ActiveRemediation: The Search for Lead Pipes in Flint, Michigan

We detail our ongoing work in Flint, Michigan to detect pipes made of lead and other hazardous metals. After elevated levels of lead were detected in residents' drinking water, followed by an increase in blood lead levels in area children, the state and federal governments directed over $125 million to replace water service lines, the pipes connecting each home to the water system. In the absence of accurate records, and with the high cost of determining buried pipe materials, we put forth a number of predictive and procedural tools to aid in the search and removal of lead infrastructure. Alongside these statistical and machine learning approaches, we describe our interactions with government officials in recommending homes for both inspection and replacement, with a focus on the statistical model that adapts to incoming information. Finally, in light of discussions about increased spending on infrastructure development by the federal government, we explore how our approach generalizes beyond Flint to other municipalities nationwide.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, To appear in KDD 2018, For associated promotional video, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbIn_axYu9

Primary Productivity and Species Composition of a Reconstructed Wetland in Eastern Kentucky

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Eric C. Webb on May 19, 1991

Management of multi-cultural teams on international joint venture megaprojects in Asia

There have been many megaprojects done by project-based international joint ventures ( PBIJVs ) in Asia with Western expatriate project managers leading the way. However, the management style expected at a local level in Asia on construction projects is unique, and for many observers appeared to be unstructured, un-systemized and autocratic. Moreover, the varying strains of Chinese-based ethics and beliefs, including networking, trust, face and avoidance of confrontation heavily influenced management practices. This research investigated how a PBIJV should approach a complex construction megaproject in Asia and how experienced Western expatriate project managers actually managed and lead these projects to achieve overall project success. The aim of this research was to propose a framework for Western expatriate project managers to be used as a guide in the project management of PBIJVs in complex construction megaprojects in Asia, with East-West multi-cultural dispersed project teams, in a holistic way with a clear focus on good e-teaming communication and flexibility of project manager thought so that the multi-cultural teams can work more effectively and efficiently, better enabling project success. The thesis begins with an extensive review of published literature related to construction, Asia, culture, total quality management ( TQM ), IJVs, project management and megaprojects. A conceptual framework of work practices and styles required of Western expatriate project managers in the management of PBIJVs in construction on complex megaprojects in Asia, with East-West multi-cultural dispersed project teams, was established from this literature review. This conceptual framework was explored and developed based upon questionnaire responses and interviews with Western project managers with related and extensive work experience in Asia. This research followed a qualitative strategy for the research design and methodology, and adopted a multiple-case study approach. This research followed a combination of questionnaires and an exploratory semi-structured face to face interview approach with manual data analysis. The first stage of the research process involved screening interviews of the short-listed project managers, which comprised of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with an interview guide. The second stage studied three selected cases and comprised of the second stage interviews, direct observations and documentation as the main methods of data collection. The third stage involved the validation of the intermediate framework developed from the multiple-case study conducted during the second stage via a questionnaire with nine people comprising of the project managers of the selected case study projects, screening process project managers and other selected construction industry experts all with extensive working experience in Korea. The findings of this research were presented in the form of a final framework to assist in improving project manager performance and skills on complex PBIJV construction megaprojects in Asia and it was concluded that such a framework would be of benefit to Western project managers as a guideline to manage construction megaprojects in Asia in a more effective and efficient way with the ultimate goal of achieving project success

Explanatory Adequacy in Phonology: A Deductive Approach to /R/

This work reexamines phonological variation particular to the /R/ of convergent French, departing from the hypothesis that a deductive approach to this question can offer explanatory advantages. In contrast to data-driven approaches, the productive and receptive characteristics of /R/constitute the foundation for explanation here. This approach is framed by a biomechanical conceptualization of effort and the general principle that, mutatis mutandis, effort should be reduced or avoided. Contextual oppositions underlie proposed effort-based taxonomies involving the relative effort implied by different outputs, themselves based on observations of the phonetic (productive and perceptual) quality of these surface segments. These oppositions are subsequently integrated in a productive phonological grammar following Optimality Theory (OT, Prince and Smolen sky 1993), in which constraints are phonetically motivated. This grammar also highlights the minimal phonological representation characteristic of French fRI. It is posited that this phoneme is specified only for dorsality and continuance, excluding specification for manner (fricative, approximant) and voicing

Optimizing a Volleyball Serve

An effective service in volleyball is crucial to a winning strategy. A good serve either will not be returned, resulting in the point, or it will be returned weakly, giving the serving team the advantage. One objective of an effective serve is to give the receivers as little time as possible to react. In this paper we construct a model of a served volleyball and use it to determine how to serve so that, after crossing the net, the ball hits the desired location in the minimal amount of time

A Data Science Approach to Understanding Residential Water Contamination in Flint

When the residents of Flint learned that lead had contaminated their water system, the local government made water-testing kits available to them free of charge. The city government published the results of these tests, creating a valuable dataset that is key to understanding the causes and extent of the lead contamination event in Flint. This is the nation's largest dataset on lead in a municipal water system. In this paper, we predict the lead contamination for each household's water supply, and we study several related aspects of Flint's water troubles, many of which generalize well beyond this one city. For example, we show that elevated lead risks can be (weakly) predicted from observable home attributes. Then we explore the factors associated with elevated lead. These risk assessments were developed in part via a crowd sourced prediction challenge at the University of Michigan. To inform Flint residents of these assessments, they have been incorporated into a web and mobile application funded by \texttt{Google.org}. We also explore questions of self-selection in the residential testing program, examining which factors are linked to when and how frequently residents voluntarily sample their water.Comment: Applied Data Science track paper at KDD 2017. For associated promotional video, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g66ImaV8A

The Innate Immune System via Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs) in Type 1 Diabetes - Mechanistic Insights

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a form of diabetes mellitus resulting from the lack of insulin secretion by the pancreatic beta cells and which accounts for approximately 5% of the total number of patients with diabetes worldwide. T1D is one of the most common endocrine disorders of children, and its incidence is steadily increasing. T1D is largely considered an autoimmune disorder resulting from the specific destruction of the pancreatic beta-cells that produce insulin. However, T1D pathophysiology is still not completely understood, and although insulin and other therapies ameliorate the manifestations of the disease, no cure is currently available. Traditionally, T1D has been thought of as a condition of cellular adaptive immunity, but evidence exists that components of the innate immune system, such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs), play a critical role in T1D development. TLRs have a central role in sensing microbial infections as well as endogenous alarm signals and trigger the release of inflammatory cytokines. The involvement of these receptors in the pathophysiology of several chronic diseases has become a major research interest, and in the last two decades, many studies have suggested the involvement of the innate immune system in the mechanism triggering T1D. Furthermore, microvascular complications in diabetic patients result in considerable morbidity, particularly diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy, and atherosclerosis. A hallmark of diabetic vascular pathology is inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. Recent literature suggests that TLR signaling is involved in vascular inflammation and endothelial dysfunction and that TLR activation may play a crucial role in diabetic microangiopathy. However, the mechanisms by which TLRs and their ligands contribute to T1D are not yet clear, and further investigation is needed. The goal of the present chapter is to address the contribution of TLRs to the mechanisms leading to the development and progression of T1D and to review current possibilities of targeting TLRs to forestall diabetic complications