the free neutron to proton ratio, the neutron and the proton transverse flows as a function of rapidity. The momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential affects the neutron-proton differential transverse flow more evidently than the difference of neutron and proton transverse flows as well as the difference of proton and neutron elliptic flows. It is thus better to probe the symmetry energy by using the difference of neutron and proton flows since the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential is still an open question. And it is better to probe the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential by using the neutron-proton differential transverse flow and the rapidity distribution of the free neutron to proton ratio.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to be published by EPJ

Flat histogram simulation of lattice polymer systems

We demonstrate the use of a new algorithm called the Flat Histogram sampling algorithm for the simulation of lattice polymer systems. Thermodynamics properties, such as average energy or entropy and other physical quantities such as end-to-end distance or radius of gyration can be easily calculated using this method. Ground-state energy can also be determined. We also explore the accuracy and limitations of this method. Key words: Monte Carlo algorithms, flat histogram sampling, HP model, lattice polymer systemsComment: 7 RevTeX two-column page

Ground-state properties of tubelike flexible polymers

In this work we investigate structural properties of native states of a simple model for short flexible homopolymers, where the steric influence of monomeric side chains is effectively introduced by a thickness constraint. This geometric constraint is implemented through the concept of the global radius of curvature and affects the conformational topology of ground-state structures. A systematic analysis allows for a thickness-dependent classification of the dominant ground-state topologies. It turns out that helical structures, strands, rings, and coils are natural, intrinsic geometries of such tubelike objects

Designing and Implementing a Network for Sensing Water Quality and Hydrology across Mountain to Urban Transitions

Water resources are increasingly impacted by growing human populations, land use, and climate changes, and complex interactions among biophysical processes. In an effort to better understand these factors in semiarid northern Utah, United States, we created a real-time observatory consisting of sensors deployed at aquatic and terrestrial stations to monitor water quality, water inputs, and outputs along mountain to urban gradients. The Gradients Along Mountain to Urban Transitions (GAMUT) monitoring network spans three watersheds with similar climates and streams fed by mountain winter-derived precipitation, but that differ in urbanization level, land use, and biophysical characteristics. The aquatic monitoring stations in the GAMUT network include sensors to measure chemical (dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, pH, nitrate, and dissolved organic matter), physical (stage, temperature, and turbidity), and biological components (chlorophyll-a and phycocyanin). We present the logistics of designing, implementing, and maintaining the network; quality assurance and control of numerous, large datasets; and data acquisition, dissemination, and visualization. Data from GAMUT reveal spatial differences in water quality due to urbanization and built infrastructure; capture rapid temporal changes in water quality due to anthropogenic activity; and identify changes in biological structure, each of which are demonstrated via case study datasets

Comparison of some Reduced Representation Approximations

In the field of numerical approximation, specialists considering highly complex problems have recently proposed various ways to simplify their underlying problems. In this field, depending on the problem they were tackling and the community that are at work, different approaches have been developed with some success and have even gained some maturity, the applications can now be applied to information analysis or for numerical simulation of PDE's. At this point, a crossed analysis and effort for understanding the similarities and the differences between these approaches that found their starting points in different backgrounds is of interest. It is the purpose of this paper to contribute to this effort by comparing some constructive reduced representations of complex functions. We present here in full details the Adaptive Cross Approximation (ACA) and the Empirical Interpolation Method (EIM) together with other approaches that enter in the same category

Comparison of 3He and129Xe MRI for evaluation of lung microstructure and ventilation at 1.5T

BACKGROUND: To support translational lung MRI research with hyperpolarized129Xe gas, comprehensive evaluation of derived quantitative lung function measures against established measures from3He MRI is required. Few comparative studies have been performed to date, only at 3T, and multisession repeatability of129Xe functional metrics have not been reported. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: To compare hyperpolarized129Xe and3He MRI-derived quantitative metrics of lung ventilation and microstructure, and their repeatability, at 1.5T. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective. POPULATION: Fourteen healthy nonsmokers (HN), five exsmokers (ES), five patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 16 patients with nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 1.5T. NSCLC, COPD patients and selected HN subjects underwent 3D balanced steady-state free-precession lung ventilation MRI using both3He and129Xe. Selected HN, all ES, and COPD patients underwent 2D multislice spoiled gradient-echo diffusion-weighted lung MRI using both hyperpolarized gas nuclei. ASSESSMENT: Ventilated volume percentages (VV%) and mean apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) were derived from imaging. COPD patients performed the whole MR protocol in four separate scan sessions to assess repeatability. Same-day pulmonary function tests were performed. STATISTICAL TESTS: Intermetric correlations: Spearman's coefficient. Intergroup/internuclei differences: analysis of variance / Wilcoxon's signed rank. Repeatability: coefficient of variation (CV), intraclass correlation (ICC) coefficient. RESULTS: A significant positive correlation between3He and129Xe VV% was observed (r = 0.860, P < 0.001). VV% was larger for3He than129Xe (P = 0.001); average bias, 8.79%. A strong correlation between mean3He and129Xe ADC was obtained (r = 0.922, P < 0.001). MR parameters exhibited good correlations with pulmonary function tests. In COPD patients, mean CV of3He and129Xe VV% was 4.08% and 13.01%, respectively, with ICC coefficients of 0.541 (P = 0.061) and 0.458 (P = 0.095). Mean3He and129Xe ADC values were highly repeatable (mean CV: 2.98%, 2.77%, respectively; ICC: 0.995, P < 0.001; 0.936, P < 0.001). DATA CONCLUSION:129Xe lung MRI provides near-equivalent information to3He for quantitative lung ventilation and microstructural MRI at 1.5T. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Technical Efficacy Stage

Voxel-wise comparison of co-registered quantitative CT and hyperpolarised gas diffusion-weighted MRI measurements in IPF

The patterns of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) lung disease that directly correspond to elevated hyperpolarised gas diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI metrics are currently unknown. This study aims to develop a spatial co-registration framework for a voxel-wise comparison of hyperpolarised gas DW-MRI and CALIPER quantitative CT patterns. Sixteen IPF patients underwent 3He DW-MRI and CT at baseline, and eleven patients had a 1-year follow-up DW-MRI. Six healthy volunteers underwent 129Xe DW-MRI at baseline only. Moreover, 3He DW-MRI was indirectly co-registered to CT via spatially aligned 3He ventilation and structural 1H MRI. A voxel-wise comparison of the overlapping 3He apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and mean acinar dimension (LmD) maps with CALIPER CT patterns was performed at baseline and after 1 year. The abnormal lung percentage classified with the LmD value, based on a healthy volunteer 129Xe LmD, and CALIPER was compared with a Bland–Altman analysis. The largest DW-MRI metrics were found in the regions classified as honeycombing, and longitudinal DW-MRI changes were observed in the baseline-classified reticular changes and ground-glass opacities regions. A mean bias of −15.3% (95% interval −56.8% to 26.2%) towards CALIPER was observed for the abnormal lung percentage. This suggests DW-MRI may detect microstructural changes in areas of the lung that are determined visibly and quantitatively normal by CT

Geometry and material effects in Casimir physics - Scattering theory

We give a comprehensive presentation of methods for calculating the Casimir force to arbitrary accuracy, for any number of objects, arbitrary shapes, susceptibility functions, and separations. The technique is applicable to objects immersed in media other than vacuum, to nonzero temperatures, and to spatial arrangements in which one object is enclosed in another. Our method combines each object's classical electromagnetic scattering amplitude with universal translation matrices, which convert between the bases used to calculate scattering for each object, but are otherwise independent of the details of the individual objects. This approach, which combines methods of statistical physics and scattering theory, is well suited to analyze many diverse phenomena. We illustrate its power and versatility by a number of examples, which show how the interplay of geometry and material properties helps to understand and control Casimir forces. We also examine whether electrodynamic Casimir forces can lead to stable levitation. Neglecting permeabilities, we prove that any equilibrium position of objects subject to such forces is unstable if the permittivities of all objects are higher or lower than that of the enveloping medium; the former being the generic case for ordinary materials in vacuum.Comment: 44 pages, 11 figures, to appear in upcoming Lecture Notes in Physics volume in Casimir physic

Astroparticle Physics with a Customized Low-Background Broad Energy Germanium Detector

The MAJORANA Collaboration is building the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, a 60 kg array of high purity germanium detectors housed in an ultra-low background shield at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge while demonstrating the feasibility of a tonne-scale experiment. It may also carry out a dark matter search in the 1-10 GeV/c^2 mass range. We have found that customized Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detectors produced by Canberra have several desirable features for a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment, including low electronic noise, excellent pulse shape analysis capabilities, and simple fabrication. We have deployed a customized BEGe, the MAJORANA Low-Background BEGe at Kimballton (MALBEK), in a low-background cryostat and shield at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility in Virginia. This paper will focus on the detector characteristics and measurements that can be performed with such a radiation detector in a low-background environment.Comment: Submitted to NIMA Proceedings, SORMA XII. 9 pages, 4 figure