Northern Virginia Community College - Alexandria Campus

A standard deck of 52 playing cards has 4 suits: clubs (♣), spades (♠), hearts (♥) and diamonds (♦). Each suit has 13 denominations, or ranks, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J (Jack), Q (Queen), K (King) and A (Ace). But sometimes, a card goes missing – lost between the couch cushions, clothes-pinned in the bike spokes, filched by the cat, eaten by the dog (see Figure 1), or maybe misplaced in a matching deck. You may find yourself not playing with a full deck. Building a house of cards? No problem. Playing poker? Problem. Or is it? Ask yourself the following question: What is the probability of being dealt a Two-Pair hand of five cards from a well-shuffled deck when the Ace of Spades is missing from the deck? Specifically, how does it compare to the probability of being dealt a Two-Pair hand from a standard 52-card deck? What does your ‘probability intuition’ tell you? On the one hand, with a missing Ace of Spades there are fewer Two-Pair hands. On the other hand, there are also fewer total five-card hands. The ratio of these two numbers defines the probability; which way it goes seems unclear. Let’s do the calculation – first for the standard 52-card deck and then for the 51-card deck missing the Ace of Spades.

1983 marked an important point in the development of how people behaved regarding security on data networks in the United States. The confluence of the movie WarGames with a series of high-profile network breaches of Telenet, one of the biggest commercial data networking providers at the time, created a great deal of popular media attention. This public attention exposed how multiple social groups approached security in the formative period of data networking. As seen through these hacking incidents, persistent problems in network security such as the use of insecure passwords were well established and understood in the 1980s, and led to shifts in social behavior and expectations rather than a change in the technology.

In Virgil’s Aeneid, the famous prophetess known as the Sibyl of Cumae is imagined as coextensive with her cavernous home, a porous volcanic cave that amplifies her voice. However, as the twelfth-century adaptors of the Aeneid reimagined the many-mouthed cavern of prophecy as the murky and blackened ecology at the entrance to the underworld, the Sibyl is similarly transformed into a withered and blackened witch in the Roman d’Eneas. This marginalized and racialized woman is poisoned by her environment, the ‘trans-corporeality’ of flesh and environ a harmful constellation of material and cultural factors. And yet the Sibyl survives, perhaps preserved by the toxic landscape and even granted specialized knowledge. A bit of moss growing from her ear in the German Eneit also suggests that mastery over nature is impossible, entanglement within the environment a kind of feminine resistance to masculine attempts at dominance over nature.

Care of people with diabetes involves the management of co-morbid conditions such as obesity, renal disease, and cardiovascular conditions that may be more prevalent in some socioeconomic and racial or ethnic groups. The pharmacist needs to consider the patient™s perspective to optimize care for a person living with diabetes.

Objective In partnership with Central American mothers, the objective of this study was to engage in the coproduction of a resistant knowledge project, delineating how racialized and gendered structural oppression in the context of illegality conditioned mothers' opportunities to work, live, and do family in an immigrant enclave in the Washington, D.C. region. Background While there is significant research describing Central American mother's experiences in the United States, it is critical to understand how interlocking structural oppressions operate in specific contexts to produce differential experiences of exploitation and marginalization. Method This study is embedded in a larger community‐based participatory action research (CBPAR) program. For this study, we analyzed 22 in‐depth interviews with undocumented Central American immigrant mothers using a community‐engaged coding process. Results Findings illustrate how the interlocking forces of structural racism, heteropatriarchy, and illegality deprive Central American immigrant mothers of economic and other resources, exposing them to precarious, overcrowded housing, and toxic, abusive power relations. These oppressive structural forces also position women as dependent on men and their wages. In solidarity with their male partners, some mothers reached their family goals through shared parental sacrifice. For others, partner deportations and relational dysfunction were ruinous. Some mothers saw their liberation from intersecting oppressions as tied to their singlehood. Conclusion Critical perspectives and alternative research approaches like CBPAR are needed in family science to advance understanding of how structural racism, heteropatriarchy, and illegality condition and constrain the lives of Central American immigrant mothers and other minoritized and marginalized families. CBPAR can also contribute to social movements for justice and people's liberation.

Objective. To evaluate the status of gender equity in US pharmacy education since the two previous publications in 2004 and 2014.Methods. Data were gathered from existing national databases, internal American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) databases, AACP meeting minutes, published reports, scholarly articles, pharmacy association websites, individual school websites, and LinkedIn profiles. Differences between men and women were evaluated on degree completion, discipline, rank, tenure status, research, leadership development, leadership positions, salaries, and professional awards. Comparisons were also made to academic medicine and dentistry.Results. There are 51% female full-time faculty members across all academic pharmacy disciplines. The number of women at the rank of professor is 36.6% compared to 25% in 2014. Of the 2,992 tenured or tenure track pharmacy faculty, 39.2% are women. Out of 388 department chairs, 146 are women. Throughout 2014-2021, there were 121 CEO Dean permanent appointments with 91 men (75.2%) and 30 women (24.8%). Women received 29.7% of the National Institutes of Health grants awarded to pharmacy schools compared to men (70.3%), although women's funding amount was higher. In both the pharmacy practice discipline and all sciences disciplines, the total salary across all ranks and years in rank was significantly higher for men than women, as well as for department chairs, but there were no differences for CEO Deans. To date, women have received 13% of four national pharmacy organizations' top 13 awards.Conclusion. Since 2014, some achievement gaps have narrowed but areas of concern still exist and need continued attention and resources so inequities can be eliminated. Women in academic pharmacy need mentoring and support to extend throughout the trajectory of their careers in areas such as academic advancement, grant applications, salary negotiation, leadership pursuit, and award applications.

Law enforcement officers across the country are trained in various tactics and techniques intended to increase the overall safety within a police-citizen contact. One common, albeit controversial tactic is referred to as “curb sitting”. The curb-sitting tactic is generally associated with officers requiring criminal suspects to sit on a curb with their legs outstretched in front of them. The tactic is believed to provide officers additional reaction time to defend themselves from an attack but is also considered unnecessarily demeaning. The efficacy of the curb-sitting tactic has not previously been determined. The current study is the first to evaluate three common variations of the curb-sitting tactic to determine which, if any seated position allowed officers more time to respond to an attack when compared to a subject standing five feet away. Our results show that a seated subject with their legs extended is associated with a significant increase in time to cross five feet when compared to a standing subject. Based on these results, the curb-sitting tactic appears to be an evidence-based method of increasing an officer’s time to respond to an attack. Implications for law enforcement training and tactics, as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.

The main objective of this review paper is analyzes perspectives of manufacturing bioethanol via biotechnology, using sustainable management. Two categories are emphasized: (i) agro-industrial valuation, which represents alternative methods for bioethanol production, and (ii) Agro-industrial Techniques and Infrastructure Analysis. Future of biofuels is addressed in terms of applicability and production methods. Authors perform a systematic literature review to characterize the present state of knowledge on ethanol production. The study is conducted from a decision-making standpoint, so that they identify several problems (subcategories) in bioethanol production. The section on technology and industrial infrastructure focuses on advances in biorefineries, revealing technical and economic limitations, and also the gap between sustainable production policies and environmental impact. The second part of the paper presents the evolution of the industrial sector toward technological innovation and adoption of complex bio-production methods for clean energy production. This review mostly covers results reported over the past decade, with a special emphasis on papers published recently, from 2010 to 2021, therefore, it can serve for extended future research that would address additional specific categories. One concludes that the industrial sector must promote bioethanol production efficiently and sustainably, harmonized with the society and the environment. Sustainable production points to alternative energy sources based on cellulosic materials and third generation materials derived from algal biomass.

Path homology is a powerful method for attaching algebraic invariants to digraphs. While there have been growing theoretical developments on the algebro-topological framework surrounding path homology, bona fide applications to the study of complex networks have remained stagnant. We address this gap by presenting an algorithm for path homology that combines efficient pruning and indexing techniques and using it to topologically analyze a variety of real-world complex temporal networks. A crucial step in our analysis is the complete characterization of path homologies of certain families of small digraphs that appear as subgraphs in these complex networks. These families include all digraphs, directed acyclic graphs, and undirected graphs up to certain numbers of vertices, as well as some specially constructed cases. Using information from this analysis, we identify small digraphs contributing to path homology in dimension two for three temporal networks in an aggregated representation and relate these digraphs to network behavior. We then investigate alternative temporal network representations and identify complementary subgraphs as well as behavior that is preserved across representations. We conclude that path homology provides insight into temporal network structure, and in turn, emergent structures in temporal networks provide us with new subgraphs having interesting path homology.

The article discloses the AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon dating results of the historic Big Tree at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The research aimed to determine the age, growth and architecture of this renowned African baobab. The superlative baobab is composed of five main stems, three young stems and one false stem. It exhibits an open ring-shaped structure, an architecture that allows baobabs to reach large sizes and old ages. Several wood samples extracted from four stems were dated by radiocarbon. The oldest sample had a radiocarbon date of 978 ± 14 BP, corresponding to a calibrated age of 955 ± 20 calendar years. By this value, the Big Tree at Victoria Falls is 1150 ± 50 years old. We found that the eight common stems belong to three generations, which are 1000-1100, 600-700 and 200-250 years old, respectively. The false stem is 550 years old. The stems belonging to the oldest generation stopped growing over 100 years ago.

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) has seen broad industrial adoption as it is capable of manufaturing large complex parts from robust thermoplastics in a cost‐effective manner. However, the mechanical performance of the printed parts is limited due to poor interlayer bonding and the presence of voids. In order to overcome these drawbacks, the addition of short or continuous fibers into the polymer matrix has been investigated, as the fibers can act as a mechanical reinforcement while also mitigating residual stress resulting from the material's rapid solidification following extrusion. Therefore, understanding the implications of process parameters and fiber reinforcements on printed part properties through detailed crystallization analysis and rheological characterizations is of paramount importance. The goal of this study is to understand the process–structure–property relationships of short carbon fiber‐reinforced polyamide 6 (CF‐PA6) by comparing the melt rheology and crystallinity of CF‐PA6 versus a neat PA6 polymer. Differences in the melting and crystallization behavior resulting from the reinforcing fibers revealed an increased time window for crystallization in the fiber‐reinforced matrix. Rheological characterizations at the recommended printing temperatures demonstrate the shear‐thinning behavior of the samples at shear rates relevant to FFF. From a statistical design of experiments analysis, the layer thickness was found to be the most significant parameter affecting the tensile properties of a printed part at a constant printing temperature and printing speed. The tensile fracture surfaces of the printed specimens using scanning electron microscopy were analyzed to provide insights into the failure mechanisms as a function of AM processing variables.

Purpose: Cancer clinical trials often accrue slowly or miss enrollment targets. Strict eligibility criteria are a major reason. Restrictive criteria also limit opportunities for patient participation while compromising external validity of trial results. We examined the impact of broadening select eligibility criteria on characteristics and number of patients eligible for trials, using recommendations of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and Friends of Cancer Research. Experimental Design: A retrospective, observational analysis used electronic health record data from ASCO's CancerLinQ Discovery database. Study cohort included patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer treated from 2011 to 2018. Patients were grouped by traditional criteria [no brain metastases, no other malignancies, and creatinine clearance (CrCl) ≥ 60 mL/minute] and broadened criteria (including brain metastases, other malignancies, and CrCl ≥ 30 mL/minute). Results: The analysis cohort included 10,500 patients. Median age was 68 years, and 73% of patients were White. Most patients had stage IV disease (65%). A total of 5,005 patients (48%) would be excluded from trial participation using the traditional criteria. The broadened criteria, however, would allow 98% of patients (10,346) to be potential participants. Examination of patients included by traditional criteria (5,495) versus those added (4,851) by broadened criteria showed that the number of women, patients aged 75+ years, and those with stage IV cancer was significantly greater using broadened criteria. Conclusions: This analysis of real-world data demonstrated that broadening three common eligibility criteria has the potential to double the eligible patient population and include trial participants who are more representative of those encountered in practice.

Most students enrolled in cybersecurity education graduate with an impressive skill set that includes many technical tools. However, when students go into internship for employment, there is not a manual of instructions or assignments for them to follow. In addition, employers always stress the importance of soft skills in finding and keeping a job. Lake Superior College decided to incorporate all of these skills in a lab funded by the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Cybersecurity Workforce Education Act (Fanning, Lake Superior College Receives $240,000 Cybersecurity Workforce Education Grant to Simulate Business and Industry Environments, 2017). The lab includes six mini businesses complete with their own networks, policies, databases, websites, and problems. The students were assigned to businesses as freshman and complete activities that will result in them being hired by a business. They will move through the business completing activities such as setting up the network, hardening the network, troubleshooting, and writing and implementing policies, risk analysis, and business continuity plans. After they get acclimated to their business, they will be attacked by sophomore hackers. It provides a slice of real life in cybersecurity! This chapter provides a detailed description of laboratory setup, activities, and lessons learned in our attempt to afford cybersecurity students the skills necessary to be immediately productive when joining the workforce.

Background: There is a need for postmarketing evidence generation for novel biologics and biosimilars. Objective: To assess the feasibility, strengths, and limitations of the Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium (BBCIC) Distributed Research Network (DRN) to examine the utilization and comparative safety of immune-modulating agents among patients with autoimmune diseases. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study among patients enrolled in health insurance plans participating in the BBCIC DRN between January 1, 2006, and September 30, 2015. Eligible patients were adult (≥18 years) new users of a disease-modifying nonbiologic and/or biologic agent with a prior diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), other inflammatory conditions (psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis), or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Follow-up started at treatment initiation and ended at the earliest of outcome occurrence (serious infection); treatment discontinuation; or switching, death, disenrollment, or end of study period. The study leveraged the FDA Sentinel System infrastructure for data management and analysis; descriptive statistics of patient characteristics and unadjusted incidence rates of study outcomes during follow-up were calculated. Results: Eligible patient drug episodes included 111,611 with RA (75% female), 61,050 with other inflammatory conditions (51% female), and 30,628 with IBD (52% female). Across all 3 cohorts, approximately half of the patient drug episodes initiated a biologic (50% in RA; 60% in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis; and 55% in IBD). The crude incidence rate of serious infection was 9.8 (9.5-10.0) cases per 100 person-years in RA, 7.1 (6.8-7.5) in other inflammatory conditions, and 14.2 (13.6-14.8) in IBD patients. Conclusions: This study successfully identified large numbers of new users of biologics and produced results that were consistent with those from earlier published studies. The BBCIC DRN is a potential resource for surveillance of biologics. Disclosures: This study was funded by the Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium (BBCIC). HealthCore conducted this study in collaboration with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Zhang and Sridhar were employed by HealthCore at the time of this study. Haynes is employed by HealthCore funded by PCORI, the NIH, and the FDA. Barr and Eichelberger were employed by AMCP at the time of this study. Lockhart is employed by the BBCIC. Holmes and Clewell are employed by AbbVie. Accrott is an employee of and shareholder in Amgen. Marshall and Brown are employed by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Barr is a shareholder in Roche/Genentech. Curtis has received research grants from and consults with the following: Amgen, AbbVie, BMS, CORRONA, Lilly, Janssen, Myriad, Pfizer, Roche, Regeneron, and UCB. Brown has received research grants from GSK and Pfizer and consulting fees from Bayer, Roche, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals, along with funding from the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA to conduct studies for medical product manufacturers, including Eli Lilly, Novartis, Abbvie, and Merck. Brown is also funded by PCORI, the NIH, and the FDA. McMahill-Walraven subcontracts with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute for public health and safety surveillance distributed data network activtities and with the FDA, GSK, and Pfizer. She also reports fees from Reagan Udall Foundation for the FDA and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

In Virgil’s Aeneid, the famous prophetess known as the Sibyl of Cumae is imagined as coextensive with her cavernous home, a porous volcanic cave that amplifies her voice. However, as the twelfth-century adaptors of the Aeneid reimagined the many-mouthed cavern of prophecy as the murky and blackened ecology at the entrance to the underworld, the Sibyl is similarly transformed into a withered and blackened witch in the Roman d’Eneas. This marginalized and racialized woman is poisoned by her environment, the ‘trans-corporeality’ of flesh and environ a harmful constellation of material and cultural factors. And yet the Sibyl survives, perhaps preserved by the toxic landscape and even granted specialized knowledge. A bit of moss growing from her ear in the German Eneit also suggests that mastery over nature is impossible, entanglement within the environment a kind of feminine resistance to masculine attempts at dominance over nature.

The advantage of using performance request for proposals are that they utilize the geotechnical engineer's professional judgment to evaluate the site and recommend the extent of soil and substructure investigation necessary for the proper design of the substructure. A soil boring log, which is prepared by the geotechnical engineer, identifies the layers of soil found at specific depths beneath the surface and lists several measured characteristics of this soil, which could impact the design of any structure built upon it. Footings lie under the basement, crawl space, or foundation walls, and transfer structural loads from the walls of the building to the supporting soil. Structural chemical grouting permeates sands with grouts and produces a stronger sandstone‐like strata that carries the loads. Testing of deep foundations is conducted to verify the load capacity and structural integrity of deep foundation elements.

The research objective was to rapidly scale up and spread a proven learning collaborative approach (intervention) for adult vaccination rates for influenza and pneumococcal disease from 7 to 39 US health care organizations and to examine improvement in adult immunization rates after scale-up. Comparative analyses were conducted between intervention and nonintervention propensity score-matched providers on vaccination rates using a difference-in-differences approach. Qualitative data, collected during site visits and in-person and virtual meetings, were used to enhance understanding of quantitative results. In 2017-2018, an analysis of a subset of sites (n = 9) from 2 intervention cohorts (∼20 sites each) demonstrated greater improvement than their matched providers in pneumococcal vaccinations (PV) for patients ages ≥65 years (treatment effect range: 1.4%-3.7%, P < 0.01) and PV for high-risk patients (eg, with immunocompromising conditions) aged 19-64 years (0.8%-1.6%, P < 0.01). Significant effects were observed in one of the study cohorts for PV for at-risk patients (eg, with diabetes) aged 19-64 years (1.7%, P < 0.01), and influenza vaccination rates (2.4%, P < 0.001). Individual health systems demonstrated even greater improvements across all 4 vaccinations: 9.5% influenza; 8.7% PV ages ≥65 years; 11.8% PV high-risk; 16.3% PV at-risk (all P < 0.01). Results demonstrated that a 7-site pilot could be successfully scaled to 39 additional sites, with similar improvements in vaccination rates. Between 2014 and 2018, vaccination improvements among all 46 groups (7 pilot, 39 in subsequent cohorts) resulted in an estimated 5.5 million adult vaccinations administered or documented in 27 states.