bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analytical modeling of phosphorene-based NO2 gas sensor
Authors: Mansouri Elham , Karamdel Javad , Ahmadi Mohammad Taghi , Berahman Masoud
Published: May 2019

Phosphorene is a new two-dimensional material that has great potentials in Nano electronic application, so it has attracted more researchers’ attention nowadays. Indeed, phosphorene is an interesting material in gas sensing, due to its high surface-to-volume ratio and its carrier mobility. Many studies have been reported on phosphorene gas sensing, but there is not enough study on analytical modeling of phosphorene gas sensing properties. In this research, by adopting data from experimental NO2-based gas sensor, an analytical model of the phosphorene gas sensing behavior is presented. Then, the experimental results of NO2 gas sensing are compared with the proposed model and acceptable agreement is reported. This new model is adapted to predict phosphorene gas sensing performance in higher NO2 gas concentrations, which demonstrates, linear relation is established in higher concentrations same as lower ppb NO2 gas concentration. So, we have predicted the result of NO2 gas sensing for higher concentration based on experimental sensing.
Thermodynamic modeling of the lattice properties of ThO2-5wt.%CeO2 mixed oxides with different porosity
Authors: Filanovich A. N. , Povzner A. A.
Published: May 2019

A self-consistent model of thorium dioxide and its dilute alloys with cerium is developed. Thermal and elastic properties of ThO2 and several variations of Ce[Formula: see text]Th[Formula: see text]O2 synthesized by various techniques (powder processing and pelletization (POP) and coated agglomerate pelletization process (CAP) and using two different atmospheres, i.e., air or Ar[Formula: see text]H2 mixture) are simulated. The influence of porosity on degree of phonon anharmonicity and on the lattice properties (in particular, thermal conductivity) of the considered systems is analyzed.
Nonperturbative de Sitter vacua via α′ corrections
Authors: Hohm Olaf , Zwiebach Barton
Published: May 2019

The higher-derivative [Formula: see text] corrections consistent with [Formula: see text] duality invariance can be completely classified for cosmological, purely time-dependent backgrounds. This result is used to show that there are duality invariant theories featuring string-frame de Sitter vacua as solutions that are nonperturbative in [Formula: see text], thus suggesting that classical string theory may realize de Sitter solutions in an unexpected fashion.
Dynamical system approach for the modified Brans–Dicke theory
Authors: Lu Jianbo , Zhao Xin , Yang Shining , Li Jiachun , Liu Molin
Published: May 2019

A modified Brans–Dicke theory (abbreviated as GBD) is proposed by generalizing the Ricci scalar [Formula: see text] to an arbitrary function [Formula: see text] in the original BD action. It can be found that the GBD theory has some interesting properties, such as solving the problem of PPN value without introducing the so-called chameleon mechanism (comparing with the [Formula: see text] modified gravity), making the state parameter to crossover the phantom boundary: [Formula: see text] without introducing the negative kinetic term (comparing with the quintom model). In the GBD theory, the gravitational field equation and the cosmological evolutional equations have been derived. In the framework of cosmology, we apply the dynamical system approach to investigate the stability of the GBD model. A five-variable cosmological dynamical system and three critical points ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) are obtained in the GBD model. After calculation, it is shown that the critical point [Formula: see text] corresponds to the radiation dominated universe and it is unstable. The critical point [Formula: see text] is unstable, which corresponds to the geometrical dark energy dominated universe. While for case of [Formula: see text], according to the center manifold theory, this critical point is stable, and it corresponds to geometrical dark energy dominated de Sitter universe ([Formula: see text]).
Gravitational waves in the presence of viscosity
Authors: Brevik Iver , Nojiri Shin’ichi
Published: May 2019

We analyze gravitational waves propagating in an isotropic cosmic fluid endowed with a bulk viscosity [Formula: see text] and a shear viscosity [Formula: see text], assuming these coefficients to vary with fluid density [Formula: see text] as [Formula: see text], with [Formula: see text] favored by experimental evidence. We give the general governing equation for the gravitational waves and focus thereafter on two examples. The first concerns waves in the very late universe, close to the Big Rip, where the fate of the cosmic fluid is dependent highly on the values of the parameters. Our second example considers the very early universe, the lepton era, the motivation for this choice being that the microscopical bulk viscosity as calculated from statistical mechanics is then at maximum. We find that the gravitational waves on such an underlying medium are damped, having a decay constant equal to the inverse of the conformal Hubble parameter. Our results turn out to be in good agreement with other viscosity-based approaches.
Modeling of immense gravity objects via generalized solution of Einstein’s field equations
Authors: Pant Kiran , Fuloria Pratibha
Published: May 2019

In this paper, we generate a new generalized solution for modeling of compact anisotropic astrophysical configurations by using Karmarkar condition of embedded class 1 spacetime manifold. We demonstrate that the new solution satisfies all required physical conditions. We investigate several physical properties of compact star models, i.e. Vela X-1 (Mass [Formula: see text][Formula: see text], radius = [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]km), PSRJ [Formula: see text] (Mass [Formula: see text][Formula: see text], radius = [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]km) and PSRJ [Formula: see text] (Mass [Formula: see text][Formula: see text], radius = [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]km) in conformity with the observational data. The proposed solution is free from singularities, satisfies causality condition and displays well-behaved nature inside the anisotropic configurations. All energy conditions and hydrostatic equilibrium condition are well defined inside the anisotropic fluid spheres. The adiabatic index throughout the stellar interior is greater than [Formula: see text] and the compactification factor lies within the Buchdahl limit [Formula: see text]. We study the physical features of the solution in detail, analytically as well as graphically for compact star Vela X-1 with [Formula: see text] ranging from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text].
Effect of an edge subdivision on game domination numbers
Authors: Dokyeesun Pakanun , Worawannotai Chalermpong
Published: May 2019

Domination game is a game on a graph [Formula: see text] played by two players called Dominator and Staller. They alternately choose vertices of [Formula: see text] such that each move dominates at least one new undominated vertex. The game ends when all vertices are dominated. Dominator’s goal is to finish the game as soon as possible, while Staller’s goal is to prolong it as much as she can. When Dominator moves first, the game is a Dominator-start game; when Staller moves first, it is a Staller-start game. The game domination numbers [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are the sizes of the final dominating sets when both players play optimally for the Dominator-start game and for the Staller-start game, respectively. For a graph [Formula: see text] and an edge [Formula: see text], we show that [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is is the graph resulting from subdividing the edge [Formula: see text] in [Formula: see text]. We also demonstrate that each difference satisfying the above bounds are realizable by infinitely many connected graphs.
Approaches for Characterizing Surfaces Damaged by Disinfection in Healthcare
Authors: Strader Phillip , Lee Younghwan , Teska Peter , Li Xiaobao , Jones Jacob L.
Published: May 2019

Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and occur in many healthcare facilities including hospitals, surgery centers and long-term care facilities. It is well known that some pathogens can persist on healthcare surfaces for weeks to months and spread readily to new surfaces. It is current practice to disinfect or clean surfaces routinely in order to reduce the risk of HAIs. However, routine cleaning can damage the surface chemically or mechanically, which may actually increase the surface contamination. Fundamental knowledge is therefore needed to understand the influence of cleaning and disinfection on healthcare surfaces in order to mitigate pathogen persistence. In this study, materials and objects found in healthcare facilities were selected and exposed to disinfection procedures including wiping and soaking with readily available chemical disinfectants. A variety of chemical disinfectants were selected which contain hydrogen peroxide, quaternary ammonia, and chlorine, respectively. Optical microscopy, contact angle measurement, atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and nanoindentation are used to analyze surface characteristics before and after disinfection in order to study the effect of disinfection on material properties. Disinfection procedures are found to cause changes to surface properties of materials and objects which can be detected and observed or quantified by the approaches used in this study. The methods should become regular practice in the studies of healthcare surfaces and their role in HAIs. Each method in this study may not be reliably applied to every object or disinfection scenario. Sample geometry and features may influence response during measurement and affect results. The combination of the approaches is able to sufficiently characterize chemical, mechanical, and topological changes to the surface.
Anomaly Detection Methods for Categorical Data
Authors: Taha Ayman , Hadi Ali S.
Published: May 2019

Anomaly detection has numerous applications in diverse fields. For example, it has been widely used for discovering network intrusions and malicious events. It has also been used in numerous other applications such as identifying medical malpractice or credit fraud. Detection of anomalies in quantitative data has received a considerable attention in the literature and has a venerable history. By contrast, and despite the widespread availability use of categorical data in practice, anomaly detection in categorical data has received relatively little attention as compared to quantitative data. This is because detection of anomalies in categorical data is a challenging problem. Some anomaly detection techniques depend on identifying a representative pattern then measuring distances between objects and this pattern. Objects that are far from this pattern are declared as anomalies. However, identifying patterns and measuring distances are not easy in categorical data compared with quantitative data. Fortunately, several papers focussing on the detection of anomalies in categorical data have been published in the recent literature. In this article, we provide a comprehensive review of the research on the anomaly detection problem in categorical data. Previous review articles focus on either the statistics literature or the machine learning and computer science literature. This review article combines both literatures. We review 36 methods for the detection of anomalies in categorical data in both literatures and classify them into 12 different categories based on the conceptual definition of anomalies they use. For each approach, we survey anomaly detection methods, and then show the similarities and differences among them. We emphasize two important issues, the number of parameters each method requires and its time complexity. The first issue is critical, because the performance of these methods are sensitive to the choice of these parameters. The time complexity is also very important in real applications especially in big data applications. We report the time complexity if it is reported by the authors of the methods. If it is not, then we derive it ourselves and report it in this article. In addition, we discuss the common problems and the future directions of the anomaly detection in categorical data.
Energy-efficient FPGA Spiking Neural Accelerators with Supervised and Unsupervised Spike-timing-dependent-Plasticity
Authors: Liu Yu , Yenamachintala Sai Sourabh , Li Peng
Published: May 2019

The liquid state machine (LSM) is a model of recurrent spiking neural networks (SNNs) and provides an appealing brain-inspired computing paradigm for machine-learning applications. Moreover, operated by processing information directly on spiking events, the LSM is amenable to efficient event-driven hardware implementation. However, training SNNs is, in general, a difficult task as synaptic weights shall be updated based on neural firing activities while achieving a learning objective. In this article, we explore bio-plausible spike-timing-dependent-plasticity (STDP) mechanisms to train liquid state machine models with and without supervision. First, we employ a supervised STDP rule to train the output layer of the LSM while delivering good classification performance. Furthermore, a hardware-friendly unsupervised STDP rule is leveraged to train the recurrent reservoir to further boost the performance. We pursue efficient hardware implementation of FPGA LSM accelerators by performing algorithm-level optimization of the two proposed training rules and exploiting the self-organizing behaviors naturally induced by STDP.

Several recurrent spiking neural accelerators are built on a Xilinx Zync ZC-706 platform and trained for speech recognition with the TI46 speech corpus as the benchmark. Adopting the two proposed unsupervised and supervised STDP rules outperforms the recognition accuracy of a competitive non-STDP baseline training algorithm by up to 3.47%.
A Survey on Bluetooth 5.0 and Mesh
Authors: Yin Junjie , Yang Zheng , Cao Hao , Liu Tongtong , Zhou Zimu , Wu Chenshu
Published: May 2019

Ubiquitous connectivity among objects is the future of the coming Internet of Things era. Technologies are competing fiercely to fulfill this goal, but none of them can fit into all application scenarios. However, efforts are still made to expand application ranges of certain technologies. Shortly after the adoption of its newest version, Bluetooth 5.0, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group released another new specification on network topology: Bluetooth Mesh. Combined together, those two bring Bluetooth to a brand new stage. However, current works related to it only focus on part of the new Bluetooth, and discussion over the entire one is lacking. Therefore, in this survey, we conduct an investigation toward the new Bluetooth from a comprehensive perspective. Through this, we show that the new Bluetooth not only consolidates its strengths in original application fields but also brings alterations and opportunities to new ones, making it a strong competitor in the future for providing complete solutions to meet the demands of seamless communications in the Internet of Things area.
Populism and the Rule of Law
Authors: Lacey Nicola
Published: May 2019

The resurgence of populism in Europe and North America is widely thought to have placed the rule of law under pressure. But how many of the relevant developments are indeed associated with populism? And is any such association a contingent or analytic matter: Does populism inevitably threaten the rule of law, or do other conditions intervene to shape its impact? After setting out how I understand the rule of law and populism, I examine the ways in which contemporary populist discourse has challenged the rule of law through a variety of mechanisms—notably agenda setting, policy impact, influence on discretionary decisions, and convention trashing—considering the institutional and social conditions that conduce to strengthen or weaken these mechanisms in particular contexts. Finally, I consider the implications of the analysis for contemporary criminalization, assessing how many of the factors producing penal populism or overcriminalization are truly a product of populism.
Algal Sex Determination and the Evolution of Anisogamy
Authors: Umen James , Coelho Susana
Published: May 2019

Algae are photosynthetic eukaryotes whose taxonomic breadth covers a range of life histories, degrees of cellular and developmental complexity, and diverse patterns of sexual reproduction. These patterns include haploid- and diploid-phase sex determination, isogamous mating systems, and dimorphic sexes. Despite the ubiquity of sexual reproduction in algae, their mating-type-determination and sex-determination mechanisms have been investigated in only a limited number of representatives. These include volvocine green algae, where sexual cycles and sex-determining mechanisms have shed light on the transition from mating types to sexes, and brown algae, which are a model for UV sex chromosome evolution in the context of a complex haplodiplontic life cycle. Recent advances in genomics have aided progress in understanding sexual cycles in less-studied taxa including ulvophyte, charophyte, and prasinophyte green algae, as well as in diatoms.
The Role of Brain Barriers in Maintaining Brain Vitamin Levels
Authors: Tiani Kendra A. , Stover Patrick J. , Field Martha S.
Published: May 2019

It is increasingly recognized that tissue-specific nutrient deficiencies can exist in the absence of whole-body deficiency and that these deficiencies may result from disease or disease-related physiological processes. Brain and central nervous system tissues require adequate nutrient levels to function. Many nutrients are concentrated in the cerebrospinal fluid relative to the serum in healthy individuals, and other nutrients resist depletion in the presence of whole-body nutrient depletion. The endothelial, epithelial, and arachnoid brain barriers work in concert to selectively transport, concentrate, and maintain levels of the specific nutrients required by the brain while also blocking the passage of blood-borne toxins and pathogens to brain and central nervous system tissues. These barriers preserve nutrient levels within the brain and actively concentrate nutrients within the cerebrospinal fluid and brain. The roles of physical and energetic barriers, including the blood–brain and blood–nerve barriers, in maintaining brain nutrient levels in health and disease are discussed.
Stealth Pathogens: The Sooty Blotch and Flyspeck Fungal Complex
Authors: Gleason Mark L. , Zhang Rong , Batzer Jean C. , Sun Guangyu
Published: May 2019

Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungi produce superficial, dark-colored colonies on fruits, stems, and leaves of many plant genera. These blemishes are economically damaging on fruit, primarily apple and pear, because they reduce the sale price of fresh fruit. Fungicide spray programs can control SBFS but are costly and impair human and environmental health; thus, less chemically intensive management strategies are needed. Although the scientific study of SBFS fungi began nearly 200 years ago, recent DNA-driven studies revealed an unexpectedly diverse complex: more than 100 species in 30 genera of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Analysis of evolutionary phylogenetics and phylogenomics indicates that the evolution of SBFS fungi from plant-penetrating ancestors to noninvasive ectophytic parasites was accompanied by a massive contraction of pathogenicity-related genes, including plant cell wall–degrading enzymes and effectors, and an expansion of cuticle-degradation genes. This article reviews progress in understanding SBFS taxonomy and ecology and improving disease management. We also highlight recent breakthroughs in reconstructing the evolutionary origins of these unusual plant pathogens and delineating adaptations to their ectophytic niche.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation attenuates cardiac sympathetic drive in heart failure: a 123MIBG myocardial scintigraphy randomized controlled trial
Authors: Campos Monique O. , Nóbrega Antonio C. L. , Miranda Sandra M. , Ribeiro Mario L. , Guerra Thais R. B. , Braghirolli Ana M. S. , Mesquita Claudio T. , Fernandes Igor A.
Published: May 2019

Cardiac sympathetic overdrive provides inotropic support to the failing heart. However, as myocardial insult evolves, this compensatory response impairs contractile function and constitutes an independent mortality predictor and a primary target in the treatment of heart failure (HF). In this prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled crossover trial, we proposed cervicothoracic transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (CTENS) as a nonpharmacological therapy on cardiac sympathetic activity in patients with HF. Seventeen patients with HF were randomly assigned to an in-home CTENS (30 min twice daily, 80-Hz frequency, and 150-μs pulse duration) or a control intervention (Sham) for 14 consecutive days. Following a 60-day washout phase, patients were crossed over to the opposite intervention. The heart-to-mediastinum ratio (HMR) and washout rate (WR) (indexes of sympathetic innervation density and activity from planar 123iodo-metaiodobenzylguanidine myocardial scintigraphy images, respectively), as well as blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), were quantified before and after each intervention. HMR, BP, and HR did not change throughout the study. Nonetheless, CTENS reduced WR (CTENS −4 ± 10 vs. Sham +5 ± 15%, P = 0.03) when compared with Sham. When allocated in two independent groups, preserved (PCSI, HMR > 1.6, n = 10) and impaired cardiac sympathetic innervation (ICSI, HRM ≤1.6, n = 7), PCSI patients showed an important attenuation of WR (−11 ± 9 vs. Sham +8 ± 19%, P = 0.007) after CTENS. Nonetheless, neither Sham nor CTENS evoked changes in WR of the ICSI patients ( P > 0.05). These findings indicate that CTENS attenuates the cardiac sympathetic overdrive in patients with HF and a preserved innervation constitutes an essential factor for this beneficial neuromodulatory impact. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Identifier: NCT03354689.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY We found that short-term cervicothoracic transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (CTENS) attenuates cardiac sympathetic overdrive in patients with heart failure and a preserved autonomic innervation may constitute an essential factor to maximize this beneficial neuromodulatory effect. CTENS then emerges as an alternative noninvasive and nonpharmacological strategy to attenuate exaggerated cardiac sympathetic drive in patients with heart failure.
Gamma-Glutamyltransferase 1 Promotes Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Initiation and Progression
Authors: Bansal Ankita , Sanchez Danielle J. , Nimgaonkar Vivek , Sanchez David , Riscal Romain , Skuli Nicolas , Simon M. Celeste
Published: May 2019

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common subtype of kidney cancer. While the localized form of this disease can be treated surgically, advanced and metastatic stages are resistant to chemotherapies. Although more innovative treatments, such as targeted or immune-based therapies, exist, the need for new therapeutic options remains. ccRCC presents unique metabolic signatures and multiple studies have reported a significant increase in levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and its precursors in ccRCC tumor samples compared with normal kidney tissues. These observations led us to investigate the effects of blocking the GSH pathway, particularly the gamma-glutamyltransferase 1 (GGT1) enzyme, in multiple ccRCC cell lines. In this study, we provide in vitro and in vivo evidence that GGT1/GSH pathway inhibition impacts ccRCC cell growth, through increased cell-cycle arrest. Of note, GGT1 inhibition also impairs ccRCC cell migration. Finally, pharmacologic GSH pathway inhibition decreases ccRCC cell proliferation and increases sensitivity to standard chemotherapy. Our results suggest that GGT1/GSH pathway inhibition represents a new strategy to overcome ccRCC chemoresistance.

Implications:

GGT1/GSH pathway inhibition represents a promising therapeutic strategy to overcome chemoresistance and inhibit progression of ccRCC tumors.
Single-Cell Analysis of the Normal Mouse Aorta Reveals Functionally Distinct Endothelial Cell Populations
Authors: Kalluri Aditya S. , Vellarikkal Shamsudheen K. , Edelman Elazer R. , Nguyen Lan , Subramanian Ayshwarya , Ellinor Patrick T. , Regev Aviv , Kathiresan Sekar , Gupta Rajat M.
Published: May 2019

Background:

The cells that form the arterial wall contribute to multiple vascular diseases. The extent of cellular heterogeneity within these populations has not been fully characterized. Recent advances in single-cell RNA-sequencing make it possible to identify and characterize cellular subpopulations.

Methods:

We validate a method for generating a droplet-based single-cell atlas of gene expression in a normal blood vessel. Enzymatic dissociation of 4 whole mouse aortas was followed by single-cell sequencing of >10 000 cells.

Results:

Clustering analysis of gene expression from aortic cells identified 10 populations of cells representing each of the main arterial cell types: fibroblasts, vascular smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells (ECs), and immune cells, including monocytes, macrophages, and lymphocytes. The most significant cellular heterogeneity was seen in the 3 distinct EC populations. Gene set enrichment analysis of these EC subpopulations identified a lymphatic EC cluster and 2 other populations more specialized in lipoprotein handling, angiogenesis, and extracellular matrix production. These subpopulations persist and exhibit similar changes in gene expression in response to a Western diet. Immunofluorescence for
Vcam1
and
Cd36
demonstrates regional heterogeneity in EC populations throughout the aorta.

Conclusions:

We present a comprehensive single-cell atlas of all cells in the aorta. By integrating expression from >1900 genes per cell, we are better able to characterize cellular heterogeneity compared with conventional approaches. Gene expression signatures identify cell subpopulations with vascular disease–relevant functions.
Cardinality Leap for Open-Ended Evolution: Theoretical Consideration and Demonstration by Hash Chemistry
Authors: Sayama Hiroki
Published: May 2019

Open-ended evolution requires unbounded possibilities that evolving entities can explore. The cardinality of a set of those possibilities thus has a significant implication for the open-endedness of evolution. I propose that facilitating formation of higher-order entities is a generalizable, effective way to cause a cardinality leap in the set of possibilities that promotes open-endedness. I demonstrate this idea with a simple, proof-of-concept toy model called Hash Chemistry that uses a hash function as a fitness evaluator of evolving entities of any size or order. Simulation results showed that the cumulative number of unique replicating entities that appeared in evolution increased almost linearly along time without an apparent bound, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed cardinality leap. It was also observed that the number of individual entities involved in a single replication event gradually increased over time, indicating evolutionary appearance of higher-order entities. Moreover, these behaviors were not observed in control experiments in which fitness evaluators were replaced by random number generators. This strongly suggests that the dynamics observed in Hash Chemistry were indeed evolutionary behaviors driven by selection and adaptation taking place at multiple scales.
Open-Ended Evolution and a Mechanism of Novelties in Web Services
Authors: Ikegami Takashi , Hashimoto Yasuhiro , Oka Mizuki
Published: May 2019

Web services are analogous to living ecosystems in nature, in that they form an artificial ecosystem consisting of many tags and their associated media, such as photographs, movies, and web pages created by human users. In biological ecosystems, we view a tag as a species and a human as a hidden environmental resource. Our study examines the evolution of web services, in particular social tagging systems, with respect to the self-organization of new tags. The evolution of new combinations of tags is analyzed as an open-ended evolution (OEE) index. Tag meaning is computed by types of associated tags, including tags that vary their meanings temporally, which, we argue, are examples of OEE.
Toward “World Support” and “The Ultimate Judgment of History”: The U.S. Legal Case for the Blockade of Cuba during the Missile Crisis, October–November 1962
Authors: Colman Jonathan
Published: May 2019

The immense secondary literature on the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 tends to overlook the U.S. government's promotion of a case in international law to legitimize and generate support for the naval blockade of Cuba. This article explores the development and presentation of the legal case and then gauges its success by looking at the response of various non-Communist governments. Those governments endorsed U.S. policy despite, not because of, the U.S. legal case, which they found highly questionable. The analysis here draws extensively on archival sources as well as on the latest published research and presents a fresh contribution to the historiography about the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War.
Insects associated with the genus Agave spp. (Asparagaceae) in Mexico
Authors: RODRÍGUEZ WILLIAM DAVID , NAVARRETE-HEREDIA JOSÉ LUIS , VÁSQUEZ-BOLAÑOS MIGUEL , RODRÍGUEZ-MACÍAS RAMÓN , BRICEÑO-FÉLIX GUILLERMO ARIEL , BLANCO JUANA MARÍA CORONADO , RUÍZ-CANCINO ENRIQUE
Published: May 2019

We present a synthesis of the insects reported associated with plants of the genus Agave L. (Asparagaceae) in Mexico, through a detailed review of published records. This work includes two checklists: the first include the species of insects collected in Agave, name of their hosts, their geographical distribution, notes on their biology and, references. Natural enemies of the insects associated with agaves are included in the second checklist with their geographical distribution, insect species host and, references. We found 273 species of insects collected in different Agave species. These species belong to 63 families and 7 orders. The orders of insects with the highest number of species are Coleoptera with 118 species and, Hemiptera with 65. The natural enemies of insects collected in agaves were 98 species from 18 families and 6 orders. The genera Aphytis and Encarsia (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) grouped the largest number of natural enemies of insects that were recorded in Agave with 15 and 10 species, respectively. Insects were collected from 42 species of Agave, of which 25 are endemic to Mexico. This study provides biological information on Mexican insects captured in Agave and, their natural enemies. The need for the conservation of these plants and associated insects is highlighted.
Climate Model Evaluation in the Presence of Observational Uncertainty: Precipitation Indices over the Contiguous United States
Authors: Gibson Peter B. , Waliser Duane E. , Lee Huikyo , Tian Baijun , Massoud Elias
Published: May 2019

Climate model evaluation is complicated by the presence of observational uncertainty. In this study we analyze daily precipitation indices and compare multiple gridded observational and reanalysis products with regional climate models (RCMs) from the North American component of the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (NA-CORDEX) multimodel ensemble. In the context of model evaluation, observational product differences across the contiguous United States (CONUS) are also deemed nontrivial for some indices, especially for annual counts of consecutive wet days and for heavy precipitation indices. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is used to directly include this observational spread into the model evaluation procedure, enabling visualization and interpretation of model differences relative to a “cloud” of observational uncertainty. Applying MDS to the evaluation of NA-CORDEX RCMs reveals situations of added value from dynamical downscaling, situations of degraded performance from dynamical downscaling, and the sensitivity of model performance to model resolution. On precipitation days, higher-resolution RCMs typically simulate higher mean and extreme precipitation rates than their lower-resolution pairs, sometimes improving model fidelity with observations. These results document the model spread and biases in daily precipitation extremes across the full NA-CORDEX model ensemble. The often-large divergence between in situ observations, satellite data, and reanalysis, shown here for CONUS, is especially relevant for data-sparse regions of the globe where satellite and reanalysis products are extensively relied upon. This highlights the need to carefully consider multiple observational products when evaluating climate models.
High-Resolution, Rapid-Scan Dual-Doppler Retrievals of Vertical Velocity in a Simulated Supercell
Authors: Dahl Nathan A. , Shapiro Alan , Potvin Corey K. , Theisen Adam , Gebauer Joshua G. , Schenkman Alexander D. , Xue Ming
Published: May 2019

Observation system simulation experiments are used to evaluate different dual-Doppler analysis (DDA) methods for retrieving vertical velocity w at grid spacings on the order of 100 m within a simulated tornadic supercell. Variational approaches with and without a vertical vorticity equation constraint are tested, along with a typical (traditional) method involving vertical integration of the mass conservation equation. The analyses employ emulated radar data from dual-Doppler placements 15, 30, and 45 km east of the mesocyclone, with volume scan intervals ranging from 10 to 150 s. The effect of near-surface data loss is examined by denying observations below 1 km in some of the analyses. At the longer radar ranges and when no data denial is imposed, the “traditional” method produces results similar to those of the variational method and is much less expensive to implement. However, at close range and/or with data denial, the variational method is much more accurate, confirming results from previous studies. The vorticity constraint shows the potential to improve the variational analysis substantially, reducing errors in the w retrieval by up to 30% for rapid-scan observations (≤30 s) at close range when the local vorticity tendency is estimated using spatially variable advection correction. However, the vorticity constraint also degrades the analysis for longer scan intervals, and the impact diminishes with increased range. Furthermore, analyses using 30-s data also frequently outperform analyses using 10-s data, suggesting a limit to the benefit of increasing the radar scan rate for variational DDA employing the vorticity constraint.
“This isn’t your father’s police force”: Digital evidence in sexual assault investigations
Authors: Dodge Alexa , Spencer Dale , Ricciardelli Rose , Ballucci Dale
Published: May 2019

Digital evidence, once regarded as existing only in a portion of criminal cases, in our digitized world commonly appears within all crime categories and is a factor in many (or arguably most) cases of sexual assault. In this article, we draw from 70 interviews with sex crime investigators from across Canada to demonstrate that the infusion of digital evidence into sexual assault investigations results in new opportunities and challenges for police and both negative and positive impacts on victims’ experiences within the criminal justice system. We show that while digital evidence certainly provides more opportunities for documenting the context and content of acts of sexual assault, police perceive this evidence as a double-edged sword that provides both more evidence and new challenges for police and victims. While officers express that digital evidence may provide more conclusive proof in the notoriously difficult pursuit of proving sexual assault charges, they are also concerned that this evidence provides new challenges for already overburdened sex crime units and makes cases more lengthy and invasive for victims. This article contributes to emerging research on the challenges of policing in the digital age and to the dearth of research on the potential and pitfalls of digital evidence in sexual assault investigations.
Using Smartphone Technology for Research on Refugees: Evidence from Germany
Authors: Keusch Florian , Leonard Mariel M. , Sajons Christoph , Steiner Susan
Published: May 2019

Researchers attempting to survey refugees over time face methodological issues because of the transient nature of the target population. In this article, we examine whether applying smartphone technology could alleviate these issues. We interviewed 529 refugees and afterward invited them to four follow-up mobile web surveys and to install a research app for passive mobile data collection. Our main findings are as follows: First, participation in mobile web surveys declines rapidly and is rather selective with significant coverage and nonresponse biases. Second, we do not find any factor predicting types of smartphone ownership, and only low reading proficiency is significantly correlated with app nonparticipation. However, obtaining sufficiently large samples is challenging—only 5 percent of the eligible refugees installed our app. Third, offering a 30 Euro incentive leads to a statistically insignificant increase in participation in passive mobile data collection.
Good Housekeeping, Great Expectations: Gender and Housework Norms
Authors: Thébaud Sarah , Kornrich Sabino , Ruppanner Leah
Published: May 2019

Gender remains a key predictor of housework in modern society. However, previous studies have been relatively limited in their ability to adjudicate between possible mechanisms operating at the individual and social-interactional level that may cause this relationship. To address this gap, we employ a novel experimental design in which respondents view and evaluate photos of a relatively clean or messy room, which is ostensibly occupied by either a man or a woman. We find that men and women respondents do not differ in their perceptions of how messy a room is or how urgent it is to clean it up. In contrast, the gender of the room occupant has strong and significant effects on housework perceptions, moral judgments, perceived social consequences, and allocations of responsibility. Notably, when a relatively clean room is evaluated, female room occupants are held to higher standards of cleanliness, are believed to suffer more negative social consequences when they do not meet those standards, and are generally deemed more responsible for housework across a variety of work–family arrangements than their male counterparts. However, when a messy room is evaluated, gender effects are smaller and less systematic, in part because messiness activates negative stereotypes about men. Overall, findings underscore and refine the theory that gendered beliefs and accountability practices are a root cause of gendered behavior in the household.
Strength use, training and development, thriving, and intention to leave: the mediating effects of psychological need satisfaction
Authors: Mahomed Fathima Essop , Rothmann Sebastiaan
Published: May 2019

This study investigated the relationships among strength use, training and development, psychological need satisfaction, thriving, and intention to leave of academics in higher education institutions. A cross-sectional survey design was used, with a convenience sample of 276 academic employees from three universities of technology in South Africa. The Strength Use Scale, the High-Performance Human Resource Practices questionnaire, the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale, the Thriving at Work Scale, and the Intention to Leave scale were administered. Strength use had direct effects on autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction of academic employees. Training and development had a direct effect on autonomy satisfaction. Furthermore, autonomy satisfaction, strength use, and training and development had direct effects on thriving, while low autonomy satisfaction and inadequate training and development had direct effects on intention to leave. Strength use, as well as training and development, had indirect effects on thriving and intention to leave via autonomy satisfaction.
Little Freudian Slippage: Coverage of the Psychodynamic Perspective in the Undergraduate Personality Course
Authors: Posey Amy J. , Cushing Jacob
Published: May 2019

Debate about the merits of the psychodynamic perspective led us to wonder about the extent of its inclusion in personality textbooks and its coverage by teachers of the undergraduate personality psychology course. We reviewed the tables of contents of 25 recent personality textbooks and found only 4 that had no chapters dedicated to psychodynamic content. We also conducted an online survey of 160 faculty members who teach the personality course. Most respondents cover psychodynamic theory in their course, primarily due to the theory’s historical relevance. Among those who do not cover the perspective at all in their course, the most important reasons were that the theory is outdated and its major propositions do not lend themselves to empirical analysis.
Supervisor Support and Affective Organizational Commitment: The Mediator Role of Work Engagement
Authors: Orgambídez Alejandro , Almeida Helena
Published: May 2019

The aim of the study was to verify the mediator role of work engagement between supervisor social support and affective organizational commitment. A cross-sectional and correlational study using questionnaires was conducted. We obtained a convenience sample of 267 participants from 403 nurses from two public hospitals (66.25% response rate). Participants were required to be registered nurses without a supervisor position and to have worked for at least 1 year in the same ward in a public hospital. The mediator role of work engagement was examined using path analysis and bootstrapping method (bias-corrected confidence intervals). Results showed that affective organizational commitment was positively and significantly predicted by supervisor support, vigor, and absorption. Supervisor support had both a direct effect and an indirect effect, through vigor and absorption, on affective organizational commitment. Social support from supervisors allows an increase both in nurses’ engagement and their desire to remain in the organization.
Comparison of three infant venous reservoirs with vacuum-assisted venous drainage during varying levels of cardiotomy suction
Authors: Shade Brandon C , Melchior Richard W , Fisher Douglas R , High Robin , Mascio Christopher E , Rosenthal Tami M , Holt David W
Published: May 2019

Background:

Vacuum-assisted venous drainage has gained widespread use within the pediatric perfusion community for use during cardiopulmonary bypass. It is questioned whether its efficiency may be compromised with application of excessive cardiotomy suction to the infant hard-shell venous reservoir. An in vitro simulation circuit was used to research this phenomenon. A comparison of three different infant hard-shell venous reservoirs also took place to determine if one reservoir type was more advantageous when handling cardiotomy suction. The reservoirs tested were the Maquet VHK 11000, Medtronic Affinity Pixie, and Terumo Capiox FX05.

Methods:

The in vitro simulation circuit consisted of a 1 L reservoir bag that was cannulated at one access point with an Edwards Lifesciences 10Fr aortic cannula and the other access area with an Edwards Lifesciences 10Fr right angle venous cannula and 12Fr right angle venous cannula that were joined together. Key points of measurement and response variables were the pressures on the connection of the venous cannulas, inlet of the venous reservoir, and flow through the venous line. Vacuum was applied and manipulated with a Maquet VAVD Controller to settings of −20 mmHg, −30 mmHg, –40 mmHg, −50 mmHg, and −60 mmHg. Cardiotomy suction was added at settings of 1 LPM, 2 LPM, 3 LPM, and 4 LPM. Values from each response variable were monitored and recorded. These data were utilized to compare the reservoirs with a random coefficient model for each response variable.

Conclusions:

There is an adverse effect of excessive cardiotomy suction on the efficacy of vacuum-assisted venous drainage in infant hard-shell venous reservoirs. There is no significant difference between the VHK 11000, Pixie, and FX05 regarding their ability to handle this occurrence. An important discovery was that the FX05 showed a greater transfer of vacuum to the venous cannulas and reservoir inlet.
Sales Education in the United States: Perspectives on Curriculum and Teaching Practices
Authors: Spiller Lisa D. , Kim Dae-Hee , Aitken Troy
Published: May 2019

Based on the industry need to hire qualified salespeople, a call to expand sales education at universities has been continuously echoed. This article provides an updated overview of the sales education landscape in the United States and offers insight into both the curriculum offerings and the practices of marketing educators who teach sales courses at colleges and universities with sales programs. This research assesses the current state of sales education by critically evaluating recently published sales education literature, reviewing university websites of the University Sales Center Alliance members located in the United States, surveying professors who are members of the Sales Educators Foundation and/or the University Sales Center Alliance, and examining sales course syllabi of sales faculty. This article describes the findings of these research investigations. Understanding the pedagogical choices, teaching practices and perspectives on curriculum of the educators of leading sales programs is valuable to those educators contemplating launching a sales program at their respective universities.