cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Understanding Cyber-Crime in Ghana: A View from Below

Cybercrime perpetrated by pockets of citizens in the Global South is increasingly coming to light as a threat to U.S. national and global security; particularly, the West African nation of Ghana has recently come to be recognized as a major hub for cyber-criminal activity. This article argues that although a superficial examination of the process is instructive to a point, in attempting to understand the practice of Ghanaian cybercrime, a more profound investigation of local ground-level realities is necessary. As such, it presents a broad overview of the rise and practice of cybercrime in Ghana, before offering three ground-level case studies (relating to West African geopolitics, the techno-spiritual paradigm of Sakawa, and the justificatory philosophies of social justice) that are necessary for understanding Ghanaian cybercrime yet also largely under-recognized in Western discourses.
Automated influenza-like illness reporting--an efficient adjunct to traditional sentinel surveillance.

Objectives. We compared an electronic health record-based influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance system with manual sentinel surveillance and virologic data to evaluate the utility of the automated system for routine ILI surveillance. Methods. We obtained weekly aggregate ILI reports from the Electronic medical record Support for Public Health (ESP) disease-detection and reporting system, which used an automated algorithm to identify ILI visits among a patient population of about 700,000 in Eastern Massachusetts. The percentage of total visits for ILI (“percent ILI”) in ESP, percent ILI in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s sentinel surveillance system, and percentage of laboratory specimens submitted to participating Massachusetts laboratories that tested positive for influenza were compared for the period October 2007–September 2011. We calculated Spearman’s correlation coefficients and compared ESP and sentinel surveillance systems qualitatively, in terms of simplicity, flexibility, data quality, acceptability, timeliness, and usefulness. Results. ESP and sentinel surveillance percent ILI always peaked within one week of each other. There was 80% correlation between the two and 71%–73% correlation with laboratory data. Sentinel surveillance percent ILI was higher than ESP percent ILI during influenza seasons. The amplitude of variation in ESP percent ILI was greatest for 5- to 49-year-olds and typically peaked for the 5- to 24-year-old age group before the others. Conclusions. The ESP system produces percent ILI data of similar quality to sentinel surveillance and offers the advantages of shifting disease reporting burden from clinicians to information systems, allowing tracking of disease by age group, facilitating efficient surveillance for very large populations, and producing consistent and timely reports.
Hepatic responses of juvenile Fundulus heteroclitus from pollution-adapted and nonadapted populations exposed to Elizabeth River sediment extract.

Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) inhabiting the Atlantic Wood Industries region of the Elizabeth River, Virginia, have passed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) resistance to their offspring as evidenced by early life stage testing of developmental toxicity after exposure to specific PAHs. Our study focused on environmentally relevant PAH mixtures in the form of Elizabeth River sediment extract (ERSE). Juvenile (5 month) F1 progeny of pollution-adapted Atlantic Wood (AW) parents and of reference site (King's Creek [KC]) parents were exposed as embryos to ERSE. Liver alterations, including nonneoplastic lesions and microvesicular vacuolation, were observed in both populations. ERSE-exposed KC fish developed significantly more alterations than unexposed KC fish. Interestingly, unexposed AW killifish developed significantly more alterations than unexposed KC individuals, suggesting that AW juveniles are not fully protected from liver disease; rapid growth of juvenile fish may also be an accelerating factor for tumorigenesis. Because recent reports show hepatic tumor formation in adult AW fish, the differing responses from the 2 populations provided a way to determine whether embryo toxicity protection extends to juveniles. Future investigations will analyze older life stages of killifish to determine differences in responses related to chronic disease.
DFT+U Study of the Surface Structure and Stability of Co3O4(110): Dependence on U

The (110) surface of tricobalt tetraoxide, Co3O4(110), has attracted considerable interest because of its high catalytic activity, especially for CO oxidation. However, understanding of its surface structure and reactivity under relevant experimental conditions remains limited. Here, we use density functional theory with the on-site Coulomb U term to study the structure and stability of the two possible truncations of Co3O4(110) in the presence of oxygen gas and water vapor. We examine the effects of U on the stability diagram by considering three representative U values often used in previous studies, notably U = 0, 3.0, and 5.9 eV. For all U values, the hydrated B surface, exposing only octahedral Co ions, is predicted to be the thermodynamically stable termination under ambient conditions and at low temperatures. In other situations, the predicted stability generally depends on U with smaller (larger) U values favoring the B (A) termination. By combining our results with those of previous studies, we c...
Temporal and spatial patterns of sweetpotato weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) counts in pheromone-baited traps in white-fleshed sweet potato fields in southern Florida

Studies were conducted to determine the potential of a synthetic sex pheromone that attracts only males for monitoring sweet potato weevil, Cylas formicarius elegantulus (Summers), populations in southern Florida. Mean weevil counts in plastic funnel traps baited with 10 μg of pheromone and placed in different commercial plantings of white-fleshed sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. cv. Picadito, ranged between 2 and 5,785 males per trap per night. Temporal patterns of weevil counts were cyclical, probably because of emergence of new weevil generations following monthly insecticide applications. Mean weevil counts in volunteer fields ranged between 27 and 4,413 per trap per night indicating that volunteer fields harbor dense weevil populations. Spatial statistics indicated that male populations were aggregated. The number of plastic funnel traps required to estimate weevil density reliably was too high to be practical at 10–15% precision levels, but was practical at a 25% precision level. Plastic funnel traps caught significantly more weevils (90–97% of the total catch) and were significantly more efficient (85% efficiency) at catching males than screen-cone boll weevil traps (3–10% of the total catch and 49% efficiency).
Rbfox Proteins Regulate Splicing as Part of a Large Multiprotein Complex LASR

Rbfox proteins control alternative splicing and posttranscriptional regulation in mammalian brain and are implicated in neurological disease. These proteins recognize the RNA sequence (U)GCAUG, but their structures and diverse roles imply a variety of protein-protein interactions. We find that nuclear Rbfox proteins are bound within a large assembly of splicing regulators (LASR), a multimeric complex containing the proteins hnRNP M, hnRNP H, hnRNP C, Matrin3, NF110/NFAR-2, NF45, and DDX5, all approximately equimolar to Rbfox. We show that splicing repression mediated by hnRNP M is stimulated by Rbfox. Virtually all the intron-bound Rbfox is associated with LASR, and hnRNP M motifs are enriched adjacent to Rbfox crosslinking sites in vivo. These findings demonstrate that Rbfox proteins bind RNA with a defined set of cofactors and affect a broader set of exons than previously recognized. The function of this multimeric LASR complex has implications for deciphering the regulatory codes controlling splicing networks.
Attacking an SRAM-Based PUF through Wearout

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) provide a fast and cheap solution to secret key generation. Natural variations in silicon create unique &#x0022;fingerprints&#x0022; that are useful for identification. In a 6T SRAM array, these variations cause individual cells to skew their power-on tendency toward storing a 0 or a 1. Wearout effects interfere with those variations, changing the power-on behavior of an SRAM cell in the opposite direction of a stored bit and affecting its reliability as a PUF. In this work, we take advantage of this effect by exposing an SRAM array to high voltage and temperature to activate and accelerate wearout and show that it can cause significant changes to the SRAM's fingerprint. Then we propose an attack on an SRAM PUF that makes use of these conditions with several stored data patterns to modify its fingerprint and then compare the effectiveness of each pattern at producing false negatives for identification challenges. In doing so, we show that false nega-tives can be increased to 100% in less than 24 hours, effectively erasing the fingerprint and rendering the PUF unusable.
Organizational Change and Justice: The Impact of Transparent and Ethical Leaders

In the sport industry, one thing that is constant is change. Since numerous forces may drive and guide the change process, the goal of this study was to examine ethical leadership, transparency, and organizational justice during an organizational change of a consolidating National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s and women’s athletic department. Framed from the organizational change, ethical leadership, and organizational justice literature, this qualitative case study included interviews from nine university stakeholders and analysis of public documents published over the last decade. Results revealed transparent ethical leaders in an instrumental climate espoused positive organizational justice perceptions. In addition, employees’ perceptions of transparent ethical leaders and positive organizational justice helped champion favorable responses to the organizational change. Implications of this research include encouraging intercollegiate athletic administrators to consider the sec...
Safety of Phenylephrine Infusion Through Peripheral Intravenous Catheter in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit.

Objective:The traditional approach for infusing vasopressors is to insert central venous catheters, which is associated with several complications. Phenylephrine is a commonly used vasopressor in t...
Securing cloud, SDN and large data network environments from emerging DDoS attacks

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and the cyber threat landscape is evolving faster than traditional IPS/IDS solutions can manage using known attack signatures. The size, scope and variations of the attacks can now overwhelm large enterprise environments and diminish resource availability for ecommerce, cloud, hosting and carrier platforms. This paper provides an overview of the problem of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, current mitigation process and proposed automation for identification and precise mitigation. In this paper, we present an available mechanism for preventing DDoS attacks without human intervention to mitigate 0-day attacks. This paper provides an understanding of the DDoS problem facing cloud, SDN, and large enterprise networks.
Symbolic-computational methods in combinatorial game theory and ramsey theory

This thesis is a contribution to the emerging field of experimental rigorous mathematics, where one uses symbolic computation to conjecture proof-plans, and then proceeds to verify the conjectured proofs rigorously. The proved results, in addition to their independent interest, should also be viewed as case studies in this budding methodology. We now proceed to described the specific results presented in this dissertation. We first develop a finite-state automata approach, implemented in a Maple package ToadsAndFrogs, for conjecturing, and then rigorously proving, values for large families of positions in Richard Guy's combinatorial game "Toads and Frogs". In particular, we prove conjectures of Jeff Erickson. We also discuss the values of all positions with exactly one s, TassF a, TasssFFF, TassFb, TasssFb. We next consider the generalized chess problem of checkmating a king with a king and a rook on an m × n board at a specific starting position. We analyze the fastest way to checkmate. We also consider a problem posed by Ronald Graham about the minimum number, over all 2-colorings of [1, n], of generalized so-called Schur triples, i.e. monochromatic triples of the form (x, y, x + ay) a ≥ 1. (The case a = 1 corresponds to the classical Schur triples). In addition to giving a completely new proof of the already known case of a = 1, we show that the minimum number of such triples is at most n22apa2+2a+3p + O(n) when a ≥ 2. We also find a new upper bound for the minimum number, over all r-colorings of [1, n], of monochromatic Schur triples, for r ≥ 3. Finally, in yet a different direction, we find closed-form expressions for the second moment of the random variable "number of monochromatic Schur triples" defined on the sample space of all r-colorings of the first n integers, and second and even higher moments for the number of monochromatic complete graphs Kk in Kn. In addition to their considerable independent interest, these formulas would hopefully be instrumental in improving the extremely weak known lower bounds for the asymptotics of Ramsey number.
Complex terrain influences ecosystem carbon responses to temperature and precipitation

Terrestrial ecosystem responses to temperature and precipitation have major implications for the global carbon cycle. Case studies demonstrate that complex terrain, which accounts for more than 50% of Earth's land surface, can affect ecological processes associated with land-atmosphere carbon fluxes. However, no studies have addressed the role of complex terrain in mediating ecophysiological responses of land-atmosphere carbon fluxes to climate variables. We synthesized data from AmeriFlux towers and found that for sites in complex terrain, responses of ecosystem CO2 fluxes to temperature and precipitation are organized according to terrain slope and drainage area, variables associated with water and energy availability. Specifically, we found that for tower sites in complex terrain, mean topographic slope and drainage area surrounding the tower explained between 51% and 78% of site-to-site variation in the response of CO2 fluxes to temperature and precipitation depending on the time scale. We found no such organization among sites in flat terrain, even though their flux responses exhibited similar ranges. These results challenge prevailing conceptual framework in terrestrial ecosystem modeling that assumes CO2 fluxes derive from vertical soil-plant-climate interactions. We conclude that the terrain in which ecosystems are situated can also have important influences on CO2 responses to temperature and precipitation. This work has implications for about 14% of the total land area of the conterminous US. This area is considered topographically complex and contributes to approximately 15% of gross ecosystem carbon production in the conterminous US.
Vaccines against Botulism

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) cause the flaccid paralysis of botulism by inhibiting the release of acetylcholine from motor neurons. There are seven serotypes of BoNT (A-G), with limited therapies, and no FDA approved vaccine for botulism. An investigational formalin-inactivated penta-serotype-BoNT/A-E toxoid vaccine was used to vaccinate people who are at high risk of contracting botulism. However, this formalin-inactivated penta-serotype-BoNT/A-E toxoid vaccine was losing potency and was discontinued. This article reviews the different vaccines being developed to replace the discontinued toxoid vaccine. These vaccines include DNA-based, viral vector-based, and recombinant protein-based vaccines. DNA-based vaccines include plasmids or viral vectors containing the gene encoding one of the BoNT heavy chain receptor binding domains (HC). Viral vectors reviewed are adenovirus, influenza virus, rabies virus, Semliki Forest virus, and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis virus. Among the potential recombinant protein vaccines reviewed are HC, light chain-heavy chain translocation domain, and chemically or genetically inactivated holotoxin.
The Role of Aging, Drug Dependence, and Hepatitis C Comorbidity in Alcoholism Cortical Compromise.

Importance The prevalence of alcohol misuse increased substantially over a decade in adults, particularly in those aged 65 years or older. Ramifications for brain structural integrity are significant, especially in older adults. Objectives To combine cross-sectional, longitudinal data to test age-alcoholism interactions and examine the association between prevalent comorbidities (drug dependence and hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection) and cortical volume deficits in alcohol dependence. Design, Setting, and Participants During 14 years, 826 structural magnetic resonance images were acquired in 222 individuals with alcohol dependence and 199 age-matched control participants (aged 25-75 years at initial study), parcellated with a common atlas, and adjusted for brain volume. Longitudinal data were available on 116 participants with alcoholism and 96 control participants. DSM-IV criteria determined alcohol and drug diagnoses; serology testing determined HCV status. The study was conducted at SRI International and Stanford University School of Medicine from April 11, 2003, to March 3, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures Magnetic resonance imaging–derived regional cortical volumes corrected for supratentorial volume and sex. Results Of the 222 participants with alcoholism, 156 (70.3%) were men; mean (SD) age was 48.0 (10.0) years; the mean age for the 199 control participants was 47.6 (14.0) years. Participants with alcohol dependence had volume deficits in frontal ( t = −5.732, P t = −3.151, P = .002), parietal ( t = −5.063, P t = −3.170, P = .002), and insular ( t = −4.920, P t = −3.019, P t = −2.691, P t = −2.763, P t = 6.1191, P t = −2.310, P = .04) and alcohol plus opiate ( t = −2.424, P = .04) groups had smaller frontal volumes than the drug-dependence–free alcoholism group, deficits in precentral ( t = −2.575, P = .01), supplementary motor ( t = −2.532, P = .01), and medial ( t = −2.800, P = .01) volumes endured in drug-dependence–free participants with alcoholism compared with control participants. Those with HCV infection had greater deficits than those without HCV infection in frontal ( t = 3.468, P = .01), precentral ( t = 2.513, P = .03), superior ( t = 2.533, P = .03), and orbital ( t = 2.506, P = .03) volumes, yet total frontal ( t = 2.660, P = .02), insular ( t = 3.526, P = .003), parietal ( t = 2.414, P = .03), temporal ( t = 3.221, P = .005), and precentral ( t = 3.180, P = .01) volume deficits persisted in the uninfected participants with alcoholism compared with control participants with known HCV status. Conclusions and Relevance Drug dependence and HCV infection compounded deleterious effects of alcohol dependence on frontal cortical volumes but could not account for the frontally distributed volume deficits in the drug-free participants with alcoholism. We speculate that age-alcohol interactions notable in frontal cortex put older adults at heightened risk for age-associated neurocompromise even if alcohol misuse is initiated later in life.
MIMO radar using sparse sensing: A weighted sparse Bayesian learning (WSBL) approach

A colocated Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) radar system is studied, in which the receive antennas implement sparse sensing and then forward their compressively obtained samples to a fusion center. Assuming sparsely distributed targets in the direction-of-arrival (DOA) space, the fusion center can estimate the targets by formulating and solving a sparse signal recovery problem. In this paper, we propose a weighted Sparse Bayesian Learning (WSBL) approach for target DOA estimation. Using a low resolution estimate of the sparse vector, the proposed approach assigns different weights to different entries of the sparse vector, giving more importance to some entries over others. Subsequently, the weighted sparse signal recovery problem is solved along the lines of the Sparse Bayesian Learning (SBL) framework. The proposed approach shows robustness for increased number of sources, and lower SNR as compared to SBL and the Dantzig selector approach.
Recognition of Cell Surface Carbohydrates by C-Type Animal Lectins

Protein-carbohydrate interactions often mediate recognition events at the cell surface. Examples include cell-cell adhesion, such as the targeting of certain T lymphocytes to their sites of action (Springer and Lasky, 1991), and the binding of sperm to egg (Wassarman, 1987); the clearance of glycoproteins from the circulation (Ashwell and Harford, 1982); host recognition of pathogens (Ezekowitz, 1991); and the binding of certain viruses (Paulson, 1985) and toxins (van Heyningen, 1983) to their target cells. Each of these cases involves the recognition of specific carbohydrate structures. Recent progress in physical and structural characterization has greatly increased our understanding of these interactions at the molecular level.
The Importance of Values in the Fight Against Terrorism

The Democratic Party’s success in the 2006 Congressional campaign will be much interpreted and oft discussed. However, one critical fact cannot be forgotten: five years post 9/11, American forces are fighting and dying in Iraq, Afghanistan is far from quelled (as marked by recent Taliban victories) and the next terrorism act is a question of when, not if. The Iraq Study Groups’ report takes the President to task for a number of critical issues related to the war in Iraq. One of the most important recommendations – albeit troubling in its very essence – is that the President speak the truth to the American public. In the spirit of that troubling recommendation, this article is written. Government 101 requires truth-telling, especially in the information age. Perhaps in the days of radio and newspapers, it was easier for government to deceive and feint the public. Today, with bloggers, instant messaging by phone or computer, web cameras and cell phones with cameras, government is under greater – and more immediate – scrutiny than ever before. The information age combined with extraordinary technological breakthroughs directly impact how governments develop, implement and articulate policy. A Tonkin Gulf type resolution1 predicated on a President (Johnson) and Secretary of Defense (McNamara) deliberately misleading Congress2 would be, given modern means of personal communication (not to speak of sophisticated satellites available to the media), nearly impossible to duplicate. While some observers might suggest that the Congressional resolution3 supporting President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq is tantamount to a modern day Tonkin Gulf resolution, I would suggest it reflects a fundamental lack of oversight and
Pre-mRNA Splicing Modulation by Antisense Oligonucleotides

Pre-mRNA splicing, a dynamic process of intron removal and exon joining, is governed by a combinatorial control exerted by overlapping cis-elements that are unique to each exon and its flanking intronic sequences. Splicing cis-elements are usually 4-to-8-nucleotide-long linear motifs that provide binding sites for specific proteins. Pre-mRNA splicing is also influenced by secondary and higher order RNA structures that affect accessibility of splicing cis-elements. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) that block splicing cis-elements and/or affect RNA structure have been shown to modulate splicing in vivo. Therefore, ASO-based strategies have emerged as a powerful tool for therapeutic manipulation of splicing in pathological conditions. Here we describe an ASO-based approach to increase the production of the full-length SMN2 mRNA in spinal muscular atrophy patient cells.
Examining the Complexities of Parental Engagement at an Online Charter High School: A Narrative Analysis Approach

With the rapid growth of K-12 online learning opportunities, calls have come for more and better parental engagement to improve student engagement and reduce student attrition. In this article, we drew from a larger study to share rich narratives from three parents of students who required high levels of parental support for their online learning while enrolled at a charter cyber school. In the first narrative, a mother describes her experiences attempting to work with her son Ivan, who rejected her efforts and disobeyed rules while enrolled in the cyber school. The move from a brick-and-mortar school to the cyber school further strained their relationship and the mother was unprepared to manage Ivan’s learning. The second narrative focuses on how a mother attempted to support Matthew, who lacked self-regulation abilities. The mother who previously homeschooled Matthew, turned to the cyber school because she wanted “less on [her] shoulders” but underestimated the amount of support Matthew required and became frustrated at her lack of control over the pace and content of courses. The final narrative focuses on a mother who had two students enrolled in the cyber school. Each student exhibited different needs that required her to adapt the support strategies she used with Hannah, who procrastinated, and Karl, who lacked confidence. These narratives highlight some of the complexities parents navigate when engaging with their children’s online learning.
Teaching Heterogeneous Computing with System-Level Design Methods

We present our work at Columbia University teaching the design and programming of heterogeneous computing architectures with SLD methods. Over the past eight years, we have developed a new course, System-on-Chip Platforms, with the main goal of preparing students to contribute to the new economy of heterogeneous computing and open-source hardware. The course was one of the first nationwide to introduce the use of commercial high-level synthesis tools for the design of application-specific hardware accelerators. We also introduced the idea of structuring the final project as a design-space exploration contest that combines aspects of collaborative engineering and design for reusability.
Infra-Red Behavior of the Gluon Propagator in QCD

The status of recent attempts to determine the infra-red behavior of the gluon propagator in quarkless QCD through solution of truncated Dyson-Schwinger equations is surveyed. The situation in time-like axial gauges, as well as covariant gauges, is discussed.
Thank God It's Monday: Manhattan Coworking Spaces in the New Economy

Although it has been argued that digital technology liberates workers from spatial constraints, the materiality of physical space still matters in the new economy. In this article I emphasize the importance of place in the digital age by highlighting the growth of coworking spaces where small startups, telecommuters, and freelancers rent flexible office space on a month-to-month basis. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Manhattan to show how coworking participants make use of these spaces as social and spatial resources for mobile work. Coworking spaces rely on aesthetics, ideology, and style to brand their workspaces to members while promoting new-economy work as meaningful, collaborative, creative, and fun. Recent years have given rise to the audience segmentation of the coworking marketplace as competitors target niche communities underserved by more mainstream offerings, while others attempt to repurpose otherwise underutilized commercial spaces into revenue-generating coworking ventures. The rapid expansion of coworking in places like Manhattan exemplifies how digitization has reshaped the uses of urban space around mobile work in the new economy.
Associations between anger and suicidal ideation and attempts: A prospective study using the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

Abstract Suicide is among the leading causes of death in the United States, with rates having risen substantially over the past two decades. Anger is a common symptom of several disorders associated with suicide, and the little research that has been done in the area suggests that it may be an often overlooked transdiagnostic risk factor for both suicidal ideation and behavior. The current study used the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) dataset to evaluate anger at Wave 1 as a risk factor for suicidal ideation and suicide attempt at Wave 2 (three years later) in a nationally representative sample of 34,653 participants. Chi-square analyses indicated that participants reporting problematic anger at Wave 1 were significantly more likely to endorse suicidal ideation (χ2 = 65.35, p
Verhältnis zu den Studierenden

Die Beziehung zwischen Lehrkraft und Studierenden hat masgeblichen Einfluss auf den Lernerfolg. Ein gutes Verhaltnis zwischen dem Professor und den Studierenden – basierend auf Ehrlichkeit, gegenseitigem Respekt und emotionaler Zugewandtheit – ist von so grundlegender Bedeutung fur die Effizienz des Hochschulunterrichts, dass uns daran gelegen sein sollte, dieses Verhaltnis zu pflegen und ihm die notwendige Aufmerksamkeit zu widmen (Levy und Peters 2002). Als Lehrende konnen wir eine Reihe von Verhaltensweisen annehmen, die das gute Einvernehmen mit den Studierenden erleichtern. Diese Verhaltensweisen sind besonders wichtig, wenn wir es mit schwierigen Situationen zu tun haben, wie z. B. dem Umgang mit Storungen, mit Schwatzen oder mit den Ausreden von Studierenden (Booth und Schwartz 2012; Pintrich und Schunk 1996). In diesem Kapitel zeige ich Ihnen, wie Sie diese Probleme am besten bewaltigen konnen und dabei dennoch die gute Beziehung zu den Studierenden aufrechterhalten. Auserdem finden Sie am Ende dieses Kapitels einige Tipps, wie Sie die Motivation der Studierenden steigern konnen.
Chapter 5 – Tensiometers

This chapter describes the theory and use of tensiometers. They are used to measure, when the soil is not too dry, the energy status of the soil. They measure the matric potential, formerly called the soil moisture tension. A tensiometer consists of a porous, permeable ceramic cup connected through a water-filled tube to a manometer, vacuum gauge, or pressure transducer. The tension that a tensiometer measures cannot exceed about three-quarters bar or 750 cm of water column. This is due to air coming out of solution at the reduced pressure to break the continuity of the water column. At tensions >750 cm, pressure apparatus is used, which is explained. Different types of tensiometers are illustrated. Temperature effects on tensiometers are described. The applications of tensiometers in agricultural research are listed. A biography of L.A. Richards, one of the early developers of the tensiometer, is given in the appendix.
A Predictive Model for Patient Census and Ventilator Requirements at Individual Hospitals During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Preliminary Technical Report

During the initial wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many hospitals struggled to forecast bed capacity and the number of mechanical ventilators they needed to have available. Numerous epidemiological models forecast regional or national peak bed and ventilator needs, but these are not suitable for predictions at the hospital level. We developed an analytical model to assist hospitals in determining their census and ventilator requirements for COVID-19 patients during future periods of the pandemic, by using their data. This model is based on (1) projection of future daily admissions using counts from the previous seven days, (2) lengths of stay and duration of mechanical ventilation, and (3) the percentage of inpatients requiring mechanical ventilation. The implementation is done within an Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) workbook without the use of add-ins or macro programming. The model inputs for each currently hospitalized patient with COVID-19 are the duration of hospitalization, whether the patient is currently receiving or has previously received mechanical ventilation, and the duration of the current ventilation episode, if applicable. Data validity and internal consistency are checked within the workbook, and errors are identified. Durations of care (length of hospital stay and duration of mechanical ventilation) are generated by fitting a two-parameter Weibull distribution to the hospital’s historical data from the initial phase of the pandemic (incorporating censoring due to ongoing care), for which we provide source code in the R programming language (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria). Conditional distributions are then calculated using the hospital’s current data. The output of the model is nearly instantaneous, producing an estimate of the census and the number of ventilators required in one, three, and seven days following the date on which the simulation is run. Given that the pandemic is ongoing, and a second surge of cases is expected with the reopening of the economy, having such a tool to predict resource needs for hospital planning purposes has been useful. A major benefit to individual hospitals from such modeling has been to provide reassurance to state and local governments that the hospitals have sufficient resources available to meet anticipated needs for new COVID-19 patients without having to set aside substantially greater numbers of beds or ventilators for such care. Such ongoing activity is important for the economic recovery of hospitals that have been hard-hit economically by the shutdown in elective surgery and other patient care activities. The modeling software is freely available at https://FDshort.com/COVID19, and its parameters can easily be modified by end-users.
“Our Sisters in China Are Free”: Visual Representations of Chinese and Chinese American Suffragists

Both white and Chinese American suffragists in the United States closely watched and discussed the events of the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the establishment of the Chinese Republic (1912–1949). They were aware of the republican revolutionaries’ support for women's rights, which conflicted with American stereotypes of China as a backward nation, especially in its treatment of women. Chinese suffragists, real and imagined, became a major talking point in debates over women's voting rights in the United States as white suffragists and national newspapers championed their stories. This led to prominent visual depictions of Chinese suffragists in the press, but also their participation in public events such as suffrage parades. For a brief time, the transnational nature of suffrage conversations was highly visible as was the suffrage activism of women in U.S. Chinese communities. However, because Chinese immigrants were barred from citizenship by U.S. immigration law, white activists tended to depict Chinese suffragists as foreign, resulting in the erasure of their memory in the U.S. suffrage movement.
Cherry-picking resolvents: A general strategy for convergent coupled-cluster damped response calculations of core-level spectra

Damped linear response calculations within the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster singles and doubles (EOM-CCSD) framework usually diverge in the x-ray regime. This divergent behavior stems from the valence ionization continuum in which the x-ray response states are embedded. Here, we introduce a general strategy for removing the continuum from the response manifold while preserving important spectral properties of the model Hamiltonian. The strategy is based on decoupling the core and valence Fock spaces using the core–valence separation (CVS) scheme combined with separate (approximate) treatment of the core and valence resolvents. We illustrate this approach with the calculations of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra of benzene and para-nitroaniline using EOM-CCSD wave functions and several choices of resolvents, which differ in their treatment of the valence manifold. The method shows robust convergence and extends the previously introduced CVS-EOM-CCSD RIXS scheme to systems for which valence contributions to the total cross section are important, such as the push–pull chromophores with charge-transfer states.
How COVID-19 Exposed an Inadequate Approach to Burnout: Moving Beyond Self-Care

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed providers throughout the healthcare industry to unprecedented stress. Social workers in particular experience this crisis by providing direct practice and macro-level interventions across a myriad of occupations and ecological systems. Consequently, the prevalence of occupational stress issues, especially shared trauma and burnout, has intensified. Although these are not new issues for healthcare workers, including social workers, COVID-19 has underscored the importance of protecting them with the most effective and practical approaches to alleviate shared stress and burnout. COVID-19 also demonstrates the limitations of self-care, one of the most touted frameworks to reduce shared stress and burnout. This chapter critically examines why self-care has assumed prominence in social work discourse and education, emphasizing its synergy with neoliberal values. It then explores how the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the deficiencies of self-care. Finally, suggestions are offered that center on structurally mitigating the effects of burnout and shared trauma in social work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although self-care can be useful in specific roles, the primary onus for reduction of both burnout and shared trauma should be shifted from the individual worker to the organization.
Hypophosphatasia: A missed diagnosis

Hypophosphatasia is a disorder of bone metabolism due to defective tissue nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (ALP). It is most severe in early life but can present at any age, leading to a likely underdiagnosis of its adult, and commonly less severe, forms. This is the case of a 42-year-old female who presented to endocrinology asking about her low ALP levels in the setting of prior bilateral metatarsal fractures and was diagnosed with hypophosphatasia. This case report aims to highlight the importance of making this diagnosis in order to avoid commonly prescribed therapies that can be harmful. Antiresorptive therapies as well as supplementation with calcium or Vitamin D can potentially worsen the disease. There are no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments for adult hypophosphatasia, but asfotase alfa and teriparatide are two promising therapies currently being studied. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Practice-based learning and improvement, Medical knowledge.
Differential impact of heavy metals on neurotoxicity during development and in aging central nervous system

Abstract Heavy metals are ubiquitous in nature and their bioaccumulation usually remains undetected until it manifests as a chronic pathological condition. Accumulating evidence suggests that all age groups (independent of socioeconomic status, race, gender, and geographical location) and organs are susceptible to metal induced toxicity, although the impact on the central nervous system is more severe and long-lasting in both developing and adult human brain. There are no clinically proven treatments to those affected by heavy metal toxicity. We here review the most recent studies (2018–2020) on the differential impact of heavy metals on the pathogenesis of various neurodevelopmental disorders in children and neurodegenerative diseases in adults, highlighting the need for urgent intervention to this global health crisis.
“Indistractable”: by Nir Eyal with Julie Li, Dallas, TX, BenBella Books, 2019, $26.95 Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-948836-53-1

Nir Eyal’s work is really great; a must-read. The lessons to control distraction will enlighten and help a wide range of people – from young adult students to seasoned professionals. For those just...
Use of the Congressional Review Act at the Start of the Trump Administration: A Study of Two Vetoes

Once regarded as a legislative dead letter, the Congressional Review Act gained new vitality in 2017 as President Trump and Republicans in Congress used the Act to veto more than a dozen regulations issued late in the Obama administration. The reemergence of the CRA renewed debate over a vague provision at the heart of the Act: its prohibition against agencies reissuing regulations in “substantially the same form” as those regulations Congress vetoes. This Essay analyzes the congressional debate over two CRA vetoes at the start of the Trump administration against existing hypotheses about the “substantially the same form” prohibition. Both of these vetoed regulations — one nullifying a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure requirement for resource extraction companies and another nullifying a Department of Labor definition of jobs categories for which states can require drug testing of unemployment recipients — were issued pursuant to statutory mandate. The Essay concludes that these vetoes will likely force the courts to construe the meaning of “substantially the same form,” and considers the factors that courts may weigh to determine the phrase’s meaning.
Spinning Sosa: Federal Common Law, the Alien Tort Statute and Judicial Restraint

Debate has raged in recent years concerning the relationship of federal common law to customary international law. That debate has focused on the role of federal common law generally after the Supreme Court's 1938 decision in Erie R.R. v. Tompkins and how, in particular, the role of customary international law in federal decision making may have changed following that decision. Attacking what they refer to as the "modern position", Professors Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith are largely responsible for setting off the current disagreement. Much of the controversy surrounding the role of customary international law has played out in the context of cases brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). Since the Second Circuit's decision in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala in 1980, the federal courts generally have allowed claims asserting ATS liability based upon violations of customary international law. As this article discusses, the revisionists had made the illegitimacy of this use of the ATS pivotal to their critique. This article focuses upon the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain--the reaction of both courts and commentators. In particular, it will review the response of some of the Bradley/Goldsmith revisionists to the Supreme Court's decision and the fate of their core argument. This review informs the analysis of the Court's view of federal common law in this area and the rhetoric of judicial restraint it employed in its decision. This article concludes that while the Court employs language of judicial restraint in the Sosa decision, its actual holding and the test it adopted foretell a less restrained use of customary international law and federal common law in the federal courts.
Voigt effect in diluted magnetic semiconductors: Cd 1 − x Mn x Te and Cd 1 − x Mn x Se

We report a giant Voigt effect in diluted magnetic semiconductors ${\mathrm{Cd}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Mn}}_{\mathit{x}}$Te and ${\mathrm{Cd}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Mn}}_{\mathit{x}}$Se and present an excitonic model that describes its dispersion and ${\mathit{M}}^{2}$ dependence, M being the magnetization. We discuss the Voigt effect in ${\mathrm{Cd}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Mn}}_{\mathit{x}}$Te (0.10x0.45), a zinc-blende diluted magnetic semiconductor, in the context of this model. In addition, we present experimental results for the Voigt effect in ${\mathrm{Cd}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Mn}}_{\mathit{x}}$Se (x=0.26 and 0.31), a diluted magnetic semiconductor with wurtzite structure, where the effect is considerably more complicated due to its lower symmetry. Specifically, we present a striking anisotropy of the Voigt effect in ${\mathrm{Cd}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Mn}}_{\mathit{x}}$Se, which depends on the relative orientation of the applied magnetic field with respect to the optic (c^) axis of the crystal.
The reaction of tobacco mosaic virus with formaldehyde. III. Kinetics of the loss of infectivity.

Abstract The experiments reported here were designed to elucidate the nature of the chemical group on tobacco mosaic virus nucleoprotein which causes the biological inactivation of the virus when it reacts with formaldehyde. The methods of chemical kinetics were used to determine the specific reaction rate constants for the inactivation of the virus by 2% formaldehyde at several pH values within the range 4.1 to 8.4 and at 30°, 35°, and 40°. The reaction rate was found to be only slightly pH dependent, indicating that the critical group does not dissociate within the pH range studied. The reaction did not vary with ionic strength. A plot of the Arrhenius equation for the velocity constants obtained at pH values of 5.3, 6.8, and 7.8 gave an energy of activation of 19,500 calories per mole, which is the approximate value found for a reaction involving a single chemical bond. The energy of activation was invariable with pH. The rate constant was dependent on formaldehyde concentration when 2% virus solutions were allowed to react with 1%, 2%, 4%, and 7% formaldehyde solutions at pH 6.6 and 30°. These results could be interpreted on the basis of the inactivation's being caused by the reaction of a single formaldehyde molecule at one site on the virus characteristic particle. Prior treatment of the virus nucleoprotein with iodine, diazotized sulfanilic acid, acetic anhydride, and propionaldehyde failed to produce any effect on the rate constants for the subsequent formaldehyde inactivation process, indicating that the sulfhydryl, phenolic hydroxy, and protein amino groups are probably not the ones which cause the inactivation when they react with formaldehyde. Since changes in pH did not appreciably affect the rate constant value between pH 4.1 and pH 8.4, certain other groups can be eliminated from consideration on the basis of their pK values. Proton donor groups with pK values less than 9 and proton acceptor groups with pK values greater than about pK 3 to 4 can be excluded. The amide groups are probably not fundamentally involved, since they are reported to react more readily in acid medium. If this is true, then the inactivation rate constant would increase with increasing acidity, which is contrary to the results of this work. It has been shown by other investigators that tryptophan in tobacco mosaic virus probably does not react with formaldehyde in the pH range employed here. On the basis of the foregoing considerations, it is probable that the groups most likely involved in the formaldehyde inactivation of tobacco mosaic virus are the beta hydroxy groups of serine and threonine, the hydroxy group of ribose, and the amino group on the pyrimidine and purine rings in the nucleic acid.