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Welcome to the 25th anniversary edition of PLEXUS, UC Irvine School of Medicine’s annual student-organized Journal of Medical Humanities & Arts. To mark this celebratory milestone, it is with great pleasure that I present to you NAVIGATE. In the ever-evolving landscape of medicine, the ability to navigate through challenges and unforeseen obstacles is paramount. NAVIGATE serves as a timely invitation for our colleagues to reflect on the distances traversed and to envision the new horizons that lie ahead. We sought to highlight the constellation of tools utilized when we feel lost and to acknowledge the beacons that steer our actions. The subsequent pages offer its readers profoundinsights into the extraordinary journeys undertaken by the greater UCI Health community. We hope it delivers a sense of direction, solace, and clarity to all readers.As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, wehonor the visionaries, contributors, and readers that have propelled us forward on this remarkable voyage. Their collective support fuels our efforts to serve as a creative outlet for the community, catalyze meaningful discussions, and apply the tenets of medical humanities to foster a cohort of compassionate healers.We extend our deepest gratitude to our faculty advisors Dr. Juliet McMullin and Dr. TanNguyen for their invaluable guidance and for sharing their expertise within the field. We thank the UCISOM Medical Humanities & Arts Program and the UCI Department of Family Medicine for their unwavering support. I invite you to embark on this exploration with us, and witness the intricate tapestry of our contributors’ lived experiences that defines our shared journey in healthcare.Bon voyage,Christopher SahagianEditor-in-ChiefCreative Review — Caroline GeeCreative Review — Huan NguyenCreative Review — Sana ShahDesign — Nicole ParkerDesign — Britney WengFaculty Advisor — Dr. Juliet McMullinFaculty Advisor — Dr. Tan NguyenStaff Advisor — Leonora Naser-Saravia{Front Cover): NEW HEIGHTS Britney Weng, MS1San Pedro de Atacama, Chile(Inner Cover): TRAVERSING  Britney Weng, MS1Chile Route 23

European Structural Funds have been created with the clear goal to redistribute money among European Union members in such a way as to help poorer regions diminish the gaps between them and the richer ones. The present study assesses this problem for the Structural Operational Programme Environment in Romania. Using spatial econometrics methods, we evaluate two issues on the sample of 42 Romanian counties. The first one is if any clusterization process takes place in what regards contracting funds through ESF for environmental protection projects. The second one is intended to test whether the main principle of the ESF is satisfied – helping the poor in a sustainable development process. Using the quartile maps and the spatial Moran's I autocorrelation coefficient we show different results for the clusterization topic. When considering the budget value of the projects implemented through SOP ENV, both as total and as eligible share, Romanian counties group based on a positive global spatial autocorrelation. This means that counties with approximately the same budget levels are neighbours. Transylvanian counties have gained the most out of the projects on environment. When the number of contracts is assessed, the distribution of the counties proves to be random and no global spatial autocorrelation was found. Moreover, the map analysis shows that, in general, there is a negative relationship between the value of the budget and the number of contracts. The spatial regression analysis shows the violation of the ESF principle. The coefficients of the GDP are positive. This implies a direct relationship between the richness of the county and the projects implemented through the SOP ENV. Thus, instead of being used by the poorer regions, money goes to the richer ones. The higher the GDP, the higher the value of the budget for the environmental protection programmes financed through European funds. The GDP also positively influences the number of contracts scheduled or signed, but the only at a 10% significance level.

After a period of studying a certain subject, students form an opinion about it and begin having certain expectations. These expectations and the degree in which, in the end, they fulfil, contribute to the reputation of the university. Consequently, a continuous evaluation of the quality of the educational process is needed. The present research presents a part of a more complex study made on a sample of master students in Audit and Financial Management in Romania. The goal was to evidence the main factors that affect students' expectations in what regards the grades they will obtain at the end of the semester. For this, a questionnaire of 20 questions was applied to 250 such students. After factor reduction procedures were applied, six most significant variables were kept in the analysis: the proportion of knowledge acquired, the perceived level of utility of the discipline in the professional career of the student, the proportion in which the subject could contribute to getting employed in the field it belongs to, the evaluation method and two variables evaluating through grades the didactic performance during the course and the overall performance of the tenure professor. The influence of these variables upon the grade expected by the student was assessed with the help of the OLS regression, both in the simple and multiple forms. Out of the six hypotheses formulated, only one proved to be false based on the simple regression analysis. When individually assessed, the evaluation method announced by the teacher at the beginning of the semester turned out to have no statistically significant influence upon students' expectations. For the rest of the variables, results were according to the assumptions made, i.e. all determine in a significant positive manner the students' opinion about the grade they will get. We have also constructed the multiple regression models. When putting all variables together, the significance changes. The level of difficulty of the evaluation method becomes significant, while from the rest of the variables only the proportion of knowledge acquirement still holds. The final conclusion is as expected: the higher the proportion of acquirement, the higher the grade expected at the end of the semester, while the more difficult the evaluation method, the lower the grade.

The article emphasizes aspects regarding the perceptions of master accountancy graduates concerning the chances to find an adequate job at graduation. These preoccupations are relatively recent in the academic studies. The studentn#8217;s expectations are often unrealistic, which causes problems to them and also to the private firms and organizations. From the empirical section results that the studentsn#8217; evaluations regarding their own opportunities to get a job modify as they advance in the programme. Even more, this evolution is influenced by employment during the studies and by the professional experience.

The study shows the reasons taken into account by the students in choosing an academic preparation. Free courses and employment opportunities during or after graduation are the most important advantages students expect to receive from an educational program that aims to follow. The empirical section results emphasize the efficiency and performance of the master program financed by the European Social Fund. \\\\r\\\\n

The present research aims to highlight the importance of the external auditing in supporting corporate governance and the preference of the listed entities to be audited by the big audit companies. Given the proposed objectives of the research, our scientific method is based on a deductive approach from general to particular that combines quantitative and qualitative studies. The role of the external audit was analyzed by conducting a study of literature on two levels: a theoretical-conceptual level in terms of economic theories and an empirical-practical level based on literature from which we extracted through a content analysis the defining elements of the audit work quality. Falling within the scope of the study, we evaluated the preference of the listed entities to be audited by the Big Four. To this end we used the content analysis of the publicly posted audit reports for the period 2005-2009. Our research results show that although we are a country with an emerging capital market development, the entities in the I-st category on the Bucharest Stock Exchange tend to an audit conducted by one of the big audit companies. Another result arising from our study is that the entities of the I-st category on the Bucharest Stock Exchange become more transparent from a year to another. Whether for the year 2005 we find only 12 audit reports publicly posted, in 2007 we can find 21 audit reports publicly posted. The trend of the large entities audited shows that the preference of the entities to be audited by one of the Big Four is higher from a year to another. The preparation of the financial statements and their audit must be done according to regulations for the currently period. The presumption found in the literature according to which the large entities are audited by the big audit companies which provide higher audit quality is confirmed in the case of our national country as well.

The teaching performance is influenced firstly by the quality of the educational system. The universities are trying to raise the expectations regarding the methods used for evaluating the teaching quality. In order for the results to be as much as credible the evaluation must defer to the existing theory and to follow the standardized procedures, starting from some basic principles. The most used framework is represented by the 3P model which contains three parts: 1. The input (factors that come under the students and the professor) 2. The learning process (activities focused on learning, teaching methods, practical ability, individual study) 3. The outcome (the output of the learning process).This study presents some results of a questionnaire based on the existing economic theory and applied to a sample of master business students from Romania. The students were asked to give grades from 1 to 5 to several aspects related to the educational process. These aspects took into consideration the following: if the didactic activity was interesting for the students/ the relationship between the objectives of the course and the activity evolved/ the clarity of the presentations/ the degree of students' participation required by the teacher/ the methods and materials used/ the availability of the teacher. The average grade is 4.39, indicating a very high level of satisfaction, taking into account that the grades ranged from 1 to 5. For 50% of the students, the average grade was below 4.53, while for the other half it was above the specified value. But one has to see the value returned for the majority of the students. The mode equals 5, meaning that most of the students involved in the analyzed programme are extremely satisfied with the quality of the educational process. With a significance value Sig. = 0.004 /_ 0.01, we can state that there is correlation between the level of satisfaction expressed by the average grade and the number of classes missed by a student, at a confidence of 99%. The value of the Pearson coefficient is -0.213, which shows the existence of a weak reverse connection.

The assessment of a significant ascertainment made by the auditor is particularly sensitive which shapes the quality of a mission as a whole. Materiality plays a primary role in determining the relevance of information provided by the users of financial statements. This material highlights the role of qualitative factors in determining materiality, as far as many practitioners are accustomed to consider this item only in terms of quantitative factors. Although legislation does not set precise rules in determining materiality, the issue is necessary because decisions of the auditors and users of audited information hang on this item.

The temperature and pressure correlations for the volume of gas hydrates forming crystal structures sI and sII developed in previous study [Fluid Phase Equilib. 427 (2016) 268-281], focused on the modeling of pure gas hydrates relevant in CCS (carbon capture and storage), were revised and modified for the modeling of mixed hydrates in this study. A universal reference state at temperature of 273.15 K and pressure of 1 Pa is used in the new correlation. Coefficients for the thermal expansion together with the reference lattice parameter were simultaneously correlated to both the temperature data and the pressure data for the lattice parameter. A two-stage Levenberg Marquardt algorithm was employed for the parameter optimization. The pressure dependence described in terms of the bulk modulus remained unchanged compared to the original study. A constant value for the bulk modulus B0 = 10 GPa was employed for all selected hydrate formers. The new correlation is in good agreement with the experimental data over wide temperature and pressure ranges from 0 K to 293 K and from 0 to 2000 MPa, respectively. Compared to the original correlation used for the modeling of pure gas hydrates the new correlation provides significantly better agreement with the experimental data for sI hydrates. The results of the new correlation are comparable to the results of the old correlation in case of sII hydrates. In addition, the new correlation is suitable for modeling of mixed hydrates.

Aberrations in nuclear size and shape are commonly used to identify cancerous tissue. However, it remains unclear whether the disturbed nuclear structure directly contributes to the cancer pathology or is merely a consequence of other events occurring during tumorigenesis. Here, we show that highly invasive and proliferative breast cancer cells frequently exhibit Akt-driven lower expression of the nuclear envelope proteins lamin A/C, leading to increased nuclear deformability that permits enhanced cell migration through confined environments that mimic interstitial spaces encountered during metastasis. Importantly, increasing lamin A/C expression in highly invasive breast cancer cells reflected gene expression changes characteristic of human breast tumors with higher LMNA expression, and specifically affected pathways related to cell-ECM interactions, cell metabolism, and PI3K/Akt signaling. Further supporting an important role of lamins in breast cancer metastasis, analysis of lamin levels in human breast tumors revealed a significant association between lower lamin A levels, Akt signaling, and decreased disease-free survival. These findings suggest that downregulation of lamin A/C in breast cancer cells may influence both cellular physical properties and biochemical signaling to promote metastatic progression.

A fundamental equation of state in terms of the Helmholtz energy is presented for mixtures of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon at any composition. It is expressed in terms of the residual Helmholtz energy and can be used to calculate all thermodynamic equilibrium properties including vapor–liquid equilibria. The parameters of the equations for the pure-fluid and mixture contributions are fitted exclusively to molecular simulation data so that the model has a predictive character. The description of the mixture-specific reducing parameters is realized via generalized correlations of the critical parameters of the pure fluids so that an extension of the model to additional components can be implemented straightforwardly. Extensive comparisons to experimental data and the GERG-2008 reference equation of state show that the prediction of thermodynamic properties is satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]