The Application of Little\u27s Law to Enrollment Management: Improving Student Persistence in Part-Time Degree Programs

Little’s Law is applied to enrollment management in part-time degree programs. Using institutional data by program, on number of graduates per year, as well as number of credits taken and number of active students per semester, the calculated average time to graduation is compared to the average flow time predicted by Little’s Law. Despite significant variability among students who enter with varying transfer credits and take varying credits per semester, Little’s Law provides a simple model for measuring program growth trends, student productivity, and persistence to graduation. Implications for marketing, admissions, advising, course scheduling, and curriculum design are discussed

Measurement-Based Noiseless Linear Amplification for Quantum Communication

Entanglement distillation is an indispensable ingredient in extended quantum communication networks. Distillation protocols are necessarily non-deterministic and require advanced experimental techniques such as noiseless amplification. Recently it was shown that the benefits of noiseless amplification could be extracted by performing a post-selective filtering of the measurement record to improve the performance of quantum key distribution. We apply this protocol to entanglement degraded by transmission loss of up to the equivalent of 100km of optical fibre. We measure an effective entangled resource stronger than that achievable by even a maximally entangled resource passively transmitted through the same channel. We also provide a proof-of-principle demonstration of secret key extraction from an otherwise insecure regime. The measurement-based noiseless linear amplifier offers two advantages over its physical counterpart: ease of implementation and near optimal probability of success. It should provide an effective and versatile tool for a broad class of entanglement-based quantum communication protocols.Comment: 7+3 pages, 5+1 figures, close to published versio

IL‐12‐polarized Th1 cells produce GM‐CSF and induce EAE independent of IL‐23

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115966/1/eji3410.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115966/2/eji3410-sup-0002-PRC.pd

Evaluation of novel protease enzymes on growth performance and apparent ileal digestibility of amino acids in poultry: enzyme screening

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate eight neutral and six acid proteases on growth performance and apparent ileal amino acid digestibility (AID) of poults (Experiment 1) or chicks (Experiments 2 and 3). Two basal diets were formulated: a nutrient adequate positive control (PC), which met or exceeded the nutrient requirements for poults (Experiment 1) or chicks (Experiments 2 and 3) and a negative control (NC) formulated to achieve 85% (Experiments 1 and 2) or 80% (Experiments 3) of the requirement for protein and amino acids. Phytase was included in all diets to provide 500 phytase units (FTU)/kg and xylanase was included in all diets to provide 10,000 (Experiments 1 and 2) or 16,000 (Experiments 3) xylanase units (BXU)/kg. Proteases were supplemented in the NC diet at an equivalent amount of enzyme protein to create 16 experimental diets. There were five birds/pen and 10 replicate pens per treatment in each experiment. In experiment 1, birds fed the PC diet gained more (P < 0.05) than birds fed the NC. There were no differences in growth performance in birds fed the PC or NC in experiments 2 or 3. In all three experiments, birds fed the NC supplemented with neutral protease 1 had reduced (P < 0.05) feed intake (FI) or body weight gain (BWG) and increased (P < 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared with birds fed the NC. Birds fed the NC diet supplemented with neutral protease 3, 7 (Experiment 1), or acid protease 4 (Experiment 3) had increased (P < 0.05) FCR and birds fed neutral protease 6 (Experiment 2) had reduced (P < 0.05) BWG compared with birds fed the NC. Apparent ileal amino acid digestibility was improved (P < 0.05) with protease supplementation to the NC diets (Experiment 1 or 3), but this was dependent on the protease and the amino acid. In conclusion, novel protease supplementation improved AID of amino acids but this was not reflected in improvements in growth performance of poults or chicks

Relations between measures of executive functions and self-regulation in preschoolers

"Performance on different measures of executive functions (EF) and self-regulation (SR) does not always correspond to the behaviour children show in real-life situations. The present study assesses the relationships between performances on different EF and SR measures and teacher ratings of children’s selfcontrol and thoughtfulness. In total, 217 children between 34 and 72 months (54% boys) were assessed. Four tests measuring cognitive EF (Digit Span backward, Block Recall, Day-Night Stroop, Hearts and Flowers) and two tests measuring behavioural EF (Tower) and SR (Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders [HTKS]) were administered. Additionally, teachers rated the dimension ‘self-control and thoughtfulness’ of the German observation scale ‘Social‐emotional well‐being and resilience of children in early childhood settings’ (PERiK). It was found that all measures differentiated with regard to age in the range of three to six years. Correlations between cognitive EF measures with the HTKS were almost twice as high as correlations with the Tower. This indicates that the HTKS taps similar processes as the cognitive EF measures. Teacher ratings did not show higher correlations with behavioural EF and SR than with cognitive EF measures. Also, behavioural EF and SR measures did not predict scores obtained on the teacher rating better than cognitive EF measure. This article discusses to what extent distinctions among measures of EF and SR are possible and useful." (author's abstract)"Die Leistung bei standardisierten Verfahren zur Erfassung der exekutiven Funktionen (EF) und Selbstregulation (SR) passt nicht immer zu dem Niveau an Selbstkontrolle, dass Kinder im Kindergartenalter in realen Situationen zeigen. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Zusammenhänge zwischen den Leistungen bei verschiedenen Tests zu EF und SR und der Fremdeinschätzung der Selbstkontrolle, die die Kinder im Kindergartenalltag zeigen, durch pädagogische Fachkräfte. Insgesamt 217 Kinder zwischen 34 und 72 Monaten (54% Jungen) nahmen an der Studie teil. Vier Tests zu Erfassung der kognitiven EF (Zahlen nachsprechen rückwärts, Block Recall, Day-Night Stroop, Hearts and Flowers) und zwei Tests zur Erfassung der behavioralen EF (Turmbau) und der behavioralen SR (Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders [HKTS]) wurden durchgeführt. Darüber hinaus bewerteten pädagogische Fachkräfte die Kinder auf der Skala 'Selbstkontrolle und Rücksichtnahme' des deutschen Beobachtungsbogens 'Positive Entwicklung und Resilienz im Kindergartenalltag' (PERiK). Zusammenhänge zwischen den Messinstrumenten zur kognitiven EF mit den HKTS waren fast doppelt so hoch wie ihre Korrelationen mit dem Turmbau. Dieses Ergebnis weist darauf hin, dass der HTKS, ausgewiesen als Instrument zur Erfassung der behavioralen SR, ähnliche Konstrukte wie die Tests zur Erfassung der kognitiven EF misst. Die Bewertung des Kindesverhaltens durch die pädagogischen Fachkräfte zeigte keine höheren Korrelationen mit den behavioralen als mit den kognitiven Messinstrumenten. Auch die Einschätzung durch die pädagogischen Fachkräfte wird durch die behavioralen Messungen nicht besser vorhergesagt als durch die kognitiven Messungen, wie es erwartet wurde. Es wird diskutiert, inwieweit eine Unterscheidung in die beiden Kategorien von Messinstrumenten möglich und sinnvoll ist." (Autorenreferat

Clarifying the Critical Factors for Th1 and Th17 Pathogenicity in an Animal Model of CNS-Targeted Autoimmune Disease.

Experimental autoimmune encephalitomyelitis (EAE) is a CD4+ T cell-mediated CNS-targeted autoimmune disease and a model of multiple sclerosis (MS). IL-12-polarized IFN-γ-producing Th1 cells and IL-23-polarized IL-17-producing Th17 cells have been implicated in EAE and MS pathogenesis. However, current dogma states that IL-23, and not IL-12, is absolutely critical for T cell encephalitogenicity. Furthermore, few reports measuring Th1 or Th17 cells in EAE have considered Th17 cell plasticity. IL-23-polarized Th17 cells can downregulate IL-17 and upregulate IFN-γ, which makes them indistinguishable from Th1 cells. This conversion to an “exTh17” is T-bet-dependent and promoted by IL-23. Though we have previously demonstrated that IL-12- or IL-23-polarized T cells can each induce EAE via distinct mechanisms, the contribution of IL-23 to IL-12-polarized disease, and vice versa, is unexamined. Therefore, we questioned whether IFN-γ-producing CD4+ T cells found during MS and EAE are actually IL-23-driven exTh17 cells and whether bona fide Th1 or stable Th17 cells are encephalitogenic independently of exTh17 cells. We also questioned whether distinctions seen between IL-12- and IL-23-mediated EAE could be found in MS patients. Here, we used adoptive transfer models of EAE to demonstrate that IL-12-polarized Th1 cell encephalitogenicity can be IL-23-independent. IL-23-independent Th1-mediated disease and IL-12-independent Th17-mediated disease had distinct cellular infiltration patterns and cytokine and chemokine expression profiles. Furthermore, we saw distinct cytokine and chemokine profiles in MS patients grouped by relative IL-12 and IL-23 expression. We also investigated the contribution of plasticity to Th17 pathogenicity. We demonstrated that IL-23-polarized T-bet-/- cells were stable Th17 cells. They induced EAE following adoptive transfer into wild-type and RAG2-/- hosts, though disease was milder and delayed relative to wild type Th17 cells. We also determined that the reduced potency of stable Th17 cells is not a result of poor proliferation or survival, rather due to altered trafficking molecules on stable Th17 cells. These data contribute to the understanding to the critical factors for CD4+ T cell encephalitogenicity, and suggest that Th1, Th17, and exTh17 cells are distinct effector lineages in EAE. These data have translational implications, which could result in the discovery of biomarkers in MS patient populations and targeted therapies.PHDImmunologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108991/1/hgrifka_1.pd

Experimental demonstration of Gaussian protocols for one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution

Nonlocal correlations, a longstanding foundational topic in quantum information, have recently found application as a resource for cryptographic tasks where not all devices are trusted, for example in settings with a highly secure central hub, such as a bank or government department, and less secure satellite stations which are inherently more vulnerable to hardware "hacking" attacks. The asymmetric phenomena of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering plays a key role in one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution (1sDI-QKD) protocols. In the context of continuous-variable (CV) QKD schemes utilizing Gaussian states and measurements, we identify all protocols that can be 1sDI and their maximum loss tolerance. Surprisingly, this includes a protocol that uses only coherent states. We also establish a direct link between the relevant EPR steering inequality and the secret key rate, further strengthening the relationship between these asymmetric notions of nonlocality and device independence. We experimentally implement both entanglement-based and coherent-state protocols, and measure the correlations necessary for 1sDI key distribution up to an applied loss equivalent to 7.5 km and 3.5 km of optical fiber transmission respectively. We also engage in detailed modelling to understand the limits of our current experiment and the potential for further improvements. The new protocols we uncover apply the cheap and efficient hardware of CVQKD systems in a significantly more secure setting.Comment: Addition of experimental results and (several) new author

Characterization of the cryptic Escherichia lineages: rapid identification and prevalence

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86967/1/j.1462-2920.2011.02519.x.pd

Improved profile fitting and quantification of uncertainty in experimental measurements of impurity transport coefficients using Gaussian process regression

The need to fit smooth temperature and density profiles to discrete observations is ubiquitous in plasma physics, but the prevailing techniques for this have many shortcomings that cast doubt on the statistical validity of the results. This issue is amplified in the context of validation of gyrokinetic transport models (Holland et al 2009 Phys. Plasmas 16 052301), where the strong sensitivity of the code outputs to input gradients means that inadequacies in the profile fitting technique can easily lead to an incorrect assessment of the degree of agreement with experimental measurements. In order to rectify the shortcomings of standard approaches to profile fitting, we have applied Gaussian process regression (GPR), a powerful non-parametric regression technique, to analyse an Alcator C-Mod L-mode discharge used for past gyrokinetic validation work (Howard et al 2012 Nucl. Fusion 52 063002). We show that the GPR techniques can reproduce the previous results while delivering more statistically rigorous fits and uncertainty estimates for both the value and the gradient of plasma profiles with an improved level of automation. We also discuss how the use of GPR can allow for dramatic increases in the rate of convergence of uncertainty propagation for any code that takes experimental profiles as inputs. The new GPR techniques for profile fitting and uncertainty propagation are quite useful and general, and we describe the steps to implementation in detail in this paper. These techniques have the potential to substantially improve the quality of uncertainty estimates on profile fits and the rate of convergence of uncertainty propagation, making them of great interest for wider use in fusion experiments and modelling efforts.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Award DE-FC02-99ER54512)United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Science (Contract DE-AC05-06OR23177)United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (Award DE-SC0007099