Nevada Space Grant Consortium

Probabilistic seismic hazard analyses were conducted to estimate both ground motion and fault displacement hazards at the potential geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high‐level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The study is believed to be the largest and most comprehensive analyses ever conducted for ground‐shaking hazard and is a first‐of‐a‐kind assessment of probabilistic fault displacement hazard. The major emphasis of the study was on the quantification of epistemic uncertainty. Six teams of three experts performed seismic source and fault displacement evaluations, and seven individual experts provided ground motion evaluations. State‐of‐the‐practice expert elicitation processes involving structured workshops, consensus identification of parameters and issues to be evaluated, common sharing of data and information, and open exchanges about the basis for preliminary interpretations were implemented. Ground‐shaking hazard was computed for a hypothetical rock outcrop at ‐300 m, the depth of the potential waste emplacement drifts, at the designated design annual exceedance probabilities of 10 −3 and 10 −4 . The fault displacement hazard was calculated at the design annual exceedance probabilities of 10 −4 and 10 −5 .

Protecting the security of examination questions is an important task for high-stakes examining boards/agencies and university programs. To maintain the security of questions, examining boards and university programs use a combination of prevention, detection, and enforcement strategies. A common prevention strategy is to establish a number of controls on access to questions; however, restricting access can motivate examinees to try harder to reconstruct questions that may appear on future versions of the test. Moreover, access to study materials by some groups and not others can present a challenge to the fairness of examinations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the empirical stability of test characteristics. Specifically, the primary research objective was to investigate the empirical stability of the items and test forms of a written examination before and after a specific policy decision was implemented. As a response to both of these concerns, this article describes a study that evaluated how psychometric (i.e., statistical) properties of test forms and individual questions might be affected by publicly releasing a larger number of questions from an item question pool. A series of analyses were conducted, including item drift to evaluate stability of the characteristics. The results suggest that empirical characteristics of the test forms and individual questions have remained relatively stable since the release policy was implemented. Specifically, statistical properties of the test forms have continued to perform similarly to test forms that were constructed prior to the release. Although the results of this study were promising, the context of this specific testing program may have offered additional protections such as a limited number of administrations that others may not. Therefore, testing/examining agencies and university programs may want to consider this strategy with appropriate caution.

We describe chipStar , an open source software stack that enables building unmodified CUDA and HIP programs into binaries that rely solely on open cross-vendor compute standards OpenCL and SPIR-V. The relevant technical aspects of chipStar and the feature mismatches between the CUDA/HIP APIs and OpenCL are discussed along with a set of standard extension proposals to bridge the essential gaps in the future. The key benefit of the software stack is its portability, which is demonstrated by providing performance evaluations on a diversity of less common CPU/GPU platforms including RISC-V/PowerVR and ARM Mali. A comparison against the original AMD HIP platform provides a geometric mean of 0.75, a reasonable price to pay for the enhanced portability. chipStar is now considered mature enough for wider testing and even production use, which is demonstrated by successful porting and competitive performance of GAMESS-GPU-HF, a complex HPC application.

Abstract Purpose DHP107 is an oral paclitaxel enabling administration of paclitaxel without Cremophor EL, a vehicle used to improve the solubility of intravenous (IV) paclitaxel. The randomized phase II OPERA study investigated the efficacy and safety of DHP107 versus IV paclitaxel in patients with HER2-negative breast cancer. Methods OPERA was conducted in the USA and Czech Republic. Patients were ≥ 18 years, with measurable disease, and histologically or cytologically confirmed recurrent or metastatic breast cancer with any tumor hormone receptor status. Patients were randomized 2:1 to DHP107 (200 mg/m 2 po bid with premedication if needed on days 1, 8, and 15, every 28 days) or IV paclitaxel (80 mg/m 2 with standard premedication on days 1, 8, and 15 every 28 days). The primary objective was DHP107 efficacy; secondary objectives included DHP107 safety and tolerability. Results 72 patients were randomized, 48 to DHP107 and 24 to IV paclitaxel. There was one complete response and 11 partial responses with DHP107 (objective response rate [ORR 25.0%; 90% CI 15.1–37.3), and six partial responses with IV paclitaxel (objective response rate [ORR] 28.6%; 90% CI 13.2–48.7; p = 0.7559). Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.5 months for DHP107 and 4.7 months for IV paclitaxel ( p = 0.8018); median overall survival (OS) was 17.1 and 13.2 months, respectively ( p = 0.7629). Common all-grade adverse events were diarrhea (68.8%), nausea (64.6%), and fatigue (52.1%) for DHP107 and fatigue (47.6%), peripheral neuropathy (42.9%), and alopecia (42.9%) for IV paclitaxel. Conclusion DHP107 is a tolerable and feasible treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer, with similar efficacy and safety to IV paclitaxel. Clinicaltrials.gov no: NCT03326102; date of registration October 19, 2017.

Abstract Introduction Pituitary macroadenoma typically presents with gradual visual deficits, including visual field loss resulting from compression of the optic chiasm. It rarely manifests itself in an acute setting and usually does so when there is pituitary apoplexy, which is also rare in about 8% of patients with nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenoma. Case Report Patient is a 55 year old male with history of type 2 insulin dependent diabetes mellitus presenting to the hospital for shortness of breath. He was notably admitted two days ago for appendicitis and underwent appendectomy. During this admission, notable labs included venous blood gas showing pH of 7.225, elevated blood glucose of 477 Mg/dL, anion gap of 25 mmol/L, ketones of 5.3 mmol/L, and bicarbonate of 6 mmol/L, indicating patient was in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). He was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for an insulin drip and frequent labs to monitor resolution of DKA. Within hours, he developed acute onset of right eye pain and right eye blurred vision that progressed to complete right sided vision loss. He was taken for emergent CT brain with concern of cerebral vascular accident and neurology was consulted. Radiology urgently called primary ICU team to relay imaging findings showing pituitary macroadenoma without evidence of CVA. MRI brain with pituitary protocol confirmed that the patient had a pituitary macroadenoma with hemorrhagic necrosis. Neurosurgery was consulted, recommendations included high dose steroids and plan for transsphenoidal hypophysectomy. The patient however, became progressively unstable and eventually passed with comfort care measures. Discussion Despite initially presenting with a different issue, the patient’s clinical course was further complicated by an acute change in neurological status. The initial onset of the patient’s symptoms were detected by nursing staff, thus highlighting the importance of interprofessional communication. Not only that, it is essential to assess patients at bedside when a clinical change has occurred as it can alter the trajectory of the patient’s clinical course. Conclusion Although CVA in the hospital setting is not uncommon, this case highlights the importance of maintaining a broad differential diagnosis in those with acute change in neurological status. Moreover, interprofessional communication is paramount when deciding to provide therapeutic medications that have high propensity for complications. This abstract is funded by: None