The Current Status of Historical Preservation Law in Regularory Takings Jurisprudence: Has the Lucas Missile Dismantled Preservation Programs?

This paper describes our NIHRIO system for SemEval-2018 Task 3 "Irony detection in English tweets". We propose to use a simple neural network architecture of Multilayer Perceptron with various types of input features including: lexical, syntactic, semantic and polarity features.  Our system achieves very high performance in both subtasks of binary and multi-class irony detection in tweets. In particular, we rank at fifth in terms of the accuracy metric and the F1 metric. Our code is available at: https://github.com/NIHRIO/IronyDetectionInTwitte

Climbing the Taxonomy Ladder with Help from the Keyword Method

The keyword method is a mnemonic device used to improve memory. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the keyword method can facilitate higher-order learning and whether the interactive image component of the keyword method is necessary. Participants were asked to study 18 psychologists and their concepts. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: an own best method control group, and three variations of the keyword method. The variations in the keyword method were related to the interactive image” aspect of that strategy. The dependent measures measured whether the keyword method can facilitate higher order-learning levels as defined by Bloom\u27s taxonomy. Descriptively, all mnemonic conditions outperformed the own best method (control) group on both matching and higher-order learning measures. However, only one statistically significant difference emerged, perhaps due in part to limited sample size. Based on effect sizes, the findings suggest that the traditional keyword method can facilitate higher-order learning. Also, the effect sizes imply that the interactive image component is not necessary in lower level learning such as remembering” but the interactive image component is necessary for retention in higher levels of learning such as understanding” and applying.” Descriptively, the keyword method can facilitate higher-order learning, but variations of the interactive component cannot and are less likely to improve memory compared to the keyword method

A novel ASP flood design for CO₂ contaminated sandstone reservoirs at low salinity and low permeability

ASP flooding relies the ability of surfactant to reduce the oil-water inter facial tension (IFT) and to alter the wettability towards water-wet conditions in order to promote oil mobilization. During this process surfactants must show long term stability under reservoir conditions as well as low adsorption on to the rock surface. Surfactant screening is particularly challenging for low salinity formation brines with low target salinity injection brine since most commercially available surfactants show optimum salinity ranges above 3 wt% total dissolved solid (TDS). A series of propylene oxide (PO) sulfate surfactants, internal olefin sulfonates (IOS), and alkyl benzene sulfonates (ABS) have been used for surfactant screening. Co-solvents were incorporated to improve aqueous stability of the surfactant mixture, reduce equilibration time, and minimize formation of viscous phases. More than 300 phase behavior scans were performed in order to optimize a chemical formulation for optimum salinity within a range of 1.0 to 2.0 wt% TDS. PO surfactant formulations show viscous oil-water microemulsion, and thus does not meet our criteria due to high surfactant retention. Therefore, PO formulations were not selected for coreflood experiments. ABS and IOS surfactant combination shows the optimum salinity in the desired range and Winsor Type III microemulsion which has low interfacial tension with oil and water within the Type III region. In addition, viscous emulsions were not observed over an incubation period of 60 days. This combination of surfactants has the ability to tune the optimum salinity within the range by changing the ratio of two surfactants. A Na2CO3 preflood was introduced before slug injection to neutralize the acidic nature of the core. ABS and IOS were blended at a 7:3 ratio in the surfactant slug based on our findings from our phase behavior study. Co-solvent (Butoxypolyglycol Basic) was added at 1.0 wt% concentration to achieve suitable low IFT conditions and less viscous microemulsions. We have conducted more than 20 corefloods using the above surfactant combination and with our final optimized coreflood yielding 98% oil recovery with 0.6% S [subscript orc].Petroleum and Geosystems Engineerin

Electrophoretic deposition of semiconducting polymer metal oxide nanocomposites and characterization of the resulting films

Conducting polymer nanocomposites composed of metal oxides and polythiophene was synthesized by chemical polymerization in colloidal suspensions. The electrochemical and photoelectrochemical properties of such nanocomposites have been studied. For these investigations films of nanocomposites were prepared by an electrophoretic deposition process. The deposition process was studied in greater detail and kinetic details were determined. The high voltage electrophoretic deposition process was combined with a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Then the films were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and photocurrent spectroscopy

Addressing the Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance in Vietnamese Hospitals

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs), especially ventilator associated respiratory infection (VARI) cause significant morbidity and mortality, and disproportionally so in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Vietnam, where infection control in hospitals is often neglected. The management of HAIs in these settings is challenging because of the high proportions of antimicrobial drug resistance and limitations of laboratory diagnostics, financial and human resources in terms of knowledge and skills for antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control. Because resistance is driven by use of antimicrobials, my thesis started with a question on use and cost of antimicrobials in public hospitals in the country followed by a detailed assessment of use and cost of antimicrobials in the management of ventilator associated respiratory infections (VARI). I obtained detailed bids from hospitals and provincial departments of health representing 28.7% (1.68 / 5.85 billion US$) of the total hospital medication budget in Vietnam. Antimicrobials represented 28.6$ 40 million per year. Our studies showed the need for an affordable and scalable intervention in critical care units to reduce the burden of VARI and provide cost savings for national health expenditure. My studies also showed that antimicrobial costs are a major component of the excess cost of VARI management in Vietnam (51.1%) and that a one day reduction in the duration of antimicrobial therapy can save US$ 1.72 million. Therefore, my thesis has focused on interventions to prevent VARI and to shorten antimicrobial therapy. In recognition of human resources constraints in Vietnam, including for microbiology diagnostics and critical care nursing, I have studied automatic technology and equipment, including matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDITOF-MS) for rapid identification of pathogens and continuous automatic cuff pressure control device to prevent VARI. To examine effectiveness of these intervention, I conducted 2 randomised controlled trials to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDITOF-MS) in optimizing antimicrobial therapy and to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous cuff pressure control in preventing VARI. For the latter, pending unblinding and final results I describe the implementation of the trial and report the incidence of hospital acquired bloodstream infection during this trial. A diagnostic randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate the impact of MALDITOF-MS versus conventional diagnostics in improving antimicrobial use in patients with confirmed infection. Although MALDITOF-MS provided more rapid identification of invasive bacterial and fungal pathogens than conventional microbiology, the proportion of patients on optimal therapy at 24 or 48 hours after growth of specimen did not increase. These findings showed that without human resources and an effective antimicrobial stewardship programme, technology alone cannot provide a solution for antimicrobial overuse in hospitals in LMICs. A randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous cuff pressure control versus daily manual cuff measurement (VARI-prevent). In this study I recruited and followed-up 597 adult patients who were admitted to ICUs and were intubated within 48 hours of admission. The patients were randomised to receive either continuous or manual cuff pressure measurement and control and were followed for occurrence of VARI during ICU stay and up to 90 days after randomisation. The study has completed recruitment and follow-up and final analysis is ongoing. The overall rate of VARI and VAP in eligible patients was 23.7% (140/591) and 17.3% (102/591) respectively. The data from this trial (VARI-prevent) was analysed to estimate the incidence density rate of hospital acquired bloodstream infection (HABSI) in 3 ICUs in Vietnam for the first time. The most common pathogens causing HABSI were Klebsiella pneumoniae followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii and Coagulase-Negative staphylococci. Polymicrobial culture results were reported in 6.8% (3/44) patients with culture confirmed HABSI. The rate of HABSI and central line associated BSI (CLABSI) were 7.4% (44/591) and 9.3% (31/333), respectively. The incidence density rate of HABSI and CLABSI were 3.76 per 1000 patients-days and 8.43 per 1000 catheter-days, respectively. This suggests that the implementation of infection prevention and control bundle including catheter care is important to reduce the high incidence of HABSI in Vietnam. The findings in my thesis are relevant to healthcare professionals and policy stakeholders. It demonstrates the magnitude of HAI burden and creates awareness of potential beneficial interventions. Results of my trials will be helpful to inform decisions to establish the antimicrobial stewardship programmes and infection prevention and control bundles to improve patients’ outcomes