Asymptotic distribution of fixed points of pattern-avoiding involutions

For a variety of pattern-avoiding classes, we describe the limiting distribution for the number of fixed points for involutions chosen uniformly at random from that class. In particular we consider monotone patterns of arbitrary length as well as all patterns of length 3. For monotone patterns we utilize the connection with standard Young tableaux with at most $k$ rows and involutions avoiding a monotone pattern of length $k$. For every pattern of length 3 we give the bivariate generating function with respect to fixed points for the involutions that avoid that pattern, and where applicable apply tools from analytic combinatorics to extract information about the limiting distribution from the generating function. Many well-known distributions appear.Comment: 16 page

Laser-Induced Fabrication of Metallic Interlayers and Patterns in Polyimide Films

Self-metallizing polyimide films are created by doping polyamic acid solutions with metallic ions and solubilizing agents. Upon creating a film, the film is exposed to coherent light for a specific time and then cured. The resulting film has been found to have a metallic surface layer and a metallic subsurface layer (interlayer). The layer separating the metallic layer has a uniform dispersion of small metal particulates within the polymer. The layer below the interlayer has larger metal particulates uniformly distributed within the polymer. By varying the intensity or time of exposure to the coherent light, three-dimensional control of metal formation within the film is provided

Automated requirements analysis for a molecular watchdog timer

Dynamic systems in DNA nanotechnology are often programmed using a chemical reaction network (CRN) model as an intermediate level of abstraction. In this paper, we design and analyze a CRN model of a watchdog timer, a device commonly used to monitor the health of a safety critical system. Our process uses incremental design practices with goal-oriented requirements engineering, software verification tools, and custom software to help automate the software engineering process. The watchdog timer is comprised of three components: an absence detector, a threshold filter, and a signal amplifier. These components are separately designed and verified, and only then composed to create the molecular watchdog timer. During the requirements-design iterations, simulation, model checking, and analysis are used to verify the system. Using this methodology several incomplete requirements and design flaws were found, and the final verified model helped determine specific parameters for biological experiments

Are Health Workers in Nigeria Prepared for the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Case Study of Selected Health Workers in Plateau State, Nigeria

Background: COVID-19 is a disease that has resulted in a worldwide pandemic. Health workers have been identified to be at a higher risk compared to the general population due to increased exposure primarily at the work place and having to deal with a novel disease whose epidemiology is still evolving. As health workers are vital to control efforts, their response will be influenced by what they know, their perception of the disease and their practices. This study therefore sought to assess the knowledge, perceptions and practices of health workers on COVID-19 in Plateau State, Nigeria. Method: It is a descriptive study that used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data on 105 health workers of Plateau State who were purposively selected. Data was collected on their knowledge, perceptions and practice of COVID-19 and analyzed using SPSS version 23 at a confidence interval of 95%. Results: Mean age of health workers was 42.5 ± 9.2 years.  Females made up 58% of the respondents, males were 42%.  Nurses made up 69% of the respondents.  More than 70% had worked for 10 – 29 years. Knowledge of COVID-19 was found to be inadequate in 57% of the health workers with social media being most frequent (69.5%) source of information. Most (86.6%) respondents had a good perception towards COVID-19 and 62.8% were willing to attend to a COVID-19 patient. There were consistent practices of hand hygiene and cough etiquette. Sixty percent had access to at least one form of personal protective equipment though 72.4% had never had training on putting on the full personal protective gear required for COVID-19. Conclusion: There is an urgent need for training of health care workers in Plateau State and provision of full personal protective gear to ensure their safety at work

Gait analysis of fixed bearing and mobile bearing total knee prostheses during walking: Do mobile bearings offer functional advantages?

Background - Limited previous findings have detailed biomechanical advantages following implantation with mobile bearing (MB) prostheses after total knee replacement (TKR) surgery during walking. The aim of this study was to compare three dimensional spatiotemporal, kinematic, and kinetic parameters during walking to examine whether MBs offer functional advantages over fixed bearing (FB) designs. Methods - Sixteen patients undergoing primary unilateral TKR surgery were randomised to receive either a FB (n = 8) or MB (n = 8) total knee prosthesis. Eight age and gender matched controls underwent the same protocol on one occasion. A 12 camera Vicon system integrated with four force plates was used. Patients were tested pre-surgery and nine months post-surgery. Results - No significant differences between FB and MB groups were found at any time point in the spatiotemporal parameters. The MB group was found to have a significantly reduced frontal plane knee range of motion (ROM) at pre-surgery than the FB group (FB = 14.92 ± 4.02°; MB = 8.87 ± 4.82°), with the difference not observed post-surgery. No further significant kinematic or kinetic differences were observed between FB and MB groups. Fixed bearing and MB groups both displayed spatiotemporal, kinematic, and kinetic differences when compared to controls. Fixed bearing and MB groups differed from controls in six and five parameters at nine months post-surgery, respectively. Conclusions - No functional advantages were found in knees implanted with MB prostheses during walking, with both groups indicative of similar differences when compared to normal knee biomechanics following prosthesis implantation

Late winter 1992 sampling for water quality in three stream segments of the Tualatin River Basin, Oregon

The Tualatin River Basin in Washington County, Oregon has been identified by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) as "Water Quality Limited." Algal blooms have become commonplace in the lower , reaches of. the river during summer months. Phosphorus has been identified as the nutrient upon which to base allowable Total Maximum Daily Loads (fMDL}. Water quality data have been collected from the Tualatin River and its tributaries for the period of May through October for each of the past several years. Samples from the main stem of the river have also been collected during the winter months on a less frequent basis. There are very few data, however, from the tributaries for the winter months. This study was planned to collect water samples from three of the Tualatin River tributaries during the months of March and April, 1992. These tributaries were selected to represent the three major land uses within the basin: urban, agricultural, and forestry. Weekly samples were taken from Dairy, McKay, and Fanno Creeks. Multiple samples were collected on each sampling date to establish the extent to which short term variability would affect interpretation of the results. Total (TP) and orthophosphate (OP) concentrations on the East and West Fork of Dairy creek were essentially constant over time and sampling site; averaging 0.05 and 0.02 mg/1 respectively. McKay Creek samples showed 0.01 mg/1 OP, with TP increasing from 0.02 to 0.045 mg/1 downstream. The values did not change with time. The Dairy Creek samples showed 0.025 OP and 0.065 TP, constant with sampling time. Fanno Creek had average values of 0.035 OP and 0.09 TP, which increased with time, but were constant across sampling sites. Total solids and suspended solids were highest in Fanno Creek and lowest in McKay Creek. Suspended solids decreased downstream in Fanno Creek, and total solids increased for McKay Creek. Flow responded to rainfall, but no erosion events were recorded during this sampling period

Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender, authority, and dissent

At the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state

Gender Differences in Acute and Chronic Pain in the Emergency Department: Results of the 2014 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference Pain Section

Pain is a leading public health problem in the United States, with an annual economic burden of more than $630 billion, and is one of the most common reasons that individuals seek emergency department (ED) care. There is a paucity of data regarding sex differences in the assessment and treatment of acute and chronic pain conditions in the ED. The Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference convened in Dallas, Texas in May of 2014 to develop a research agenda to address this issue among others related to sex differences in the ED. Prior to the conference, experts and stakeholders from emergency medicine and the pain research field reviewed the current literature and identified eight candidate priority areas. At the conference, these eight areas were reviewed and all eight were ratified using a nominal group technique to build consensus. These priority areas were: 1) gender differences in the pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions for pain, including differences in opioid tolerance, side effects, or misuse; 2) gender differences in pain severity perceptions, clinically meaningful differences in acute pain, and pain treatment preferences; 3) gender differences in pain outcomes of ED patients across the lifespan; 4) gender differences in the relationship between acute pain and acute psychological responses; 5) the influence of physician-patient gender differences and characteristics on the assessment and treatment of pain; 6) gender differences in the influence of acute stress and chronic stress on acute pain responses; 7) gender differences in biologic mechanisms and molecular pathways mediating acute pain in ED populations; and 8) gender differences in biologic mechanisms and molecular pathways mediating chronic pain development after trauma, stress, or acute illness exposure. These areas represent priority areas for future scientific inquiry, and gaining understanding in these will be essential to improving our understanding of sex and gender differences in the assessment and treatment of pain conditions in emergency care settings