cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
WKB Analysis of PT-Symmetric Sturm-Liouville problems. II
Creators: name: Bender, Carl M.
name: Jones, Hugh F.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In a previous paper it was shown that a one-turning-point WKB approximation gives an accurate picture of the spectrum of certain non-Hermitian PT-symmetric Hamiltonians on a finite interval with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Potentials to which this analysis applies include the linear potential $V=igx$ and the sinusoidal potential $V=ig\sin(αx)$. However, the one-turning-point analysis fails to give the full structure of the spectrum for the cubic potential $V=igx^3$, and in particular it fails to reproduce the critical points at which two real eigenvalues merge and become a complex-conjugate pair. The present paper extends the method to cases where the WKB path goes through a {\it pair} of turning points. The extended method gives an extremely accurate approximation to the spectrum of $V=igx^3$, and more generally it works for potentials of the form $V=igx^{2N+1}$. When applied to potentials with half-integral powers of $x$, the method again works well for one sign of the coupling, namely that for which the turning points lie on the first sheet in the lower-half plane.
description: 11 pages, 10 figures
New Evidence of Success for Community College Remedial English Students: Tracking the Outcomes of Students in the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP)
Creators: name: Cho, Sung-Woo
name: Kopko, Elizabeth Mary
name: Jenkins, Paul Davis
name: Jaggars, Shanna
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Community college students--Education
Community colleges
Education, Higher

description: This paper presents the findings from a follow-up quantitative analysis of the Community College of Baltimore County’s Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). Our results suggest that among students who enroll in the highest level developmental writing course, participation in ALP is associated with substantially better outcomes in terms of English 101 completion and English 102 completion (college-level English courses), which corroborates the results of a similar analysis completed in 2010. These results were consistent, and in some cases, even stronger, when we used propensity score matching. Moreover, using a larger number of cohorts and tracking students over a longer period of time, we also found that ALP students were more likely to persist to the next year than non-ALP students. Specific subgroup analyses for earlier versus later cohorts, as well as for Black and low-income students, revealed relationships between ALP participation and student outcomes that were similar to those found in the larger sample, although ALP appeared to be more effective for White and high-income students on some outcomes. Finally, we compared college-ready students enrolled in ALP sections of English 101 with their counterparts in wholly college-ready sections, and found that those in ALP sections had equivalent performance within English 101 itself, but slightly lower subsequent college-level course enrollment and completion.
Framework for Context-Sensitive Dashbords Enabling Decision Support on Production Shop Floor
Creators: name: Lossie, Karl
name: Birk, Niklas
name: Sivasubramaniam, Sagiban
name: Schmitt, Robert H.
Publisher: name: Hannover : publish-Ing.
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Konferenzschrift
subject: Context-Sensitive
subject: Decision Support
subject: Dashboard
subject: Production Shop Floor
subject: Framework
subject: Dewey Decimal Classification::600 | Technik::620 | Ingenieurwissenschaften und Maschinenbau

description: The advancing digitalization of production means that a large amount of data and information is being collected. Used correctly, these represent a significant competitive advantage. Decision support systems (DSS) can help to provide employees with the right information at the right time. Context-sensitive dashboards in the sense of decision support have the potential to provide employees on the shopfloor with information according to their needs. Within the scope of this work, a framework for the determination of the context-sensitive information needs of the staff on the shopfloor was developed. The goal was to reduce the development and adaptation effort of a context-sensitive application by classifying activities with similar information needs in advance. According to the methodology, the information needs of the employees are first analyzed and activities are summarized in terms of their general information needs. Subsequently, the information needs are weighted in order to prioritize them with regard to the processing and selection of information. The context-sensitive dashboard was then implemented using a user-centric approach to achieve a high level of user acceptance. The developed prototype, including architecture and design, was then tested and evaluated by experts. Three scenarios were compared in which experts were asked to assess the information requirements for employees in production. These results were then compared with the results of the framework. The comparison showed that for two of the three scenarios, the weighting determined in the framework matched the experts' assessments to a high degree. These general scenarios show that it is possible to generate context-sensitive dashboards based on demand using the developed framework. If the activities become more specific, it became apparent that further developments of the framework are necessary to cover the corresponding information needs. For this purpose, an iterative application to further scenarios and subsequent implementation in the framework seems to be purposeful.
A finite element formulation of the outlet gradient boundary condition for convective-diffusive transport problems
Creators: name: Cornaton, Fabien
name: Perrochet, Pierre
name: Diersch, Hans-Jörg
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn)
subject: Numerical Analysis (math.NA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: A.0

description: A simple finite element formulation of the outlet gradient boundary condition is presented in the general context of convective-diffusive transport processes. Basically, the method is based on an upstream evaluation of the dependent variable gradient along open boundaries. Boundary normal unit vectors and gradient operators are evaluated using covariant bases and metric tensors, which allow handling finite elements of mixed dimensions. Even though the presented method has implications for many fields where diffusion processes are involved, discussion and illustrative examples address more particularly the framework of contaminant transport in porous media, in which the outlet gradient concentration is classically, but wrongly assumed to be zero.
description: 17 pages, 8 figures
Tree Diameter Effects on Mountain Pine Beetle Success
Creators: name: Murphy, William Anthony
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Mountain pine beetle
subject: lodgepole pine
subject: forest ecology
subject: habitat selection
subject: tree physiology
subject: insect behaviour
subject: Forestry and Wildlife
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Entomology

description: Habitat-seeking dispersers are faced with the challenge of finding high quality habitats while minimizing the costs incurred during habitat selection; dispersers can facilitate habitat selection by using cues emitted by their habitat. Here I investigate the habitat selection of the mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae), a pest insect which kills large lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) trees during outbreaks. I measured host quality traits (phloem thickness and defensive traits) with respect to tree size as well as MPB attack and brood production. I also tested MPB orientation to two host size treatments by using baited funnel traps. Larger trees tended to be better MPB hosts. Larger trees had thick phloem and fewer to neutral defences compared to smaller trees. Larger trees were more likely to be attacked and sustained more attacks while smaller trees were nearly unattacked. After accounting for tree size, there was no evidence that MPB preferentially attacked trees with the thickest phloem or fewest defences which suggests that MPB attack the most detectable hosts rather than the highest quality hosts. Absolute brood production showed a hump-shaped relationship to tree size, suggesting that large trees may not necessarily benefit MPB offspring. More MPB were caught in large-diameter traps than small-diameter traps; however, this only occurred when the traps were paired. When traps were independent, the mean catch of both treatments was approximately equal. This work shows that larger trees tend to be better hosts for MPB but MPB do not appear to preferentially orient to large silhouettes, suggesting that visual host size information is a minor component of MPB host selection behaviour.
Weak magnetic fields of intermediate-mass stars
Creators: name: Petit, P.
name: Lignières, F.
name: Wade, G. A.
name: Aurière, M.
name: Alina, D.
name: Böhm, T.
name: Oza, A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present the result of a highly sensitive spectropolarimetric study dedicated to intermediate mass stars. We report the detection of sub-gauss surface magnetic fields on the normal, rapidly-rotating A-type star Vega and on the moderately-rotating Am star Sirius A. These magnetic detections constitute the first evidence that tepid stars that do not belong to the class of Ap/Bp stars can also host magnetized photospheres, suggesting that a significant fraction of stars in this mass regime are magnetic. We present here the observational clues gathered so far to progress towards understanding the physical processes at the origin of this newly identified Vega-like magnetism.
description: Submitted to Astronomical Notes (proceedings of the 7th Potsdam Thinkshop on "Magnetic Fields in Stars and Exoplanets")
Measuring Efficiency in the Community College Sector
Creators: name: Belfield, Clive
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Community college students--Education
Community colleges

description: Community colleges are increasingly being pressed to demonstrate efficiency and improve productivity even as these concepts are not clearly defined and require a significant set of assumptions to determine. This paper sets out a preferred economic definition of efficiency: fiscal and social cost per degree. It then assesses the validity of using IPEDS data to calculate efficiency for the community college system. Using IPEDS, I estimate the fiscal cost per associate degree at $52,900 for comprehensive community colleges and $42,740 for vocational colleges (in 2008 dollars); the social costs per degree are $71,610 and $56,930, respectively. The community college sector has become more efficient over time: fiscal and social costs per degree are lower in real terms in 2008 than they were in 1987. However, two issues are important to the validity of IPEDS: the ability to adjust for differences in student ability and the way that transfer patterns are incorporated. This paper addresses both of them.
Vibrational Features of Water at the Low-Density/High-Density Liquid Structural Transformations
Creators: name: Khusnutdinoff, Ramil M.
name: Mokshin, Anatolii V.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: Atomic and Molecular Clusters (physics.atm-clus)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A structural transformation in water upon compression was recently observed at the temperature $T=277$~K in the vicinity of the pressure $p \approx 2\;000$~Atm [R.M. Khusnutdinoff, A.V. Mokshin, J. Non-Cryst. Solids \textbf{357}, 1677 (2011)]. It was found that the transformations are related with the principal structural changes within the first two coordination shells as well as the deformation of the hydrogen-bond network. In this work we study in details the influence of these structural transformations on the vibrational molecular dynamics of water by means of molecular dynamics simulations on the basis of the model Amoeba potential ($T=290$~K, $p=1.0 ÷10\;000$~Atm). The equation of state and the isothermal compressibility are found for the considered ($p$,$T$)-range. The vibrational density of states extracted for $THz$-frequency range manifests the two distinct modes, where the high-frequency mode is independent on pressure whereas the low-frequency one has the strong, non-monotonic pressure-dependence and exhibits a step-like behavior at the pressure $p \approx 2000$~Atm. The extended analysis of the local structural and vibrational properties discovers that there is a strong correlation between the primary structural and vibrational aspects of the liquid-liquid structural transformation related with the molecular rearrangement within the range of the second coordination shell.
description: Accepted to Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
Novel signaling target of prolactin receptor in pancreatic β-cells
Creators: name: Makkar, Guneet
Publisher: name: Cumming School of Medicine
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: diabetes
subject: prolactin
subject: Lrrc55
subject: Education--Sciences
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biology--Molecular
subject: Biochemistry

description: Prolactin receptor mediated β-cell mass adaptation is essential for glucose homeostasis during pregnancy. In this study, we have identified Lrrc55 as a novel downstream target of prolactin receptor in pancreatic β-cells. Lrrc55 is an auxiliary subunit of BK channels which is expressed in pancreatic islets at a very low level. During pregnancy, Lrrc55 undergoes ~70 fold increase in its expression and this increase is restricted to β-cells. Exposure of islets to diabetic milieu for 12-48 hrs led to an increase in the expression of Lrrc55, although the change was not as dramatic as that seen during pregnancy. We did not observe any change in the mRNA levels of BK channel and other paralogues of Lrrc55 during pregnancy or by induction of cellular stress. Lrrc55 also protected the islets against glucolipotoxicity-induced apoptosis by attenuating pro-apopotic components such as IRE1α, CHOP, Caspase-9 and upregulating pro-survival components like BIP, Bcl-2 of the ER stress pathway. Lrrc55’s association with BK channels led us to investigate its role in insulin secretion from β-cells. We observed minimal modulation by Lrrc55 in insulin release from β-cells. Taken together, our results put forth Lrrc55 as a novel pro-survival factor in pancreatic β-cells.
A Framework Studio for Component Reusability
Creators: name: Basha, N Md Jubair
name: Moiz, Salman Abdul
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Software Engineering (cs.SE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: The deployment of a software product requires considerable amount of time and effort. In order to increase the productivity of the software products, reusability strategies were proposed in the literature. However effective reuse is still a challenging issue. This paper presents a framework studio for effective components reusability which provides the selection of components from framework studio and generation of source code based on stakeholders needs. The framework studio is implemented using swings which are integrated onto the Net Beans IDE which help in faster generation of the source code.
description: 11 pages
Making the Transition to Four-Year Institutions: Academic Preparation and Transfer
Creators: name: Roksa, Josipa
name: Calcagno, Juan Carlos
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2008
Subjects: Community college students--Education
Community colleges

description: In this study, we examine the role of academic preparation in the transition from community colleges to four-year institutions. We address two specific questions: To what extent do academically unprepared students transfer to four-year institutions? And, can positive experiences in community colleges diminish the role of inadequate academic preparation? The results, which are based on analyses of Florida's unit record data of first-time community college students, indicate that a substantial proportion of students who enter community colleges academically unprepared do indeed transfer to four-year institutions. Moreover, successful completion of intermediate outcomes—such as passing college-level math and writing courses, meeting specific credit thresholds, and earning an associate degree—enhances students' probability of transfer. However, the ability of community colleges to mitigate the negative effects of inadequate academic preparation is limited: successful completion of even the most demanding intermediate outcomes does not alleviate the negative consequences of entering higher education unprepared. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.
Additional file 1 of The mediating effect of leisure activities in the relationship between depression and cognitive decline in middle age and older adults in Taiwan
Creators: name: Hung, Yu-Chan
name: Lao, Wai-Lam
name: Yeh, Chih-Jung
name: Lee, Meng-Chih
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Neuroscience
subject: Physiology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Mental Health

description: Appendix A. The statistical tests for background characteristics of the samples used in the study and the excluded samples (loss of follow-up, no response of cognitive questionnaire and dead).
Topologically gauged superconformal Chern-Simons matter theories
Creators: name: Gran, Ulf
name: Greitz, Jesper
name: Howe, Paul
name: Nilsson, Bengt E. W.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: By coupling {\cal N}=8 superconformal matter to {\cal N}=8 superconformal Chern-Simons gravity in three dimensions we obtain theories with novel terms in the scalar potential leading to AdS_3 solutions and superconformal symmetry breaking. If we start from the theory derived by Bagger, Lambert and Gustavsson, our coupled theory either inherits the SO(4) gauge group or reduces it to SO(3). If the construction is instead based on a free matter theory we find that the gravitational topological gauging also requires the introduction of a Chern-Simons gauge sector resulting in a consistent theory for any SO(N) gauge group.
description: 46 pages, typos corrected, references added, discussion on background solutions in section 2.4 extended
Labor Market Returns to Sub-Baccalaureate Credentials: How Much Does a Community College Degree or Certificate Pay?
Creators: name: Dadgar, Mina
name: Trimble, Madeline Joy
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Community college students--Education
Community colleges

description: This study provides one of the first estimates of the returns to different types of community college credentials--short-term certificates, long-term certificates, and associate degrees--across different fields of study. We exploit a rich dataset that includes matched, longitudinal college transcripts and Unemployment Insurance records for students who entered a Washington State community college in 2001-2002, and we use an individual fixed effects identification strategy to control for both observed and unobserved student characteristics that are time invariant. We find that earning an associate degree leads to positive increases in wages in almost every field (compared with earning some credits but not obtaining a credential), but that the magnitude of these effects varies greatly by field. For example, while earning an associate degree in the humanities and social sciences increases earnings by 5 percent for women, earning an associate degree in nursing increases women's earnings by 37 percent. Further, our analysis by field of study reveals that the returns to associate degrees are higher than the returns to long-term and short-term certificates within almost every field, but that a larger proportion of long-term certificates tend to be offered in high-return fields. Our findings also suggest that, unlike associate degrees and long-term certificates, short-term certificates have little or no effect on wages in most fields of study when compared with earning some credits and leaving college without a credential. Finally, the impact of credential receipt on the probability of employment and on hours worked per week is at least as significant in magnitude as the impact on wages. This suggests that part of the returns to earnings estimated in previous literature results from the greater employability of students who earn a credential rather than from increases in human capital as measured by wages.
Learning About the Role of College Student Through Dual Enrollment Participation
Creators: name: Karp, Melinda Jane Mechur
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2007
Subjects: Community college students--Education
Community colleges

description: Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to take college courses and receive college credit and have become a popular educational intervention. This paper seeks a rationale for this enthusiasm by exploring whether dual enrollment might serve as a location in which students learn about the role of college student. Sociological theories of role change posit that, if this is the case, dual enrollment might encourage postsecondary persistence. In this study, in-depth interviews and observations were conducted among a sample of 26 students in their first semester of a dual enrollment course. Seventeen of the 26 high school students shifted their conceptions of the role of college student during their first semester in a college course, as indicated by their more accurate descriptions of the role at the end of the course. Changes in participants' role conceptions and identities were encouraged by anticipatory socialization, role rehearsal, trial-and-error, and cognitive interpretation of individual experiences. The paper concludes with implications for programs and policy.
Damage and Remodelling in Recruitment-Based Models for Biological Tissues
Creators: name: Hamedzadeh, Amirhossein
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: continuum mechanics
subject: biological tissues
subject: growth and remodelling
subject: collagen fibres
subject: Education--Sciences
subject: Engineering
subject: Engineering--Mechanical

description: This thesis focuses on the continuum mechanical modelling of soft biological tissues seen as composite material reinforced by collagen fibres. The fibres have a progressive recruitment mechanism, and the tissue can undergo damage or remodelling. The thesis consists of two major parts. In the first part of the thesis, the recruitment and damage of soft tissues are modelled by introducing a rigorous continuum treatment of the fibre seen as a bundle of fibrils. The fibrils have different initial undulation, and this is represented by the means of a recruitment probability distribution. By exploiting the recruitment distribution, we construct a recruitment and damage model, where the fibrils are progressively recruited and damaged. The model is implemented in a Finite Element package and, as an example, the damage of a human Achilles tendon is studied. The Finite Element model is capable of capturing the qualitative behaviour of the tendon under uniaxial tension. The second part of the thesis focusses on the remodelling of biological tissues in the framework of the theory of material uniformity. A constitutive evolution model is introduced, including fibre recruitment and reorientation, and subjected to the entropy inequality, which enforces the Second Principle of Thermodynamics. The model is applied to a numerical example describing a pressurised fibre-reinforced cylinder, roughly representing an artery, and is able to capture the major characteristics of remodelling in arteries, as reported in the literature. To summarise, this thesis provides a framework for modelling of the interaction of fibril recruitment and damage and of whole fibre recruitment and remodelling, and constitutes a promising starting point for a more general model capable of studying the interaction of damage, remodelling and healing.
Is Student Success Labeled Institutional Failure? Student Goals and Graduation Rates in the Accountability Debate at Community Colleges
Creators: name: Bailey, Thomas R.
name: Leinbach, D. Timothy
name: Jenkins, Paul Davis
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2006
Subjects: Community college students--Education
Community colleges

description: Community colleges are open-door institutions serving many students with characteristics that can make college completion a challenge. Their graduation rates are often considered low, but their students do not always have earning a degree as a goal. While individuals may feel that their college experience was a success, standard graduation rate measures of performance count a student's enrollment as a failure unless it culminates in a credential or transfer to a four-year institution. This paper explores the impact of students' reasons for enrollment and educational expectations on their outcomes and, thus, on the performance of their college, showing that community college students with degree and transfer goals are more likely to graduate or transfer. Still, an analysis suggests that even among only students who state that their goal is a degree, certificate, or transfer, fewer than 50 percent achieve that goal within six years. Moreover, large gaps in success rates for Black and Hispanic students cannot be explained by differences in either their reason for enrolling or their educational expectations. We also show that students' educational expectations should not be treated as fixed, and that, not surprisingly, the experience of college has a role in shaping their expectations. We conclude that educators and policy makers should be cautious in using student goals as benchmarks for success, and that assumptions about student goals should not be used to discourage efforts to improve overall performance and reduce disparities between groups. Colleges need to recognize the dynamic nature of student intentions and expectations, the factors that shape these goals before entering college, and the institutional role in shaping them while at college.
Disambiguating the Role of the Retrosplenial Complex in Human Navigation
Creators: name: Burles, Clayton Ford
Publisher: name: Arts
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Spatial Orientation
subject: Posterior Cingulate
subject: Getting Lost
subject: Developmental Topographical Disorientation
subject: fMRI
subject: Neuroscience
subject: Psychology--Cognitive

description: The role of the human retrosplenial cortex in spatial orientation and navigation has been obscured by a long history of ambiguous localization, beginning as early as Brodmann’s original depiction which intentionally overrepresented it’s extent. While some modern atlases of the brain exclude this region, many include a surprisingly generous delineation; this has resulted in a very large area of the medial parietal cortex implicitly viewed as being equipotentially involved in spatial orientation and navigation. In this thesis, I provide novel evidence of a more precise paradigm by which we can understand the role of the ‘retrosplenial cortex’, i.e. the posterior cingulate, in spatial orientation and navigation. First, from fMRI activity evoked in a novel spatial task, but subsequently from a meta-analysis of the literature more generally, we have identified that ventral portions of the posterior cingulate are relatively more engaged in encoding spatial information, whereas dorsal portions are more involved in recalling and computing spatial information or representations. Not simply descriptive, this delineation proved valuable in characterizing the neural correlates of a lifelong developmental condition in which individuals get lost on a daily basis in very familiar surroundings, a condition known as Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD). In fact, we identified that the dorsal posterior cingulate displays far greater differences then the ventral posterior cingulate in functional connectivity between individuals with DTD and healthy controls; these findings would not have been uncovered with traditional delineations of the retrosplenial cortex. Other studies will undoubtedly benefit from appreciating these functional subregions when analyzing or interpreting activity within the posterior cingulate evoked by spatial orientation tasks. A clear understanding of the neural correlates of spatial orientation and navigation in humans will benefit greatly from future research validating this posterior cingulate delineation, as well as extending increasingly meticulous attention to the location of activity evoked in the posterior cingulate and other brain regions.
Habitat Use by Boreal Mammals in Response to Salvage Logging After an Insect Outbreak
Creators: name: Thomas, Julie
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Post-disturbance logging (i.e., salvage logging) is controversial, as it may disrupt forest succession and alter wildlife habitat. I examined habitat use by moose (Alces americanus), snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus), lynx (Lynx canadensis), coyotes (Canis latrans), and little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in response to salvage logging after a bark beetle outbreak in Yukon, Canada. I monitored species occupancy in beetle-affected forests and salvage-logged stands of different tree retention levels and ages using wildlife cameras and bat detectors. Moose occupancy was highest in low-retention-logged stands with low cover and abundant shrubs. Snowshoe hares occupied stands with dense canopies and avoided logged stands (regardless of retention or age); lynx and coyote used similar habitat to hares. Logging had no significant effect on little brown bats, although bats avoided densely-treed stands. Diverse forest management strategies may benefit the most species, including salvage logging with variable retention and maintaining patches of beetle-affected forest.
The Higgs Sector and Fine-Tuning in the pMSSM
Creators: name: Cahill-Rowley, Matthew W.
name: Hewett, JoAnne L.
name: Ismail, Ahmed
name: Rizzo, Thomas G.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The recent discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs, as well as the lack of any positive findings in searches for supersymmetry, has renewed interest in both the supersymmetric Higgs sector and fine-tuning. Here, we continue our study of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM), discussing the light Higgs and fine-tuning within the context of two sets of previously generated pMSSM models. We find an abundance of models with experimentally-favored Higgs masses and couplings. We investigate the decay modes of the light Higgs in these models, finding strong correlations between many final states. We then examine the degree of fine-tuning, considering contributions from each of the pMSSM parameters at up to next-to-leading-log order. In particular, we examine the fine-tuning implications for our model sets that arise from the discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs. Finally, we investigate a small subset of models with low fine-tuning and a light Higgs near 125 GeV, describing the common features of such models. We generically find a light stop and bottom with complex decay patterns into a set of light electroweak gauginos, which will make their discovery more challenging and may require novel search techniques.
description: 52 pages, 31 figures; minor changes, typos fixed, references added
title: Pinpointed stimulation of EphA2 receptors via DNA-templated oligovalence
Creators: name: Möser, Christin
name: Lorenz, Jessica S.
name: Sajfutdinow, Martin
name: Smith, David M.
Publisher: name: Universität Potsdam
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: 540 Chemie und zugeordnete Wissenschaften
subject: 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie

description: DNA nanostructures enable the attachment of functional molecules to nearly any unique location on their underlying structure. Due to their single-base-pair structural resolution, several ligands can be spatially arranged and closely controlled according to the geometry of their desired target, resulting in optimized binding and/or signaling interactions. Here, the efficacy of SWL, an ephrin-mimicking peptide that binds specifically to EphrinA2 (EphA2) receptors, increased by presenting up to three of these peptides on small DNA nanostructures in an oligovalent manner. Ephrin signaling pathways play crucial roles in tumor development and progression. Moreover, Eph receptors are potential targets in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Here, the quantitative impact of SWL valency on binding, phosphorylation (key player for activation) and phenotype regulation in EphA2-expressing prostate cancer cells was demonstrated. EphA2 phosphorylation was significantly increased by DNA trimers carrying three SWL peptides compared to monovalent SWL. In comparison to one of EphA2’s natural ligands ephrin-A1, which is known to bind promiscuously to multiple receptors, pinpointed targeting of EphA2 by oligovalent DNA-SWL constructs showed enhanced cell retraction. Overall, we show that DNA scaffolds can increase the potency of weak signaling peptides through oligovalent presentation and serve as potential tools for examination of complex signaling pathways.
description: Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe; 1041
Is Student-Right-to-Know All You Should Know? An Analysis of Community College Graduation Rates
Creators: name: Bailey, Thomas R.
name: Calcagno, Juan Carlos
name: Jenkins, Paul Davis
name: Leinbach, D. Timothy
name: Kienzl, Gregory S.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2005
Subjects: Community college students--Education
Community colleges

description: Over the last decade, policymakers, educators, and researchers have increasingly sought to understand community college policies and practices that promote students' success. This effort has been partly driven by an increased emphasis on outcome accountability, but it has also promoted a productive discussion about improving institutional performance. The research reported here has two related goals. One goal is to work towards strengthening the ability to assess and compare institutional performance. We thus have developed a model that can be used to adjust simple graduation rates for institutional characteristics, such as student composition, college resources, size, and location, all of which might influence those rates. Our long-term goal is to understand how to improve student outcomes, so the paper also uses the model to measure the effect of those institutional characteristics on graduation rates. We use data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) surveys, applying a weighted least- squares procedure for grouped data to estimate an institutional-completion rates model. This analysis confirms several hypotheses about institutional determinants of graduation rates at community colleges. Our results indicate a consistent negative relationship between enrollment size and completion. Additionally, colleges with high shares of minority students, part-time students, and women have lower graduation rates. A final significant finding among institutional characteristics is that greater instructional expenditures are related to a greater likelihood of graduation. The method developed here can be used to better assess the performance of community colleges.
Novel Electrostatic Mechanisms Controlling the Conformational Switching of L-plastin
Creators: name: Fanning, John Keenan
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: L-plastin
subject: Protein conformational dynamics
subject: MD Simulation
subject: Calcium-binding regulation
subject: Polarizable force field
subject: Education--Sciences
subject: Biology
subject: Biophysics
subject: Biochemistry

description: L-plastin is an actin-bundling protein that promotes the motility of both hematopoietic and metastatic cancer cells. The high definition structure of the calcium-binding regulatory domain of human L-plastin was recently determined, allowing computational research on this portion of the protein. The Drude polarizable force field was used to provide accurate computational simulations of the calcium-binding domain in conjunction with experimental validation to shown that L-plastin can regulate calcium-binding, and thus actin-bundling, through internal electrostatic interactions. Through this work the Drude force field was also benchmarked, to show that it provides comparable results to classical force fields with the added ability to simulate polarizability. Overall, a novel mechanism which allows L-plastin to self-regulate its calcium-binding affinity was developed.
Examining the Needs and Stress Levels of Fathers with Infants Receiving Neonatal Intensive Care
Creators: name: Botchway, Augusta Korkor
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Fathers
subject: needs
subject: Stress
subject: neonatal intensive care
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Background: Ghanaian fathers are the primary decision-makers in all aspects of the family, including health care. However, the needs and stress levels of fathers whose infants are receiving neonatal intensive care remains largely unknown resulting in limited paternal involvement in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Objectives: The study examined the stress levels and needs of fathers during the hospitalization of their infants in the NICU and whether infant and father characteristics predicts the needs or stress levels of fathers. Method: A cross-sectional study in which eighty fathers completed the Fathers’ Support Scale: NICU and the Parental Stressor Scale: NICU questionnaire together with infant and father demographic information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, hierarchal multiple regression, and correlation. Results: The most important need for fathers in the NICU is support from neonatal nurses to learn more about their baby. Secondly, Ghanaian fathers were stressed by their inability to have a relationship with their baby and assume their parental role during the NICU admission. Lastly, this study indicated that the higher the needs of fathers in the NICU, the higher their stress levels. Conclusion: Ghanaian fathers whose infants are in the NICU experience stress as their needs are not met. Thus, the findings of this study have implications for nursing practice and policy changes such as open visiting and paternity leave that integrate fathers in the care of their infants in the NICU. Further research is warranted on fathers’ needs and stressors in the NICU more specifically on fathers in low-middle-income countries.
title: Νομικό πλαίσιο παρένθετης μητρότητας σε Παγκόσμιο επίπεδο και βαθμός προσκόλλησης του ζευγαριού με το έμβρυο
title: Legal framework of surrogate motherhood at a Global level and degree of attachment of the couple to the fetus
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Δημητρίου, Αρετή
Publisher: name: Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Αττικής
Year: 2023
Subjects: Δικαιώματα
Παρένθετη μητρότητα
Νομικό πλαίσιο
Συναισθηματικός δεσμός

description: Η οικογένεια αποτελεί το βασικότερο έρεισμα στη ζωή των ανθρώπων. Τα άτομα και τα ζευγάρια έχουν το δικαίωμα να αποφασίζουν τον αριθμό, την στιγμή απόκτησης και την χρονική απόσταση μεταξύ των παιδιών τους. Η υπογονιμότητα μπορεί να αναιρέσει την αξιοποίηση αυτών των βασικών ανθρώπινων δικαιωμάτων. Η αντιμετώπιση της υπογονιμότητας είναι, επομένως, ένα σημαντικό μέρος της εφαρμογής του δικαιώματος των ατόμων και των ζευγαριών να δημιουργήσουν οικογένεια. Ο διαρκώς αυξανόμενος επιπολασμός της υπογονιμότητας παγκοσμίως έχει οδηγήσει στην πρόοδο των τεχνικών τρόπων υποβοηθούμενης αναπαραγωγής. Σύμφωνα με τον Παγκόσμιο Οργανισμό Υγείας, το 10-15% των ανθρώπων έρχεται αντιμέτωπο με προβλήματα υπογονιμότητας παγκοσμίως. Το ζευγάρι νιώθει ότι περιθωριοποιείται από τη κοινωνία όταν δεν μπορεί να υιοθετήσει το πρότυπο της οικογένειας που προβάλλει η κοινωνία και υποφέρει ψυχικά. Χάρη στην εξέλιξη της ιατρικής, τα ζευγάρια που πάσχουν από υπογονιμότητα ή στειρότητα έχουν την ευκαιρία να διαλέξουν έναν εναλλακτικό τρόπο απόκτησης απογόνων, όπως είναι η εξωσωματική γονιμοποίηση ή η παρένθετη μητρότητα. Δίνεται, έτσι, ελπίδα στα ζευγάρια να γίνουν γονείς. Στις μέρες μας, η τεράστια επιθυμία των άτεκνων για απόκτηση απογόνων αυξάνει τη ζήτηση της εργαστηριακής αναπαραγωγής και προκαλεί τη γενετική επιστήμη για την επίτευξή της με κάθε μέσο. Στο πρόβλημα αυτό απαντάει η τεχνητή γονιμοποίηση, ή αλλιώς υποβοηθούμενη αναπαραγωγή, που αναφέρεται σε όλες τις μεθόδους με τις οποίες επιτυγχάνεται η σύλληψη του εμβρύου χωρίς σεξουαλική επαφή. Η ιατρική υποβοήθηση της ανθρώπινης αναπαραγωγής έκανε την ουσιαστική εμφάνιση της το 1978 όταν στην Μεγάλη Βρετανία γεννήθηκε το πρώτο παιδί με εξωσωματική γονιμοποίηση. Έκτοτε η συνεχής ιατρική καινοτομία και πρόοδος έδωσε λύσεις στο πρόβλημα υπογονιμότητας, αλλά ταυτόχρονα γέννησε την ανάγκη ρύθμισης των νέων οικογενειακών σχέσεων που προέκυπταν, όπως για παράδειγμα με την παρένθετη μητρότητα. Στόχος της πτυχιακής είναι, με τη βοήθεια της μέχρι τώρα παγκόσμιας βιβλιογραφίας, να καταγραφεί η νομοθεσία σχετικά με τη παρένθετη μητρότητα τόσο στην Ελλάδα όσο και στον υπόλοιπο κόσμο, να αναλυθούν οι ιατρικοί λόγοι που οδηγούν ένα ζευγάρι στην απόφαση απόκτησης τέκνου μέσω παρένθετης μητρότητας και οι συναισθηματικοί δεσμοί που αναπτύσσονται μεταξύ των συμβαλλόμενων μελών (γονείς, γυναίκα που κυοφορεί, έμβρυο) σε αυτή τη περίπλοκη κατάσταση που αποτελεί η παρένθετη μητρότητα, πριν, κατά τη διάρκεια και μετά τον τοκετό.
Is School Out for the Summer? The Impact of Year-Round Pell Grants on Academic and Employment Outcomes of Community College Students
Creators: name: Liu, Yuen Ting
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Community colleges
Community college students--Economic conditions
Community college graduates
Student aid--Education (Higher)

description: Does extra financial aid for the summer lead to gains in completion and earnings? Despite being the largest source of financial aid to low-income college students, the traditional Pell Grant has had one major limitation: If students enroll in two semesters full-time, they will not have any tuition support for the summer term of the same academic year. The year-round Pell (YRP) was implemented in the academic years 2009–10 and 2010–11 to provide a second Pell Grant to students who enrolled in more than 24 credits prior to the third semester and in at least six credits during the summer term. This paper employs a difference-in-difference approach to examine the credit, credential completion, and labor market outcomes resulting from the YRP using a state administrative dataset from a community college system. The study finds that for each $1,000 of YRP grant funding per YRP-eligible student, the likelihood of summer enrollment among YRP-eligible students increases by 27 percentage points and the likelihood of associate degree completion increases by 2.2 percentage points, with these gains primarily benefitting adult students who enrolled at age 20 or above. Given that the federal government is currently reinstating the YRP, this research is timely in providing insight into the efficacy of the YRP.
Recovery Strategies and Flow Modeling in Fractured Grosmont Carbonates with High Permeability Conduits
Creators: name: Cheng, Yajie
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Engineering--Chemical
subject: Engineering--Petroleum

description: Grosmont is a large carbonate reservoir with 407 billion barrels of bitumen in place. However, it has not been commercially developed currently due to its extremely heterogeneous environment with various porosity types. A 3D heterogeneous carbonate model with high permeability conduits representing the Mclean pilot is built to investigate different recovery strategies including steam-based thermal schemes and solvent-aided methods. A vertical well CSS has severe steam override phenomenon and a SAGD process is extremely sensitive to its steam chamber which is hardly formed evenly in Grosmont. An improved hybrid SAGD in a staggered pattern that promotes lateral and downward sweep and retains more heat regardless of its steam chamber shape is presented and studied. Furthermore, a lower density and saturation temperature light solvent-aided process performs especially well in a heterogeneous carbonate reservoir with high permeability conduits. Parameter sensitivity effects are analyzed for each recovery strategy. The Brinkman-Stokes equations are tested in a 2D synthetic carbonate model, showing its possibility to describe the multi-physical flow in both free flow fractures and porous matrix. The application range and validity of Brinkman-Stokes multi-physical flow on karstified carbonates are discussed.
Is It Really Cheaper to Start at a Community College? The Consequences of Inefficient Transfer for Community College Students Seeking Bachelor’s Degrees
Creators: name: Belfield, Clive
name: Fink, John
name: Jenkins, Paul Davis
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Community colleges
Community college students--Transfer
Community college students--Economic conditions
College students--Transfer
College credits

description: For many students who intend to complete a bachelor’s degree, the savings from starting their undergraduate education at a community college is a major factor in their college choice. Yet, given inefficiencies in pathways through college and in the credit transfer process, initially attending a two-year college may be a false economy. In this paper we investigate whether it is more efficient for students to start at a two-year or four-year college if their intent is to complete a bachelor’s degree. We use data from two state systems, including term-by-term course-level information with matching student demographics and degree records on entering cohorts of students at each state’s public two- and four-year institutions. We combine these data with cost and tuition data to estimate the relative efficiency of starting at a two-year versus a four-year college. We find that the optimal choice about where to start varies across a number of dimensions: low rates of credit transfer are important, but the most salient factor is the diversionary effect of two-year colleges on ever transferring to a four-year college. Sensitivity testing and break-even analyses illustrate how findings vary across student pathways.