Bridging the Gaps: Building a University Link Tank

This project proposed a University Link Tank as a mechanism by which to build bridges between employees via a network of small groups. Participation in the Link Tank would be voluntary and open to all VCU and Health System employees. The program would be modeled similarly to the Faculty Learning Community (FLC) program, which is administered by the Center for Teaching Excellence, but it would concentrate on issues that are not specifically related to teaching. Topics will be proposed annually. The program would also concentrate on effectively utilizing existing VCU resources to resolve issues

Scintillation Observations and Response of The Ionosphere to Electrodynamics (SORTIE) Mission First Light

At low and middle latitudes, wave-like plasma perturbations are thought to provide the seeds for larger perturbations that may evolve non-linearly to produce irregularities, which in turn have deleterious effects on HF communications and global positioning systems. Unfortunately, there is currently no comprehensive atlas of measurements describing the global spatial or temporal distribution of wave-like perturbations in the ionosphere. The SORTIE mission, a CubeSat experiment with team members from ASTRA, AFRL, UTD, and Boston College, was designed to help map and further understand the wave-like plasma perturbation distributions throughout the ionosphere. The SORTIE 6U CubeSat sensor package measures key in-situ plasma parameters, and includes an ion velocity meter and a planar Langmuir probe. SORTIE will provide (1) the initial spectrum of wave perturbations which are the starting point for plasma instabilities; (2) measured electric fields which determine the magnitude of the instability growth rate near the region where plasma bubbles are generated; (3) initial observations of irregularities in plasma density which result from plasma instability growth. The SORTIE spacecraft was deployed from the ISS in February 2020 and began data collections shortly after orbit insertion. The measurements are expected to continue for at least a year. In this presentation we present the first light results of the SORTIE mission, as well as reviewing the science objectives and providing an overview of the spacecraft and instruments

Mental and physical health profile of Syrian resettled refugees

BACKGROUND: Newly arriving Syrian refugees can present with specific health characteristics and medical conditions when entering the United States. Given the lack of epidemiological data available for the refugee populations, our study examined the demographic features of Syrian refugees resettled in the state of Kentucky. Specifically, we examined mental and physical health clinical data in both pre-departure health screenings and domestic Refugee Health Assessments (RHA; Kentucky Office for Refugees, n.d.) performed after resettlement. METHOD: The current study adopted a cross-sectional research design. We analyzed outcome data collected from participants from 2013 and 2015. Specifically, a comparative cross-sectional analysis was performed using clinical data from Syrian refugees who underwent an RHA as part of the resettlement process between January 2015 and August 2016. Those data were compared to data derived from refugees from other countries who resettled in Kentucky between 2013 and 2015. RESULTS: Mental health screenings using the Refugee Health Screener (RHS-15; Hollifield et al., 2013) found that 19.5% (n = 34) of adult Syrian refugees reported signs and symptoms from posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and/or anxiety, and nearly 40% (n = 69) reported personal experiences of imprisonment or violence, and/or having witnessed someone experiencing torture or violence. Intestinal parasites and lack of immunity to varicella were the most prevalent communicable diseases among Syrian refugees. Dental abnormalities and decreased visual acuity account for the first and second most prevalent non-communicable conditions. When comparing these results to all refugees arriving during the same years, significant differences arose in demographic variables, social history, communicable diseases, and non-communicable diseases. CONCLUSION: This study provides an initial health profile of Syrian refugees resettling in Kentucky, which reflects mental health as a major healthcare concern. Posttraumatic stress and related symptoms are severe mental health conditions among Syrian refugees above and beyond other severe physical problems

Simultaneous sequencing of oxidized methylcytosines produced by TET/JBP dioxygenases in Coprinopsis cinerea

A prominent epigenetic mechanism for gene regulation is methylation of cytosine bases in DNA. TET enzymes facilitate DNA demethylation by converting 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to oxidized methylcytosines (oxi-mCs). We show that oxi-mCs are generated by conserved TET/JBP enzymes encoded in the genome of the model organism Coprinopsis cinerea and present a method for simultaneous mapping of the three different species of oxi-mCs at near–base-pair resolution. We observe that centromeres and transposable elements exhibit distinctive patterns of 5mC and oxi-mC, and show that gene body 5mC and oxi-mC mark silent paralogous multicopy genes. Our study describes a method to map three species of oxi-mC simultaneously and reveals the colocation of 5mC and oxi-mC at functional elements throughout the C. cinerea genome

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia