An Evaluation of NOAA\u27s Role in Ocean Dumping Policy Implementation

Dumping of wastes into the ocean has gone on for years especially in the New York Bight. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is mandated by Title II of the Ocean Dumping Act of 1972 to investigate the effects of ocean dumping on the marine environment. However, there is a perception within Congress, the public and other agencies that NOAA is not meeting it\u27s responsibilities with regard to ocean dumping research. The effectiveness of NOAA\u27s ocean dumping policies and programs and the difficulties in implementation experienced by the agency are evaluated by applying George Edwards\u27 theory of policy implementation. According to this theory, four factors - communications, resources, dispositions and bureaucratic structure - are critical in understanding the implementation process. In this case study, NOAA\u27s present lack of participation in the ocean dumping issue can be analyzed by examining the historical events of the past twenty years as they apply to the policy implementation theory

Producing College, Career, and Military Ready Graduates: A Study of Efficiency in Texas Public School Districts

Public school districts in Texas and policymakers need studies of efficiency in the production of College, Career, and Military Ready graduates to maximize resources in the House Bill 3 funding formula and improve ratings in the Texas public school accountability system. A replication of efficiency studies by Carter (2012) and Thompson (2017), the purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to determine what discretionary and non-discretionary factors influence the efficiency of Texas public school districts’ production of College, Career, and Military Ready graduates. With financial and student performance data for 1054 school districts from the 2017-2018 school year, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to measure the relative efficiency of each school district. A regression analysis found a significant positive influence on school district efficiency for total student enrollment. The percentage of non-white students and instructional expenditures per pupil did not have a significant influence on school district efficiency. This research study is useful to educators, legislators, and researchers for determining the allocation of resources for programs with the ability to produce College, Career, and Military Ready graduates

An Empirical Test of Staw and Ross Prescriptions for the Management of Escalation of Commitment Behavior in organizations

Tests two major prescriptions of Staw and Ross about the management of escalation behavior in organizations. Since these prescriptions are primarily based on research using students in controlled settings, the efficacy of the prescriptions was tested in the context of a real, functioning organization. The results provide conditional support for separating initial decision responsibility from subsequent responsibility as a means of reducing escalation behavior. However, the findings did not support a reduction of project failure risk as a means of minimizing escalation of commitment to a failing course of action

Cancellation of nonrenormalizable hypersurface divergences and the d-dimensional Casimir piston

Using a multidimensional cut-off technique, we obtain expressions for the cut-off dependent part of the vacuum energy for parallelepiped geometries in any spatial dimension d. The cut-off part yields nonrenormalizable hypersurface divergences and we show explicitly that they cancel in the Casimir piston scenario in all dimensions. We obtain two different expressions for the d-dimensional Casimir force on the piston where one expression is more convenient to use when the plate separation a is large and the other when a is small (a useful $a \to 1/a$ duality). The Casimir force on the piston is found to be attractive (negative) for any dimension d. We apply the d-dimensional formulas (both expressions) to the two and three-dimensional Casimir piston with Neumann boundary conditions. The 3D Neumann results are in numerical agreement with those recently derived in arXiv:0705.0139 using an optical path technique providing an independent confirmation of our multidimensional approach. We limit our study to massless scalar fields.Comment: 29 pages; 3 figures; references added; to appear in JHE

Restoration of a Severely Impacted Riparian Wetland System - The Pen Branch Project

The Savannah River Swamp is a 3020 ha forested wetland on the floodplain of the Savannah River and is located on the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, SC (Fig. 1). Historically the swamp consisted ofapproximately 50% baldcypress-water tupelo stands, 40% mixed bottomland hardwood stands, and 10% shrub, marsh, and open water. Tributeries of the river were typical of Southeastern bottomland hardwood forests. The hydrology was controlled by flow from four creeks that drain into the swamp and by flooding of the Savannah River. Upstream dams on the Savannah River have caused some alteration of the water levels and timing of flooding within the floodplain(Schneider et al., 1989)

Casimir-Polder interaction of atoms with magnetodielectric bodies

A general theory of the Casimir-Polder interaction of single atoms with dispersing and absorbing magnetodielectric bodies is presented, which is based on QED in linear, causal media. Both ground-state and excited atoms are considered. Whereas the Casimir-Polder force acting on a ground-state atom can conveniently be derived from a perturbative calculation of the atom-field coupling energy, an atom in an excited state is subject to transient force components that can only be fully understood by a dynamical treatment based on the body-assisted vacuum Lorentz force. The results show that the Casimir-Polder force can be influenced by the body-induced broadening and shifting of atomic transitions - an effect that is not accounted for within lowest-order perturbation theory. The theory is used to study the Casimir-Polder force of a ground-state atom placed within a magnetodielectric multilayer system, with special emphasis on thick and thin plates as well as a planar cavity consisting of two thick plates. It is shown how the competing attractive and repulsive force components related to the electric and magnetic properties of the medium, respectively, can - for sufficiently strong magnetic properties - lead to the formation of potential walls and wells.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, minor additions and correction

Phase I trial of oncolytic adenovirus-mediated cytotoxic and interleukin-12 gene therapy for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer

The safety of oncolytic adenovirus-mediated suicide and interleukin-12 (IL 12) gene therapy was evaluated in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients. In this phase I study, a replication-competent adenovirus (Ad5-yCD/mutTK(SR39) rep-hIL-12) expressing yCD/mutTK(SR39) (yeast cytidine deaminase/mutant S39R HSV-1 thymidine kinase) and human IL-12 (IL 12) was injected into tumors of 12 subjects with metastatic pancreatic cancer (T2N0M1-T4N1M1) at escalating doses (1 × 10(11), 3 × 10(11), or 1 × 10(12) viral particles). Subjects received 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) therapy for 7 days followed by chemotherapy (FOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine/albumin-bound paclitaxel) starting 21 days after adenovirus injection. The study endpoint was toxicity through day 21. Experimental endpoints included measurements of serum IL 12, interferon gamma (IFNG), and CXCL10 to assess immune system activation. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells and proliferation markers were analyzed by flow cytometry. Twelve patients received Ad5-yCD/mutTK(SR39) rep-hIL-12 and oral 5-FC. Approximately 94% of the 121 adverse events observed were grade 1/2 requiring no medical intervention. Ad5-yCD/mutTK(SR39) rep-hIL-12 DNA was detected in the blood of two patients. Elevated serum IL 12, IFNG, and CXCL10 levels were detected in 42%, 75%, and 92% of subjects, respectively. Analysis of immune cell populations indicated activation after Ad5-yCD/mutTK(SR39) rep-hIL-12 administration. The median survival of patients in the third cohort is 18.1 (range, 3.5-20.0) months. The study maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was not reached

Role of Cellular Lipids in Positive-Sense RNA Virus Replication Complex Assembly and Function

Positive-sense RNA viruses are responsible for frequent and often devastating diseases in humans, animals, and plants. However, the development of effective vaccines and anti-viral therapies targeted towards these pathogens has been hindered by an incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in viral replication. One common feature of all positive-sense RNA viruses is the manipulation of host intracellular membranes for the assembly of functional viral RNA replication complexes. This review will discuss the interplay between cellular membranes and positive-sense RNA virus replication, and will focus specifically on the potential structural and functional roles for cellular lipids in this process

Individualized decision aid for diverse women with lupus nephritis (IDEA-WON): A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundTreatment decision-making regarding immunosuppressive therapy is challenging for individuals with lupus. We assessed the effectiveness of a decision aid for immunosuppressive therapy in lupus nephritis.Methods and findingsIn a United States multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial (RCT), adult women with lupus nephritis, mostly from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds with low socioeconomic status (SES), seen in in- or outpatient settings, were randomized to an individualized, culturally tailored, computerized decision aid versus American College of Rheumatology (ACR) lupus pamphlet (1:1 ratio), using computer-generated randomization. We hypothesized that the co-primary outcomes of decisional conflict and informed choice regarding immunosuppressive medications would improve more in the decision aid group. Of 301 randomized women, 298 were analyzed; 47% were African-American, 26% Hispanic, and 15% white. Mean age (standard deviation [SD]) was 37 (12) years, 57% had annual income of <$40,000, and 36% had a high school education or less. Compared with the provision of the ACR lupus pamphlet (n = 147), participants randomized to the decision aid (n = 151) had (1) a clinically meaningful and statistically significant reduction in decisional conflict, 21.8 (standard error [SE], 2.5) versus 12.7 (SE, 2.0; p = 0.005) and (2) no difference in informed choice in the main analysis, 41% versus 31% (p = 0.08), but clinically meaningful and statistically significant difference in sensitivity analysis (net values for immunosuppressives positive [in favor] versus negative [against]), 50% versus 35% (p = 0.006). Unresolved decisional conflict was lower in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups, 22% versus 44% (p < 0.001). Significantly more patients in the decision aid versus pamphlet group rated information to be excellent for understanding lupus nephritis (49% versus 33%), risk factors (43% versus 27%), medication options (50% versus 33%; p ≤ 0.003 for all); and the ease of use of materials was higher in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups (51% versus 38%; p = 0.006). Key study limitations were the exclusion of men, short follow-up, and the lack of clinical outcomes, including medication adherence.ConclusionsAn individualized decision aid was more effective than usual care in reducing decisional conflict for choice of immunosuppressive medications in women with lupus nephritis.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT02319525

LDRD final report on Bloch Oscillations in two-dimensional nanostructure arrays for high frequency applications.

We have investigated the physics of Bloch oscillations (BO) of electrons, engineered in high mobility quantum wells patterned into lateral periodic arrays of nanostructures, i.e. two-dimensional (2D) quantum dot superlattices (QDSLs). A BO occurs when an electron moves out of the Brillouin zone (BZ) in response to a DC electric field, passing back into the BZ on the opposite side. This results in quantum oscillations of the electron--i.e., a high frequency AC current in response to a DC voltage. Thus, engineering a BO will yield continuously electrically tunable high-frequency sources (and detectors) for sensor applications, and be a physics tour-de-force. More than a decade ago, Bloch oscillation (BO) was observed in a quantum well superlattice (QWSL) in short-pulse optical experiments. However, its potential as electrically biased high frequency source and detector so far has not been realized. This is partially due to fast damping of BO in QWSLs. In this project, we have investigated the possibility of improving the stability of BO by fabricating lateral superlattices of periodic coupled nanostructures, such as metal grid, quantum (anti)dots arrays, in high quality GaAs/Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}As heterostructures. In these nanostructures, the lateral quantum confinement has been shown theoretically to suppress the optical-phonon scattering, believed to be the main mechanism for fast damping of BO in QWSLs. Over the last three years, we have made great progress toward demonstrating Bloch oscillations in QDSLs. In the first two years of this project, we studied the negative differential conductance and the Bloch radiation induced edge-magnetoplasmon resonance. Recently, in collaboration with Prof. Kono's group at Rice University, we investigated the time-domain THz magneto-spectroscopy measurements in QDSLs and two-dimensional electron systems. A surprising DC electrical field induced THz phase flip was observed. More measurements are planned to investigate this phenomenon. In addition to their potential device applications, periodic arrays of nanostructures have also exhibited interesting quantum phenomena, such as a possible transition from a quantum Hall ferromagnetic state to a quantum Hall spin glass state. It is our belief that this project has generated and will continue to make important impacts in basic science as well as in novel solid-state, high frequency electronic device applications