Spreadsheet-based GIS Models

Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which are computer-based systems that allow decision makers to incorporate geographically based data into their analyses, are widespread and powerful tools in many business and scientific settings today. In this paper, we present a tutorial discussing ways in which GIS functionality can be implemented within the spreadsheet environment. We show the straightforward and natural analogy between several GIS functions with spreadsheet functions, particularly for raster based data. We present two realistic examples meshing OR/MS methods with GIS methods --- an integration which is greatly enhanced by the “remarkable development platform” provided by spreadsheets. We discuss the many benefits of the spreadsheet enabled seamless integration of geographical data, analysis, and display

Toxicity of Bupropion Overdose Compared With Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors

OBJECTIVES: Adolescent depression and attempted and completed suicide are increasing in the United States. Because suicide is often impulsive, the means of self-harm are frequently items of convenience like medication. Authors of a recent study compared tricyclic antidepressant overdose to bupropion overdose. Fluoxetine and escitalopram are the only agents with Food and Drug Administration approval for pediatric depression, but off-label bupropion prescriptions are common. We sought to compare the effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and bupropion in overdose. METHODS: This was an analysis of the National Poison Data System from June 2013 through December 2017 for adolescent (ages 10–19) exposures to SSRIs or bupropion coded as “suspected suicide.” Demographics, clinical effects, therapies, and medical outcome were analyzed. RESULTS: There were 30 026 cases during the study period. Sertraline and fluoxetine accounted for nearly 60%, whereas bupropion was reported in 11.7%. Bupropion exposure was significantly associated with death (0.23% vs 0%; P < .001) or serious outcome (58.1% vs 19%; P < .001) as well as the 10 most common clinical effects, including seizures (27.0% vs 8.5%; P < .001) and hallucinations (28.6% vs 4.3%; P < .001). Bupropion exposure was significantly associated with the need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (0.51% vs 0.01%; P < .001), intubation (4.9% vs 0.3%; P < .001), vasopressors (1.1% vs 0.2%; P < .001), and benzodiazepines (34.2% vs 5.5%; P < .001). There was a significant increase in all exposures and in proportion of serious outcomes over time. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who attempt self-harm are at higher risk for serious morbidity and poor outcomes with bupropion than with SSRIs. These risks, and the patient’s propensity for self-harm, should be evaluated when therapy with bupropion is considered

Tracking Bias: Using Eye-Tracking To Measure The Effects Of Cognitive Control In Hiring Situations

The use of social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is becoming increasingly popular in both academic and professional research settings. While they are a valuable tool, many have raised ethical concerns about the access to protected class information such as race, gender, and sexual orientation. Although access to this information through a social media page is legal, the use of these discriminatory factors in hiring situations is an illegal and unethical practice. Little research has been done on how to mitigate the effects of biases formed from these factors. The current study used eye-tracking technology to investigate whether a cognitive control message can affect people’s ability to control what they look at during a simulated hiring situation. Overall, I found evidence consistent with the use of cognitive control in simulated hiring situations as seen by fewer fixations on average less frequent average fixations and shorter fixation durations to target words as well as to the profile picture and biographical information section of the profiles. Individuals given a cognitive control inducing message exhibited patterns of oculomotor behavior consistent with the use of cognitive control using top-down information to reduce but not completely prevent fixations to protected class information contained within the profiles

Exploration of the Windward Passage and Jamaica Channel: Tectonic Gateways to the Caribbean Sea

The Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) Workshop on Telepresence-Enabled Exploration of the Caribbean Region was convened in November 2012 to plan for the 2013 field season with the idea that Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus and its Corps of Exploration would spend only one year working in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. However, the strong showing of interest in the area from the international group of marine scientists who submitted white papers to and participated in that workshop was so impressive the Trust and its Nautilus Advisory Board decided to schedule a second year in this area of the world before moving on to the Pacific Ocean, as originally planned. This fifth Oceanography supplement chronicles the 2014 field season: four months of exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, as well as rapid growth in our science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and outreach programs and continued research on best practices of telepresence and archaeological oceanography

High-global warming potential F-gas emissions in California: comparison of ambient-based versus inventory-based emission estimates, and implications of refined estimates.

To provide information for greenhouse gas reduction policies, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) inventories annual emissions of high-global-warming potential (GWP) fluorinated gases, the fastest growing sector of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. Baseline 2008 F-gas emissions estimates for selected chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-12), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC-22), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFC-134a) made with an inventory-based methodology were compared to emissions estimates made by ambient-based measurements. Significant discrepancies were found, with the inventory-based emissions methodology resulting in a systematic 42% under-estimation of CFC-12 emissions from older refrigeration equipment and older vehicles, and a systematic 114% overestimation of emissions for HFC-134a, a refrigerant substitute for phased-out CFCs. Initial, inventory-based estimates for all F-gas emissions had assumed that equipment is no longer in service once it reaches its average lifetime of use. Revised emission estimates using improved models for equipment age at end-of-life, inventories, and leak rates specific to California resulted in F-gas emissions estimates in closer agreement to ambient-based measurements. The discrepancies between inventory-based estimates and ambient-based measurements were reduced from -42% to -6% for CFC-12, and from +114% to +9% for HFC-134a

Constraining dark energy via baryon acoustic oscillations in the (an)isotropic light-cone power spectrum

The measurement of the scale of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the galaxy power spectrum as a function of redshift is a promising method to constrain the equation-of-state parameter of the dark energy w. To measure the scale of the BAO precisely, a substantial volume of space must be surveyed. We test whether light-cone effects are important and whether the scaling relations used to compensate for an incorrect reference cosmology are in this case sufficiently accurate. We investigate the degeneracies in the cosmological parameters and the benefits of using the two-dimensional anisotropic power spectrum. Finally, we estimate the uncertainty with which w can be measured by proposed surveys at redshifts of about z=3 and z=1, respectively. In the simulated survey we find that light-cone effects are small and that the simple scaling relations used to correct for the cosmological distortion work fairly well even for large survey volumes. The analysis of the two-dimensional anisotropic power spectra enables an independent determination to be made of the apparent scale of the BAO, perpendicular and parallel to the line of sight. This is essential for two-parameter w-models, such as the redshift-dependent dark energy model w=w_0+(1-a)w_a. Using Planck priors for the matter and baryon density and Delta(H_0)=5% for the Hubble constant, we estimate that the BAO measurements of future surveys around z=3 and z=1 will be able to constrain, independently of other cosmological probes, a constant w to ~ 12% and ~ 11% (68% c.l.), respectively.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures. Matches version published by A&A. Expanded significantly compared to the previous versio

The Rule of Rescue in the Era of Precision Medicine, HLA Eplet Matching, and Organ Allocation

Precision medicine can put clinicians in a position where they must act more as resource allocators than their traditional role as patient advocates. In the allocation of transplantable organs and tissues, the use of eplet matching will enhance precision medicine but, in doing so, generate a tension with the present reliance on rule of rescue and justice-based factors for allocations. Matching donor and recipient human leukocyte antigens (HLA) is shown to benefit virtually all types of solid organ transplants yet, until recently, HLA-matching has not been practical and was shown to contribute to ethnic/racial disparities in organ allocation. Recent advances using eplets from the HLA molecule has renewed the promise of such matching for predicting patient outcomes. The rule of rescue in organ allocation reflects a combination of ethical, policy, and legal imperatives. However, the rule of rescue can impede the allocation strategies adopted by professional medical associations and the optimal use of scarce transplant resources. While eplet-matching seeks to improve outcomes, it may potentially frustrate current ethics-motivated initiatives, established patient-practitioner relationships, and functional conventions in the allocation of medical resources such as organ and tissue transplants. Eplet-matching allocation schemes need to be carefully and collaboratively designed with clear, fair and equitable guidelines that complement functional conventions and maintain public trust

Joint inversions of three types of electromagnetic data explicitly constrained by seismic observations: results from the central Okavango Delta, Botswana

The Okavango Delta of northern Botswana is one of the world's largest inland deltas or megafans. To obtain information on the character of sediments and basement depths, audiomagnetotelluric (AMT), controlled-source audiomagnetotelluric (CSAMT) and central-loop transient electromagnetic (TEM) data were collected on the largest island within the delta. The data were inverted individually and jointly for 1-D models of electric resistivity. Distortion effects in the AMT and CSAMT data were accounted for by including galvanic distortion tensors as free parameters in the inversions. By employing Marquardt-Levenberg inversion, we found that a 3-layer model comprising a resistive layer overlying sequentially a conductive layer and a deeper resistive layer was sufficient to explain all of the electromagnetic data. However, the top of the basal resistive layer from electromagnetic-only inversions was much shallower than the well-determined basement depth observed in high-quality seismic reflection images and seismic refraction velocity tomograms. To resolve this discrepancy, we jointly inverted the electromagnetic data for 4-layer models by including seismic depths to an interface between sedimentary units and to basement as explicit a priori constraints. We have also estimated the interconnected porosities, clay contents and pore-fluid resistivities of the sedimentary units from their electrical resistivities and seismic P-wave velocities using appropriate petrophysical models. In the interpretation of our preferred model, a shallow∼40 m thick freshwater sandy aquifer with 85-100 Ωm resistivity, 10-32 per cent interconnected porosity and <13 per cent clay content overlies a 105-115m thick conductive sequence of clay and intercalated salt-water-saturated sands with 15-20 Ωm total resistivity, 1−27 per cent interconnected porosity and 15-60 per cent clay content. A third∼60 m thick sandy layer with 40-50 Ωm resistivity, 10-33 per cent interconnected porosity and <15 per cent clay content is underlain by the basement with 3200-4000 Ωm total resistivity. According to an interpretation of helicopter TEM data that cover the entire Okavango Delta and borehole logs, the second and third layers may represent lacustrine sediments from Paleo Lake Makgadikgadi and a moderately resistive freshwater aquifer comprising sediments of the recently proposed Paleo Okavango Megafan, respectivel

Differential Membrane Localization and Intermolecular Associations of α-Dystrobrevin Isoforms in Skeletal Muscle

α-Dystrobrevin is both a dystrophin homologue and a component of the dystrophin protein complex. Alternative splicing yields five forms, of which two predominate in skeletal muscle: full-length α-dystrobrevin-1 (84 kD), and COOH-terminal truncated α-dystrobrevin-2 (65 kD). Using isoform-specific antibodies, we find that α-dystrobrevin-2 is localized on the sarcolemma and at the neuromuscular synapse, where, like dystrophin, it is most concentrated in the depths of the postjunctional folds. α-Dystrobrevin-2 preferentially copurifies with dystrophin from muscle extracts. In contrast, α-dystrobrevin-1 is more highly restricted to the synapse, like the dystrophin homologue utrophin, and preferentially copurifies with utrophin. In yeast two-hybrid experiments and coimmunoprecipitation of in vitro–translated proteins, α-dystrobrevin-2 binds dystrophin, whereas α-dystrobrevin-1 binds both dystrophin and utrophin. α-Dystrobrevin-2 was lost from the nonsynaptic sarcolemma of dystrophin-deficient mdx mice, but was retained on the perisynaptic sarcolemma even in mice lacking both utrophin and dystrophin. In contrast, α-dystrobrevin-1 remained synaptically localized in mdx and utrophin-negative muscle, but was absent in double mutants. Thus, the distinct distributions of α-dystrobrevin-1 and -2 can be partly explained by specific associations with utrophin and dystrophin, but other factors are also involved. These results show that alternative splicing confers distinct properties of association on the α-dystrobrevins