Analysis of COVID-19 and Vaccine Administration in Mississippi

In this work, we develop a simple mathematical model to observe the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine administration in Mississippi. Based on the well-known Kermack-McKendrick Susceptible-Infected-Removed epidemiological model, the ASIRD−V model has eight ordinary differential equations that split infected populations and recovered populations into vaccinated and unvaccinated populations. After determining that the system is reliable for real-world applications, we investigate and determine the stability and equilibrium points of this system. The system is found to be disease-free when R0 \u3c 1 and endemic when R0 \u3e 1. We use MATLAB to numerically solve the system and optimize the model’s parameters over four short periods, two with the presence of vaccines and two without the presence of vaccines, using death data and vaccine data given by the Centers for Disease Control. By calculating the reproduction numbers of the time periods, we analyze the effects of certain policy changes as well as the reliability of this model in predicting the spread of the disease. While the health policies at the start of the pandemic are reliable short-term solutions to slow the spread, the presence of fully vaccinated individuals slows the spread in the long term. Keywords: COVID-19, ASIRD-V model, Stability, Parameter optimization, Vaccinations, Reproduction number, Numerical simulatio

Faith, Charity, Justice, and Civic Learning: The Lessons and Legacy of Frédéric Ozanam

Frederic Ozanam’s philosophy and work has much to offer those interested in community service and service learning. Thinkers such as John Dewey and Jane Addams believed that acts of charity allowed the rich to judge the poor and to excuse themselves from greater social responsibility. Charity and social justice were therefore mutually exclusive. In contrast, Ozanam’s definition of Christian charity involved treating poor persons as equals to increase social engagement and transform all of society. Ultimately, all classes were to come together with the same social goals of “peace, order, and happiness.” With the advice of those working in the community, visits and direct service to the poor were as beneficial to those performing service as it was to those receiving it. Those who served learned about the true nature and extent of poverty and came to understand that Christ especially commanded them to work toward poverty eradication. Service greatly contributed to the development of Ozanam’s view of democracy, his own civic engagement, and his insights into labor issues, all of which are explored in detail. The formation, practices, and Rule of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul are discussed, as is Ozanam’s influence on the Catholic Worker movement

Memory cell based on a φ\varphi Josephson junction

The $\varphi$ Josephson junction has a doubly degenerate ground state with the Josephson phases $\pm\varphi$. We demonstrate the use of such a $\varphi$ Josephson junction as a memory cell (classical bit), where writing is done by applying a magnetic field and reading by applying a bias current. In the "store" state, the junction does not require any bias or magnetic field, but just needs to stay cooled for permanent storage of the logical bit. Straightforward integration with Rapid Single Flux Quantum logic is possible.Comment: to be published in AP

Aiming for Cognitive Equivalence – Mental Models as a Tertium Comparationis for Translation and Empirical Semantics

This paper introduces my concept of cognitive equivalence (cf. Mandelblit, 1997), an attempt to reconcile elements of Nida’s dynamic equivalence with recent innovations in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology, and building on the current focus on translators’ mental processes in translation studies (see e.g. Göpferich et al., 2009, Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2010; Halverson, 2014). My approach shares its general impetus with Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk’s concept of re-conceptualization, but is independently derived from findings in cognitive linguistics and simulation theory (see e.g. Langacker, 2008; Feldman, 2006; Barsalou, 1999; Zwaan, 2004). Against this background, I propose a model of translation processing focused on the internal simulation of reader reception and the calibration of these simulations to achieve similarity between ST and TT impact. The concept of cognitive equivalence is exemplarily tested by exploring a conceptual / lexical field (MALE BALDNESS) through the way that English, German and Japanese lexical items in this field are linked to matching visual-conceptual representations by native speaker informants. The visual data gathered via this empirical method can be used to effectively triangulate the linguistic items involved, enabling an extra-linguistic comparison across languages. Results show that there is a reassuring level of interinformant agreement within languages, but that the conceptual domain for BALDNESS is linguistically structured in systematically different ways across languages. The findings are interpreted as strengthening the call for a cognition-focused, embodied approach to translation

Assisting High School Students with Career Indecision Using a Shortened Form of the Career Construction Interview

A shortened form of the Career Construction Interview (CCI) was used to help high school students struggling with the career decision making process. The shortened instrument is described, as well as, its use with eleventh grade high school students who had low levels of career concern and career curiosity. Students who completed the exercise reported several themes that are introduced and discussed in the article. These themes reflected that the intervention was helpful and facilitated student self understanding and career exploration. Practical applications for school counselors are discussed

The Property Health Report

Lewiston, Maine’s aging housing stock and high demand for rental housing is cause for concern for those who know the health risks associated with poor property maintenance. The Property Health Report (PHR) is an online database that increases access to information about multifamily rental housing in downtown Lewiston, created by local non-profit Healthy Homeworks. Information includes active liens, notices of violation, lead inspection data, and other data regarding the environmental, legal, and financial health of each property. This compilation of objective, publicly available data makes it easy for non-expert renters and investors to make educated decisions about the properties they choose to rent or buy. Instead of contacting individual data holders, knowing what information to ask for, and being able to interpret these data, PHR users can view all property health information in one place. The creation of the PHR began in 2018 with Healthy Homeworks founder Amy Smith. Our work with Healthy Homeworks picked up where three Bates students left off in December of 2018. Our role was to attend meetings with data holders and Smith, further clarify the details of the property rating system, and collect data for 30 properties of various conditions to be put into the beta version of the PHR. We collected, cleaned, and analyzed property health data from properties in Lewiston’s Tree Street neighborhood and chose 30 properties representative of the dataset for Healthy Homeworks to input. Some of our key findings are the differences between data holders’ databases and file storage, which makes it challenging for Healthy Homeworks to get updated data in an easy to input format. Further, there are limitations due to workflow in that domain experts and data collectors do not provide data holders with thorough data, meaning datasets provided to Healthy Homeworks are incomplete or do not tell a comprehensive story about a property. Our work on the PHR will be continued by another Bates student through the Summer of 2019 and Healthy Homeworks has a goal to launch a public facing version of the PHR in January 2020. Some recommendations for next steps are to further clarify the rating system, establish methods and frequency of updates from remaining data holders, and to expand the PHR to include all of Lewiston, beyond the Tree Street neighborhood. Other future work includes logistical planning for integrating the PHR with Lewiston’s new Rental Registry. The launch of the PHR will increase the health and well-being of the Lewiston community for a safe and sustainable future

Was Austria’s presidential election really a vote against populism?

Austria’s presidential election on 4 December saw a surprisingly large victory for Alexander Van der Bellen over Norbert Hofer, the candidate of the populist right-wing FPÖ. However, as Eva Zeglovits, Hubert Sickinger and Jakob-Moritz Eberl write, the level of support received by Hofer suggests the FPÖ could nevertheless be well placed to win the next federal elections

Phase retrapping in aφJosephson junction: onset of the butterfly effect

We investigate experimentally the retrapping of the phase in a φ Josephson junction upon return of the junction to the zero-voltage state. Since the Josephson energy profile U 0 ( ψ ) in φ JJ is a 2 π periodic double-well potential with minima at ψ = ± φ mod 2 π , the question is at which of the two minima − φ or + φ the phase will be trapped upon return from a finite voltage state during quasistatic decrease of the bias current (tilt of the potential). By measuring the relative population of two peaks in escape histograms, we determine the probability of phase trapping in the ± φ wells for different temperatures. Our experimental results agree qualitatively with theoretical predictions. In particular, we observe an onset of the butterfly effect with an oscillating probability of trapping. Unexpectedly, this probability saturates at a value different from 50% at low temperatures