Shock propagation in locally driven granular systems

We study shock propagation in a system of initially stationary hard-spheres that is driven by a continuous injection of particles at the origin. The disturbance created by the injection of energy spreads radially outwards through collision between particles. Using scaling arguments, we determine the exponent characterizing the power law growth of this disturbance in all dimensions. The scaling functions describing the various physical quantities are determined using large scale event driven simulations in two and three dimensions for both the elastic and the inelastic system. The results are shown to describe well the data from two different experiments on granular systems that are similarly driven.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Affordability In College Access: Improving Equitable Value for Low-Income, First-Generation, and Students of Color

Pursuing post-secondary education is often thought of as a pathway to tremendous economic success, yet many students, such as low-income, first-generation students, and students of color, are still underrepresented in higher education. Despite receiving more attention than in the past, the socioeconomic gap in higher education has remained the same. The ever-rising cost of higher education, declining government financial aid, and widening income disparities have put college out of reach to underrepresented, underserved students. It is vital to identify strategies to close the equity gap and improve college access for underrepresented underserved students. In this article, I explored the issue of affordability that has created persistent gaps in college access for low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color. The concluding part of this paper examined ways to mitigate the inequitable gaps in college access and the significance of bridging those gaps for low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color

Hitting the Trail: An Exploration of an Outdoor Educational Experience at Intermountain West Junior High School

Outdoor educational experiences are one of the ways that young people learn about and experience the benefits that are found in the outdoors. However, despite the benefits that outdoor educational experiences have to offer, many young people do not participate for one reason or another. These reasons are often rooted in issues of social injustice. This study adds to about how outdoor educational experiences effect the perceptions of and attitudes toward the outdoors and learning in the outdoors, as well as what may be keeping so many people from participating in these experiences. One junior high school in the intermountain west has been taking a group of eighth-grade students on a week-long camping trip for more than 50 years. There is a need to better understand how this trip effects the participants perceptions and attitudes towards the outdoors and learning in the outdoors, as well as why so many students at the school are not going on the trip. My study was conducted in two parts. In the first part, I examined how one year’s trip (the Southern Utah Parks Trip) effected eight participating student’s perceptions of the outdoors, as well as their perceptions and attitudes toward OEEss. This was done through several methods of data collection, and that data was then carefully analyzed for themes in the data. In the second part of this study, I drew on my own experiences as a student participating in a camping trip at the same school in eighth-grade, as well as a teacher and trip leader several years later, through an autobiographical account, with the intent of better understanding the above-mentioned affects, as well as the barriers and constraints some students at the school run into that block their participation in this trip. This data was also analyzed in the same method. The result of this study was the emergence of several themes that ultimately led to two theories that addressed the research questions of this study. Those theories were:1. that the Southern Utah Parks Trip, and other outdoor educational experiences have a positive impact on each participant\u27s attitude toward and perception of the outdoors and learning in the outdoors, helping to cause a connection to and a deeper understanding of nature, and 2. that there are several things keeping most of the students at Intermountain West Junior High School from participating the Southern Utah Parks Trip, and likely keeping other students at other schools from participating in outdoor educational experiences

THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND PERSONALITY TRAITS ON EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

Ineffective leadership contributes to the majority of organizational problems and business failures. The negative effects of poor leadership in the health services arena is a prominent issue in today’s health services workforce, and is exacerbated by the challenges posed by the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2012. This study investigates the effects of emotional intelligence (EI) and personality traits (the Big Five), two variables commonly linked to effective leadership, within the context of healthcare. This study examined the influence of EI and the Big Five personality traits on leadership effectiveness within a healthcare institution. The study assumed EI and the Big Five personality traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion) would positively link to each other as well as leadership effectiveness, and predicted a negative relationship between neuroticism and leadership effectiveness. This study addressed the need for empirical studies that considered the impact of EI and personality on leadership performance and effectiveness (Farnia & Nafukho, 2016). Primary and secondary data was collected from 54 healthcare leaders. Results suggest that EI is statistically and significantly related to leadership effectiveness. Conscientiousness was also found to significantly predict a healthcare leader’s effectiveness. Healthcare organizations interested in improving leadership effectiveness realize the importance of EI and personality on organizational outcomes. Implications for practice, HRD, leadership, and healthcare are discussed, as are future recommendations for research

The Journey To Awareness of an African Girl-Child

This paper explains my journey as an African girl-child coming into the awareness of who she is and how she perceived change in a new environment. As a young girl migrating to a different country, understanding and adjusting to a new set of rules became crucial. Social identities such as race, gender, and class became things that I was opened to in a new land. I had to be a fast learner or I would be left behind. Kenya being my origin, I became accustomed to many things, so when I moved to a new country my perspective shifted. How I once viewed the world is not how I view it currently. I allowed this journey to happen. It can be painful for some, but it made me stronger. Through self-analysis and reflection, this article explores how an individual’s social identities and self-awareness are influenced by the world around them and the people they interact with

The Management and Operation of Presently Registered Milk Tea Store in Cabanatuan City

Milk Tea Industry has evolved rapidly compared to the other business industry. This study was undertaken to know the profile of the milk tea store, the management and operation, the SWOT analysis, and the problems encountered by the Milk Tea store in Cabanatuan City. Ten (10) Milk Tea stores around Cabanatuan City were included in the study. Various techniques for data gathering were used like informal interviews, observation and questionnaires. The researcher discovered that most of the Milk Tea store operated ranging from one to five years and majority of them has three maximum numbers of branches with an initial capital of not more than one hundred thousand. Most of the respondents have earned average weekly sales of not more than twenty thousand pesos. Each Milk Tea store has different numbers of employees. They met and always maintained the management quality standards of the organization’s operation. Few of them used direct advertising and discount promo as a tool in promoting their business. The taste of their products is what attracted the customers most. Results of the study also showed the continuous effort of the owners in making strategies that can help and improve their business like making the image of their products more appealing and healthier to their customers. Current challenges faced by the respondents are: there was a fast entry of competitors; the scandal issue directly affected the business as well the behavior of the consumers. But in spite of that, management of different Milk Tea Stores always remain positive, confident and ready to device ways on resolving problem

Prevalence of Acceleration among Male and Female Pupils in Selected Private Primary Schools in Sokoto Metropolis and its Implication on the Academic Performance of the Girl-child

Acceleration of children particularly at primary and secondary schools has become a common and acceptable practice to many parents and teachers. This research focused on ascertaining the prevalence of acceleration among male and female pupils in private primary schools in Sokoto metropolis. A total of two hundred and thirty-six (236) pupils comprising of 141 males and 95 females were involved in the research. A simple questionnaire to identify pupils who skipped class and an academic performance test in English language and Mathematics were used for data collection. Frequency and percentages were used to ascertain the prevalence of skipping class among the male and female pupils while the mean, standard deviation and t-test were used to compare the performance of males who skipped class and females who skipped class. It was noted that males who skipped class performance better than females who skipped class though the general performance of females was better than that of males. This indicates that the criteria for accelerating the females were not strictly academic excellence. It was recommended that acceleration of pupils should be strictly based on academic performance and girls should not be accelerated for any other reasons

Victims to Victors: Women Reclaiming Conflict Management in sub-Saharan Africa

Women in sub-Saharan Africa are often viewed as the victims of the conflict around them. This view discredits the hundreds of women who are serving in legislative and executive branches across the region. This research investigates if women in positions of power make more peaceful decisions in times of conflict than their male counterparts. Using negative binomial regression methods this research examines the percentages of women in legislative and executive branches to number of conflict days in a year and number of peace agreements signed. This study found that as the percentage of women in office rise the number of conflict days each year decreases. On the hand, as the percentage of women rise, the number of peace treaties signed decreases as well. These findings align with the literature that women have a different approach to conflict, and that approach leads to significant impacts on conflict levels within their state

Mechanisms of Endothelial Dysfunction in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have an increased propensity for developing endothelial dysfunction. Declines in endothelial derived NO production as evidenced by decreases in brachial artery flow mediated dilation, suggest that inadequate NO levels may be one mechanism whereby vascular homeostasis is perturbed in SLE patients. NO modifies progression to atherogenesis through inhibition of platelet aggregation, smooth muscle cell proliferation, adhesion molecule expression, and prevention of oxLDL. Recent studies suggest that Type I interferons and oxidative stress, leading to endothelial nitric oxide synthase uncoupling, are critical for accelerated vasculopathies observed in SLE. We postulate that two potential mechanisms are responsible for abnormalities observed in SLE patients, as chronic inflammation has pleiotropic affects. (1) Due to the chronic immune response, increases in oxidative stress persist within the endothelial milieu in vivo. Inflammatory and injurious states enhance vascular permeability, cytotoxicity, and inflammatory cell infiltration. While previous reports in Framingham risk populations have implicated a role for eNOS uncoupling in advanced atherogenesis, studies examining these mechanisms in SLE are limited. Analysis of the effects of SLE sera on eNOS in vitro revealed an SLE-mediated induction of eNOS that paralleled patient age and protein kinase R expression. Induction of eNOS expression in non-autoimmune populations implicated a role for increased hydrogen peroxide associated with eNOS uncoupling. To support this hypothesis, flow cytometry analysis of NO production in SLE sera cultured HUVECs demonstrated a profound reduction in NO that was partially restored with the addition of L-sepiapterin, an analog of the eNOS co-factor, tetrahydrobiopterin. We investigated correlations between NO production and eNOS mRNA levels in vitro and found no relationship between basal NO, however, there was a strong positive association between NO from cultures supplemented with L-sepiapterin and eNOS. Thus, enhanced NO production in response to L-sepiapterin may explain a role for eNOS uncoupling and therapeutic possibilities for recoupling in SLE endothelial dysfunction. Changes in NO also coincided with enhanced neutrophil adhesion to the endothelial cell surface and neutrophil chemotaxis. (2) Despite evidence that SLE sera modulates eNOS and NO production, specific inflammatory factors responsible for this phenomenon remain unclear. Previous reports showing that Type I interferons negatively associated with endothelial dysfunction in concert with our preliminary studies showing a correlation between eNOS and PKR gene expression incites the hypothesis that IFNα may negatively modulate eNOS and NO production. Inhibition of eNOS expression with the addition of IFNα was both time and dose dependent that correlated with PKR and MX1 induction. As a downstream consequence, we observed that protein, NO, and insulin induced NO levels were decreased in response to IFNα treatment. Additional pro-atherogenic changes occurred in response to IFNα stimulation in endothelial cells including decreased cGMP and ICAM-1, VCAM-1, and MCP-1 induction. However, leukocyte adhesion did not change. Finally, we examined used PKR and NFκB knockdown studies to demonstrate that the removal of NFκB but not PKR, mediates IFNα effects on eNOS mRNA. In lieu of IFNα mediated declines in eNOS stability, our investigation into microRNA 155, a known eNOS gene de-stabilizer, revealed the novel finding that IFNα enhances miR155 expression which may promote eNOS dysfunction and subsequent increases in endothelial dysfunction. Taken together, these results indicate that SLE sera and factors previously identified to be associated with endothelial dysfunction negatively impact NO production and eNOS expression in vitro. Due to differential expression of eNOS modulated by rIFNα and SLE serum, we hypothesize that crosstalk between oxidative stress and IFNα downstream signals may promote the accelerated phenotype observed in SLE patients. Further, therapeutic targets that alleviate oxidative stress and prevent IFNα signaling may be beneficial in improving cardiovascular disease outcomes

Timely and reliable packets delivery over Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) for road accidents prevention: a cross-layer approach

With the envisioned era of Internet of Things (IoTs), all aspects of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) will be connected to improve transport safety, relieve traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, enhance the comfort of transportation and significantly reduce road accidents. In IoVs, regular exchange of current position, direction, velocity, etc., enables mobile vehicles to predict an upcoming accident and alert the human drivers in time or proactively take precautionary actions to avoid the accident. The actualization of this concept requires the use of channel access protocols that can guarantee reliable and timely broadcast of safety messages. This paper investigates the application of network coding concept to increase content of every transmission and achieve improved broadcast reliability with less number of retransmission. In particular, we proposed Code Aided Retransmission-based Error Recovery (CARER) scheme, introduced an RTB/CTB handshake to overcome hidden node problem and reduce packets collision rate. In order to avoid broadcast storm problem associated with the use of RTB/CTB packet in a broadcast transmission, we developed a rebroadcasting metric used to successfully select a vehicle to rebroadcast the encoded message. The performance of CARER protocol is clearly shown with detailed theoretical analysis and further validated with simulation experiments