Building Institutional Support for Undocumented and DACA-eligible College Students in Michigan

In 2017, the state of Michigan operated, and continues to operate, in an unstipulated policy environment related to undocumented students. There is no higher education commission or policy coordinating body in Michigan nor has the state legislature passed any legislation related to undocumented students or students who are DACA-eligible. Under this unstipulated policy environment, postsecondary institutions have the discretion to establish their own admissions policies and practices, including tuition and financial aid guidelines for undocumented students. Some institutions have stated their public support of these students through what they identify as inclusive and supportive institutional practices via their websites. However, these polices have created a nebulous environment which has created additional barriers for undocumented and DACA-eligible students trying to access postsecondary education. The lack of clear and consistent financial aid and admission policies across the state has resulted in a convoluted environment for undocumented and DACA-eligible students in applying to institutions. In this paper, we highlight how a group of undergraduate and graduate University of Michigan student researchers, both documented and undocumented, developed an instrument to analyze institutional policies related to in-state resident tuition, admission, financial aid, as well as the availability of dedicated student support services for undocumented and DACA-eligible students in the state of Michigan during the Fall of 2017. The data for this project has been turned into a website with updated (as of 2020) and available at https://uleadnet.org/mi-undocu-map

Development of a remotely activated field sprayer and evaluation of temperature and aeration on the longevity of Steinernema riobrave entomopathogenic nematodes for treatment of cattle fever tick-infested nilgai

A remotely activated field sprayer was developed for application of the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinerne-ma riobrave (Cabanillas, Poinar, and Raulston) for eradication of the southern cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus microplus (Canestrini) infesting free-ranging nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) in South Texas. The battery pow-ered sprayer is activated by sonic sensors that detect movement of nilgai through fence crossings. An onboard computer operates the sprayer pump and aerator that oxygenates the solution of nematodes. Several types of aeria-tion, agitation, and cooling were tested to prolong the viability of the nematodes in water. Continuous aeration extended the longevity of S. riobrave to more than two weeks as compared to cooling or intermittent agitation. The potential use of nematodes pathogenic to R. microplus dispensed by the remotely activated sprayer to infested nil-gai, and potentially white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), as part of integrated cattle fever tick eradication efforts is discussed

Schulrat Dr. Scheurer zum 70. Geburtstag

OpenWS-Transaction is an open source middleware that enables Web services to participate in a distributed transaction as prescribed by the WS-Coordination and WS-Transaction set of specifications. Central to the framework are the Coordinator and Participant entities, which can be integrated into existing services by introducing minimal changes to application code. OpenWS-Transaction allows transaction members to recover their original state in case of operational failure by leveraging techniques in logical logging and recovery at the application level. Depending on transaction style, system recovery may involve restoring key application variables and replaying uncommitted database activity. Transactions are assumed to be defined in the context of a BPEL process, although other orchestration alternatives can be used

Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Single Particle, Passive Microrheology Data with Drift

Volume limitations and low yield thresholds of biological fluids have led to widespread use of passive microparticle rheology. The mean-squared-displacement (MSD) statistics of bead position time series (bead paths) are either applied directly to determine the creep compliance [Xu et al (1998)] or transformed to determine dynamic storage and loss moduli [Mason & Weitz (1995)]. A prevalent hurdle arises when there is a non-diffusive experimental drift in the data. Commensurate with the magnitude of drift relative to diffusive mobility, quantified by a P\'eclet number, the MSD statistics are distorted, and thus the path data must be "corrected" for drift. The standard approach is to estimate and subtract the drift from particle paths, and then calculate MSD statistics. We present an alternative, parametric approach using maximum likelihood estimation that simultaneously fits drift and diffusive model parameters from the path data; the MSD statistics (and consequently the compliance and dynamic moduli) then follow directly from the best-fit model. We illustrate and compare both methods on simulated path data over a range of P\'eclet numbers, where exact answers are known. We choose fractional Brownian motion as the numerical model because it affords tunable, sub-diffusive MSD statistics consistent with typical 30 second long, experimental observations of microbeads in several biological fluids. Finally, we apply and compare both methods on data from human bronchial epithelial cell culture mucus.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figure

Translocation and deletion breakpoints in cancer genomes are associated with potential non-B DNA-forming sequences

Gross chromosomal rearrangements (including translocations, deletions, insertions and duplications) are a hallmark of cancer genomes and often create oncogenic fusion genes. An obligate step in the generation of such gross rearrangements is the formation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Since the genomic distribution of rearrangement breakpoints is non-random, intrinsic cellular factors may predispose certain genomic regions to breakage. Notably, certain DNA sequences with the potential to fold into secondary structures [potential non-B DNA structures (PONDS); e.g. triplexes, quadruplexes, hairpin/cruciforms, Z-DNA and single-stranded looped-out structures with implications in DNA replication and transcription] can stimulate the formation of DNA DSBs. Here, we tested the postulate that these DNA sequences might be found at, or in close proximity to, rearrangement breakpoints. By analyzing the distribution of PONDS-forming sequences within ±500 bases of 19 947 translocation and 46 365 sequence-characterized deletion breakpoints in cancer genomes, we find significant association between PONDS-forming repeats and cancer breakpoints. Specifically, (AT)n, (GAA)n and (GAAA)n constitute the most frequent repeats at translocation breakpoints, whereas A-tracts occur preferentially at deletion breakpoints. Translocation breakpoints near PONDS-forming repeats also recur in different individuals and patient tumor samples. Hence, PONDS-forming sequences represent an intrinsic risk factor for genomic rearrangements in cancer genomes

Muscle Strength, Physical Activity, and Functional Limitations in Older Adults with Central Obesity

Background: Obesity and muscle weakness are independently associated with increased risk of physical and functional impairment in older adults. It is unknown whether physical activity (PA) and muscle strength combined provide added protection against functional impairment. This study examines the association between muscle strength, PA, and functional outcomes in older adults with central obesity. Methods: Prevalence and odds of physical (PL), ADL, and IADL limitation were calculated for 6,388 community dwelling adults aged ≥ 60 with central obesity. Individuals were stratified by sex-specific hand grip tertiles and PA. Logistic models were adjusted for age, education, comorbidities, and body-mass index and weighted. Results: Overall prevalence of PL and ADL and IADL limitations were progressively lower by grip category. Within grip categories, prevalence was lower for individuals who were active than those who were inactive. Adjusted models showed significantly lower odds of PL OR 0.42 [0.31, 0.56]; ADL OR 0.60 [0.43, 0.84], and IADL OR 0.46 0.35, 0.61] for those in the highest grip strength category as compared to those in the lowest grip category. Conclusion: Improving grip strength in obese elders who are not able to engage in traditional exercise is important for reducing odds of physical and functional impairment

New concept of safeprocess based on a fault detection methodology: super alarms

Industrial plants, especially on mining, metal processing, energy and chemical/petrochemical processes require integrated management of all the events that may cause accidents and translate into alarms. Process alarm management can be formulated as an eventbased pattern recognition problem in which temporal patterns are used to characterize different typical situations, particularly at startup and shutdown stages. In this paper, a new layer based on a diagnosis process is proposed over the typical layers of protection in industrial processes. Considering the alarms and the actions of the standard operating procedure as discrete events, the diagnosis step relies on situation recognition to provide the operators with relevant information about the failures inducing the alarm flow. The new concept of super alarms is based on a methodology with a diagnosis step that permits generate these types of superior alarms. For example, the Chronicle Based Alarm Management (CBAM) methodology involves different techniques to take the hybrid aspect and the standard operational procedures of the concerned processes into account

Incidence of the Brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus and its parasitoid, Ixodiphagus hookeri on dogs in South Texas

The southern cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus microplus, is a livestock pest worldwide, including South Texas, and can vector Babesia spp.; the causal agents of bovine babesiosis. Its congener, the brown dog tick, Rhipicepha-lus sanguineus, is also common worldwide and is frequently parasitized by a wasp, Ixodiphagus hookeri. To better understand the life history and host location cues of parasitic wasps of ticks, which supports the cattle fever tick eradication program for R. microplus, we examined the incidence of R. sanguineus and its parasitoid I. hookeri. Dogs in Hidalgo County, TX were observed (n=624) from Oct 2018 to April 2019. Our results show that the sampled dogs had very low levels of R. sanguineus (1.89%) with 219 nymphs, and no parasitoids were recovered. We also found that R. sanguineus nymph incidence is significantly higher on female dogs and puppies than other classes of dogs

Heat recovery mechanism in the excitation of radiative polaritons by broadband infrared radiation in thin oxide films

This work probes radiative polaritons in thin oxide layers as a mean to capture and absorb broadband infrared radiation and transform it into heat. A heat recovery mechanism, based on the Seebeck effect, is used as the tool of the investigation. Heat production challenges the current understanding which views the excitation of radiative polaritons as only accompanied by the emission of electromagnetic radiation. The heat recovery mechanism presented here can inspire the design of infrared energy harvesting devices, similar to photovoltaic cells, and other devices to convert energy from a wide range of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum using thermoelectric power generators

The Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for space habitation and exploration

The “Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration” is a novel system concept that provides a platform for integrating sensors and actuators with daily astronaut intravehicular activities to improve health and performance, while reducing the mass and volume of the physiologic adaptation countermeasure systems, as well as the required exercise time during long-duration space exploration missions. The V2Suit system leverages wearable kinematic monitoring technology and uses inertial measurement units (IMUs) and control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) within miniaturized modules placed on body segments to provide a “viscous resistance” during movements against a specified direction of “down”—initially as a countermeasure to the sensorimotor adaptation performance decrements that manifest themselves while living and working in microgravity and during gravitational transitions during long-duration spaceflight, including post-flight recovery and rehabilitation. Several aspects of the V2Suit system concept were explored and simulated prior to developing a brassboard prototype for technology demonstration. This included a system architecture for identifying the key components and their interconnects, initial identification of key human-system integration challenges, development of a simulation architecture for CMG selection and parameter sizing, and the detailed mechanical design and fabrication of a module. The brassboard prototype demonstrates closed-loop control from “down” initialization through CMG actuation, and provides a research platform for human performance evaluations to mitigate sensorimotor adaptation, as well as a tool for determining the performance requirements when used as a musculoskeletal deconditioning countermeasure. This type of countermeasure system also has Earth benefits, particularly in gait or movement stabilization and rehabilitation.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Innovative Advanced Concepts Grant NNX11AR25G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Innovative Advanced Concepts Grant NNX12AQ58G