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The increased use of color dyes in industry imposes a great threat to the environment. As such, developing cost-effective techniques for dye removal from wastewater attracted great attention. Earth materials, particularly those with large specific surface area (SSA) and high cation exchange capacity (CEC), were evaluated for their potential use for wastewater treatment. In this study, palygorskite, sepiolite, and clinoptilolite were evaluated for their removal of cationic dyes using safranin O (SO+) as a model compound. The CEC values of the materials played a key role in SO+ removal while other physicochemical conditions, such as temperature, equilibrium solution pH, and ionic strength, had less influence on SO+ removal. Sorbed SO+ cations were limited to the external surfaces of the minerals, as their channel sizes are less than the size of SO+ cation. Molecular dynamic simulations showed dense monolayer SO+ uptake on palygorskite due to its relatively large CEC value. In contrast, loosely packed monomer SO+ uptake was adopted on sepiolite for its large SSA and low CEC. Dense multilayers or admicelles of SO+ formed on zeolite surfaces. As such, for the best SO removal, palygorskite is better than sepiolite, though both are fibrous clay minerals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many individuals suffering from “connection deficit disorder” given changes to the way we work, go to school, socialize, and engage in daily activities. Young adults affected by cancer between the ages of 18–39 have known this connection deficit long before the pandemic. Being diagnosed and treated for cancer during this time can significantly disrupt engagement in important educational, career, social, and reproductive pursuits, and contribute to increased stress, anxiety, depression, and other negative outcomes. Experiencing meaningful connection—with nature, with peers who understand, and with oneself, may help assuage this adverse effect of disconnect. A single arm within-subjects program evaluation was conducted to examine outcomes following participation in immersive, multi-night, mindfulness-based treks in nature in a sample of young adults (n = 157) and caregivers (n = 50) affected by cancer from 2016–2021. Pre to post-trek changes included significant (p < 0.001) self-reported improvements in feeling connected to nature (d = 0.93–0.95), peers (d = 1.1–1.3), and oneself (d = 0.57–1.5); significant (p < 0.001) improvements on PROMIS Anxiety (d = 0.62–0.78), Depression (d = 0.87–0.89), and Sleep Disturbance (d = 0.37–0.48) short forms; and significant (p < 0.05) changes in pro-inflammatory biomarkers (d = 0.55–0.82). Connection-promoting experiences like this have the potential to improve health and wellbeing in this population and serve as a model for others.

International audience; The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a Stage IV ground-based dark energy experiment that will measure the expansion history of the Universe using the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation technique. The spectra of 35 million galaxies and quasars over 14000 square degrees will be measured during the life of the experiment. We describe the installation of the major elements of the instrument at the Mayall 4m telescope, completed in late 2019. The previous prime focus corrector, spider vanes, and upper rings were removed from the Mayall’s Serrurier truss and replaced with the newlyconstructed DESI ring, vanes, cage, hexapod, and optical corrector. The new corrector was optically aligned with the primary mirror using a laser tracker system. The DESI focal plane system was integrated to the corrector, with each of its ten 500-fiber-positioner petal segments installed using custom installation hardware and the laser tracker. Ten DESI spectrographs with 30 cryostats were installed in a newly assembled clean room in the Large Coude Room. The ten cables carrying 5000 optical fibers from the positioners in the focal plane were routed down the telescope through cable wraps at the declination and hour angle axes, and their integral slitheads were integrated with the ten spectrographs. The fiber view camera assembly was installed to the Mayall’s primary mirror cell. Servers for the instrument control system replaced existing computer equipment. The fully integrated instrument has been commissioned and is ready to start its operations phase.

Using radial-velocity data from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder, we have measured the mass of the Neptune-sized planet K2-25b, as well as the obliquity of its M4.5-dwarf host star in the 600-800MYr Hyades cluster. This is one of the youngest planetary systems for which both of these quantities have been measured, and one of the very few M dwarfs with a measured obliquity. Based on a joint analysis of the radial velocity data, time-series photometry from the K2 mission, and new transit light curves obtained with diffuser-assisted photometry, the planet's radius and mass are $3.44\pm 0.12 \mathrm{R_\oplus}$ and $24.5_{-5.2}^{+5.7} \mathrm{M_\oplus}$. These properties are compatible with a rocky core enshrouded by a thin hydrogen-helium atmosphere (5% by mass). We measure an orbital eccentricity of $e=0.43 \pm 0.05$. The sky-projected stellar obliquity is $\lambda=3 \pm 16^{\circ}$, compatible with spin-orbit alignment, in contrast to other "hot Neptunes" that have been studied around older stars., Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ, 31 pages, 14 figures

BackgroundEchocardiography has been proposed as a method to screen children for rheumatic heart disease. The World Heart Federation has established guidelines for echocardiographic screening. In this study, we describe a rapid echocardiogram screening protocol according to the World Heart Federation guidelines in Samoa, endemic for rheumatic heart disease.MethodsWe performed echocardiogram screening in schoolchildren in Samoa between 2013 and 2015. A brief screening echocardiogram was performed on all students. Children with predefined criteria suspicious for rheumatic hear diseases were referred for a more comprehensive echocardiogram. Complete echocardiograms were classified according to the World Heart Federation guidelines and severity of valve disease.ResultsEchocardiographic screening was performed on 11,434 children, with a mean age of 10.2 years; 51% of them were females. A total of 558 (4.8%) children underwent comprehensive echocardiography, including 49 students who were randomly selected as controls. Definite rheumatic heart disease was observed in 115 students (10.0 per 1000): 92 students were classified as borderline (8.0 per 1000) and 23 with CHD. Advanced disease was identified in 50 students (4.4 per 1000): 15 with severe mitral regurgitation, five with severe aortic regurgitation, 11 with mitral stenoses, and 19 with mitral and aortic valve disease.ConclusionsWe successfully applied a rapid echocardiographic screening protocol to a large number of students over a short time period – 28 days of screening over a 3-year time period – to identify a high prevalence of rheumatic heart disease. We also reported a significantly higher rate of advanced disease compared with previously published echocardiographic screening programmes.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the issues related to formative modeling and the implications for its use, including some practical suggestions on methods for utilizing causal indicators within models. Design/methodology/approach In order to understand and explore the issues relating to formative models, this paper explores both formative and reflective indicators that together address the basic approach to the causal relationship within measurement models in structural equations modeling. Process recommendations for formative model/variable conceptualization and development are presented as well as a discussion of several evaluative issues including identification and proportionality. Some of the main arguments for and against its use are also discussed. Findings While the literature on formative models stresses its contribution to behavioral sciences, perhaps its greatest contribution is the flexibility of choice that it provides researchers in the development of models to more accurately estimate the relationship under consideration. Originality/value The paper contributes to the on-going debate on the relative advantages and disadvantages of the formative and reflective approaches to modeling and examination. Although the pendulum has swung in recent years away from an almost singular focus on reflective models, both approaches provide useful and complementary tools to theoretical management research modeling.

Attending to the production and reception of critique produced by anthropologists’ interlocutors, in the field and in the archives, can help shore up the project of critical ethnography called for by Didier Fassin. A comparison of two moments of critique initiated by Fayiz Sayigh on behalf of Palestinians struggling against Israeli colonialism highlights the ways that the same kinds of critique of power gain traction in different institutional and historical contexts. The expansion of critical ethnography to include a historical ethnography of critique itself, tracing the effects of critique or its dissipation in the past, would yield further insights into the nature and power (or weakness) of the practice of critique today.

(2017). Implementing Telephone Triage Guidelines into Nursing Workflow. Oncology Issues: Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 48-54.

Background: The application of health promotion and education theories to better understand clinical efforts in relations to rheumatic heart disease has been recognized by world experts in the clinical field. To help understand the behavior of caregivers of children in Samoa diagnosed with definite RHD, the Health Belief Model (HBM) offers a framework of constructs to assist in gathering and analyzing information obtained from caregivers.Objective: The objective of this study is to apply the HBM to assess possible barriers to follow-up care compliance among a convenience sample of caregivers of children in Samoa whose child has been diagnosed with definite RHD.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Using the HBM, a questionnaire was developed to compare caregiver knowledge and perceptions regarding their child’s RHD diagnosis with the number of follow-up visits reported in a 12-month period.Results: The Samoan National Health Service personnel arranged for 67 caregivers to participate. Using an unpair...

Concerns about lying and sincerity in politics are common in most societies, as are concerns about conspiracy theories. But in the occupied Palestinian territory, these concerns give rise to particular kinds of effects because of the conditions of Israeli occupation. Political theorists often interpret opacity claims and conspiracy theories as responses to social disorder. In occupied Palestine, disorder and instability are standard. Opacity claims and conspiracy theories therefore require a different kind of analysis. Through an examination of the semiotic ideology of sincerity, especially as it has emerged in the conflict between Fatah and Hamas, this article argues that opacity claims act as a form of nationalist pedagogy, at once reinforcing the basic principles of sincerity of action and word, and encouraging a wariness of political spin.

The study of human rights has gone through many phases, and the boom in the scholarly industry of human rights studies has yielded many subspecialties, including human rights in particular regions and the intersections of human rights with different religious traditions. One principal area of discussion likely to be of interest to readers of this journal has been the question of Muslim women's human rights and the role of religion in this respect. The problem was often presented as primarily an ideological one, a conflict between a local tradition, Islam, and the global demands for human rights.

The natural history of children screened by echocardiography (echo) for rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in endemic areas and identified as normal, borderline or definite according to the World Heart Federation guidelines (WHFG) is unclear. This has implications in determining benefit from long term

NEID is an ultra-stabilized, high-resolution, fiber-fed, spectrometer being built by a multi-institutional team for the 3.5 m WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, with a delivery date in 2019. The instrument is supported by the NN-EXPLORE program, a joint endeavor between NASA and the NSF to provide the exoplanet community with extreme ground-based Doppler radial velocity (RV) measurement capability. NEID's primary science objective is the discovery and characterization of terrestrial mass exoplanets, including follow-up of planets discovered by TESS and other spacecraft missions. Achieving these goals requires a multi-faceted approach that combines a state of the art Doppler instrument with a RV precision goal of 30 cm/s, a significantly improved understanding of the stellar radial velocity signal and intrinsic stellar variability, and large numbers of observations distributed optimally in time following guidelines refined over the past 25 years of RV exoplanet discovery. NEID uses a single-arm white pupil echelle optical design to produce R~100,000 spectra covering the complete wavelength range from 0.38 - 0.92 microns on a single 9k x 9k CCD. The optical bench and optics are stabilized with a state of the art temperature control system that achieves sub-mK stability, and are surrounded by a vacuum chamber that maintains 10^-7 Torr pressure or better. This extreme stability minimizes drift in the optics and optomechanical systems. Light is transfered from the telescope to the spectrometer using fiber-optic feeds that combine circular and octagonal fibers with a ball-lens double scrambler to provide high amounts of radial and azmuthal scrambling that minimize variations in the input illumination. These fibers interface with the WIYN telescope through a sophisticated new instrument port, which will provide atmospheric-dispersion correction and active tip-tilt to ensure precise and repeatable target positioning on the fiber. A three tiered calibration system utilizes a Laser Frequency Comb as the primary wavelength calibrator, while providing a stabilized etalon and ThAr and UNe Hollow-Cathode Lamps as high-reliability backup sources. An integrated exposure meter in the form of a low-resolution spectrometer measures precise chromatic exposure time centroids. A sophisticated data reduction pipeline that builds upon algorithms developed over decades of precision RV spectroscopy will automatically transform raw images and telemetry into RVs and other high-level data products, which will be served to users and the community through a NExScI portal. In this paper, we will provide an overview of the NEID project, including a progress update on the instrument integration and testing. We will also describe the WIYN operations plan, which is built around queue scheduled observations, and detail notional science programs that can be carried out with NEID, including the instrument team's GTO program. Finally, we will briefly discuss the impacts of stellar variability, which currently limit RV measurement precision well shy of the fundamental instrument limit, and which we and others are actively working to better understand and mitigate. Additional papers in this conference will describe the instrument subsystems in more detail.

We present results of our large scale, optical, multi-epoch photometric survey of ~180 square degrees across the Orion OB1 association, complemented with extensive follow up spectroscopy. We map and characterize in an uniform way the off-cloud, low-mass, pre-main sequence populations. We report 2064, mostly K and M-type, confirmed T Tauri members. Most (59%) are located in the OB1a subassociation, 27% in OB1b, and 14% within the confines of the A and B molecular clouds. There is significant structure in the spatial distribution of the young stars. We characterize two new clusterings of T Tauri stars, HD 35762 and HR 1833 in the OB1a subassociation, and two stellar overdensities in OB1b. There is indication of two populations of young stars in the OB1b region, located at two different distances, which may be due to the OB1a subassociation overlapping on front of OB1b. The various groups and regions can be ordered in an age sequence that agrees with the long standing picture of star formation starting in Orion OB1a some 10-15 Myr ago. We define a new type of T Tauri star, the C/W class, objects we propose may be nearing the end of their accretion phase. We detect the observational signature of Li depletion in young K and M stars with a timescale of 8.5 Myr. The decline of the accretion fraction from ~2 - 10 Myr, implies an accretion e-folding timescale of 2.1 Myr. Finally, the median amplitude of the V-band variability shows the decline of stellar activity, from accreting Classical T Tauri stars to the least active field dwarfs., 41 pages, 30 figures, submitted to the Astronomical Journal on May 02, 2018. Abridged abstract

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is under construction to measure the expansion history of the universe using the baryon acoustic oscillations technique. The spectra of 35 million galaxies and quasars over 14,000 square degrees will be measured during a 5-year survey. A new prime focus corrector for the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory will deliver light to 5,000 individually targeted fiber-fed robotic positioners. The fibers in turn feed ten broadband multi-object spectrographs. We describe the ProtoDESI experiment, that was installed and commissioned on the 4-m Mayall telescope from August 14 to September 30, 2016. ProtoDESI was an on-sky technology demonstration with the goal to reduce technical risks associated with aligning optical fibers with targets using robotic fiber positioners and maintaining the stability required to operate DESI. The ProtoDESI prime focus instrument, consisting of three fiber positioners, illuminated fiducials, and a guide camera, was installed behind the existing Mosaic corrector on the Mayall telescope. A Fiber View Camera was mounted in the Cassegrain cage of the telescope and provided feedback metrology for positioning the fibers. ProtoDESI also provided a platform for early integration of hardware with the DESI Instrument Control System that controls the subsystems, provides communication with the Telescope Control System, and collects instrument telemetry data. Lacking a spectrograph, ProtoDESI monitored the output of the fibers using a Fiber Photometry Camera mounted on the prime focus instrument. ProtoDESI was successful in acquiring targets with the robotically positioned fibers and demonstrated that the DESI guiding requirements can be met., Comment: Accepted version

Using the most recent prototypes, design, and as-built system information, we test and quantify the capability of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) to discover Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). We empirically estimate an expected upper limit to the false detection rate in LSST image differencing, using measurements on DECam data and prototype LSST software and find it to be about $450$~deg$^{-2}$. We show that this rate is already tractable with current prototype of the LSST Moving Object Processing System (MOPS) by processing a 30-day simulation consistent with measured false detection rates. We proceed to evaluate the performance of the LSST baseline survey strategy for PHAs and NEOs using a high-fidelity simulated survey pointing history. We find that LSST alone, using its baseline survey strategy, will detect $66\%$ of the PHA and $61\%$ of the NEO population objects brighter than $H=22$, with the uncertainty in the estimate of $\pm5$ percentage points. By generating and examining variations on the baseline survey strategy, we show it is possible to further improve the discovery yields. In particular, we find that extending the LSST survey by two additional years and doubling the MOPS search window increases the completeness for PHAs to $86\%$ (including those discovered by contemporaneous surveys) without jeopardizing other LSST science goals ($77\%$ for NEOs). This equates to reducing the undiscovered population of PHAs by additional $26\%$ ($15\%$ for NEOs), relative to the baseline survey., 66 pages, 18 figures, accepted to Icarus

The Human Right to Dominate is a compelling book for many reasons. The authors present a clear argument that the relationship between human rights and domination is strong and insidious, and explor...

The conflict in Palestine has been the subject of numerous international investigative commissions over the past century. These have been dispatched by governments to determine the causes of violent conflicts and how to resolve them. Commissions both produce and reflect political epistemologies, the social processes and categories by which proof and evidence are produced and mobilized in political claim-making. Using archival and ethnographic sources, my analysis focuses on three investigative commissions: the King-Crane (1919), Anglo-American (1946), and Mitchell (2001) commissions. They reveal how “reading affect” has been a diagnostic of political worthiness. Through these investigations, Western colonial agents and “the international community” have given Palestinians false hope that discourse and reason were the appropriate and effective mode of politics. Rather than simply reason, however, what each required was maintenance of an impossible balance between the rational and the emotional. This essay explores the ways that affect as a diagnostic of political worthiness has worked as a technology of rule in imperial orders, and has served as an unspoken legitimating mechanism of domination.

SweetSpot is a three-year National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) Survey program to observe Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in the smooth Hubble flow with the WIYN High-resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) on the WIYN 3.5-m telescope. We here present data from the first half of this survey, covering the 2011B-2013B NOAO semesters, and consisting of 493 calibrated images of 74 SNe Ia observed in the rest-frame near-infrared (NIR) from $0.02 < z < 0.09$. Because many observed supernovae require host galaxy subtraction from templates taken in later semesters, this release contains only the 186 NIR ($JHK_s$) data points for the 33 SNe Ia that do not require host-galaxy subtraction. The sample includes 4 objects with coverage beginning before the epoch of B-band maximum and 27 beginning within 20 days of B-band maximum. We also provide photometric calibration between the WIYN+WHIRC and Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) systems along with light curves for 786 2MASS stars observed alongside the SNe Ia. This work is the first in a planned series of three SweetSpot Data Releases. Future releases will include the full set of images from all 3 years of the survey, including host-galaxy reference images and updated data processing and host-galaxy reference subtraction. SweetSpot will provide a well-calibrated sample that will help improve our ability to standardize distance measurements to SNe Ia, examine the intrinsic optical-NIR colors of SNe Ia at different epochs, explore nature of dust in other galaxies, and act as a stepping stone for more distant, potentially space-based surveys., Published in AJ. 10 tables. 11 figures. Lightcurve plots included as a figureset and available in source tarball. Data online at http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~wmwv/SweetSpot/DR1_data/

This chapter examines the United Nations's engagement with Palestine through its Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories (“Special Committee”) in a broader Third World context of “global war against the forces of imperialism and neo-imperialism.” It first discusses the history of Palestinian commitment to UN special commissions as a means to the just resolution of the conflict with Israel before turning to the symbolic aspects of UN politics. It then provides a background on the UN Special Committee, whose stated mission was to investigate human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In particular, it considers the key challenges faced by the committee, such as the refusal of the government of Israel to cooperate with it. The chapter suggests that UN special commissions came and went in Palestine, but little progress was made in terms of an emancipatory politics.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is under construction and will be used to measure the expansion history of the Universe using the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) technique and the growth of structure using redshift-space distortions (RSD). The spectra of 30 million galaxies over 14000 sq deg will be measured over the course of the experiment. In order to provide spectroscopic targets for the DESI survey, we are carrying out a three-band (g,r,z ) imaging survey of the sky using the NOAO 4-m telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) and the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO). At KPNO, we will use an upgraded version of the Mayall 4m telescope prime focus camera, Mosaic3, to carry out a z-band survey of the Northern Galactic Cap at declinations δ≥+30 degrees. By equipping an existing Dewar with four 4kx4k fully depleted CCDs manufactured by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), we increased the z-band throughput of the system by a factor of 1.6. These devices have the thickest active area fielded at a telescope. The Mosaic3 z-band survey will be complemented by g-band and r-band observations using the Bok telescope and 90 Prime imager on Kitt Peak. We describe the upgrade and performance of the Mosaic3 instrument and the scope of the northern survey.

We present the Coordinated Synoptic Investigation of NGC 2264, a continuous 30-day multi-wavelength photometric monitoring campaign on more than 1000 young cluster members using 16 telescopes. The unprecedented combination of multi-wavelength, high-precision, high-cadence, and long-duration data opens a new window into the time domain behavior of young stellar objects. Here we provide an overview of the observations, focusing on results from Spitzer and CoRoT. The highlight of this work is detailed analysis of 162 classical T Tauri stars for which we can probe optical and mid-infrared flux variations to 1% amplitudes and sub-hour timescales. We present a morphological variability census and then use metrics of periodicity, stochasticity, and symmetry to statistically separate the light curves into seven distinct classes, which we suggest represent different physical processes and geometric effects. We provide distributions of the characteristic timescales and amplitudes, and assess the fractional representation within each class. The largest category (>20%) are optical "dippers" having discrete fading events lasting ~1-5 days. The degree of correlation between the optical and infrared light curves is positive but weak; notably, the independently assigned optical and infrared morphology classes tend to be different for the same object. Assessment of flux variation behavior with respect to (circum)stellar properties reveals correlations of variability parameters with H$\alpha$ emission and with effective temperature. Overall, our results point to multiple origins of young star variability, including circumstellar obscuration events, hot spots on the star and/or disk, accretion bursts, and rapid structural changes in the inner disk., Comment: Published in AJ. 59 pages; 4 tables; 49 figures, most of which are highly degraded to fit size limits. Author name typo corrected. For a better resolution version, please visit http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/amc/codyetal2014.pdf