One town's fight to save their nuclear power plant

Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages [17]).Before much of America learned to fear atomic energy, towns like Perry, Ohio, learned to love it. For over thirty years the Perry Nuclear Power Plant has been the linchpin of the small Rust Belt community, bringing flush budgets and well-paying jobs to an area with little other industry. But like many nuclear power plants in the U.S., the Perry plant is aging, costly to maintain, and unable to compete with the nearly two-decade run of record-low natural gas prices. On the isolated shores of Lake Erie, Perry is now caught in a global energy shift. In the coming years, more than two-thirds of the nuclear power plants in America are similarly at risk of shut down, the consequences of which will leave deep voids in the diversity of America's energy grid and depleted tax bases in the rural towns that house nuclear power plants. Residents and town officials in Perry, however, are not going quietly into the retrenchment of America's nuclear energy industry.by Kelsey M. Tsipis.S.M. in Science Writin

A new asymptotic approximate model for the Vlasov-Maxwell equations

AbstractIn this paper, we derive a new asymptotic approximation of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. This formulation follows the beam in a speed-of-light frame. It is fourth order accurate in the small characteristic velocity of the beam. The formulation is simpler than standard particle-in-cell methods in the lab frame or in the beam frame. It promises to be very powerful in its ability to get an accurate, but fast and easy to implement algorithm

Pseudopeptidic ligands: exploring the self-assembly of isopthaloylbisglycine (H2IBG) and divalent metal ions

No description supplie

Transformation of Transitions of Care in an ACA/ACO Environment

Narrative Abstract: In the practice of modern emergency medicine (EM), transitions of care (TOC) have taken a prominent role. In this era of health care reform, TOC have become a focal point of improvement initiatives across the continuum of care. This study included a comprehensive examination of various regulatory, accreditation, and policy-based elements with which EM physicians interact in their practice. The content has been divided into five domains, shown in Figure 1 below: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), The Joint Commission (TJC), The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), National Quality Forum (NQF), and Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). This work is meant to be a manual about TOC, tailored for EM Physicians. It includes: • "Can't miss" current regulations and standards from a variety of entities that are most likely to impact the day-to-day practice of most EM physicians, • An examination of consequences of these inputs as well as how they could be used to shape the future of the practice of Emergency Medicine, and • A comparison of interventions aimed at implementing programs to improve TOC, including evidence from the literature, practical examples, and proposed recommendations. Emergency Departments must develop, implement, and monitor TOC programs and processes that provide seamless and efficient care as their patients transfer between settings. This work provides a framework for that effort and will help EM physicians continue to take the lead in improving TOC and shape the future of modern EM practice.Master of Public Healt

Impact of drone route geometry on information collection in wireless sensor networks

The recent technological evolution of drones along with the constantly growing maturity of its commercialization, has led to the emergence of novel drone-based applications within the field of wireless sensor networks for information collection purposes. In such settings, especially when deployed in outdoor environments with limited external control, energy consumption and robustness are challenging problems for the system’s operation. In the present paper, a drone-assisted wireless sensor network is studied, the aim being to coordinate the routing of information (among the ground nodes and its propagation to the drone), investigating several drone trajectories or route shapes and examining their impact on information collection (the aim being to minimize transmissions and consequently, energy consumption). The main contribution lies on the proposed algorithms that coordinate the communication between (terrestrial) sensor nodes and the drone that may follow different route shapes. It is shown through simulations using soft random geometric graphs that the number of transmitted messages for each drone route shape depends on the rotational symmetry around the center of each shape. An interesting result is that the higher the order of symmetry, the lower the number of transmitted messages for data collection. Contrary, for those cases that the order of symmetry is the same, even for different route shapes, similar number of messages is transmitted. In addition to the simulation results, an experimental demonstration, using spatial data from grit bin locations, further validates the proposed solution under real-world conditions, demonstrating the applicability of the proposed approach.publishedVersio

The significance of Survivin and Nectin-4 expression in the prognosis of breast carcinoma

To investigate the prognostic significance of Survivin and Nectin-4 expression in breast carcinomas. Imprint smears were obtained from 140 breast carcinoma specimens and studied immunocytochemically for the expression of Survivin and Nectin-4. The results were correlated with several clinicopathological parameters, including five-year survival. Increased Survivin staining pattern correlated with increased grade (p < 0.0001), increased lymph node invasion (p < 0.0001), increased tumor size and reduced survival (p < 0.0001). Elevated Nectin-4 expression also correlated significantly with increased grade (p < 0.0001), increased tumor size (p < 0.0001) and reduced survival (p < 0.0001). In addition, Survivin and Nectin-4 staining patterns correlated strongly with one another (p < 0.0001). However, on multivariate analysis, neither Survivin nor Nectin-4 expression seemed to have an independent impact on survival in our study cases. The findings of our study suggest that increased expression of Survivin and Nectin-4 may indicate a worse prognosis in breast cancer patients. The exact implications of the expression of these markers in breast cancer prognosis and treatment remain to be clarified. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 26&#8211;33

Echocardiography in the Evaluation of the Right Heart

The significance of the right ventricle (RV) as a predictor of outcome in a series of cardiac conditions has recently been recognized. Consequently, more studies are now focusing on improving the assessment of the RV. Its primary function is to support adequate pulmonary perfusion pressure in different circulatory and loading situations and to ensure that there is a low systemic venous pressure. Echocardiography is the first-line method of choice due to its accuracy when assessing RV structure and function, as well as its wide availability. The geometry of the RV is complex and its evaluation can be difficult. Integrating and combining multiple parameters may be a more reliable way to determine normal or abnormal function. Novel techniques are increasingly being performed more routinely in clinical practice and are facilitating diagnosis and treatment choices