The American Dream as the BIPOC Nightmare

The ethos of the American Dream is considered to be the cause and the foundation of the United States of America. However, many people, especially those who are part of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community criticize these notions, arguing that if the dream ever existed at one point in time, it no longer exists. On one hand, America is hailed as being the land of freedom and opportunity for immigrants. But on the other hand, America is also thought of as being the land built on the enslavement and exploitation of especially the BIPOC community. As a result of these criticisms coupled with current events, the complex and contradictory notions of the American Dream is more relevant than ever. This research will first explore how notions of colonialism and capitalism serve as the origins of the American Dream in relation to both conceptions of land and freedom. It will also explore different representations and attitudes that various members across the BIPOC community have of this American Dream through case studies of literature, media, and personally conducted interviews. But ultimately, it aims to shed perspective and light on why the American Dream continues to carry saliency despite its criticisms and the consequences that the BIPOC community would face pursuing it

Electroweakino Searches: A Comparative Study for LHC and ILC (A Snowmass White Paper)

We make a systematic and comparative study for the LHC and ILC for the electroweakino searches in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We adopt a general bottom-up approach and scan over the parameter regions for all the three cases of the lightest supersymmetric particle being Bino-, Wino-, and Higgsino-like. The electroweakino signal from pair production and subsequent decay to Wh (h to b\bar b) final state may yield a sensitivity of 95% C.L. exclusion (5sigma discovery) to the mass scale M_2, mu ~ 250-400 GeV (200-250 GeV) at the 14 TeV LHC with an luminosity of 300 fb^{-1}. Combining with all the other decay channels, the 95% C.L. exclusion (5sigma discovery) may be extended to M_2, mu ~ 480-700 GeV (320-500 GeV). At the ILC, the electroweakinos could be readily discovered once the kinematical threshold is crossed, and their properties could be thoroughly studied.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Rational or rationalized choices in fluid resuscitation?

The war between colloids and crystalloids wages on. In a large multinational survey of fluid prescribing practices in critically ill patients, we have a new and intriguing snapshot of global fluid resuscitation practices. Colloids are more often used for impaired perfusion or low cardiac output, and the choice of colloid or crystalloid varies enormously between countries. Why are some ICUs prescribing colloids more often than crystalloids when there is little convincing evidence that colloids are superior for fluid resuscitation? Are colloids advantageous in certain diseases, or in specific regional patient populations that have not yet been elucidated? Perhaps we should look inwards: the answer may not be more randomized clinical trials, but better adherence to current guidelines and treatment recommendations

Extending snBench to Provide Concurrency Support in the Sensorium Execution Environment (SXE)

The SNBENCH is a general-purpose programming environment and run-time system targeted towards a variety of Sensor applications such as environmental sensing, location sensing, video sensing, etc. In its current structure, the run-time engine of the SNBENCH namely, the Sensorium Execution Environment (SXE) processes the entities of execution in a single thread of operation. In order to effectively support applications that are time-sensitive and need priority, it is imperative to process the tasks discretely so that specific policies can be applied at a much granular level. The goal of this project was to modify the SXE to enable efficient use of system resources by way of multi-tasking the individual components. Additionally, the transformed SXE offers the ability to classify and employ different schemes of processing to the individual tasks

Pemanfaatan Susu Kambing Untuk Pembuatan Tahu Susu Dengan Penambahan Ekstrak Limbah Nenas (Enzim Bromelin) Dan Penambahan Ekstrak Daun Pepaya (Enzim Papain)

ABSTRAK Tahu susu adalah semacam keju yang dapat dibuat dari susu sapi, susu kambing atau susu hewan lainnya. Produk ini mempunyai nutrisi yang baik karena susu sebagai bahan pangan merupakan sumber protein hewani dengan susunan asam-asam amino yang lebih lengkap dibanding dengan protein dari tumbuh-tumbuhan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan konsumsi susu kambing dalam bentuk tahu susu untuk mencukupi kekurangan gizi masyarakat serta memanfaatkan limbah nenas dan daun pepaya dalam pembuatan tahu susu. Pembuatan tahu susu dengan penambahan ekstrak nenas dilakukan pada suhu 60°C dengan konsentrasi 12 ml, 14 ml, 16 ml dan 18 ml tiap 100 ml susu kambing, sedangkan pembuatan tahu susu dengan penambahan ekstrak pepaya dilakukan pada suhu 60° C dengan konsentrasi 11 ml, 13 ml, 15 ml tiap 100 ml susu kambing. Setelah diperoleh gumpalan tahu, dilakukan penyaringan dan pengepresan sehingga terbentuk tahu susu. Pembuatan tahu susu dengan penambahan 14 ml ekstrak limbah nenas (enzim bromelin) dan 15 ml ekstrak daun pepaya (enzim papain) memberikan hasil optimum berdasarkan tekstur dan rendemennya, selanjutnya digunakan untuk melakukan uji inderawi. Uji ini dilakukan terhadap warna, bau, kehalusan kelembutan saat dimakan, rasa dan kesukaan secara menyeluruh dengan metoda scoring test. Hasil uji inderawi terhadap warna, bau, kehalusan saat dimakan , rasa dan kesukaan secara menyeluruh menunjukkan bahwa tahu susu bromelin dan tahu susu papain tidak memberikan beda nyata dengan tahu susu kedelai dan tahu susu lain yang terdapat di pasaran. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa tahu susu bromelin dan tahu susu papain dapat diterima dan disukai oleh konsumen

The Role of Expected Benefits towards Smart Hotels in Shaping Customer Behavior: Comparison by Age and Gender

The present study attempted to provide foresight into the hotels of the future in response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In particular, this research aimed to understand customers’ expected benefits, many of which are rooted in the characteristics of a smart hotel, as well as to discover the role of expected benefits to build perceived value and attitude, which in turn increase the behavioral intentions towards a smart hotel. Furthermore, the moderating effect of age and gender was tested in the link between the expected benefits and perceived value, and the association between the expected benefits and attitude. The results of our analysis determined how personalization and entertainment, as well as safety and security, had a leading role to shape customer behavior, and how age moderated the link between entertainment and attitude. The discussion and implications were conducted in light of these findings

Freezing eggs to get ahead: a look at oocyte cryopreservation for non-medical reasons

The age of first pregnancies for women has been on the rise, partly due to prioritization of career development. Maternal aging is a significant factor affecting fertility, and is correlated with infertility and several adverse pregnancy outcomes. Oocyte cryopreservation (OC), currently recommended to cancer patients pending treatments affecting fertility, is now being explored as an option for extending female fertility due to its efficacy in in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, there is a paucity of data confirming the superiority of the procedure over natural pregnancy in healthy women, given the potential complications. Caution in recommending the procedure should therefore be taken.  Résumé L’âge des premières grossesses chez les femmes a augmenté, en partie à cause de la hiérarchisation du développement de carrière. Le vieillissement maternel est un facteur important affectant la fertilité, et est corrélé avec l’infertilité et plusieurs résultats défavorables de la grossesse. La cryoconservation des ovocytes (CO), recommandée aux patients cancéreux en attendant les traitements affectant la fertilité, est actuellement explorée comme une option pour augmenter la fertilité féminine en raison de son efficacité dans la fécondation in vitro (FIV). Cependant, il y a un manque de données confirmant la supériorité de la procédure sur la grossesse naturelle chez les femmes en bonne santé, étant donné les complications potentielles. La prudence dans la recommandation de la procédure devrait donc être prise.

Estimation of the within-herd transmission rates of bovine viral diarrhoea virus in extensively grazed beef cattle herds

International audienceMany research groups have developed mathematical models to simulate the dynamics of BVDV infections in cattle herds. However, most models use estimates for within-herd BVDV transmission rates that are either based on expert opinion or adapted from other dairy herd simulation models presented in the literature. There is currently little information on the transmission rates for BVDV in extensively grazed beef herds partly due to the logistical challenges in obtaining longitudinal data of individual animal’s seroconversion, and it may not be appropriate to apply the same transmission rates from intensive dairy herds given the significant differences in herd demographics and management. To address this knowledge gap, we measured BVDV antibody levels in 15 replacement heifers in each of 75 New Zealand beef breeding farms after their first calving and again at pregnancy scanning or weaning to check for seroconversion. Among these, data from 9 farms were used to infer the within-herd BVDV transmission rate with an approximate Bayesian computation method. The most probable within-herd BVDV transmission rate was estimated as 0.11 per persistently infected (PI) animal per day with a 95% highest posterior density interval between 0.03 and 0.34. This suggests that BVDV transmission in extensively grazed beef herds is generally slower than in dairy herds where the transmission rate has been estimated at 0.50 per PI animal per day and therefore may not be sufficient to ensure that all susceptible breeding females gain adequate immunity to the virus before the risk period of early pregnancy for generating new PI calves

Spellburst: A Node-based Interface for Exploratory Creative Coding with Natural Language Prompts

Creative coding tasks are often exploratory in nature. When producing digital artwork, artists usually begin with a high-level semantic construct such as a "stained glass filter" and programmatically implement it by varying code parameters such as shape, color, lines, and opacity to produce visually appealing results. Based on interviews with artists, it can be effortful to translate semantic constructs to program syntax, and current programming tools don't lend well to rapid creative exploration. To address these challenges, we introduce Spellburst, a large language model (LLM) powered creative-coding environment. Spellburst provides (1) a node-based interface that allows artists to create generative art and explore variations through branching and merging operations, (2) expressive prompt-based interactions to engage in semantic programming, and (3) dynamic prompt-driven interfaces and direct code editing to seamlessly switch between semantic and syntactic exploration. Our evaluation with artists demonstrates Spellburst's potential to enhance creative coding practices and inform the design of computational creativity tools that bridge semantic and syntactic spaces