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Could open-source solutions provide a crucial layer of defense for the future of pandemic-ready and disaster-resilient supply chains?

A description of the flocking method: a novel variancereduction technique for the energy spectra in Monte Carlo radiationtransport applications. In ANS Transactions: ANS Annual meeting 2022 Presented at ANS Annual June 14th 2022 This work was supported by the Center for Exascale Monte-Carlo Neutron Transport (CEMeNT) a PSAAP-III project funded by the Department of Energy, grant number: DE-NA003967. Release number: LA-UR-22-20908 AffiliatedANS presentation&nbsp

Background Inhaled medications improve health outcomes in chronic respiratory patients. Guidelines and pharmaceutical licensing agreements recommend a drug response trial prior to use. Evidence to support this recommendation is of poor quality; adverse events are rare, and the trial process has a considerable impact on physiotherapy clinical time and patient experience. Current literature suggests using percentage predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) >55% as a predictor of trial success. Aims 1. To identify the failure rate of inhaled therapy trials in the chronic respiratory cohort. 2. To predict risk factors associated with trial outcome to establish those who could avoid a trial due to low risk stratification. Methods An evaluation of service was completed which involved a retrospective review of 204 chronic respiratory participants who completed an inhaled therapy trial between September 2017 and September 2019. Spirometry and other anthropometric measurements were recorded at the time of the drug response trial. Data was analysed using multivariable logistic regression to identify variables linked to passing inhaled therapy trials. Discussion and conclusion FEV1% predicted was significantly less for those that failed (35.5%) compared to those that passed (53.18%) p = 0.012. Those with an FEV1 predicted >55% had a higher likelihood to pass p = 0.005, R² = 0.039. The evaluation identified a low failure rate (4.9%) overall to inhalation therapy trials, with the most significant risk factor for failure being identified as FEV1 predicted

Este artículo contiene 24 páginas, 6 figuras., Mosquito-borne diseases continue to ravage humankind with >700 million infections and nearly one million deaths every year. Yet only a small percentage of the >3500 mosquito species transmit diseases, necessitating both extensive surveillance and precise identification. Unfortunately, such efforts are costly, time-consuming, and require entomological expertise. As envisioned by the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium, citizen science can provide a scalable solution. However, disparate data standards across existing platforms have thus far precluded truly global integration. Here, utilizing Open Geospatial Consortium standards, we harmonized four data streams from three established mobile apps—Mosquito Alert, iNaturalist, and GLOBE Observer’s Mosquito Habitat Mapper and Land Cover—to facilitate interoperability and utility for researchers, mosquito control personnel, and policymakers. We also launched coordinated media campaigns that generated unprecedented numbers and types of observations, including successfully capturing the first images of targeted invasive and vector species. Additionally, we leveraged pooled image data to develop a toolset of artificial intelligence algorithms for future deployment in taxonomic and anatomical identification. Ultimately, by harnessing the combined powers of citizen science and artificial intelligence, we establish a next-generation surveillance framework to serve as a united front to combat the ongoing threat of mosquito-borne diseases worldwide., This research was funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IIS-2014547 to R.M.C., S.C., R.D.L. and A.B. The GLOBE Observer app and citizen science programming are supported through National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) cooperative agreement NNX16AE28A to the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) for the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC, PI: Theresa Schwerin). F.B. and J.R.B.P. acknowledge funding from: (a) the European Commission, under Grants CA17108 (AIM-COST Action), 874735 (VEO), 853271 (H-MIP), and 2020/2094 (NextGenerationEU, through CSIC’s Global Health Platform, PTI Salud Global); (b) the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA), under Grant NWA/00686468; and (c) “la Caixa” Foundation, under Grant HR19-00336.

It is a critical time to reflect on the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) science to date as well as envision what research can be done right now with NEON (and other) data and what training is needed to enable a diverse user community. NEON became fully operational in May 2019 and has pivoted from planning and construction to operation and maintenance. In this overview, the history of and foundational thinking around NEON are discussed. A framework of open science is described with a discussion of how NEON can be situated as part of a larger data constellation—across existing networks and different suites of ecological measurements and sensors. Next, a synthesis of early NEON science, based on >100 existing publications, funded proposal efforts, and emergent science at the very first NEON Science Summit (hosted by Earth Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder in October 2019) is provided. Key questions that the ecology community will address with NEON data in the next 10 yr are outlined, from understanding drivers of biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales to defining complex feedback mechanisms in human–environmental systems. Last, the essential elements needed to engage and support a diverse and inclusive NEON user community are highlighted: training resources and tools that are openly available, funding for broad community engagement initiatives, and a mechanism to share and advertise those opportunities. NEON users require both the skills to work with NEON data and the ecological or environmental science domain knowledge to understand and interpret them. This paper synthesizes early directions in the community’s use of NEON data, and opportunities for the next 10 yr of NEON operations in emergent science themes, open science best practices, education and training, and community building.

Chapter ten breaks the chronological borders of Greek literature moving the discussion to the Roman Stoics and in particular Marcus Aurelius. Absent here is much of the mythological focus so characteristic of treatments of death and the afterlife in earlier chapters. However, emphasis of traditional accounts is found in a continuing, if not increased insistence on the soul, although a concern for its post-mortem existence has been redirected from a focus on the Underworld to an understanding of the cosmos it inhabits. While Socrates saw death and the afterlife as ideas about which mortals must remain ignorant, these matters are now thought of as discernible through rational reflection. Long considers the agnosticisms of the Roman Stoics, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, concerning the continuity of the soul after death, and its relationship to the living person.

Foraging aggregations of east Pacific green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabit the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge (SBNWR) and San Diego Bay (SDB), two habitats in southern California, USA, located near urbanized areas. Both juvenile and adult green turtles forage in these areas and exhibit high site fidelity, which potentially exposes green turtles to anthropogenic contaminants. We assessed 21 trace metals (TM) bioaccumulated in green turtle scute and red blood cell (RBC) samples collected from SBNWR (n = 16 turtles) and SDB (n = 20 turtles) using acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Principal component analyses of TM composition indicate that SBNWR and SDB turtles have location-specific contaminant signatures, characterized by differences in cadmium and selenium concentrations: SBNWR turtles had significantly more cadmium and selenium in RBC and more selenium in scute samples, than SDB turtles. Cadmium and selenium concentrations in RBC had a strong positive relationship, regardless of location. SBNWR turtles had higher selenium in RBCs than previously measured in other green turtle populations globally. Due to different retention times in blood vs. scute, these results suggest that SBNWR turtles have high long- and short-term selenium exposure. Turtles from SBNWR and SDB had higher trace metal concentrations than documented in green turtle populations that inhabit non-urbanized areas, supporting the hypothesis that coastal cities can increase trace metal exposure to local green turtles. Our study finds evidence that green turtle TM concentrations can differ between urbanized habitats and that long-term monitoring of these green turtles may be necessary.

In Plato’s Theaetetus, Socrates explains what it is to have a doxa, a judgement or belief. A doxa is a self-addressed affirmation or denial that comes into existence when, after giving a question thought, the subject settles on one answer. Two passages seem to conflict with this account of doxa. In the Gorgias, a belief is attributed to Polus on the strength of what he is committed to by his other beliefs. But Socrates is trying to show complexity in an apparently universal consensus on Polus’ side, and the point of the belief-attribution cannot be understood without recognizing that Socrates speaks of what other people, not only Polus himself, believe. In the Meno, a slave in the grip of perplexity is said to contain true doxai. But Socrates does not mean that the slave at that time believes the answer to the geometrical problem.

The paper discusses Seneca’s phrase ‘human rights’ (ius humanum) in On Benefits 3 and relates the passage to recent debates about human rights in Stoicism and ancient philosophy. I argue that the Latin phrase refers either to rights or to a law conferring rights. The difference between the passage and a common expectation for human rights lies in the kind of relation between right and duty. In Seneca’s passage the right does not in itself have a correlative duty on the part of other people, and yet it does, if exercised through benefactions, create a duty in others. By contrast, the relation between right and duty is usually expected to be unconditional.

Despite widespread interest in the gig economy, academic research on the topic has lagged behind. The present chapter applies organizational theory and research to compose a working model for understanding participation in the gig economy and how gig work may impact worker health and well-being. Drawing from past research this chapter defines the gig economy in all its diversity and advances a framework for understanding why individuals enter into gig economy. Next, the authors discuss how various characteristics of the gig economy and gig workers can be understood as both demands and resources that influence how gig work is likely to be experienced by the individual. To understand how these characteristics are likely to influence worker health and well-being, we draw from past research on alternative work arrangements and entrepreneurship, as well as the limited extant research on the gig economy. Finally, a research agenda is proposed to spur much needed research on the gig economy and its workers.

BackgroundPost-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is a life-threatening complication following lung transplant. We aimed to study the incidence of and risk factors for PTLD in adult lung transplant recipients.MethodsThe International Society of Heart and Lung Transplant (ISHLT) Registry was used to identify adult, first-time, single and bilateral lung transplant recipients with at least one year follow-up and from centers reporting PTLD between January 2006 and June 2015. Kaplan Meier method was used to describe timing and distribution of PTLD. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the clinical characteristics associated with PTLD.ResultsOf the 19,309 lung transplant recipients in the analysis cohort, we identified 454 cases of PTLD. Cumulative incidence of PTLD was 1.1% (95% CI = 1.0%, 1.3%) at 1 year and 4.1% (95% CI= 3.6%, 4.6%) at 10-years. We observed that 47.4% of all PTLD cases occurred within the first year following lung transplantation. In the multivariable model, independent risk factors for PTLD included age, EBV mismatch and native lung diseases. The risk of PTLD during the first year after transplant increased with increasing age in patients between 45 to 62 years at time of transplantation; the inverse was true for ages less than 45 year or greater than 62 years. Finally, receiving a donor organ with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types A1 and A24 was associated with an increased risk of PTLD while the recipient HLA type DR11 was associated with a decreased risk.ConclusionsOur study indicates that PTLD is a relatively rare complication among adult lung transplant recipients. We identified clinical characteristics that are associated with increased risk of PTLD.

Arthritis occurs in 27% of adults in Montana, among whom 50% have activity limitations, 16% have social participation restrictions, and 23% have severe joint pain attributable to arthritis (1). Physical activity is beneficial in managing arthritis symptoms and in preventing other chronic diseases (2). Walk With Ease is a 6-week evidence-based physical activity program recommended by CDC to increase physical activity and help improve arthritis symptoms (3). In 2015, Walk With Ease was added to an ongoing workplace wellness program for Montana state employees; the results for five outcomes (minutes spent walking, engaging in other physical activity [including swimming, bicycling, other aerobic equipment use, and other aerobic exercise], stretching, pain, and fatigue) were analyzed by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and CDC. Outcomes at baseline (pretest), 6 weeks after the program (posttest), and 6 months later (follow-up) were analyzed by self-reported arthritis status at the time the participant enrolled in the program. Significant increases (p

To help answer the question of length of intravenous antibiotics during an acute exacerbation of cystic fibrosis (CF), we had subjects to follow daily home spirometry while on intravenous antibiotics. CF patients, 18 and older, with an acute exacerbation requiring intravenous antibiotics had a daily FEV1. The average time to a 10% increase over their initial sick FEV1 was calculated, as well as the time to a new baseline. A total of 25 subjects completed the study. Ten of the 25 subjects did not have a sustainable 10% increase in FEV1. Of the 15 subjects with a sustainable 10% increase in FEV1, it took 5.2 days (±4.5) after day 1, while a new baseline was achieved on average at 6.6 days (±4.8) after day 1. Given the wide range of time to a 10% improvement and new baseline, it is recommended there should be flexibility in length of intravenous antibiotics in CF, not by a preset number.

A combined experimental and theoretical comparative study of the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of anisole was conducted over Pt, Ru, and Fe metals. In the experimental part, an inert silica support was used to directly compare the catalytic activity and selectivity of the three metals at 375 °C under H2 flow at atmospheric pressure. In parallel, for density functional theory (DFT) calculations the close-packed Pt(1 1 1), Ru(0 0 0 1), and Fe(1 1 0) surfaces were employed to compare the possible mechanisms on these metals. It was observed that over Pt/SiO2 and Ru/SiO2 catalysts, both phenol and benzene were the major products in a phenol/benzene ratio that decreased with the level of conversion. By contrast, over the Fe/SiO2 catalyst, no phenol formation was detected, even at low conversions. The DFT results show that over all the three metal surfaces the dehydrogenation at the CH3 side group occurs before the C O bond breaking. This removal of H atoms from the CH3 group facilitates the activation of the aliphatic Calkyl O bond. Therefore, it can be concluded that a common intermediate for the three metals is a surface phenoxy and the significant differences between the three metals are related to the reactivity of this surface phenoxy. That is, over Pt(1 1 1) and Ru(0 0 0 1) the phenoxy intermediate is hydrogenated to phenol, which in turn, can undergo further HDO to form benzene. This result is in agreement with the experiments over Pt/SiO2 and Ru/SiO2 catalysts. Over these catalysts, both phenol and benzene are major products, with the selectivity to benzene increasing with conversion at the expense of phenol. In contrast, over the Fe(1 1 0) surface, the strong metal oxophilicity makes the direct cleavage of the C O bond in the surface phenoxy easier than hydrogenation to phenol. Thus, it is predicted that phenol is not formed over iron, but only benzene should be observed as HDO product at all conversion levels, which is also in agreement with the experimental observations.

Most of the work for the paper was undertaken in Toronto during a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. The paper examines Empedocles’ attributions of immortality. I argue that Empedocles does not withhold immortality from the gods but rather has an unorthodox conception of what immortality is. Immortality does not mean, or imply, endless duration. A god’s immortality is its continuity, as one and the same organism, over a long but finite period. This conception of divine immortality then influences Empedocles’ other attributions of immortality, each of which marks a contrast with discontinuity, real or apparent. The nature of this contrast varies from context to context, and there is considerable heterogeneity in the list of immortal items. On the other hand, the attribution of immortality never implies that the item is completely changeless. Publisher PDF

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-06T16:01:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-01-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) National Science Foundation Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Cosmetic Surgery Foundation University of Rochester Chiasmocleis is the most species-rich genus of Neotropical microhylids. Herein, we provide the first comprehensive multilocus phylogeny for the genus, including all but 3 of the 34 recognized species and multiple individuals per species. We discuss cryptic speciation, species discovery, patterns of morphological evolution, and provide a historical biogeographic analysis to account for the current distribution of the genus. Diversification of Chiasmocleis from other New World microhylids began during the Eocene, app. 40 mya, in forested areas, and current diversity seems to be a product of recurrent connections between the Atlantic Forest and Amazonia. Small-sized species evolved independently three times in Chiasmocleis. Furthermore, the extremely small-bodied (i.e. miniaturized) species with associated loss of digits, phalanges, and pectoral girdle cartilages evolved only once and are restricted to Amazonia. Using the phylogeny, we recognized three subgenera within Chiasmocleis: Chiasmocleis Méhely, 1904, Relictus subg. nov., and Syncope Walker, 1973. The recognition of the subgenus Syncope informs future research on patterns of miniaturization in the genus, and the subgenus Relictus highlights isolation of an endemic and species-poor lineage to the Atlantic Forest, early (about 40 mya) in the history of Chiasmocleis. Department of Biology University of Richmond Department of Biological Sciences The George Washington University, 2029 G St NW Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Comparative Zoology, 26 Oxford St Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Nazaré 481, 04263–000 Ipiranga Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Coordenação de Zoologia, Avenida Perimetral, 1901, Terra Firme Departamento de Zoologia e Centro de Aquicultura (CAUNESP) Instituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Caixa Postal 199 Departamento de Zoologia e Centro de Aquicultura (CAUNESP) Instituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Caixa Postal 199 FAPESP: #2013/50741-7 National Science Foundation: 1144692 CNPq: 302518/2013-4 CNPq: 303545/2010-0 CNPq: 565046/2010-1 Cosmetic Surgery Foundation: BEX 1187-13-9

The sophists were some of the most important pioneers of Greek political philosophy. This paper discusses how Stoics and Epicureans engaged with sophistic thought and with previous critiques of sophistic thought. Plato’s accounts of sophists are a central object of study, because Plato and the Academy were, most probably, a key target of polemic in Stoic and Epicurean discussions of sophists. But sometimes the paper tries to get away from Plato, as for example when it considers Epicurean theories of conventions and contracts. Section 5.1 sets out the broader evidence for Stoic and Epicurean engagement with sophists, and the philosophical and/or polemical motivations for such engagement. Section 5.2 considers the Hellenistic, and particularly the Stoic, discussion of the teachability of virtue. Section 5.3 considers the origin of justice and disagreement between cities about what justice demands.

In this paper, we present a novel approach for touch modality identification via tactile sensing on a humanoid. In this respect, we equipped a NAO humanoid with whole upper body coverage of multi-modal artificial skin. We propose a set of biologically inspired feature descriptors to provide robust and abstract tactile information for use in touch classification. These features are demonstrated to be invariant to location of contact and movement of the humanoid, as well as capable of processing single and multi-touch actions. To provide a comparison of our method, existing approaches were reimplemented and evaluated. The experimental results show that the humanoid can distinguish different single touch modalities with a recognition rate of 96.79% while using the proposed feature descriptors and SVM classifier. Furthermore, it can recognize multiple touch actions with 93.03% recognition rate.

The paper considers why the structure of Cicero’s De Finibus implicitly favours the Academy, even though Cicero avoids a decision between the Stoic theory and Antiochus’ theory. Cicero’s educational aims require him to illustrate not only a range of theories but a range of criteria by which theories and the exposition of theories should be judged. By one criterion – style of exposition – the entire Academic tradition, not Antiochus specifically, is endorsed. Postprint

If we look to the Protagoras for philosophical lessons, it may seem an irritating patchwork of niggling argument, irrelevant digressions, false starts and downright fallacy. Read as a play in which the most outstanding and individual minds of a brilliant period meet and engage in a battle of wits, it will give a different impression. That is how it should be read. A serious discussion of the nature of virtue, and how it is acquired, must be left, as Protagoras said, for another occasion - and, we may add, for different company: it is not to be achieved in the competitive atmosphere of a public gathering of Sophists.The Protagoras is palpably interested in character, vividly reviving a lost intellectual generation. But it also seems to argue for a conclusion, albeit a very provisional one. How should we relate the dialogue's array of luminaries to its argument? A reader may be tempted, as in the quotation above, to use the dialogue's literary lustre merely to excuse its arguments from charges of philosophical clumsiness. But by the end of the work we have been shown apparently successful arguments for the unity of virtue, with Protagoras' attempt at a counter-example refuted (360d8–e5).

In this paper I discuss the dialogues between 'Protagoras', Theodorus and Socrates in Theaetetus 161-171 and emphasise the importance for this passage of a dilemma which refutation is shown to pose for relativism at 161e-162a. I argue that the two speeches delivered on Protagoras' behalf contain material that is deeply Socratic and suggest that this feature of the speeches should be interpreted as part of Plato's philosophical case against relativism, reflecting the relativist's own inability to defend his theory from attempts to refute it. I then discuss Theodorus' role in the refutation of Protagoras and argue that his voice is needed to get relativism disproved in the self-refutation argument of 171a-c. I conclude with a brief discussion of the image of Protagoras at 171d.