bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Case Study: The Safety of Wood Railings
Authors: Barnett Ralph L. , Switalski William G. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
When the handrail assembly broke away from a wooden deck attached to the rear of a private residence, the victim fell 12 feet to the lawn and sustained injuries rendering him a quadriplegic. Although the local building code required the handrail to withstand a 200 lb load applied in any direction at any point on the handrail, no guidance was given to the do-it-yourselfer who built the deck and railings to assure him that the final construction would produce an acceptable railing. The authors conducted testing and a statistical analysis of railing strength comparing the construction method used by the builder of the accident railing to another construction method utilizing a commercially available handrail bracket. The test program demonstrates that the strength of the wood used to build handrails can vary greatly and that a controlled method of building a handrail is necessary to ensure the integrity of a product intended to be consumer customized and assembled. It is necessary to have acceptable methods of railing construction because the failure of a railing joint can be life threatening. This is especially true in the consumer/do-it-yourself market where the designer/builder is not necessarily knowledgeable about building codes or construction methods. A commercially available handrail bracket known as Create-A-Rail® can provide the consumer with the guidance necessary to assure an acceptable handrail / post joint.
Virtual Teams: Communicating in a Global Business
Authors: Schlueter Carolyn A. , Lloyd John R. , Hinds Timothy J. , Goodman Erik D. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Globally distributed engineering design teams face many additional challenges to their success over traditional teams where the team members are co-located. Not only are these international teams burdened with the tasks of proper team formation and selection of effective communication tools, but they must also overcome the barriers of distance, time, language, and culture. Virtual teams can be effective when proper communication tools are implemented and team management issues are understood. The practice of engineering has become an international practice, and the concept of team work has taken on a new level of interaction. In the near future, virtual teams will evolve from being a competitive business edge to common practice. Key issues are discussed in this paper.
Basic Needs of Human Beings As the Purposes and Foundations for the Existence of Governing Institutions and the Advancement of Science and Technology
Authors: Wong Po Kee 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
This paper summarizes the most recent advancement of space technologies and its impacts to our social-economic management systems based on the needs of energies by all human beings for survival. The paper contains two subsections as a part for the solution of the educational and social-economic problems. The one with education is entitled “EVIDENCES OF IMPACTS AND RESISTANCES TO IMPLEMENT A CONTROVERSIAL, SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT” and the other is entitled “FORMULATION OF THE PHYSICAL ECONOMIC THEORY AND ITS APPLICATION IN COST AND PRICE ANALYSIS FOR CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION ORGANIZATIONS”.
Paradigm Shift: A Move Toward Renewable Energies
Authors: Krimmel Jeffrey J. , Sokol Jacqueline A. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
With the recent realization that the United States will be unable to meet regulations set forth at the Kyoto Climate Conference and the excessive burden the energy shortage in California has placed on the southwestern portion of United States, U.S. companies are beginning to look for alternative means of energy production. Broad-based carbon taxes are among the most promising and important of the new tools for achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the use of alternative energy resources. Many private sector entities are shifting vast amounts of resources to the research and development of alternative means of energy production, but these efforts are futile without a far-reaching governmental initiative to reach the same ends. With other global powers, including Japan and many European nations, producing inquiries into the benefits attained through greenhouse gas taxation, the United States is in a pivotal position to take the lead in efforts toward global sustainable development.
A carbon tax, phased in gradually sector-by-sector or implemented in an immediate fashion, would promote more environmentally friendly means of energy production while not hampering the competitiveness of one of the nation’s most important industries. This initiative would send a clear signal to all levels of corporate management that energy production and consumption issues must be addressed in order to continue thriving in a greener U.S. economy. The boom in alternative energy resources will trigger an increase in the development of new technologies and research opportunities, which would require more highly trained mechanical engineers in the workforce.
This paper will briefly discuss several carbon tax alternatives. Such a tax would allow the United States to realize three significant advantages not offered by today’s antiquated means of energy production: (1) generating a larger amount of total revenue from a smaller total tax burden, (2) evenly affecting the competitiveness of the residential, industrial, and commercial economic sectors so as not to punish any one disproportionately, and (3) promoting enhanced environmental quality through the increased research and use of renewable and other alternative energies. Mechanical engineers have an extremely important role in the growth of the alternative fuel industry, while the industry itself would have a major impact on many of the important decisions that will shape our futures.
Using Project-Based Education and Interactive Web Resources in Undergraduate Heat Transfer
Authors: Howell John 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Two approaches to increasing student retention and interest have been implemented in the undergraduate heat transfer course at The University of Texas at Austin.
The first approach, under a Department-wide initiative in Project Based Education, is to assign a semester-long project that requires most of the basic material in the traditional heat transfer course to examine a practical engineering system. Three projects used to date will be briefly discussed.
Second, a series of web-accessible interactive modules has been constructed. The objective is to develop intuitive understanding of phenomena generally taught in the undergraduate heat transfer course. These modules allow students to vary the important aspects of a problem and immediately see the result. For example, one module demonstrates the characteristics of fins added to a surface to improve heat loss. Envision the handle on a frying pan; the student can vary the handle material, the cooling of the handle by increasing air flow velocity over it, etc. and see the temperature that results along the handle length. Such effects are difficult to show with chalk and talk. The instructor may also use the modules in class with computer projection to demonstrate these effects.
Nine modules have been developed to date. These demonstrate heat transfer by conduction through planar and cylindrical walls; heat transfer from materials with internal energy generation; fins; conduction in two-dimensional systems (under development); transient conduction in semi-infinite and finite-width slabs; convective heat transfer in flow over flat plates; convective heat transfer for flow in pipes; heat exchangers; and radiation in rectangular enclosures. Modules are programmed in JAVA for interactive use using any browser (Netscape or Explorer), and do not require a particular platform.
Late Pleistocene exploration and settlement of the Americas by modern humans
Authors: Waters Michael R. 
Published: November 2021

How humans colonized the Americas
The arrival and spread of humans across the American continent is a research topic of abiding interest. Numerous archaeological finds in recent years have led to a reappraisal of the timing of the first occupations, before the Clovis culture of 13,000 years ago. Genetic research—especially genomic research over the past 5 years—also points to probable earlier dates for the founder populations that spread from Beringia ∼15,000 years ago. Waters reviews these research advances and provides signposts to the promise of future genomic studies for enriching our knowledge of the ancestral history of humans in the Americas.

Science
, this issue p.
eaat5447
Effect modification by age of the association between obstructive lung diseases, smoking, and COVID-19 severity
Authors: Moschovis Peter P , Lu Mengdi , Hayden Douglas , Yonker Lael M , Lombay Jesiel , Taveras Elsie , Arauz Boudreau Alexy , Triant Virginia A , Foulkes Andrea S , Bassett Ingrid , Hibberd Patricia L , Kinane T Bernard 
Published: November 2021

IntroductionObstructive lung diseases (asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)) and smoking are associated with greater risk of respiratory infections and hospitalisations, but conflicting data exist regarding their association with severity of COVID-19, and few studies have evaluated whether these associations differ by age.ObjectivesTo examine the associations between asthma, COPD and smoking on the severity of COVID-19 among a cohort of hospitalised patients, and to test for effect modification by age.MethodsWe performed a retrospective analysis of electronic health record data of patients admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital, assigning the maximal WHO Clinical Progression Scale score for each patient during the first 28 days following hospital admission. Using ordered logistic regression, we measured the association between maximal severity score and asthma, COPD and smoking and their interaction with age.Measurements and main resultsAmong 1391 patients hospitalised with COVID-19, we found an increased risk of severe disease among patients with COPD and prior smoking, independent of age. We also found evidence of effect modification by age with asthma and current smoking; in particular, asthma was associated with decreased COVID-19 severity among older adults, and current smoking was associated with decreased severity among younger patients.ConclusionsThis cohort study identifies age as a modifying factor for the association between asthma and smoking on severity of COVID-19. Our findings highlight the complexities of determining risk factors for COVID-19 severity, and suggest that the effect of risk factors may vary across the age spectrum.
Engineered coastal berm-dune renourishment in New Jersey: can coastal communities continue to hold the line?
Authors: Kolodin Jesse , Lorenzo-Trueba Jorge , Hoagland Porter , Jin Di , Ashton Andrew 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Following the significant coastal changes caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, engineered berm-dunes were constructed along the New Jersey coastline to enhance protection from future storms. Following construction, property values on Long Beach Island, NJ, increased in three beachfront communities. The projects were financed entirely through federal disaster assistance, but the percentage of future maintenance costs must be covered by local communities. Whether communities are willing or capable of financially contributing to maintenance remains unclear because (i) some homeowners prefer ocean views over the protection afforded by the berm-dune structures, and (ii) stakeholder risk perceptions can change over time. To investigate the relationships between berm-dune geometries, values of coastal protection, and ocean view values, we developed a geoeconomic model of the natural and anthropogenic processes that shape beach and dune morphology. The model results suggest that coastal communities may exhibit significant differences in their capabilities to maintain engineered dunes depending on stakeholder wealth and risk perception. In particular, communities with strong preferences for ocean views are less likely to maintain large-scale berm-dune structures over the long term. If these structures are abandoned, the vulnerability of the coast to future storms will increase.
Cold hardiness of select apple cider cultivars in Canada
Authors: Cline John A. , Beneff Amanda , Edwards A. Michelle 
Published: November 2021

There is increasing interest in growing European origin apple cultivars for the production of hard cider in Canada; however, little is known about their winter hardiness. Eleven promising cider cultivars were evaluated for cold hardiness over two consecutive winters and compared with the winter tender cultivar ‘Golden Delicious’. Sections of the current season’s dormant shoots were frozen in a series of test temperatures ranging from −20 °C to −40 °C in a programmable freezer. Xylem tissue browning ratings were used to assess injury after thawing. The temperature of incipient damage (TID), the warmest temperature at which 1-yr-old shoot segments begin to show injury, was obtained from tissue browning curves using non-linear regression. TID varied significantly among cultivars and between sampling years. Overall, the cultivars could be classified according to relative winter hardiness as follows: Ashmead’s Kernel, Bramley’s Seedling (very tender) < Calville Blanc d’Hiver, Porter’s Perfection, Bulmer’s Norman (intermediate) < Crimson Crisp, GoldRush, Golden Delicious, Enterprise, Yarlington Mill, Enterprise (hardy) < Golden Russet (hardy). These data indicate nearly a 10 °C range in winter hardiness amongst the 11 cultivars studied, depending on the sampling date. Ashmead’s Kernel and Bramley’s Seedling appear to be particularly winter tender, whereas Bulmer’s Norman, Porter’s Perfection, and Calville Blanc d’Hiver demonstrated less hardiness during three of the four sampling dates. Based upon these findings, it would be prudent to consult long-term climate normals and consider the frequency of extreme weather events for potential susceptibility to winter injury, particularly prior to establishing more injury-prone cultivars.
Improving radioactive contaminant identification through the analysis of delayed coincidences with an $$\alpha $$-spectrometer
Authors: Baccolo G. , Barresi A. , Beretta M. , Chiesa D. , Nastasi M. , Pagnanini L. , Pozzi S. , Previtali E. , Sisti M. , Terragni G. 
Published: November 2021

AbstractIn the framework of rare event searches, the identification of radioactive contaminants in ultra-pure samples is a challenging task, because the signal is often at the same level of the instrumental background. This is a rather common situation for $$\alpha $$
α
-spectrometers and other detectors used for low-activity measurements. In order to obtain the target sensitivity without extending the data taking live-time, analysis strategies that highlight the presence of the signal sought should be developed. In this paper, we show how to improve the contaminant tagging capability relying on the time-correlation of radioactive decay sequences. We validate the proposed technique by measuring the impurity level of both contaminated and ultra-pure copper samples, demonstrating the potential of this analysis tool in disentangling different background sources and providing an effective way to mitigate their impact in rare event searches.
Anomaly resolution via decomposition
Authors: Robbins Daniel G. , Sharpe Eric , Vandermeulen Thomas 
Published: November 2021

In this paper, we apply decomposition to orbifolds with quantum symmetries to resolve anomalies. Briefly, it has been argued by, e.g. Wang–Wen–Witten, Tachikawa that an anomalous orbifold can sometimes be resolved by enlarging the orbifold group so that the pullback of the anomaly to the larger orbifold group is trivial. For this procedure to resolve the anomaly, one must specify a set of phases in the larger orbifold, whose form is implicit in the extension construction. There are multiple choices of consistent phases, which give rise to physically distinct resolutions. We apply decomposition, and find that theories with enlarged orbifold groups are equivalent to (disjoint unions of copies of) orbifolds by nonanomalous subgroups of the original orbifold group. In effect, decomposition implies that enlarging the orbifold group is equivalent to making it smaller. We provide a general conjecture for such descriptions, which we check in a number of examples.
Power-like potentials: From the Bohr—Sommerfeld energies to exact ones
Authors: del Valle J. C. , Turbiner Alexander V. 
Published: November 2021

For one-dimensional power-like potentials [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], the Bohr–Sommerfeld energies (BSE) extracted explicitly from the Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization condition are compared with the exact energies. It is shown that for the ground state as well as for all positive parity states the BSE are always above the exact ones as opposed to the negative parity states where the BSE remain above the exact ones for [Formula: see text] but below them for [Formula: see text]. The ground state BSE as function of [Formula: see text] are of the same order of magnitude as the exact energies for linear [Formula: see text], quartic [Formula: see text] and sextic [Formula: see text] oscillators but their relative deviation grows with [Formula: see text], reaching the value 4 at [Formula: see text]. For physically important cases [Formula: see text], for the 100th excited state BSE coincide with exact ones in 5–6 figures.It is demonstrated that by modifying the right-hand side of the Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization condition by introducing the so-called WKB correction [Formula: see text] (coming from the sum of higher-order WKB terms taken at the exact energies or from the accurate boundary condition at turning points) to the so-called exact WKB condition one can reproduce the exact energies. It is shown that the WKB correction is a small, bounded function [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text]. It grows slowly with increasing [Formula: see text] for fixed quantum number [Formula: see text], while it decays with quantum number growth at fixed [Formula: see text]. It is the first time when for quartic and sextic oscillators the WKB correction and energy spectra (and eigenfunctions) are found in explicit analytic form with a relative accuracy of [Formula: see text] (and [Formula: see text]).
The Development and Validation of the Christian Environmentalism Scale (CES) from a Philippine Sample
Authors: Baring Rito , Molino Jeramie , Reysen Stephen 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Responding to emerging ecotheologies, we articulated a new environmental construct distinct from previous environmental measures which largely follow developmental models. In the present study we developed and reviewed the psychometric properties of the Christian Environmentalism Scale (CES) initially in three dimensions from 970 youth participants in the Philippines. Study design included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for data reduction and best fit model analysis. CES is a unidimensional 15-item measure with a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .95) score and adequate results for best fit model. CES had significant associations with pro-environment and religious attitude scales indicating initial evidence of convergent validity.
More than Means to an End: Assessing Surgical Provider Familiarity with Palliative Care
Authors: Ward Candace L. , Goetz Austin B. , Olafson Samantha N. , Cohen Ryan B. , Kaplan Mark J , Moran Benjamin J. , Strain Jay J. , Parsikia Afshin , Ansari Huma , Leung Pak 
Published: November 2021

Background As palliative medicine concepts emerge as essential surgical education, there has been a resulting spike in surgical palliative care research. Historic surgical dogma viewed mortality and comfort-focused care as a failure of the providers’ endurance, knowledge base, or technical skill. Therefore, many providers avoided consultation to a palliative medicine service until it became evident a patient could not survive or was actively dying. As the need for surgical palliative care grows, the identification of deficits in surgical providers’ understanding of the scope of palliative medicine is necessary to direct further training and development efforts. Method A ten-question survey was emailed to all residents, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and attending physicians in the general surgery and subspecialty surgical departments within the Einstein Healthcare Network. Results 30 non-trainees (attending surgeons, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants) and 26 trainees (PGY-1 to PGY-5) completed the survey. Less than half of participants reported training in conversations regarding withdrawal of life-prolonging treatments in the setting of expected poor outcomes, 55% reported receiving training in pain management, and 64% reported receiving training in delivery of bad news. 54% report being involved in five or more end-of-life discussions in the last year with trainees reporting fewer end-of-life discussions than non-trainees; 67% of trainees reported zero to four discussions while 23% of non-trainees reported over twenty discussions ( P = .009). Conclusions Despite many participants training in intensive care settings, providers lack the training to carry out major discussions regarding life-limiting illness, goals of care, and end-of-life independently.