54 research outputs found
Classic connections turning teens on to great literature
No full textGetting teens to read, much less enjoy classic literary fiction is an on-going challenge for educators and librarians. However, Holly Koelling--author, YA librarian, and "booktalker extraordinaire"-offers a variety of techniques for rising to that challenge and successfully selecting, presenting, and connecting teens with great literature in the library and in school. This book defines "classics" and discusses why they are important, then provides a step-by-step process for finding the "hooks" that attract teens, educating yourself about classic literature, and motivating and inspiring readers. This is an upbeat, information-packed guide that anyone working with teen readers will refer to again and again. Learn how to attract, motivate, and inspire teens to read and appreciate great classic literature. A practical guide, packed with ideas, techniques, and booklists
Quantification of transmission risk in a male patient with a FLNB mosaic mutation causing Larsen syndrome: implications for genetic counseling in postzygotic mosaicism cases
No full textWe report the case of a male patient with Larsen syndrome found to be mosaic for a novel point mutation in FLNB in whom it was possible to provide evidence-based personalized counseling on transmission risk to future offspring. Using dideoxy sequencing, a low-level FLNB c.698A>G, encoding p.(Tyr233Cys) mutation was detected in buccal mucosa and fibroblast DNA. Mutation quantification was performed by deep next-generation sequencing (NGS) of DNA extracted from three somatic tissues (blood, fibroblasts, saliva) and a sperm sample. The mutation was detectable in all tissues tested, at levels ranging from 7% to 10% (mutation present in ∼20% of diploid somatic cells and 7% of haploid sperm), demonstrating the involvement of both somatic and gonadal lineages in this patient. This report illustrates the clinical utility of performing targeted NGS analysis on sperm from males with a mosaic condition in order to provide personalized transmission risk and offer evidence-based counseling on reproductive safety.</p
Linking oxygen and carbon uptake with the Meridional Overturning Circulation using a transport mooring array
No full text© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Atamanchuk, D., Palter, J., Palevsky, H., Le Bras, I., Koelling, J., & Nicholson, D. Linking oxygen and carbon uptake with the Meridional Overturning Circulation using a transport mooring array. Oceanography, 34(4), (2021): 9, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2021.supplement.02-03.The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a system of ocean currents that transports warm, salty water poleward from the tropics to the North Atlantic. Its structure and strength are monitored at several latitudes by mooring arrays installed by the international ocean sciences community. While the main motivation for deploying these mooring arrays is to understand the AMOC’s influence on Northern Hemisphere climate, the circulation system also plays a crucial role in distributing oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) throughout the global ocean. By adding O2 sensors to several of the moorings at 53°N–60°N (Figure 1) in the western Labrador Sea, Koelling et al. (2021) demonstrated that the formation of deep water, in which the AMOC brings surface water to the deep ocean, is important for supplying the oxygen consumed by deep-ocean ecosystems throughout the North Atlantic. Additionally, variability in the deep-water formation has been linked to changes in the amount of anthropogenic CO2 stored in the subpolar ocean (Raimondi et al., 2021). These studies, using data collected during research cruises and a small number of moored sensors, showed that deep-water formation and the AMOC are key to oxygen and carbon cycles in the North Atlantic. However, the common assumption that the magnitude and variability of O2 and CO2 uptake by the ocean are tied to the dynamics of the AMOC has never been evaluated on the basis of direct observations
amplimap: a versatile tool to process and analyze targeted NGS data
No full textSummary
amplimap is a command-line tool to automate the processing and analysis of data from targeted next-generation sequencing experiments with PCR-based amplicons or capture-based enrichment systems. From raw sequencing reads, amplimap generates output such as read alignments, annotated variant calls, target coverage statistics and variant allele counts and frequencies for each target base pair. In addition to its focus on user-friendliness and reproducibility, amplimap supports advanced features such as consensus base calling for read families based on unique molecular identifiers and filtering false positive variant calls caused by amplification of off-target loci.
Availability and implementation
amplimap is available as a free Python package under the open-source Apache 2.0 License. Documentation, source code and installation instructions are available at https://github.com/koelling/amplimap
STOIC
No full textStoic is a non-fiction childhood trauma memoir. The theme of loss is explored through the manuscript as the author delves into the family dynamics prior to a devastating car accident and the stark realities afterward. The mother is left a paraplegic as a result of the accident. The story takes place in the 1960s and early 1970s. This is one family's tragedy as told from a child's point-of-view. Set in a post-WWII suburban community, the comparison of relative prosperity and the loss of normalcy are detailed. The author incorporates both her Norwegian and German heritage as the family struggles to cope with an invalid mother. Issues of faith are interwoven throughout the text. Stoic is the story of a loving father and his four children as they care for a paraplegic.</p
An engineering approach to plastic recycling based on rheological characterization
No full textMillions of kilograms of virgin plastics are used annually to manufacture new products, yet only a small percentage of this material is recovered for reuse in new plastic products. Many
companies hesitate to use regrind and postconsumer resins (PCRs) because of the extensive testing required to identify plausible uses and processing parameters. Although used polymers
may be labeled by general type, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene or polycarbonate, such labels do not provide adequate information to determine molding parameters. Because used polymers may be degraded or mislabeled, it is important to characterize the used polymer rather than track the original virgin polymer properties. Another major challenge to plastics recycling is that standard industry polymer databases do not contain information about regrind resins or PCRs. Such polymer databases not only provide selection assistance, but also are used with mold-filling simulations to reduce the experimental time to determine molding parameters.
First, we summarize the current plastics collection, identification, and separation processes. Then, we present an engineering approach for plastics recycling, based on rheological characterization. To characterize the plastic rheology, we measure the viscosity versus shear rate at various temperatures. In our proposed approach, we introduce a sequence of steps
to obtain used-plastic input data for mold-filling simulations. Our goal is to reduce the amount of experimental testing needed to determine injection-molding parameters for regrind resins or PCRs. We test our method by molding American Society of Testing and Materials test specimens and a thinwall application with high-impact polystyrene from recycled printer and monitor housings. Our tests demonstrate that matching the viscosity versus shear rate curves of PCR and a virgin resin provides a proxy resin for input to mold-filling simulation software to determine PCR molding parameters. We compare our new approach with other approaches to polymer recycling and discuss directions for future research.Journal Articl
Characterization of virgin and postconsumer blended high‐impact polystyrene resins for injection molding
No full textThis article focuses on the mechanical and rheological properties of virgin and recycled high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) materials and describes our progress in evaluating the viability of reusing postconsumer and virgin polymer blends of HIPS from electronics equipment housings. Plastics reuse challenges are briefly reviewed, and experimental results, such as the rheological properties, mechanical properties, molecular weight, and morphology of different blends, are summarized and discussed for reuse of HIPS from printer and monitor housings. It is found that all blends have similar molecular weight and polydispersity. Furthermore, the recycled resin and virgin resin consist of almost the same components. However, the morphology of the rubber phases is different. The mechanical properties are similar for the ASTM specimens molded with either set of blends.Journal Articl
The impact of environmental factors on attainment of delineated objectives for substitute teachers
No full textIncludes bibliographical references
Modeling emergency departments using discrete event simulation techniques
No full textThis paper discusses the application of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) for modeling the operations of an Emer-gency Department (ED). The model was developed to help the ED managers understand the behavior of the system with regards to the hidden causes of excessive waiting times. It served as a tool for assessing the impact of major departmental resources on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and was also used as a cost effective method for testing various what-if scenarios for possible system im-provement. The study greatly enhanced managers’ under-standing of the system and how patient flow is influenced by process changes and resource availability. The results of this work also helped managers to either reverse or modify some proposed changes to the system that were previously being considered. The results also show a possible reduc-tion of more than 20% in patients waiting times
Three-Dimensional Atomic-Scale Tomography of Buried Semiconductor Heterointerfaces
No full textAtom probes generate three-dimensional atomic-scale tomographies of material volumes corresponding to the size of modern-day solid-state devices. Here, the capabilities of atom probe tomography are evaluated to analyze buried interfaces in semiconductor heterostructures relevant for electronic and quantum devices. Employing brute-force search, the current dominant reconstruction protocol to generate tomographic three-dimensional images from Atom Probe data is advanced to its limits. Using Si/SiGe heterostructure for qubits as a model system, the authors show that it is possible to extract interface properties like roughness and width that agree with transmission electron microscopy observations on the sub-nanometer scale in an automated and highly reproducible manner. The demonstrated approach is a versatile method for atomic-scale characterization of buried interfaces in semiconductor heterostructures.QCD/Scappucci LabBUS/Quantum Delf
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