Excitation and Imaging of Resonant Optical Modes of Au Triangular Nano-Antennas Using Cathodoluminescence Spectroscopy

Cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging spectroscopy is an important technique to understand resonant behavior of optical nanoantennas. We report high-resolution CL spectroscopy of triangular gold nanoantennas designed with near-vacuum effective index and very small metal-substrate interface. This design helped in addressing issues related to background luminescence and shifting of dipole modes beyond visible spectrum. Spatial and spectral investigations of various plasmonic modes are reported. Out-of-plane dipole modes excited with vertically illuminated electron beam showed high-contrast tip illumination in panchromatic imaging. By tilting the nanostructures during fabrication, in-plane dipole modes of antennas were excited. Finite-difference time-domain simulations for electron and optical excitations of different modes showed excellent agreement with experimental results. Our approach of efficiently exciting antenna modes by using low index substrates is confirmed both with experiments and numerical simulations. This should provide further insights into better understanding of optical antennas for various applications.Comment: To be published in JVST B (accepted, Sep 2010) (15 pages, 6 figures, originally presented at EIPBN 2010

Incorporating Virtual Teamwork Training into MIS Curricula

Due to increasing industry demand for personnel who work effectively in virtual/distributed teams, MIS students should undergo training to improve their awareness of and competence in virtual teamwork. This paper proposes a model for virtual teamwork training and describes the implementation of the model in a class where students were located in two separate geographical locations. Both survey and qualitative data suggests that the class increased students\u27 awareness of and competence in virtual teamwork. Potential improvements to the course design are also discussed

Factors Influencing Muscular Strength and Endurance in Disadvantaged Children From Low-Income Families

International Journal of Exercise Science 9(3): 306-317, 2016. Examining the correlates of muscular strength and endurance in children from low-income families will provide evidence for interventions to improve these parameters. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors and trends of muscular strength and endurance in at-risk school-aged children. The sample included 1,232 children (Mean age = 8.8 ± 1.6 years; 625 girls, 607 boys; 60% Hispanic) recruited from three U.S. low-income schools. Children performed health-related fitness testing and wore pedometers for one school week. A stratified random subsample (n = 533) also wore accelerometers to record sedentary behaviors, MVPA, and vigorous physical activity. Generalized linear mixed models were employed to calculate odds ratios (OR) for achieving FITNESSGRAM’s push-up and curl-up standards (met standard = HFZ) from various predictors and to determine odds of achievement across grade levels. A student who achieved the HFZ for VO2 Peak had an OR = 1.66 (p \u3c 0.001) for achieving the HFZ for pushups and an OR = 1.99 (p \u3c 0.01) for achieving the HFZ for curl-ups. Additionally, students whose vigorous physical activity was 1% higher had an OR = 3.25 (p \u3c 0.05) for achieving the HFZ for curl-ups. For cohorts of students separated by one grade level, the OR = 0.48 (p \u3c 0.01) for achieving the HFZ for pushups and OR = 0.71 (p \u3c 0.01) for achieving the HFZ for curl-ups. The results suggest that VO2 Peak, vigorous physical activity, and grade level are significant predictors of muscular strength and endurance in at-risk children

An NGO-Implemented Community-Clinic Health Worker Approach to Providing Long-Term Care for Hypertension in a Remote Region of Southern India.

Poor blood pressure control results in tremendous morbidity and mortality in India where the leading cause of death among adults is from coronary heart disease. Despite having little formal education, community health workers (CHWs) are integral to successful public health interventions in India and other low- and middle-income countries that have a shortage of trained health professionals. Training CHWs to screen for and manage chronic hypertension, with support from trained clinicians, offers an excellent opportunity for effecting systemwide change in hypertension-related burden of disease. In this article, we describe the development of a program that trained CHWs between 2014 and 2015 in the tribal region of the Sittilingi Valley in southern India, to identify hypertensive patients in the community, refer them for diagnosis and initial management in a physician-staffed clinic, and provide them with sustained lifestyle interventions and medications over multiple visits. We found that after 2 years, the CHWs had screened 7,176 people over age 18 for hypertension, 1,184 (16.5%) of whom were screened as hypertensive. Of the 1,184 patients screened as hypertensive, 898 (75.8%) had achieved blood pressure control, defined as a systolic blood pressure less than 140 and a diastolic blood pressure less than 90 sustained over 3 consecutive visits. While all of the 24 trained CHWs reported confidence in checking blood pressure with a manual blood pressure cuff, 4 of the 24 CHWs reported occasional difficulty documenting blood pressure values because they were unable to write numbers properly. They compensated by asking other CHWs or members of their community to help with documentation. Our experience and findings suggest that a CHW blood pressure screening system linked to a central clinic can be a promising avenue for improving hypertension control rates in low- and middle-income countries

Incorporating Distributed Teamwork and Collaborative Technology into MIS Curriculum

Faced with increased use of distributed project teams in industry, MIS students need to be trained to improve their awareness of and competence in distributed teamwork. This paper describes a curriculum initiative to incorporate distributed teamwork and collaborative technologies into software development and implementation projects for MIS students. There were two stages in the study; the first stage investigated co-located teams that engaged in project subtasks in a distributed format. The second stage investigated real distributed teams that engaged in a fully distributed project. Our study indicates that students increased their capacity to work in a distributed situation by using collaboration technologies. As instructors, we also learned ways to design and more effectively teach this type of class

PEX3 functions as a PEX19 docking factor in the import of class I peroxisomal membrane proteins

PEX19 is a chaperone and import receptor for newly synthesized, class I peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs). PEX19 binds these PMPs in the cytoplasm and delivers them to the peroxisome for subsequent insertion into the peroxisome membrane, indicating that there may be a PEX19 docking factor in the peroxisome membrane. Here we show that PEX3 is required for PEX19 to dock at peroxisomes, interacts specifically with the docking domain of PEX19, and is required for recruitment of the PEX19 docking domain to peroxisomes. PEX3 is also sufficient to dock PEX19 at heterologous organelles and binds PEX19 via a conserved motif that is essential for this docking activity and for PEX3 function in general. Not surprisingly, transient inhibition of PEX3 abrogates class I PMP import but has no effect on class II PMP import or peroxisomal matrix protein import. Taken together, these results suggest that PEX3 plays a selective, essential, and direct role in PMP import as a docking factor for PEX19

Genotype-Corrector: improved genotype calls for genetic mapping in F2 and RIL populations

F2 and recombinant inbred lines (RILs) populations are very commonly used in plant genetic mapping studies. Although genome-wide genetic markers like single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can be readily identified by a wide array of methods, accurate genotype calling remains challenging, especially for heterozygous loci and missing data due to low sequencing coverage per individual. Therefore, we developed Genotype-Corrector, a program that corrects genotype calls and imputes missing data to improve the accuracy of genetic mapping. Genotype-Corrector can be applied in a wide variety of genetic mapping studies that are based on low coverage whole genome sequencing (WGS) or Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) related techniques. Our results show that Genotype-Corrector achieves high accuracy when applied to both synthetic and real genotype data. Compared with using raw or only imputed genotype calls, the linkage groups built by corrected genotype data show much less noise and significant distortions can be corrected. Additionally, Genotype-Corrector compares favorably to the popular imputation software LinkImpute and Beagle in both F2 and RIL populations

Globally Universal Fractal Pattern of Human Settlements in River Networks

River networks play a key role in the spatial organization of human settlements. Both river networks and human settlements have been found to exhibit regular self-similar patterns, but little is known about the generalized spatial patterns of human settlements embedded within river networks. Here based on night light data, we find a universal fractal structure at the global scale, with both robust Hortonian scaling relationships with the extent of human settlements and statistically significant power law scaling of the power spectra of human area functions. Globally, we find consistent patterns of power law preferential downstream clustering of human settlements across all six populated continents, typically up to 40% of the maximum flow length. This downstream clustering suggests an optimum distribution of humans in large river basins for trade, transport, and natural resource utilization but with attendant implications for human impacts on rivers. Recognition of such spatial patterns helps generalize assessments of human impacts on rivers, with direct implications for management of water quality and biological diversity in river networks