Effect of Storm Enhanced Densities on Geo-Location Accuracy Over CONUS

Storm enhanced densities (SEDs) are ionospheric plasma enhancements that disrupt radio communications in the near-Earth space environment, degrading the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other key technologies. Accurate GPS/total electron content (TEC) correction maps produced by ionosphere models can mitigate degradations from SEDs. An artificial SED was created and ingested via slant TEC measurements into the Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements Gauss-Markov Kalman Filter Model to determine how many ground GPS receivers are needed to produce reliable GPS/TEC correction maps over the continental United States during geomagnetic storming. It was found that 110 well-positioned GPS receivers produced the best overall TEC accuracy, although significantly improved accuracy was still achieved if 40 or more receivers were used. Furthermore, receiver positioning had a greater impact on TEC accuracy than the number of receivers used. It was also found that TEC accuracy for the SED region increased at the expense of TEC accuracy everywhere else on the map

THE SOCIAL CAPITAL FOUNDATIONS OF TRUST IN GLOBAL AGRI-FOOD SYSTEM TRANSACTIONS

The concept of social capital is defined as a third process (along with individual incentives and authority relationships) for assuring transaction cost efficiency. Social capital is especially relevant to international transactions because cultural differences, large distances, and limited international institutional scope lessen the effectiveness of incentives and authority relationships while social capital can be built within the context of specific international transactions. Methods for building social capital in international settings are explored. A research agenda is articulated as well as a list of managerial implications for using social capital in an international context.Agribusiness,

An Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Viscous Sublayer for Turbulent Tube Flow

Flush-mounted anemometer probes have been used to further study characteristics of the viscous sublayer for both Newtonian and drag reducing solutions, with particular emphasis given to low Reynolds number turbulent tube flow. Experimental measurements for the mean frequency of bursting or renewal within the wall region are compared with theoretical predictions obtained on the basis of the surface renewal and penetration model. Both theory and experiment taken together suggest that the effect of the mean axial pressure gradient on the viscous sublayer becomes important for the deeper molecular penetration associated with low Reynolds number flow. Also, a pronounced lessening of the frequency of bursting within the wall region has been predicted and measured for the addition of a drag reducing agent

Extended twin study of alcohol use in Virginia and Australia

Drinking alcohol is a normal behavior in many societies, and prior studies have demonstrated it has both genetic and environmental sources of variation. Using two very large samples of twins and their first-degree relatives (Australia ≈ 20,000 individuals from 8,019 families; Virginia ≈ 23,000 from 6,042 families), we examine whether there are differences: (1) in the genetic and environmental factors that influence four interrelated drinking behaviors (quantity, frequency, age of initiation, and number of drinks in the last week), (2) between the twin-only design and the extended twin design, and (3) the Australian and Virginia samples. We find that while drinking behaviors are interrelated, there are substantial differences in the genetic and environmental architectures across phenotypes. Specifically, drinking quantity, frequency, and number of drinks in the past week have large broad genetic variance components, and smaller but significant environmental variance components, while age of onset is driven exclusively by environmental factors. Further, the twin-only design and the extended twin design come to similar conclusions regarding broad-sense heritability and environmental transmission, but the extended twin models provide a more nuanced perspective. Finally, we find a high level of similarity between the Australian and Virginian samples, especially for the genetic factors. The observed differences, when present, tend to be at the environmental level. Implications for the extended twin model and future directions are discussed

Cross-cultural comparison of genetic and cultural transmission of smoking initiation using an extended twin kinship model

Background: Considerable evidence from twin and adoption studies indicates that genetic and shared environmental factors play a role in the initiation of smoking behavior. Although twin and adoption designs are powerful to detect genetic and environmental influences, they do not provide information on the processes of assortative mating and parent–offspring transmission and their contribution to the variability explained by genetic and/or environmental factors. Methods: We examined the role of genetic and environmental factors in individual differences for smoking initiation (SI) using an extended kinship design. This design allows the simultaneous testing of additive and non-additive genetic, shared and individual-specific environmental factors, as well as sex differences in the expression of genes and environment in the presence of assortative mating and combined genetic and cultural transmission, while also estimating the regression of the prevalence of SI on age. A dichotomous lifetime ‘ever’ smoking measure was obtained from twins and relatives in the ‘Virginia 30,000’ sample and the ‘Australian 25,000’. Results: Results demonstrate that both genetic and environmental factors play a significant role in the liability to SI. Major influences on individual differences appeared to be additive genetic and unique environmental effects, with smaller contributions from assortative mating, shared sibling environment, twin environment, cultural transmission, and resulting genotype-environment covariance. Age regression of the prevalence of SI was significant. The finding of negative cultural transmission without dominance led us to investigate more closely two possible mechanisms for the lower parent–offspring correlations compared to the sibling and DZ twin correlations in subsets of the data: (1) age × gene interaction, and (2) social homogamy. Neither of the mechanism provided a significantly better explanation of the data. Conclusions: This study showed significant heritability, partly due to assortment, and significant effects of primarily non-parental shared environment on liability to SI

Particle collider probes of dark energy, dark matter and generic beyond standard model signatures in events with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Various Beyond Standard Model signatures are probed using a monojet analysis with the ATLAS experiment using $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV proton-proton collision data, and model-independent limits on generic Beyond Standard Model signatures are set. Three specific Beyond Standard Model signatures are highlighted: Horndeski dark energy and axial-vector and pseudoscalar WIMP candidates. Limits are reported at 95\% confidence level observed(expected). For the WIMP candidates limits extend to $m_{Z_{A}} \geq$ 2060(2175) GeV and $m_{Z_{P}} \geq$ 368(404) GeV for the dark matter mass of axial-vector and psedudoscalar cases respectively, with a mediator mass of 1 GeV. This extends the reach of the axial-vector WIMP limits by 500(400) GeV from previous monojet searches, while this is the first time this channel in ATLAS is sensitive to the pseudoscalar WIMP. For the Horndeski dark energy model, limits are set at a cross section of $\sigma \leq$ 0.0433(0.0366) fb and mass scale of $M_{2} \geq$ 1558(1591) GeV, an improvement of 400(300) GeV over using only the 2015+2016 data, which is the first time a dark energy model has been probed in a particle collider based search. Numerous improvements were made to the previous monojet analysis to perform these measurements and increase the model independent reach. In addition this thesis presents preliminary results in developing a realtime beam monitor for the Birmingham MC40 cyclotron, the aim being to allow more precise irradiations of components which will be used in the High Luminosity-LHC upgrade. This precise irradiation will enable measurements of their radiation hardness, a vital property of components which will need to survive the high radiation levels near the interaction points in the High Luminosity-LHC

The role of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) uncoupling in acute hyperglycemia – induced oxidative stress and vascular endothelial dysfunction by measuring blood nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide in real-time

Acute hyperglycemia can impair vascular endothelial function in non-diabetic subjects in addition to diabetic patients. Decreased eNOS derived nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as superoxide (SO) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), are the major characteristics of vascular endothelial dysfunction. Furthermore, eNOS can change from coupled to an uncoupled status resulting in SO production instead of NO production. The role of eNOS uncoupling in acute hyperglycemia induced vascular dysfunction is unclear in vivo. In this study we hypothesized that acute hyperglycemia (200 mg/dL) would increase H2O2 and decrease NO release in blood relative to saline control. By contrast, 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4, an essential cofactor of coupled eNOS) (MW=241.247 g/mol, 6.5 mg/kg) or L-arginine (the substrate of coupled eNOS) (MW=210.66 g/mol, 600 mg/kg) would attenuate acute hyperglycemia-induced blood NO/H2O2 change. However, 7,8-dihydrobiopterin (BH2, an oxidized form of BH4 and serves as a cofactor for uncoupled eNOS) (MW=239.231 g/mol, 4 mg/kg) will exacerbate acute hyperglycemia-induced blood NO/H2O2 change. Blood NO or H2O2 levels were measured simultaneously using calibrated NO or H2O2 microsensors (100 µm WPI Inc.) by placing them into the femoral veins of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The electrical traces were recorded at baseline and throughout 3 hours of infusion with saline or 20% D-glucose with or without a drug and converted into concentration based on the calibration curve. We found that acute hyperglycemia (200 mg/dL) significantly increased H2O2 (n=6) and reduced NO (n=6) blood levels compared to the saline group (n=7, p2 exacerbated hyperglycemia– induced increased H2O2 levels (n=7) and decreased NO levels (n=4) (p4 (n=6), significantly attenuated hyperglycemia– induced increased H2O2 levels and decreased NO levels (p2O2 (n=5) and NO (n=6) blood levels as BH4, showing significant reduction of blood H2O2 and enhancement of blood NO (p2O2 and reduced NO blood levels. Uncoupled eNOS serves as a significant source mediating acute hyperglycemia-induced vascular dysfunction. Therefore, promotion of eNOS coupling may be effective in protecting vascular endothelial function from hyperglycemic insult

Committee Reports

Contains reports from the following committees of the Washington State Bar Association: Administrative Law, Civil Rights, Code Commission, Cooperation with American Bar Association, Federal Legislation, Improvement of Probate Statutes, Law Examiners, Legal Education, Legal Ethics, Legal Institutes, Legislative, Obituary, Selection of Judges, and Unauthorized Practice of Law. Also includes the auditor\u27s report