Developing a Bike-Share Program for Salinas and CSUMB

Our goal for this semester in Sustainable City Year Program was to research and understand the intricacies of pre- and post bike-share implementations in both downtown and urban areas, as well as on college campuses so we could make recommendations to the city of Salinas and for California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). We also created two surveys, one for CSUMB and one for Salinas. These surveys allowed us to get a better understanding of what constituents and students know about bike-share programs as well as their interest in having one and their concerns they might have if one were to be implemented. Overall, we have two questions for our research: (1) could Salinas benefit from a bike-share program? And (2) would a bike-share program be beneficial for CSUMB’s expanding campus

Student Modeling and Analysis in Adaptive Instructional Systems

There is a growing interest in developing and implementing adaptive instructional systems to improve, automate, and personalize student education. A necessary part of any such adaptive instructional system is a student model used to predict or analyze learner behavior and inform adaptation. To help inform researchers in this area, this paper presents a state-of-the-art review of 11 years of research (2010-2021) in student modeling, focusing on learner characteristics, learning indicators, and foundational aspects of dissimilar models. We mainly emphasize increased prediction accuracy when using multidimensional learner data to create multimodal models in real-world adaptive instructional systems. In addition, we discuss challenges inherent in real-world multimodal modeling, such as uncontrolled data collection environments leading to noisy data and data sync issues. Finally, we reinforce our findings and conclusions through an industry case study of an adaptive instructional system. In our study, we verify that adding multiple data modalities increases our model prediction accuracy from 53.3% to 69%. At the same time, the challenges encountered with our real-world case study, including uncontrolled data collection environment with inevitably noisy data, calls for synchronization and noise control strategies for data quality and usability

Evaluating Recruitment Contribution Of A Selectively Bred Aquaculture Line Of The Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica Used In Restoration Efforts

Severe over-fishing, habitat degradation, and recent disease impacts have devastated the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) fisherey in the Chesapeake Bay. Several restoration efforts are in progress, including the unconventional approach of seeding reefs with an aquaculture strain selected for disease resistance and fast growth in hopes of mitigating the negative effects of diseases and low census numbers. Supplementation of four sites (The Great Wicomico, Lynnhaven, York and Elizabeth Rivers) examined in this study totaled approximatedly 18,500,000 aquaculture oysters from 2002 to 2006. We collected locally recruited offspring (n = 6517) from 2002 to 2006 at these sites to determine if reproduction by the transplanted oysters produced detectable contributions to recruitment by examining the frequency of a composite mitochondrial haplotype that occurs at high frequencies in this aquaculture strain but is rare in wild Chesapeake Bay oysters. The estimated frequency of this haplotype in locally recruited oysters (average 1.4%, SD = 0.9) was compared with the average frequencies found in the hatchery produced (35%, SD = 12.8) and wild (1.2%, SD = 0.9) oysters, but we were unable to refute the null-hypothesis that population supplementation made no contribution to recruitment. We discuss five nonmutually exclusive explanations for the limited impact of supplementation, including unequal sex-ratio, predation, flushing, relative scale, and aquaculture selection. We argue that predation, relative scale and aquaculture selection are the likely reasons for the limited contribution made by aquaculture oysters used for population supplementation

'A light in a very dark place' : The role of a voluntary organisation providing support for those affected by encephalitis

Voluntary organisations are seen as contributing to the ‘democratisation’ of health and social care. Little, however, is written about their role and this paper, by focusing on the work of The Encephalitis Society, provides insights into the challenges facing voluntary organisations as they manage twin roles as service providers and advocates, of people with neurological disorders. Two studies are presented: a review conducted by the Society, focusing on patient’s experiences of neurological services; and an external evaluation of the Society’s current provision. The first, based on a postal survey of its members affected by encephalitis (n = 339), illustrates the Society’s advocacy role. The survey provided support for the Association of British Neurologists’ recommendation for nationally agreed standards of care. The second study, a postal survey of recent contacts (n = 76) and in-depth telephone interviews (n = 22), illustrates the Society’s value role as a service provider and supports its role in helping rehabilitate affected individuals and their families. These studies provided the Society with information for policy and service development. Importantly, providing the basis of informed action and partnership with stakeholders and informing the organisation’s sense of purpose, in the changing context of welfare provision in the UK

Micrometeorological and Thermal Control of Frost Flower Growth and Decay on Young Sea Ice

Frost flowers are transient crystal structures that form on new and young sea ice surfaces. They have been implicated in a variety of biological, chemical, and physical processes and interactions with the atmosphere at the sea ice surface. We describe the atmospheric and radiative conditions and the physical and thermal properties of the sea ice and atmosphere that form, decay, and destroy frost flowers on young sea ice. Frost flower formation occurred during a high-pressure system that caused air temperatures to drop to −30˚C, with relative humidity of 70% (an undersaturated atmosphere), and very calm wind conditions. The sea ice surface temperature at the time of frost flower initiation was 10˚–13˚C warmer than the air temperature. Frost flowers grew on nodules raised above the mean surface height by 5 mm, which were 4˚–6˚C colder than the bare, brine-wetted, highly saline sea ice surface that provided the necessary moisture. The cold nodules created potential water vapour supersaturation zones above them with respect to air over the brine skim. Frost flowers formed and grew overnight in the absence of shortwave radiation, while the net longwave radiation was negative and dominated the net all-wave radiation balance at the surface. The observed crystal habits of the frost flowers were long needles, betraying their origin from the vapour phase at temperatures between −20˚C and −30˚C. After a night of growth, frost flowers decayed in association with increased solar radiation, a net surface radiation balance of 0 W m-2, increased air and surface temperatures, increased wind speed, and decreased relative humidity. We hypothesize that these conditions increased vertical mixing, which eroded near-surface water vapour saturation and initiated sublimation. The frost flowers finally were rapidly destroyed by snowfall.Les fleurs de glace sont des structures cristallines transitoires qui se forment sur des surfaces de glace de mer nouvelles et jeunes. Elles découlent de divers processus et interactions biologiques, chimiques et physiques avec l’atmosphère, à la surface de la glace de mer. Nous décrivons les conditions atmosphériques et radiatives de même que les propriétés physiques et thermiques de la glace de mer qui forment, détériorent et détruisent les fleurs de glace sur la jeune glace de mer. La formation de fleurs de glace s’est produite lorsqu’un système de haute pression a fait baisser les températures de l’air à −30 ˚C, avec une humidité relative de 70 % (atmosphère sous-saturée) et un régime des vents très calme. À l’amorçage des fleurs de glace, la température à la surface de la glace de mer était de 10˚ à 13 ˚C plus chaude que la température de l’air. Les fleurs de glace se sont formées sur des nodules élevés au-dessus de la hauteur moyenne de la surface dans une mesure de 5 mm, ce qui était entre 4˚ et 6 ˚C plus froid que la surface de glace de mer brute, saumurée et fortement saline qui a fourni l’humidité nécessaire. En ce qui a trait à l’air au-dessus de l’écume de saumure, les nodules de froid ont créé des zones potentielles de sursaturation de vapeur d’eau au-dessus. Des fleurs de glace se sont formées et ont grossi pendant la nuit, en l’absence de rayonnement de courtes longueurs d’onde, tandis que le rayonnement net de grandes longueurs d’onde était négatif et dominait l’équilibre du rayonnement net de toutes ondes à la surface. L’habitus cristallin observé dans les fleurs de glace prenait la forme de longues aiguilles, trahissant son origine de la phase vapeur à des températures variant de −20 ˚C à −30 ˚C. Après une nuit de croissance, les fleurs de glace se sont détériorées en présence du rayonnement solaire accru, du bilan radiatif de la surface de 0 W m-2, des températures accrues de l’air et de la surface, de la plus grande vitesse du vent et de l’humidité relative réduite. Nous formulons l’hypothèse que ces conditions ont eu pour effet d’augmenter le mélange vertical, ce qui a érodé la saturation de vapeur d’eau près de la surface et déclenché la sublimation. Par la suite, les fleurs de glace ont été rapidement détruites par la chute de neige

Strategic analysis for the MER Cape Verde approach

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has recently completed a two year campaign studying Victoria Crater. The campaign culminated in a close approach of Cape Verde in order to acquire high resolution imagery of the exposed stratigraphy in the cliff face. The close approach to Cape Verde provided significant challenges for every subsystem of the rover as the rover needed to traverse difficult, un-characterised terrain and approach a cliff face with the potential of blocking out solar energy and communications with Earth. In this paper we describe the strategic analyses performed by the science and engineering teams so that we could successfully achieve the science objectives while keeping the rover safe

Profiling the iron, copper and zinc content in primary neuron and astrocyte cultures by rapid online quantitative size exclusion chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

Metals often determine the chemical reactivity of the proteins to which they are bound. Each cell in the body tightly maintains a unique metalloproteomic profile, mostly dependent on function. This paper describes an analytical online flow injection quantitative size exclusion chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (SEC-ICP-MS) method, which was applied to profiling the metal-binding proteins found in primary cultures of neurons and astrocytes. This method can be conducted using similar amounts of sample to those used for Western blotting (20-150 μg protein), and has a turnaround time of <15 minutes. Metalloprotein standards for Fe (as ferritin), Cu and Zn (as superoxide dismutase-1) were used to construct multi-point calibration curves for online quantification of metalloproteins by SEC-ICP-MS. Homogenates of primary neuron and astrocyte cultures were analysed by SEC-ICP-MS. Online quantification by external calibration with metalloprotein standards determined the mass of metal eluting from the column relative to time (as pg s-1). Total on-column Fe, Cu and Zn detection limits ranged from 0.825 ± 0.005 ng to 13.6 ± 0.7 pg. Neurons and astrocytes exhibited distinct metalloprotein profiles, featuring both ubiquitous and unique metalloprotein species. Separation and detection by SEC-ICP-MS allows appraisal of these metalloproteins in their native state, and online quantification was achieved using this relatively simple external calibration process. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Bounding the mass of the graviton using gravitional-wave observations of inspiralling compact binaries

If gravitation is propagated by a massive field, then the velocity of gravitational waves (gravitons) will depend upon their frequency and the effective Newtonian potential will have a Yukawa form. In the case of inspiralling compact binaries, gravitational waves emitted at low frequency early in the inspiral will travel slightly slower than those emitted at high frequency later, modifying the phase evolution of the observed inspiral gravitational waveform, similar to that caused by post-Newtonian corrections to quadrupole phasing. Matched filtering of the waveforms can bound such frequency-dependent variations in propagation speed, and thereby bound the graviton mass. The bound depends on the mass of the source and on noise characteristics of the detector, but is independent of the distance to the source, except for weak cosmological redshift effects. For observations of stellar-mass compact inspiral using ground-based interferometers of the LIGO/VIRGO type, the bound on the graviton Compton wavelength is of the order of $6 \times 10^{12}$ km, about double that from solar-system tests of Yukawa modifications of Newtonian gravity. For observations of super-massive black hole binary inspiral at cosmological distances using the proposed laser interferometer space antenna (LISA), the bound can be as large as $6 \times 10^{16}$ km. This is three orders of magnitude weaker than model-dependent bounds from galactic cluster dynamics.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Stabilization of nontoxic Ajβ-oligomers: Insights into the mechanism of action of hydroxyquinolines in alzheimer’s disease

©2015 the authors. The extracellular accumulation of amyloid β (A/β) peptides is characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, formation of diffusible, oligomeric forms of Aβ, both on and off pathways to amyloid fibrils, is thought to include neurotoxic species responsible for synaptic loss and neurodegeneration, rather than polymeric amyloid aggregates. The 8-hydroxyquinolines (8-HQ) clioquinol (CQ) and PBT2 were developed for their ability to inhibit metal-mediated generation of reactive oxygen species from A/β:Cu complexes and have both undergone preclinical and Phase II clinical development for the treatment of AD. Their respective modes of action are not fully understood and may include both inhibition of Aβ fibrillar polymerization and direct depolymerization of existing Aβ fibrils. In the present study, we find that CQ and PBT2 can interact directly with Aβ and affect its propensity to aggregate. Using a combination of biophysical techniques, we demonstrate that, in the presence of these 8-HQs and in the absence of metal ions, Aβ associates with two 8-HQ molecules and forms a dimer. Furthermore, 8-HQ bind Aβ with an affinity of 1-10 μam and suppress the formation of large (>30kDa) oligomers. The stabilized low molecular weight species are nontoxic. Treatment with 8-HQs also reduces the levels of in vivo soluble oligomers in a Caenorhabditis elegans model of Aβ toxicity. We propose that 8-HQs possess an additional mechanism of action that neutralizes neurotoxic Aβ oligomer formation through stabilization of small (dimeric) nontoxic Aβ conformers

Nurse Screening for Delirium in Older Patients Attending the Emergency Department

Background: Delirium in older emergency department (ED) patients is common, associated with many adverse outcomes, and costly to manage. Delirium detection in the ED is almost universally poor. Objectives: The authors aimed to develop a simple clinical risk screening tool that could be used by ED nurses as part of their initial assessment to identify patients at risk of delirium. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study of patients 65 years and older attending a single ED. Results: Of 320 enrolled patients, 23 (7.2%) had delirium. Logistic regression analysis revealed 3 risk factors strongly associated with delirium risk: cognitive impairment, depression, and an abnormal heart rate/rhythm. Weighting these variables based on the strength of their association with delirium yielded a risk score from 0–4 inclusive. A cut off of 2 or more in that score would have given a sensitivity of 87%, specificity of 70%, and NPV of 99%, while avoiding further diagnostic workup for delirium in approximately two-thirds of all patients, when used as an initial screen. Conclusions: A simple risk screening tool using factors evident on initial nurse assessment can be used to identify patients at risk of delirium. Further trials are needed to test whether the tool improves patient outcomes