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MegaMapper is a proposed ground-based experiment to measure Inflation parameters and Dark Energy from galaxy redshifts at 2

This dissertation offers a new narrative on the history of public debt in late Qing and Republican-era China (1850 – 1914), highlighting its links with late Qing and Republican political economy. A history of economic ideas and institutions, the dissertation draws from official and diplomatic communications, contemporary newspapers and journals, academic studies and private letters to explore the process of its embedment into Chinese fiscal system and its evolution in China as a set of discourses and practice, including its reception by officials, merchants and general public, and its adjustment to established discourses of political economy in late Qing and Republican China.Adopting an expansive conception of public debt to include related public credit mechanisms and discourses, the dissertation traces the impact of pre-1850 official debates on late 19th Century Chinese officials’ ambivalence towards modern public debt. It argues that a domestic intellectual and policy reorientation in favour of growth was needed and mostly achieved before Qing’s military defeat in 1895, paving the way for large-scale borrowing that in turn reconfigured state-society relations in late Qing. The dissertation also investigates how mid-Victorian liberal discourses on public debt were co-opted by Chinese reformists, which in their modified form of political and fiscal accountability, proved to be effective in dominating late Qing and Republican discourses on public debt.This dissertation is one of the first English-language studies discussing the evolution of economic ideas surrounding Chinese public debt. Recounting China’s historical experiences with public debt, and discourses on political economy that resulted from these experiences would promote a more layered understanding of public debt’s role for peripheral economies in the late 19th and 20th Century.

xThis dissertation examines the role of law in the formation of China’s earliest empires (221 BCE-220 CE). Using thousands of manuscripts written on bamboo and wood which have been excavated in China in the several decades, I argue that legal practice was central to the formation of imperial identity. Building on theoretical insights from the anthropology of paperwork, as well as from recent studies of manuscript culture, I argue that legal manuscripts can be read not only as representations or records of social conditions, but as material objects whose production and circulation itself constituted new forms of sociality. Eschewing a conventional law and society approach, my dissertation follows a diverse array of actors —women, servants, magistrates, foreigners and family members— as they use practices of writing and law to lodge claims of status, identity, kinship, and property. In linking newly excavated manuscripts with discussions of law and materiality, this dissertation aims to challenge multiple orthodoxies derived from notions of European legal and bureaucratic modernity. Accounts of early law have long cited certain types of legal text, such as penal statutes, as evidence for the idea that early law was informed by the rationality of state and directed at social control. By locating legal practice not in state sanction but in the circulation of legal manuscripts, I am able to reframe this persistent debate to take account both of newly discovered manuscripts and also to interpret receive sources in new ways. My dissertation thus complements and provides crucial context for revisionist trends in the historiography of imperial China that query the central presumption of despotism and legal orientalism. By linking law to material practices, I am further able to sidestep teleological narratives of rationalization and state control, and to provide a plausible explanation of why imperial legal culture could persist both beyond the geographic reach of the imperia

Midlife mortality has risen steadily in the U.S. since the 1990s for non-Hispanic whites without a bachelor’s degree, and since 2013 for Hispanics and African-Americans who lack a bachelor’s degree. These increases largely reflect increased mortality from alcohol poisoning, drug overdose and suicide. We investigate whether these “deaths of despair” trends have been mitigated by two key policies aimed at raising incomes for low wage workers: the minimum wage and the earned income tax credit (EITC). To do so, we leverage state variation in policies over time to estimate difference-in-differences models of drug overdose deaths and suicides, using data on cause-specific mortality rates from 1999-2015. Our causal models find no significant effects of the minimum wage and EITC on drug-related mortality. However, higher minimum wages and EITCs significantly reduce non-drug suicides. A 10 percent increase in the minimum wage reduces non-drug suicides among adults with high school or less by 3.6 percent; a 10 percent increase in the EITC reduces suicides among this group by 5.5 percent. Our estimated models do not find significant effects for a college-educated placebo sample. Event-study models confirm parallel pre-trends, further supporting the validity of our causal research design. Our estimates suggest that increasing both the minimum wage and the EITC by 10 percent would likely prevent a combined total of around 1230 suicides each year.

We measure the effects of six citywide minimum wages that ranged up to $13 in Chicago, the District of Columbia, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle, employing event study and synthetic control methods. Using aggregate data on average earnings and employment in the food services industry, we find significantly positive earnings increases and no significant employment losses. While such evidence suggests the policies raised the earnings of low-wage workers, as intended, a competing explanation is that the industry responds to wage increases by increasing their demand for more productive higher-wage workers, offsetting low-wage layoffs (i.e., labor-labor substitution). To tackle this key question, we present a theoretical framework that connects the responses estimated at the industry-level to the own- and cross-wage labor demand elasticities that summarize the total effect of the policies on workers. Using a calibration exercise, we find that the combination of average earnings gains and constant employment cannot be produced by labor-labor substitution unless there are also effects on hours. To test whether the minimum wage increases demand for higher-wage workers or reduces low-wage workers’ hours, we examine the effects of California’s recent state and local minimum wage policies on the food services industry. There we find no evidence of labor-labor substitution or hours responses. Thus, the most likely explanation for the responses we find in the cities is that the industry’s demand for low-wage workers is inelastic, and the policies raised their earnings.

A proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would increase the relative minimum wage – the ratio to the national median wage– to about .68. In Alabama and Mississippi, our two lowest-wage states, the relative minimum wage would rise to .77 and .85, respectively. Yet research on state-level minimum wage policies does not extend beyond $10; the highest studied state-level relative minimum wage is .59. To close this gap we study minimum wage effects in counties and PUMAs where relative minimum wage ratios already reach as high as .82. Using ACS data since 2005 and 51 events, we sort counties and PUMAs according to their relative minimum wages and bites. We report average results for all the events in our sample, and separately for those with lower and higher impacts. We find positive wage effects but do not detect adverse effects on employment, weekly hours or annual weeks worked. We do not find negative employment effects among women, blacks and/or Hispanics. We do find substantial declines in household and child poverty.

How can librarians engage with the concept of collections in new ways? One answer to this question may be expanding the definition of collection management to include active creation and remixing of our collections. Taking on the role of data creator changes the narrative of what libraries do, enables librarians to model metadata creation standards and licensing best practices, and transforms existing analog collections into research-ready data collections. As a GIS and map librarian interested in these issues, I developed a project to scan physical maps from library collections and transform them into a GIS database covering 20th century Mongolia. The project resulted in a useful set of data for researchers, best practices that can be used in other similar projects, and an expanded concept of what it means to curate a geospatial collection.

This document provides a brief report of activities conducted as part of the final capstone project for submission to Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Master of Advanced Studies graduate degree program in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. The project: Designing a Marine Management Plan for Fish Reproduction Zones of Curaçao, Lesser Antilles, was completed with the support of the Waitt Institute, CARMABI Institute, and Curaçao’s Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature. It was drafted using successful previous management plans as a reference and was edited and finalized after site visits and stakeholder engagement. The Fish Reproduction Zone Management Plan will be submitted to the Ministry for consideration as well as submitted with this report for review and evaluation by the Capstone Advisory Committee.

This study examines data from the California EMS Information System (CEMSIS) to identify factors that influence prehospital time for EMS events related to motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). While only 19 percent of the United States population resides in rural areas, over half of all traffic fatalities involve rural motor vehicle collisions. Rural and urban MVCs result in similar injury severities, however relative inaccessibility of trauma centers and prehospital EMS time (activation, response, and transport time) likely contribute to the generally higher mortality rate in rural areas. For the present study, 24 CEMSIS data variables were requested, many of which involved missing data, which severely restricted the potential analysis of the impact of EMS response times. However, the findings did show that average overall EMS time (including response, scene and transport time) were approximately twice as long for collisions in rural zip codes compared with urban zip codes. Several limitations influence the interpretation of these results. Data on prehospital EMS times is missing for much of the state—even for zip codes with records of EMS events, data is likely incomplete. In addition, zip code level location data is insufficient for adequate study of the effects of the built environment and road network on prehospital time. Furthermore, according to the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) User Manual, the national dataset suffers from selection and information bias, which are likely also present in the CEMSIS data. Although the present study cannot analyze the effect of longer prehospital times on patient outcome, other research has found that longer prehospital times may negatively impact patient health. Recommendations for reducing time from injury to appropriate medical care in rural areas include improving cell phone coverage, compliance of rural 911 center with FCC wireless, use of GPS technology, and integration of automatic vehicle location and computer ai

xThis dissertation examines the role of law in the formation of China’s earliest empires (221 BCE-220 CE). Using thousands of manuscripts written on bamboo and wood which have been excavated in China in the several decades, I argue that legal practice was central to the formation of imperial identity. Building on theoretical insights from the anthropology of paperwork, as well as from recent studies of manuscript culture, I argue that legal manuscripts can be read not only as representations or records of social conditions, but as material objects whose production and circulation itself constituted new forms of sociality. Eschewing a conventional law and society approach, my dissertation follows a diverse array of actors —women, servants, magistrates, foreigners and family members— as they use practices of writing and law to lodge claims of status, identity, kinship, and property. In linking newly excavated manuscripts with discussions of law and materiality, this dissertation aims to challenge multiple orthodoxies derived from notions of European legal and bureaucratic modernity. Accounts of early law have long cited certain types of legal text, such as penal statutes, as evidence for the idea that early law was informed by the rationality of state and directed at social control. By locating legal practice not in state sanction but in the circulation of legal manuscripts, I am able to reframe this persistent debate to take account both of newly discovered manuscripts and also to interpret receive sources in new ways. My dissertation thus complements and provides crucial context for revisionist trends in the historiography of imperial China that query the central presumption of despotism and legal orientalism. By linking law to material practices, I am further able to sidestep teleological narratives of rationalization and state control, and to provide a plausible explanation of why imperial legal culture could persist both beyond the geographic reach of the imperia

Research on reading from digital devices has generally shown a decline in comprehension performance when reading from a digital screen as opposed to reading from paper, under certain conditions—namely, when texts are both longer and when comprehension is measured as deeper-level understanding of text, relying on higher order reading skills rather than merely measuring recall. The present study attempted to replicate previous findings, and to investigate whether comprehension declines are mediated by increased mind wandering when reading from a digital medium compared to when reading from paper. A sample of 169 high school students was given a text to read, either on paper or on a digital tablet. Following the reading, subjects were given two reading tests: one an inference-based comprehension test, the other a recall test. Mind wandering was measured by using a mind wandering probe adapted from Hollis and Was (2016). I did not replicate previous findings: I found no significant relationship between reading condition and inference-based comprehension. Further, no relationship was found between reading condition and mind wandering (i.e., there was not more mind wandering in the digital condition, as I had hypothesized). However, mind wandering was significantly related to inference-based comprehension, and a novel approach to capturing mind wandering in a group setting was successfully implemented. I discuss implications of these findings and possible directions for future research.

This paper reports on the results of a research project that examines how students responded to instructors' comments on academic papers written for a first-year writing course at a large, Midwestern university. Data collected consisted of rough drafts with instructor comments, final drafts of the same papers, and two sets of interviews, one after students had received the teacher's comments, and one after they had revised the final draft. In the interest of contributing to our understanding of what response to student writing does, this study explores student reflections on what they think, feel, and do in response to instructor comments. Findings suggest good reasons for the lack of one-to-one correspondence between an instructor's comments and an improved final draft, and that we may need to look at factors other than revised drafts for evidence of student learning. Keywords: teaching writing, responding, instructor comments, writing process, learning

For 38 years, the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy has been the premier forum for presenting computer security and electronic privacy developments and for bringing together leading researchers and practitioners. We invited authors to submit revised versions of their symposium papers, recast as articles suitable for publication in IEEE Security & Privacy magazine. Specifically, we asked the original authors to revise their papers to speak to the magazine's audience, which goes beyond the symposium's traditional academically focused audience to also include policymakers and practitioners.

For 38 years, the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy has been the premier forum for presenting computer security and electronic privacy developments and for bringing together leading researchers and practitioners. We invited authors to submit revised versions of their symposium papers, recast as articles suitable for publication in IEEE Security & Privacy magazine. Specifically, we asked the original authors to revise their papers to speak to the magazine's audience, which goes beyond the symposium's traditional academically focused audience to also include policymakers and practitioners.

This paper reports on the results of a research project that examines how students responded to instructors' comments on academic papers written for a first-year writing course at a large, Midwestern university. Data collected consisted of rough drafts with instructor comments, final drafts of the same papers, and two sets of interviews, one after students had received the teacher's comments, and one after they had revised the final draft. In the interest of contributing to our understanding of what response to student writing does, this study explores student reflections on what they think, feel, and do in response to instructor comments. Findings suggest good reasons for the lack of one-to-one correspondence between an instructor's comments and an improved final draft, and that we may need to look at factors other than revised drafts for evidence of student learning. Keywords: teaching writing, responding, instructor comments, writing process, learning

Research on reading from digital devices has generally shown a decline in comprehension performance when reading from a digital screen as opposed to reading from paper, under certain conditions—namely, when texts are both longer and when comprehension is measured as deeper-level understanding of text, relying on higher order reading skills rather than merely measuring recall. The present study attempted to replicate previous findings, and to investigate whether comprehension declines are mediated by increased mind wandering when reading from a digital medium compared to when reading from paper. A sample of 169 high school students was given a text to read, either on paper or on a digital tablet. Following the reading, subjects were given two reading tests: one an inference-based comprehension test, the other a recall test. Mind wandering was measured by using a mind wandering probe adapted from Hollis and Was (2016). I did not replicate previous findings: I found no significant relationship between reading condition and inference-based comprehension. Further, no relationship was found between reading condition and mind wandering (i.e., there was not more mind wandering in the digital condition, as I had hypothesized). However, mind wandering was significantly related to inference-based comprehension, and a novel approach to capturing mind wandering in a group setting was successfully implemented. I discuss implications of these findings and possible directions for future research.

This paper reports on the results of a research project that examines how students responded to instructors' comments on academic papers written for a first-year writing course at a large, Midwestern university. Data collected consisted of rough drafts with instructor comments, final drafts of the same papers, and two sets of interviews, one after students had received the teacher's comments, and one after they had revised the final draft. In the interest of contributing to our understanding of what response to student writing does, this study explores student reflections on what they think, feel, and do in response to instructor comments. Findings suggest good reasons for the lack of one-to-one correspondence between an instructor's comments and an improved final draft, and that we may need to look at factors other than revised drafts for evidence of student learning. Keywords: teaching writing, responding, instructor comments, writing process, learning

Monitoring of High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms is critical to successful operations, can provide insights into performance-impacting conditions, and can inform methodologies for improving science throughput. However, monitoring systems are not generally considered core capabilities in system requirements specifications nor in vendor development strategies. In this paper we present work performed at a number of large-scale HPC sites towards developing monitoring capabilities that fill current gaps in ease of problem identification and root cause discovery. We also present our collective views, based on the experiences presented, on needs and requirements for enabling development by vendors or users of effective sharable end-to-end monitoring capabilities.

Sudden unexpected death of an individual with epilepsy (SUDEP) can pose a challenge to death investigators, as most deaths are unwitnessed and the individual is commonly found dead in bed. Anatomic findings (e.g., tongue/lip bite) are commonly absent and of varying specificity, limiting the evidence to implicate epilepsy as a cause of or contributor to death. Thus, it is likely that death certificates significantly underrepresent the true number of deaths in which epilepsy was a factor. To address this, members of the National Association of Medical Examiners, North American SUDEP Registry, Epilepsy Foundation SUDEP Institute, American Epilepsy Society, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened an expert panel to generate evidence-based recommendations for the practice of death investigation and autopsy, toxicological analysis, interpretation of autopsy and toxicology findings, and death certification to improve the precision of death certificate data available for public health surveillance of epilepsy-related deaths. The recommendations provided in this paper are intended to assist medical examiners, coroners, and death investigators when a sudden, unexpected death in a person with epilepsy is encountered.

Sudden unexpected death of an individual with epilepsy can pose a challenge to death investigators, as most deaths are unwitnessed, and the individual is commonly found dead in bed. Anatomic findings (eg, tongue/lip bite) are commonly absent and of varying specificity, thereby limiting the evidence to implicate epilepsy as a cause of or contributor to death. Thus it is likely that death certificates significantly underrepresent the true number of deaths in which epilepsy was a factor. To address this, members of the National Association of Medical Examiners, North American SUDEP Registry, Epilepsy Foundation SUDEP Institute, American Epilepsy Society, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention constituted an expert panel to generate evidence-based recommendations for the practice of death investigation and autopsy, toxicological analysis, interpretation of autopsy and toxicology findings, and death certification to improve the precision of death certificate data available for public health surveillance of epilepsy-related deaths. The recommendations provided in this paper are intended to assist medical examiners, coroners, and death investigators when a sudden unexpected death in a person with epilepsy is encountered.

Occult caustic ingestion in the pediatric population is a challenging diagnosis to make in the emergency department. Failure to suspect and diagnose a caustic ingestion can lead to potentially life-changing comorbidities. Historically, the diagnosis of caustic ingestion has been clinical without any suitable diagnostic tools to aid in the suspicion of occult cases. In this case, we describe a novel use of ophthalmic pH paper to diagnose caustic ingestion in a three-year-old.

The purpose of this project is to cut a window in the opaque edifice of medical liability for young and aspiring OBGYNs to peer through. In addition to reviewing a wealth of literature on medical liability, I interviewed a diverse collection of OBGYNs at UCSD about their experiences with and views of medical malpractice. By integrating these narratives with the literature. This paper attempts to capture three perspectives that, I hope, offer greater texture and deeper understanding to young clinicians trying to make sense of medical liability: 1) What it feels like to be sued and the challenges associated with coping on the job; 2) What advice physicians have to avoid being sued (and a note on attorneys); 3) Where our system of medical liability falls short and how it might be improved.

Racial classification is relational, and it is constructed and contested as both an identity and as an ascribed category. In this three-part dissertation, I examine racial classification in São Paulo, Brazil, and argue that we can leverage survey data on racial classification to reach a more nuanced understanding of racial boundaries.Paper 1: Because racial classification is relational, we must examine both sides of the relationship, and yet most studies on ascription do not consider the ways in which the ascriber’s traits matter for classificatory outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental design, I examine how statuses of both the classifier and of the person being classified matter for racial attribution. I find that high-status biographies paired with a racially ambiguous face have a higher likelihood of white (versus pardo) racial attribution. I also find that educational achievement is significantly predictive of seeing whiteness in others—irrespective of the phenotype, self-identification, or the social status of the person being classified.Paper 2: Drawing on a large-scale survey linked to census-tract data, I examine how classification can operate asymmetrically across different racial boundaries. I compare the effects of various individual-level and neighborhood-level traits on the chances of having one’s racial identity contested by an observer. I show that social status does not have a uniform effect, mattering greatly for the boundary between white and pardo, and much less for the boundary between pardo and black. I also find that individuals living in richer or more educated neighborhoods—even when controlling for individual status—are more likely to be whitened, and less likely to have their white identities challenged.Paper 3: In this paper, I demonstrate how we can leverage racial mismatch data to study the everyday impact of institutions (in this case, the police) on individual racial identity. With a combination of survey and census data, I show how sel

Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) and other interventions are rapidly evolving as a class of technologically driven interventional approaches in which many surgical specialties visualize fluorescent molecular tracers or biomarkers through associated cameras or oculars to guide clinical decisions on pathological lesion detection and excision/ablation. The technology has been commercialized for some specific applications, but also presents technical challenges unique to optical imaging that could confound the utility of some interventional procedures where real-time decisions must be made. Accordingly, the AAPM has initiated the publication of this Blue Paper of The Emerging Technology Working Group (TETAWG) and the creation of a Task Group from the Therapy Physics Committee within the Treatment Delivery Subcommittee. In describing the relevant issues, this document outlines the key parameters, stakeholders, impacts, and outcomes of clinical FGS technology and its applications. The presentation is not intended to be conclusive, but rather to inform the field of medical physics and stimulate the discussions needed in the field with respect to a seemingly low-risk imaging technology that has high potential for significant therapeutic impact. This AAPM Task Group is working toward consensus around guidelines and standards for advancing the field safely and effectively.

This contribution provides an introduction to a sequence of five papers (CCE I- CCE V) that describe the impact of the Warm Anomaly of 2014–15 and El Niño 2015–16 on the pelagic food web of the southern California Current Ecosystem. These contributions analyze the influence of these two warm water perturbations on satellite-based measures of ocean fronts, export efficiency out of the euphotic zone, copepod egg production, mesozooplankton community structure, and a synthesis of primary production, mesozooplankton grazing, and gravitational fluxes of organic carbon.

Human blood is a self-regenerating lipid-rich biological fluid that is routinely collected in hospital settings. The inventory of lipid molecules found in blood plasma (plasma lipidome) offers insights into individual metabolism and physiology in health and disease. Disturbances in the plasma lipidome also occur in conditions that are not directly linked to lipid metabolism; therefore, plasma lipidomics based on MS is an emerging tool in an array of clinical diagnostics and disease management. However, challenges exist in the translation of such lipidomic data to clinical applications. These relate to the reproducibility, accuracy, and precision of lipid quantitation, study design, sample handling, and data sharing. This position paper emerged from a workshop that initiated a community-led process to elaborate and define a set of generally accepted guidelines for quantitative MS-based lipidomics of blood plasma or serum, with harmonization of data acquired on different instrumentation platforms across independent laboratories as an ultimate goal. We hope that other fields may benefit from and follow such a precedent.

Racial classification is relational, and it is constructed and contested as both an identity and as an ascribed category. In this three-part dissertation, I examine racial classification in São Paulo, Brazil, and argue that we can leverage survey data on racial classification to reach a more nuanced understanding of racial boundaries.Paper 1: Because racial classification is relational, we must examine both sides of the relationship, and yet most studies on ascription do not consider the ways in which the ascriber’s traits matter for classificatory outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental design, I examine how statuses of both the classifier and of the person being classified matter for racial attribution. I find that high-status biographies paired with a racially ambiguous face have a higher likelihood of white (versus pardo) racial attribution. I also find that educational achievement is significantly predictive of seeing whiteness in others—irrespective of the phenotype, self-identification, or the social status of the person being classified.Paper 2: Drawing on a large-scale survey linked to census-tract data, I examine how classification can operate asymmetrically across different racial boundaries. I compare the effects of various individual-level and neighborhood-level traits on the chances of having one’s racial identity contested by an observer. I show that social status does not have a uniform effect, mattering greatly for the boundary between white and pardo, and much less for the boundary between pardo and black. I also find that individuals living in richer or more educated neighborhoods—even when controlling for individual status—are more likely to be whitened, and less likely to have their white identities challenged.Paper 3: In this paper, I demonstrate how we can leverage racial mismatch data to study the everyday impact of institutions (in this case, the police) on individual racial identity. With a combination of survey and census data, I show how sel

This contribution provides an introduction to a sequence of five papers (CCE I- CCE V) that describe the impact of the Warm Anomaly of 2014–15 and El Niño 2015–16 on the pelagic food web of the southern California Current Ecosystem. These contributions analyze the influence of these two warm water perturbations on satellite-based measures of ocean fronts, export efficiency out of the euphotic zone, copepod egg production, mesozooplankton community structure, and a synthesis of primary production, mesozooplankton grazing, and gravitational fluxes of organic carbon.

Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) and other interventions are rapidly evolving as a class of technologically driven interventional approaches in which many surgical specialties visualize fluorescent molecular tracers or biomarkers through associated cameras or oculars to guide clinical decisions on pathological lesion detection and excision/ablation. The technology has been commercialized for some specific applications, but also presents technical challenges unique to optical imaging that could confound the utility of some interventional procedures where real-time decisions must be made. Accordingly, the AAPM has initiated the publication of this Blue Paper of The Emerging Technology Working Group (TETAWG) and the creation of a Task Group from the Therapy Physics Committee within the Treatment Delivery Subcommittee. In describing the relevant issues, this document outlines the key parameters, stakeholders, impacts, and outcomes of clinical FGS technology and its applications. The presentation is not intended to be conclusive, but rather to inform the field of medical physics and stimulate the discussions needed in the field with respect to a seemingly low-risk imaging technology that has high potential for significant therapeutic impact. This AAPM Task Group is working toward consensus around guidelines and standards for advancing the field safely and effectively.

Human blood is a self-regenerating lipid-rich biological fluid that is routinely collected in hospital settings. The inventory of lipid molecules found in blood plasma (plasma lipidome) offers insights into individual metabolism and physiology in health and disease. Disturbances in the plasma lipidome also occur in conditions that are not directly linked to lipid metabolism; therefore, plasma lipidomics based on MS is an emerging tool in an array of clinical diagnostics and disease management. However, challenges exist in the translation of such lipidomic data to clinical applications. These relate to the reproducibility, accuracy, and precision of lipid quantitation, study design, sample handling, and data sharing. This position paper emerged from a workshop that initiated a community-led process to elaborate and define a set of generally accepted guidelines for quantitative MS-based lipidomics of blood plasma or serum, with harmonization of data acquired on different instrumentation platforms across independent laboratories as an ultimate goal. We hope that other fields may benefit from and follow such a precedent.

Occult caustic ingestion in the pediatric population is a challenging diagnosis to make in the emergency department. Failure to suspect and diagnose a caustic ingestion can lead to potentially life-changing comorbidities. Historically, the diagnosis of caustic ingestion has been clinical without any suitable diagnostic tools to aid in the suspicion of occult cases. In this case, we describe a novel use of ophthalmic pH paper to diagnose caustic ingestion in a three-year-old.

The purpose of this project is to cut a window in the opaque edifice of medical liability for young and aspiring OBGYNs to peer through. In addition to reviewing a wealth of literature on medical liability, I interviewed a diverse collection of OBGYNs at UCSD about their experiences with and views of medical malpractice. By integrating these narratives with the literature. This paper attempts to capture three perspectives that, I hope, offer greater texture and deeper understanding to young clinicians trying to make sense of medical liability: 1) What it feels like to be sued and the challenges associated with coping on the job; 2) What advice physicians have to avoid being sued (and a note on attorneys); 3) Where our system of medical liability falls short and how it might be improved.

This paper introduces a novel software framework to support automated development of paper-based microuidic devices. Compared to existing lab-on-a-chip technologies, paper-based microuidics difiers in terms of substrate technologies and point-of-care usage across a wide variety environmental conditions. This paper addresses the contexts in which the software can address these challenges and presents several initial case studies that demonstrate the capabilities of the framework to produce workable and usable paper microuidic devices.

This paper introduces a novel software framework to support automated development of paper-based microuidic devices. Compared to existing lab-on-a-chip technologies, paper-based microuidics difiers in terms of substrate technologies and point-of-care usage across a wide variety environmental conditions. This paper addresses the contexts in which the software can address these challenges and presents several initial case studies that demonstrate the capabilities of the framework to produce workable and usable paper microuidic devices.

Introduction: Peer review, a cornerstone of academia, promotes rigor and relevance in scientificpublishing. As educators are encouraged to adopt a more scholarly approach to medical education,peer review is becoming increasingly important. Junior educators both receive the reviews of theirpeers, and are also asked to participate as reviewers themselves. As such, it is imperative for juniorclinician educators to be well-versed in the art of peer reviewing their colleagues’ work. In thisarticle, our goal was to identify and summarize key papers that may be helpful for faculty membersinterested in learning more about the peer-review process and how to improve their reviewing skills.Methods: The online discussions of the 2016-17 Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM)Faculty Incubator program included a robust discussion about peer review, which highlighted anumber of papers on that topic. We sought to augment this list with further suggestions by guestexperts and by an open call on Twitter for other important papers. Via this process, we created a listof 24 total papers on the topic of peer review. After gathering these papers, our authorship groupengaged in a consensus-building process incorporating Delphi methods to identify the papers thatbest described peer review, and also highlighted important tips for new reviewers.Results: We found and reviewed 24 papers. In our results section, we present our authorshipgroup’s top five most highly rated papers on the topic of peer review. We also summarize thesepapers with respect to their relevance to junior faculty members and to faculty developers.Conclusion: We present five key papers on peer review that can be used for faculty development fornovice writers and reviewers. These papers represent a mix of foundational and explanatory papersthat may provide some basis from which junior faculty members might build upon as they both undergothe peer-review process and act as reviewers in turn.

Introduction Team collaboration is an essential part of success both within academics and the clinical environment. Often, team collaboration is not taught during medical school or even residency and must be learned during one’s postgraduate career. In this article, we aim to summarize five key papers about team collaboration for early career clinician educators. Methods We conducted a consensus building process amongst the writing team to generate a list of key papers that describe the importance or significance of team collaboration, seeking input from social media sources. The authors then used a three-round voting methodology akin to a Delphi study to determine the most important papers from the general list. Results The five most important papers on the topic of team collaboration, as determined by this mixed group of junior faculty members and faculty developers, is presented in this paper. For each included publication, a summary was provided along with its relevance to junior faculty members and faculty developers. Conclusion Five key papers about team collaboration are presented in this paper. These papers provide a foundational background to help junior faculty members with collaborating in teams both clinically and academically. This list may also inform senior faculty and faculty developers about the needs of junior faculty members.

Introduction: Many teachers adopt instructional methods based on assumptions of best practices without attention to or knowledge of supporting education theory. Familiarity with a variety of theories informs education that is efficient, strategic, and evidence-based. As part of the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine Faculty Incubator Program a list of key education theories for junior faculty was developed. Methods: A list of key papers on theories relevant to medical education was generated using an expert panel, a virtual community of practice synthetic discussion, and a social media call for resources. A three-round, Delphi-informed voting methodology including novice and expert educators produced a rank order of the top papers. Results: Thirty-four unique papers were identified. Eleven papers described general theories, while 23 papers focused on a specific theory. The top three ranked general education theories and top five ranked specific education theory papers are summarized. The relevance of each paper for junior faculty and faculty developers is also presented. Conclusion: This paper presents a reading list of key papers for junior faculty in medical education roles. Three papers about general education theories and five papers about specific educational theories are identified and annotated. These papers may help provide foundational knowledge in education theory to inform junior faculty teaching practice.

Introduction: Competency-based medical education (CBME) presents a paradigm shift in medicaltraining. This outcome-based education movement has triggered substantive changes across the globe.Since this transition is only beginning, many faculty members may not have experience with CBMEnor a solid foundation in the grounding literature. We identify and summarize key papers to help facultymembers learn more about CBME.Methods: Based on the online discussions of the 2016-2017 ALiEM Faculty Incubator program, a seriesof papers on the topic of CBME was developed. Augmenting this list with suggestions by a guest expertand by an open call on Twitter for other important papers, we were able to generate a list of 21 papers intotal. Subsequently, we used a modified Delphi study methodology to narrow the list to key papers thatdescribe the importance and significance for educators interested in learning about CBME. To determinethe most impactful papers, the mixed junior and senior faculty authorship group used three-round votingmethodology based upon the Delphi method.Results: Summaries of the five most highly rated papers on the topic of CBME, as determined by thismodified Delphi approach, are presented in this paper. Major themes include a definition of core CBMEthemes, CBME principles to consider in the design of curricula, a history of the development of the CBMEmovement, and a rationale for changes to accreditation with CBME. The application of the study findingsto junior faculty and faculty developers is discussed.Conclusion: We present five key papers on CBME that junior faculty members and faculty expertsidentified as essential to faculty development. These papers are a mix of foundational and explanatorypapers that may provide a basis from which junior faculty members may build upon as they help toimplement CBME programs.

Introduction: A proper understanding of study design is essential to creating successful studies. This is also important when reading or peer reviewing publications. In this article, we aimed to identify and summarize key papers that would be helpful for faculty members interested in learning more about study design in medical education research.Methods: The online discussions of the 2016-2017 Academic Life in Emergency Medicine Faculty Incubator program included a robust and vigorous discussion about education study design, which highlighted a number of papers on that topic. We augmented this list of papers with further suggestions by expert mentors. Via this process, we created a list of 29 papers in total on the topic of medical education study design. After gathering these papers, our authorship group engaged in a modified Delphi approach to build consensus on the papers that were most valuable for the understanding of proper study design in medical education.Results: We selected the top five most highly rated papers on the topic domain of study design as determined by our study group. We subsequently summarized these papers with respect to their relevance to junior faculty members and to faculty developers.Conclusion: This article summarizes five key papers addressing study design in medical education with discussions and applications for junior faculty members and faculty developers. These papers provide a basis upon which junior faculty members might build for developing and analyzing studies.

Introduction: Modern learners have immediate, unlimited access to a wide variety of onlineresources. To appeal to this current generation of learners, educators must embrace the useof technology. However, educators must balance newer, novel technologies with traditionalmethods to achieve the best learning outcomes. Therefore, we aimed to review several papersuseful for faculty members wishing to incorporate technology into instructional design.Methods: We identified a broad list of papers relevant to teaching and lea rning with technologywithin the online discussions of the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) FacultyIncubator. This list was augmented with suggestions by a guest expert (BT) and an open callon Twitter (tagged with the #meded and #FOAMed hashtags) yielding 24 papers. We thenconducted a modified three-round Delphi process within the autho rship group, including juniorand senior faculty members, to identify the most impactful papers.Results: We pared the list of 24 papers to five that were most highly rate d. Two were researchpapers and three were commentaries or editorials. The authorship group reviewed andsummarized these papers with specific consideration to their val ue to junior educators andfaculty developers.Conclusion: This is a key reading list for junior faculty members and faculty developersinterested in teaching with technology. The commentary contextualizes the importance of thesepapers for medical educators, to optimize use of technology in their teaching or incorporate intofaculty development.

Introduction: Clinician educators are often asked to perform consultations for colleagues. Invitations to consult and advise others on local problems can help foster great collaborations between centres, and allows for an exchange of ideas between programs. In this article, the authors identify and summarize several key papers to assist emerging clinician educators with the consultation process. Methods: A consensus building process was used to generate a list of key papers that describe the importance and significance of educational consulting, informed by social media sources. A three-round voting methodology, akin to a Delphi study, determinedthe most impactful papers from the larger list. Results: Summaries of the five most highly rated papers on education consultation are presented in this paper. These papers were determined by a mixed group of junior and senior faculty members, who have summarized these papers with respect to their relevance for their peer groups. Conclusion: Five key papers on the educational consultation process are presented in this paper. These papers offer background and perspective to help junior faculty gain a grasp of consultation processes.

The first paper of three uses the nationally representative Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to detail the relationship between student ability, enrollment in math or English remediation, and the probability of student transfer to a four-year institution. Using fixed effects logistic regressions, this paper finds three important findings: first, students are most likely placed into remediation due to their domain-specific ability (math, reading) but certain demographics also predict placement into remediation, such as student race, independent of ability and high school quality; second, students placed into English remediation are less likely to transfer to a four-year, especially if they are under-placed into these courses; third, summer enrollment has both a powerful positive association with vertical transfer and is particularly strong for students enrolled in remediation and with subject deficits. The second paper of three synthesizes six national databases over the span of twenty years to test the impacts of state articulation policies as they are established by examining the change in vertical transfer rates before and after a policy is enacted. After a series of careful robustness and falsification tests, there are several lessons from this analysis. First, cross-sectional analyses that utilized by these national databases may vary considerably from one database to another, although in the aggregate they support a positive association between state policy and vertical transfer. Second, longitudinal data suggests that the implementation of any articulation policy is associated with increases in student transfer rates within state, especially if analysis provides a three year grace period for the policy to take effect. Third, the strongest policy appears to be associate degree transfer agreements between two-year institutions and four-year institutions, as other policy components do not have a particularly strong impact on student transfer rates. The third

This dissertation investigates the interplay between second and fourth graders’ use of rulers and paper strips to solve number line measurement problems. Drawing upon and extending Vygotsky’s (1978, 1986) approach to mediation in problem solving, and Saxe’s (2012) treatment of microgenesis of representational activity, I analyzed 36 second and 39 fourth graders’ measurement activity as they participated in videotaped semi-structured interviews. At each grade, students were randomly assigned to ruler, short paper strip, or long paper strip conditions, and solved five number line problems first without the tool available and then five similar problems with the tool available. For each problem, two numbers were labeled (e.g., 4 and 6) and students were asked to place a third number appropriately (e.g., 9). Problems and tools were designed to elicit unitizing strategies (splitting, iterating, counting) as students coordinated tool with target to produce a linear measure. I report findings related to the precision of students’ estimates contrasting tool absent and present conditions, and findings related to students’ adaptation of tools to serve measurement functions. Analyses of students’ precision revealed that with or without the support of tools, fourth graders were more precise than second graders, though the utility of tool varied with tool and problem type. The long paper strip was particularly difficult for second graders, and at both grades, many students rejected using the long paper strip. Students generally became precise with tools when a solving a problem type that displayed a linear unit of 1 instead of a larger unit, though this varied with tool type. On other problem types, tools interfered with precision, and on still other problem types, tools interfered with the precision of second, but supported the precision of fourth graders. Analyses of strategies revealed three levels in students’ ability to coordinate a unitization of tool and target as they tri

The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act passed by Congress in 2008 has changed prescribing practices in the United States. Electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions) have now become the most widely used form of prescriptions. The government in fact financially discourages the use of the older more traditional paper prescriptions. Many emergency medicine physicians fear that this blanket policy is not in the best interests of their unique patient population. It is the belief of many of these physicians that emergency patients are more likely to fill paper prescriptions than e-prescriptions. This theory is predicated on the knowledge that many emergency patients are less established in the system and their visits are frequently rushed, chaotic, and unplanned. For these reasons, the e-prescription system is not ideal for them and the theorized consequence is that many e-prescriptions go unfilled, leaving patients to go untreated. A retrospective analysis was conducted at the emergency department of the University of California, Irvine Medical Center to identify insured adult patients who were given a non-controlled substance prescription in either the paper or electronic form. Pharmacy claim data to insurances was used to determine whether these prescriptions were filled. 405 encounters were included, 218 of which included e-prescriptions and 187 of which included paper prescriptions. Our findings showed that paper prescriptions are filled at the same rate as electronic prescriptions (58.3% versus 57.8% p=1). These results were surprising as they contradicted what many physicians believe is the situation. More studies are needed in order to be able to broaden these results to the entire emergency medicine patient population, but these results may begin to alter prescription practices in emergency medicine.

Application-oriented papers provide an important way to invigorate and cross-pollinate the visualization field, but the exact criteria for judging an application paper's merit remain an open question. This article builds on a panel at the 2016 IEEE Visualization Conference entitled "Application Papers: What Are They, and How Should They Be Evaluated?" that sought to gain a better understanding of prevalent views in the visualization community. This article surveys current trends that favor application papers, reviews the benefits and contributions of this paper type, and discusses their assessment in the review process. It concludes with recommendations to ensure that the visualization community is more inclusive to application papers.

We present a comprehensive review of keV-scale sterile neutrino Dark Matter, collecting views and insights from all disciplines involved - cosmology, astrophysics, nuclear, and particle physics - in each case viewed from both theoretical and experimental/observational perspectives. After reviewing the role of active neutrinos in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, we focus on sterile neutrinos in the context of the Dark Matter puzzle. Here, we first review the physics motivation for sterile neutrino Dark Matter, based on challenges and tensions in purely cold Dark Matter scenarios. We then round out the discussion by critically summarizing all known constraints on sterile neutrino Dark Matter arising from astrophysical observations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical considerations. In this context, we provide a balanced discourse on the possibly positive signal from X-ray observations. Another focus of the paper concerns the construction of particle physics models, aiming to explain how sterile neutrinos of keV-scale masses could arise in concrete settings beyond the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. The paper ends with an extensive review of current and future astrophysical and laboratory searches, highlighting new ideas and their experimental challenges, as well as future perspectives for the discovery of sterile neutrinos.