cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Current prevalence and incidence of infectious disease markers and estimated window-period risk in the American Red Cross blood donor population.

BACKGROUND: There has been continuing progress in measures to reduce the risk of transfusiontransmitted infection, including introduction of serologic tests of increased sensitivity and the recent implementation of investigational NAT in small pools of samples. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Data relating to all blood donations to the American Red Cross have been consolidated into a single database. The prevalence of confirmed-positive test results for HBsAg, HCV, HIV, and HTLV were evaluated for each year for first-time donors from 1995 through 2001. Incidence rates for these infections were evaluated among repeat donors having at least two donations in a 2-year period. The frequencies of HIV-1 RNA- and HCV RNA-positive, seronegative donations were assessed for first-time and repeat donations. The relationship risk = (window period) × (incidence) was used to assess residual risk among repeat donations and to evaluate the incidence of HCV and HIV infection among first-time donors. RESULTS: During the study period, prevalence rates for all markers declined significantly over time: in 2001, the rates per 100,000 were 75.6 for HBsAg, 299 for HCV, 9.7 for HIV, and 9.6 for HTLV; the corresponding incidence rates (/100,000 person-years) were 1.267, 1.889, 1.554, and 0.239, respectively. Estimates of residual risk in donations from repeat donors (after NAT) for HCV and HIV were 1 per 1,935,000 and 1 per 2,135,000, respectively. However, incidence rates for these agents are approximately two times greater among first-time donors. For both HCV and HIV, NAT yield was concordant with that predicted by current window-period models. CONCLUSION: These data cover about half of all the whole blood collected in the United States. They suggest increasing improvement in transfusion safety and clearly define the benefit of pooled NAT.
A Clinical Trial Evaluating Prophylactic and Therapeutic Antibiotic Use on Health and Performance of Preweaned Calves

The objective of this clinical trial was to evaluate the influence of prophylactic and therapeutic antibiotics on health and performance in preweaned dairy calves on a calf ranch. One hundred twenty 1-d-old calves were enrolled into 3 management systems for antibiotic use and raised until 4 wk of age. Sixty calves were not eligible to receive prophylactic or therapeutic antibiotics. Thirty calves were eligible to receive individual antibiotic treatment for disease, but no prophylactic antibiotics in milk replacer. The remaining 30 calves received milk replacer medicated with neomycin and tetracycline HCl, and could be treated with antibiotics. Health status and treatments were monitored and recorded daily. The primary study outcomes were weight gain, morbidity, and mortality. The most important factor associated with morbidity and mortality was passive immune transfer through colostrum. In-feed antibiotics delayed onset of morbidity, decreased overall morbidity, and increased weight gain. Nonantibiotic therapies for clinical disease were associated with increased mortality and morbidity compared with antibiotic treatments. The study has shown that minimizing or eliminating the use of antibiotics in the feed requires measures to ensure adequate passive transfer of immunity, but that in the face of inadequate passive transfer of immunity, animal welfare may be endangered by replacing medicated milk replacer with nonmedicated milk replacer, and therapeutic antibiotics with nonantibiotic alternatives.
Effect of domestic water use on air pollutant emissions in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf have typically addressed water scarcity problems by building energy-intensive desalination plants. Few efforts have addressed water scarcity through metering, pricing, and other efficiency measures to reduce demand. This paper examines how decreased leakage in the water distribution system and decreased residential water use in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, could decrease air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions from desalination plants. We developed a probabilistic model to predict the effects of water use reductions on pollutant emissions from Abu Dhabi's major independent water and power plants, which use a combination of multi-stage flash distillation and multi-effect distillation to produce fresh water from seawater drawn from the Arabian Gulf. We examine three categories of scenarios for reducing water use: increasing the price signal to residential users, instituting demand management programs among residential users, and reducing water loss in the distribution system. Our analysis suggests that water conservation price incentives could reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions by 1% to 5%, depending on assumptions about how households respond to the incentives. Demand-side management programs curbing per capita water use to levels typical of the Singapore or the UK would curb emissions by 10% or 11%, respectively. Reducing water loss during distribution from the current high level of 35% to 15% (similar to loss rates in other developed nations) could cut emissions by more than 3%. Overall, our analysis suggests that high per capita water use contributes to ambient air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in Abu Dhabi.
The small leucine-rich proteoglycan biglycan modulates BMP-4-induced osteoblast differentiation

Biglycan (bgn) is a small leucine-rich proteoglycan enriched in extracellular matrices of skeletal tissues. Bgn-deficient mice develop age-related osteopenia with a phenotype that resembles osteoporosis and premature arthritis. In the present study, we have examined the differentiation of bgn-deficient osteoblasts from neonatal murine calvariae and found that the absence of bgn caused less BMP-4 binding, which reduced the sensitivity of osteoblasts to BMP-4 stimulation. The loss of sensitivity resulted in a reduction of Cbfa1 expression, which ultimately led to a defect in the differentiation of osteoblasts. However, the response of bgn-deficient osteoblasts to BMP-4 was completely rescued by reintroduction of biglycan by viral transfection. We propose that biglycan modulates BMP-4-induced signaling to control osteoblast differentiation.
Interaction between Levodopa and Enteral Nutrition

Objective:To report and discuss a drug–nutrient interaction involving levodopa and protein in enteral nutrition.Case Summary:A 77-year-old male with Parkinson's disease was admitted to an intensive care unit for an intracerebral hemorrhage. To provide nutritional support, an oral gastric tube was placed and continuous enteral nutrition was initiated, with 1.4 g/kg of protein administered daily. The following medications were continued during hospitalization: immediate-release carbidopa/levodopa 25 mg/100 mg, with 1.5 tablets administered 4 times daily; pramipexole 1.5 mg 3 times daily; and entacapone 200 mg 4 times daily. Despite this drug therapy, the patient developed severe rigidity. A review of the literature revealed a potential interaction between levodopa and protein intake. To resolve this interaction, the amount of protein in the enteral nutrition was decreased to 0.9 g/kg/day and the nutritional administration was changed from continuous enteral feeding to bolus feeding, with levodopa given betw...
Exploring the Utility of Product Dissection for Early-Phase Idea Generation

Product dissection is a tool widely used in industry and academia as a means to understand components of existing products and identify opportunities for design. Dissection activities have the potential to impact design creativity because dissection is performed in the early phases of design, which is arguably the most influential phase of the design process. However, researchers have only just begun to explore the relationship between dissection and creativity, and thus little research to date has identified how variations in dissection activities impact creativity. Therefore, in this paper we respond to this research gap by presenting the results of a controlled experiment developed to understand how the type and number of products dissected and the structure and medium of the dissection task (electronic versus physical) impacts creativity. Our quantitative findings (from ANOVAs) are paired with qualitative analysis (interview results) to provide rationale for our results and insights into their cognitive underpinnings. The results from this study indicate that the structure of the dissection activity, the medium of dissection, and the number of products dissected impacts the variety of the generated concepts while the analogical distance and number of products impacts design novelty. These findings are used to develop recommendations for the alteration of dissection methods for inspiring creative thought in engineering design.
TTX-sensitive voltage-gated Na+ channels are expressed in mesenteric artery smooth muscle cells

The presence and properties of voltage-gated Na+ channels in mesenteric artery smooth muscle cells (SMCs) were studied using whole cell patch-clamp recording. SMCs from mouse and rat mesenteric art...
A Comparative Perspective on the Leninist Legacy in Eastern Europe

This study begins with a comparison between post-Communist and other postauthoritarian party systems, demonstrating the greater importance of new parties in the formerly Leninist systems. It then discusses the effect on new parties of the weakness of prior interest group organization and sudden, as opposed to incremental, increases in political participation. The third section focuses on the institutional consequences of the differences noted in the first and second sections. It demonstrates the strong relationship between the interests of leaders of new parties and the kinds of democratic institutions created during transitions from authoritarianism. The study concludes with some speculations about the probable longer term effects of the distinctive features of the Leninist legacy.
A novel mathematical model of activation and sensitization of platelets subjected to dynamic stress histories

Blood recirculating devices, such as ventricular assist devices and prosthetic heart valves, are burdened by thromboembolic complications requiring complex and lifelong anticoagulant therapy with its inherent hemorrhagic risks. Pathologic flow patterns occurring in such devices chronically activate platelets, and the optimization of their thrombogenic performance requires the development of flow-induced platelet activation models. However, existing models are based on empirical correlations using the well-established power law paradigm of constant levels of shear stress during certain exposure times as factors for mechanical platelet activation. These models are limited by their range of application and do not account for other relevant phenomena, such as loading rate dependence and platelet sensitization to high stress conditions, which characterize the dynamic flow conditions in devices. These limitations were addressed by developing a new class of phenomenological stress-induced platelet activation models that specifies the rate of platelet activation as a function of the entire stress history and results in a differential equation that can be directly integrated to calculate the cumulative levels of activation. The proposed model reverts to the power law under constant shear stress conditions and is able to describe experimental results in response to a diverse range of highly dynamic stress conditions found in blood recirculating devices. The model was tested in vitro under emulated device flow conditions and correlates well with experimental results. This new model provides a reliable and robust mathematical tool that can be incorporated into computational fluid dynamic studies in order to optimize design, with the goal of improving the thrombogenic performance of blood recirculating devices.
MUC1: a multifunctional cell surface component of reproductive tissue epithelia.

MUC1 is a large, transmembrane mucin glycoprotein expressed at the apical surface of a variety of reproductive tract epithelia. Functions attributed to MUC1 include those generally associated with mucins such as lubrication and hydration of cell surfaces as well as protection from microorganisms and degradative enzymes. In addition, MUC1 is an effective inhibitor of both cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions in both normal and malignant contexts. Moreover, a series of recent studies has shown that the highly conserved cytoplasmic tail of MUC1 interacts specifically with a series of important signal transducing molecules including β-catenin, Grb2 and erbB family members. MUC1 expression in normal epithelia can be quite dynamic, varying in response to steroid hormone or cytokine influences. Following malignant transformation, MUC1 often becomes highly overexpressed, loses its apical restriction, and displays aberrant glycosylation and altered mRNA splice variants. Regulation of MUC1 expression can occur at the transcriptional level. In addition, post-translational regulation of cell surface expression occurs via the activity of cell surface proteases or "sheddases" that release soluble forms of the large ectodomains. This review will briefly summarize studies of MUC1 expression and function in reproductive tissues with particular emphasis on the uterus. In addition, current knowledge of the mechanisms of MUC1 gene regulation, metabolic processing and potential signal transducing functions will be presented.
Activation of the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products System in Women with Severe Preeclampsia

sRAGE is a physiological constituent of maternal serum, amniotic fluid, and fetal blood which undergoes significant modulation in severe preeclampsia.
Cost-Effectiveness of Pit-and-Fissure Sealants on Primary Molars in Medicaid-Enrolled Children

Objectives. We compared the incremental cost-effectiveness of 2 primary molar sealant strategies—always seal and never seal—with standard care for Medicaid-enrolled children.Methods. We used Iowa Medicaid claims data (2008–2011), developed a tooth-level Markov model for 10 000 teeth, and compared costs, treatment avoided, and incremental cost per treatment avoided for the 2 sealant strategies with standard care.Results. In 10 000 simulated teeth, standard care cost $214 510, always seal cost $232 141, and never seal cost $186 010. Relative to standard care, always seal reduced the number of restorations to 340 from 2389, whereas never seal increased restorations to 2853. Compared with standard care, always seal cost $8.12 per restoration avoided (95% confidence interval [CI] = $4.10, $12.26; P ≤ .001). Compared with never seal, standard care cost $65.62 per restoration avoided (95% CI = $52.99, $78.26; P ≤ .001).Conclusions. Relative to standard care, always sealing primary molars is more costly but reduc...
Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers' Perceptions of Inclusion Classrooms and Identification of Challenges to Their Implementation.

This qualitative study investigated the perceptions and challenges of Seventh-day Adventist teachers towards inclusion classrooms in the United States. For this study, 17 participants were interviewed using two 12-item interview protocols. The analysis of the teachers’ responses revealed five key perceptions. First, teachers have positive attitudes towards inclusion. Second, accommodations help students who are mildly disabled succeed in the regular classroom. Third, inclusion classrooms can be Christian based. Fourth, school personnel need to develop policies for accepting students with disabilities. Finally, Adventist teachers can identify children with special needs. Participants identified two challenges for implementing inclusion classrooms, first, developing policies and resources for use by teachers, and second, providing needed training to help teachers succeed in an inclusive classroom. The article concludes with recommendations for developing a successful inclusive educational program in Christi...
Annual Research Review: Enduring neurobiological effects of childhood abuse and neglect

BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment is the most important preventable cause of psychopathology accounting for about 45% of the population attributable risk for childhood onset psychiatric disorders. A key breakthrough has been the discovery that maltreatment alters trajectories of brain development. METHODS: This review aims to synthesize neuroimaging findings in children who experienced caregiver neglect as well as from studies in children, adolescents and adults who experienced physical, sexual and emotional abuse. In doing so, we provide preliminary answers to questions regarding the importance of type and timing of exposure, gender differences, reversibility and the relationship between brain changes and psychopathology. We also discuss whether these changes represent adaptive modifications or stress-induced damage. RESULTS: Parental verbal abuse, witnessing domestic violence and sexual abuse appear to specifically target brain regions (auditory, visual and somatosensory cortex) and pathways that process and convey the aversive experience. Maltreatment is associated with reliable morphological alterations in anterior cingulate, dorsal lateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex, corpus callosum and adult hippocampus, and with enhanced amygdala response to emotional faces and diminished striatal response to anticipated rewards. Evidence is emerging that these regions and interconnecting pathways have sensitive exposure periods when they are most vulnerable. CONCLUSIONS: Early deprivation and later abuse may have opposite effects on amygdala volume. Structural and functional abnormalities initially attributed to psychiatric illness may be a more direct consequence of abuse. Childhood maltreatment exerts a prepotent influence on brain development and has been an unrecognized confound in almost all psychiatric neuroimaging studies. These brain changes may be best understood as adaptive responses to facilitate survival and reproduction in the face of adversity. Their relationship to psychopathology is complex as they are discernible in both susceptible and resilient individuals with maltreatment histories. Mechanisms fostering resilience will need to be a primary focus of future studies. Language: en
Learning From Less Successful Kaizen Events: A Case Study

Abstract:This paper describes results from an ongoing research program focused on identifying determinants of Kaizen event effectiveness, both in terms of initial event outcomes and the sustainability of outcomes. Although anecdotal published accounts suggest that increasing numbers of companies are using Kaizen events, and that these projects can result in substantial improvement in key business metrics, there is a lack of systematic research on Kaizen events. A particular weakness of the current published accounts is the lack of attention to less successful events – only strongly successful applications of Kaizen events receive much coverage in the accounts; however, the organizational learning literature suggests that understanding less successful cases is a key component of organizational learning. We present a case study from a less successful Kaizen event to demonstrate how the case study event contributed to organizational learning. We also present a set of methods and measures that can be used by ...
The Stability and Shelf-Life of Liposome Encapsulated Hemoglobin: A Potential Blood Substitute

For any viable blood substitute, questions of long-term storage and shelf-life must be addressed. Recently, we have made great progress in improving the stability of the blood substitute, liposome encapsulated hemoglobin (LEH). We have concentrated our efforts on protecting LEH in solution and in the long-term preservation of LEH by lyophilization. In particular, we have been able to retard and in some cases, reverse the oxidative process of metHb formation in solution by the addition of antioxidants such as NADH and glutathione. We have been able to regenerate Hb preparations with 60% metHb by the addition of 10 mM NADH and glutathione. In these preparations addition of these antioxidants results in a decrease of metHb levels from 62% to 15% over the course of 12.5 days at 4°C. We have also explored the use of protective solutes such as the disaccharide trehalose in the preservation of LEH in the freeze-dried state. Addition of increasing amounts of trehalose and other disaccharides results in the inhibition of lyophilization-induced fusion events and in the retention of hemoglobin within the unilamellar liposomal vesicles following rehydration.
Temporal Changes in Populations and Species Diversity in a California Rodent Community

Population trends and their proximate effects on the species diversity of a rodent community were examined on a stand of coastal sage scrub in southern California, from the summer of 1968 to the autumn of 1969. The rodents comprising the fauna were Dipodomys agilis agilis, Perognathus fallax fallax, P. longimembris pacificus, Peromyscus eremicus fraterculus, P. maniculatus gambellii, P. californicns insignis, Reithrodontomys megalotis longicaudus, Neotoma lepida intermedia , and Neotoma fuscipes macrotis . Live-trapping was done at monthly intervals for a period of 15 months. Individuals collected were examined for reproductive condition, marked and released. Periods of population increase, decrease, or stability were accompanied by variable patterns of survivorship and addition of residents and transients. During periods of population decrease the rodents exhibited reduced survival with the exception of P. maniculatus , which showed increased survival. For the increase phase of the rodent populations, survival was equal to, or greater than, mean survival for the entire period of study; however, the addition of new residents and transients was often high ( P. maniculatus and N. lepida ). The temporal changes in these population components led to asynchronous fluctuations in population densities of the rodents, which yielded the major changes in species diversity. This is further emphasized by examining the correlation of population numbers between the six commonest species. Only six of the 15 pair-wise correlations were significant. Rodent species diversity was measured by employing Brillouin's information formula. Of the three components of diversity—relative abundance, species number, and sample size—a significant relationship was found between species richness and diversity ( r = +0.910), and sample size and diversity ( r = +0.566). Although uncorrelated with diversity, evenness was important, as some of the diversity changes between months were due to shifts in evenness and not changes in species numbers. The fluctuations in the relative abundance of species and the variable presence of the rarer species led to the temporal fluctuations in species diversity.
Effects of Decimalization and Regulation FD on Market Integration

A sizable body of literature exists on the information share of markets, when a single asset or identical assets are traded in several markets. Most of these studies focus on the price discovery process and the information contribution of the individual markets. However the idea that the information share can be used as a measure of market integration (or fragmentation) has not been adequately explored. Regulatory and microstructure changes such as Fair Disclosure and Decimalization of tick-size have an effect on the information dissemination and price discovery. More efficient price discovery and greater information parity are some of the justifications offered for the introduction of such measures. This article measures the effects of such changes on the information share, speed of adjustment impulse response functions, and tests whether such regulations have achieved greater informational parity and market integration.
The retroperitoneoscopic repair of a lumbar hernia of Petit. Case report and review of literature

In this paper, we comment on a patient who consulted us because of his "lower backpain" together with the appearance of a small swelling at the left side. Anamnesis and clinical examination were suggestive and further simple diagnostic methods confirmed the exceptional diagnosis of a "lumbar hernia of Petit". We describe the retroperitoneoscopic approach of this hernia, its reduction and the fixation of a polypropylene mesh at the surrounding structures with a Tacker. This approach provided a good postoperative comfort, a shorter hospital stay and an early recovery of autonomy and activity. Furthermore, we give a review of the literature concerning lumbar hernias and the evolution of the different reconstruction techniques.
Relationship between dyslipidemia and hypertension in adults

Objective To explore the relationship between dyslipidemia and hypertension in adults.Methods The data of"Jiangsu Provincial Surveillance on Chronic Diseases and Risk Factors"of 2010 was used to analyze the relationship between blood lipid level and blood pressure,dyslipidemia and hypertension by bivariate correlation and unconditional logistic regression analysis.Results The prevalence of hypertension was 49.1%,dyslipidemia was 35.0%,both higher in male than female.The prevalence of dyslipidemia and hypertension showed an obvious rising trend with age growth with significant distributional difference statistically(P0.05).The results of bivariate correlation analysis showed that TC,LDL-C and TG had positive correlation with both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.HDL-C had a positive correlation with systolic blood pressure and negative with diastolic blood pressure.The results of unconditional logistic regression analysis showed that dyslipidemia,TC higher,HDL-C lower and TG higher were obviously associated with hypertension.1-SD greater measures of TC,LDL-C,TG and 1-SD lower measure of HDL-C were respectively associated with 23%,20%,55%and 6% higher risk of hypertension.Conclusions Dyslipidemia is closely associated with hypertension and they are the most important public health problems in Jiangsu.The comprehensive prevention and control of dyslipidemia and hypertension should be strengthened.
Coordinating analytics methods for mobile healthcare applications

Mobile healthcare applications enjoy increasing popularity and provide significant benefits to users who can take advantage of the general availability and the increasing set of sensors in mobile devices. Healthcare analytics services developed for a variety of conditions to provide insights and guidance to patients can augment the mobile applications with computationally intensive analysis at the server-side environment. Creating applications that are supported by analytics is challenging for different reasons: We must deal with the limited information to get relevant recommendations, or not enough to provide appropriate predictions (patients trajectory to reach goal such as weight loss). Moreover building an analytical model in the health domain brings its own challenges such as data ingestion, data curation, and service levels, etc.This paper proposes a software architecture framework that eases the support of analytics in the mobile health applications. The paper also discusses the various components that make up the framework by taking one analytical model as a use case.
Situating Resilience in Developmental Context

In this chapter, the authors link the theory of resilience to principles of general development and show that resilience is similar to other outcomes. They show that the “hierarchical” or “cumulative” feature of human development is particularly relevant to the study of resilience, with adaptation over time being the product of a child’s current circumstances and the supports and challenges that are present. They show that when children overcome adversity or recover following exposure to trauma, their success is the result of earlier positive supports and experiences of positive adaptation.
System design of a biofeedback active sensor system (BASS) to mitigate the probability of ACL injuries

The anterior cruciate ligament is a main stabilizer between the tibia and femur. Tearing it causes loss of mobility and need for surgery. There is a 13% chance for a National Collegiate Athletic Association athlete to tear their anterior cruciate ligament each year. The recovery process can take up to 9 months, about a quarter of a collegiate athlete's career and 44% of those who complete rehabilitation return to athletic participation. Seventy percent (70%) of anterior cruciate ligament injuries occur from non-contact mechanisms. These decompose into 5 types of failure mechanisms. An analysis was performed on flexion/extension (37%) failure mechanisms. Examinations of the equations of motion of the knee shows the ground reaction and muscle force have the highest contributing weight when compared to the four (4) main contributing factors. The proposed solution includes a biofeedback sleeve that stores inputs and converts it to a tibial shear force approximator. From there, the sleeve warns the athlete if they are approaching a dangerous tibial shear force level. The proposed plan for preventing anterior cruciate ligament will produce $593,400,000, with $483,341 startup costs. The breakeven point occurs at 3 months, with a NPV of $15,968,608 and a return on investment of 18,284.59% after 5 years.
I am a Smartwatch and I can Track my User's Arm

This paper aims to track the 3D posture of the entire arm - both wrist and elbow - using the motion and magnetic sensors on smartwatches. We do not intend to employ machine learning to train the system on a specific set of gestures. Instead, we aim to trace the geometric motion of the arm, which can then be used as a generic platform for gesture-based applications. The problem is challenging because the arm posture is a function of both elbow and shoulder motions, whereas the watch is only a single point of (noisy) measurement from the wrist. Moreover, while other tracking systems (like indoor/outdoor localization) often benefit from maps or landmarks to occasionally reset their estimates, such opportunities are almost absent here. While this appears to be an under-constrained problem, we find that the pointing direction of the forearm is strongly coupled to the arm's posture. If the gyroscope and compass on the watch can be made to estimate this direction, the 3D search space can become smaller; the IMU sensors can then be applied to mitigate the remaining uncertainty. We leverage this observation to design ArmTrak, a system that fuses the IMU sensors and the anatomy of arm joints into a modified hidden Markov model (HMM) to continuously estimate state variables. Using Kinect 2.0 as ground truth, we achieve around 9.2 cm of median error for free-form postures; the errors increase to 13.3 cm for a real time version. We believe this is a step forward in posture tracking, and with some additional work, could become a generic underlay to various practical applications.
Discernible impact of augmented reality on retail customer's experience, satisfaction and willingness to buy

Abstract User technology has an agreeable impact on consumer decisions; yet the way such impact takes place may be little known. This study attempts to examine the impact of augmented reality (AR) on retail user experience (UX) and its subsequent influence on user satisfaction and user's willingness to buy. Five hypotheses are tested using a lab experiment. The results show that AR significantly shapes UX, by impinging on various characteristics of product quality, and that UX subsequently influences user satisfaction and user's willingness to buy. UX is captured as a third-order formative construct derived from four user experience characteristics: pragmatic quality, aesthetic quality, hedonic quality by stimulation and hedonic quality by identification. Except for the latter, these characteristics are second-order constructs. Important implications for researchers and managers follow.
Sensitivity analysis of a type-3 DFAG wind turbine's dynamics with pitch control

In this paper, the model of a type-3 DFAG/DFIG wind turbine generator is considered at higher wind speeds with the pitch control activated. The main blocks of the model taken from the literature are described and translated into a system of differential equations with algebraic constraints. Eigenvalues and steady states of the model are presented with the main focus being the sensitivity analysis of state variables and eigenvalues to the parameters, and how the parameters affect the steady states. Results for sensitivities to a single parameter and two parameters are provided along with a simulation of the dynamics for time-varying wind speed.
Priority, prediction and the ethical research enterprise.

In their essay, ‘When Clinical Trials Compete: Prioritizing Study Recruitment’, Gelinas et al describe a collective action problem that can arise if multiple trials at a single institution are all trying to recruit participants from the same patient population. Each trial may be addressing an important question, and each will need a certain number of participants to provide an informative answer (or to maximise the likelihood of producing an informative result). But because these trials are all recruiting from the same population, it is possible that there will not be enough participants to go around. It may turn out, then, that none successfully achieves its target sample size and all end up being uninformative or less informative than hoped. As Gelinas et al observe, these kinds of uninformative or less-informative trials are ethically problematic, since they fail to fully redeem participant risks and burdens with adequate gains in generalisable knowledge. Such trials also represent wasteful or inefficient research activities, since each necessarily has a human and material cost, but then fails to offset these costs by providing a definitive answer to the research …
Control Variables in Leadership Research: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review:

Statistical control of extraneous (i.e., third) variables is a common analytic tool among leadership researchers. While such a strategy is typically assumed to prove beneficial, it can actually introduce various complications that are underestimated or even ignored. This study investigates and summarizes the current state of control variable usage in leadership research by qualitatively and quantitatively examining the use of statistical control variables in 10 highly regarded management and applied psychology journals. Despite available “best practices,” our results indicate that control variable usage in existing leadership studies is rarely grounded in theory but instead frequently relies on outdated misconceptions. Moreover, a meta-analysis of the relationships between popular control variables and leadership constructs finds nearly universal weak effect sizes, suggesting that many studies may not only be losing valuable degrees of freedom but also making inferences based on biased parameter estimates...
The Practice of Digital Religion

The study of digital religion examines the influence religion and new media have upon one another. In recent decades, scholars of media and religion have paid increasing attention to the religious uses of new media. As the Internet has become embedded in our everyday lives, digital media increasingly informs the practice of religion, the things adherents do to enact their beliefs and express religious identity, the things adherents do to demonstrate their affiliation with a religion or religious community. This chapter examines the ways religious practice occurs within digital environments through the lens of religious ritual online. By considering the particular meanings and ways rituals are enacted through media, we identify how religious ritual highlights some of the common forms of religious practice found online.
Private Criminal Justice

This article charts the rise of a private criminal justice system in this country, provides a rough blueprint of what a fully functioning private criminal justice system will look like, and offers suggestions as to how to guide its development. The past few decades have seen the rise of two very different alternatives to the traditional criminal justice system: private police and restorative justice programs. These two approaches arise out of very different causes - the first is an effort by private citizens to obtain greater and more responsive crime control, and the second is a movement aimed at addressing the psychological needs of victims and perpetrators of crimes. Each of these approaches represents a revolutionary paradigm shift as to how criminal justice is administered in this country - and yet each of these movements has been limited in its impact on the current criminal justice system. The privatization movement has been restricted to the law enforcement stage of the criminal justice system, while the restorative justice movement has been dependent upon state support. The article's thesis is that it is only a matter of time before these two movements combine, thereby creating a viable private alternative to the public criminal justice system. The article begins by describing the failures of the public criminal justice system, and then examines the ways in which these failures have given rise to two alternatives to the traditional system of criminal justice: privatization of law enforcement and restorative justice. The article then analyzes each of these alternatives, and then combines the two in order to demonstrate what a private criminal justice system would look like in the near future. Finally, the article considers potential criticisms of a private criminal justice system and offers suggestions as to how to guide the development of this new system in light of these criticisms.
“Extravagant Secular Swarming”: Space and Subjectivity in China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station

ABSTRACTThe essay argues that Perdido Street Station, in response to shifts in the capitalist world system, attempts to develop a narrative form that responds to the radical shifts in space and subjectivity embedded in that transformation. By doing so, it points to the historical limitations of the concept of heterotopia developed by Foucault and, in turn, to a transgressive understanding of hybridity dependent on that concept. Instead, the novel is defined by a series of mutually implicated but oppositional terms that define the antagonistic terrain of the city. The novel cannot imagine a line of flight from the complex structures of domination and consent contained in the structures of postmodern capitalism; it richly captures a set of possibilities contained in that stalled dialectic.
Catiline in Fiesole and Florence: The after-life of a Roman conspirator

The story of Catiline, the Roman noble who plotted to overthrow the Roman Republic in 63 B.C., occupies a significant place in Florentine historiography and political thought of the later Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Starting with theChronica de origine civitatis (ca. 1228), this article traces the sources of the medieval account back to the ancient epitomes and investigates its relation to Sallust’sBellum Catilinae. It then describes the two branches or traditions of the story that developed in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: (1) the classical or civic, which centered on the figure of Catiline-the-villain, rebel and enemy of Rome (and of Rome’s daughter-city Florence) and (2) the feudal or chivalric, which recounted the legendary adventures of Catiline-the-knight, protector of Fiesole, the rival of Florence. In the final sections of the article, attention focuses on the success of the classical version of the story, linked to Guelfambienti and, in turn, to the growth of a conservative republican ideology. While the celebration of Roman civic virtues, summed up in Cicero’s defense of theres publica against the rebel Catiline, legitimated and ennobled the claims of the rising merchant and banking families, the vilification of Catiline as public enemy provided effective propaganda against new challenges from lower-class movements. Continuously present in the elaboration of Florentine “civic humanism,” Sallust’s story of Catiline supplies, in fact, an important connection between Guelf patriotism and the classicizing republicanism of the Quattrocento.1
Protocols: Twin-bus-controller protocol for fibre optic networks

A new Data Link Layer protocol, named the Twin-Bus-Controller (TBC) protocol, is proposed for a fibre optic network with unidirectional bus topology. The TBC protocol operates on a contention-based, time-division multiplexing scheme, and is managed by two centralized bus controllers. These controllers, which also function as network managers cooperate with each other to control and coordinate the activities on the twin bus. The IBC protocol has the capability to perform at a very high network utilization, and uses simple hardware at all stations except the two bus controllers. This arrangement provides a relatively inexpensive means to accommodate a large number of stations. Heterogeneous data consisting of real-time sensor and control signals, voice and video data, and non-real-time data such as those due to accounting and administration, can be simultaneously handled by the TBC protocol. The TBC protocol maintains global queues for all different types of data, and each class of data has a bounded delay. Furthermore, any new type of data can be added easily to the network without shutting it down or affecting those stations that are unrelated to the new data. A finite-state-machine model has been used to describe the TBC protocol. Performance of the TBC protocol has been evaluated by statistical analysis as well as via simulation for multiple classes of data traffic. Performance of the TBC protocol has been compared with that of Buzznet and Fasnet. The TBC protocol can be directly applied to diverse computer communication systems, e.g. office, manufacturing, and banking environments.
Tuck-JFQA Contemporary Corporate Governance Issues II: International Corporate Governance Conference Program, July 12-13, 2002

Program of Tuck-JFQA Contemporary Corporate Governance Issues II: International Corporate Governance Conference. The conference was held July 12-13, 2002 at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH. Conference sponsored by Tuck and The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.
The Search for Congruence: Analyzing Biogeographic Patterns in Several Clades

In Chapter 8, I emphasized the historical biogeography of individual clades. Although determining where a single group originated can often be quite interesting, it is not generally the prime thrust of research in historical biogeography, where a research program involves the study of the role of geological and climatic changes in evolution. That is, how do extrinsic factors influence the history of life. As discussed previously, the extent to which we believe evolutionary change is governed by external as opposed to internal factors very much influences our outlook on the evolutionary process in general and on the history of life in particular. Obviously, if external forces drive evolution, then contingency plays an important role in the history of life because that history will be influenced by the history of the Earth. With such a perspective, we might predict that without geological or climatic changes, little evolution will transpire. Biogeographic analyses that integrate patterns from several groups are crucial if we want to know the relationship between the history of the Earth and the history of life.
Winter snow cover increases swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus) mortality at the northern extent of their range

In North America, native lagomoprhs that are habitat specialist are of conservation concern due to loss of habitat and fragmentation, population declines, and their importance in food webs. Moreover, lago-morphs occupying range edges are especially vulnerable to environmental conditions given changes in climate. We evaluated the influence of snow cover on winter mortality for 136 swamp rabbits (Sylvilagus aquaticus) monitored 2009–2016 in southern Illinois, USA. Winter estimates of daily mortality rates were at least five times higher (P=0.03) on snow-covered days ({itx}=0.033, SE = 0.009) than snow-free days ({itx}=0.004, SE = 0.001). Winter estimates of daily mortality rates due to predation were at least twice as high (P=0.08) on snow-covered days ({itx}=0.027, SE = 0.010) than snow-free days ({itx}= 0.003, SE = 0.000). Swamp rabbit mortality was higher on snow-covered days primarily via elevated levels of predation. Snow cover might limit the availability of hiding cover and food resources for swamp rabbits, thereby increasing their movements and vulnerability to predators, especially given their pelage coloration.
Post-transplant diabetes: diagnosis and management

Post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is common after most types of solid organ transplantation, though the actual incidence is as yet unknown because of the use of different diagnostic criteria. PTDM is the result of individual risk factors as well as risk factors associated with the transplant itself, particularly immunosuppressants. Previously called New Onset Diabetes, in many cases inadequate screening for diabetes before transplant cannot assure that the diabetes is new after transplant. The most recent international consensus guidelines suggest diagnosis should be delayed until the patient is taking maintenance doses of immunosuppressants even if they require treatment in the immediate hospitalization. Criteria for diagnosis follow those of the American Diabetes Association and the World Health Organization, although hemoglobin A1C should not be used as the only screening test at least until one year after transplant because of its insensitivity for significant glucose intolerance in the transplant patient and setting. Management of PTDM is best done in a team setting, with an emphasis on glycemic control, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, and taking into consideration immunosuppressant regimens and potential drug side effects and interactions. While PTDM has been associated with changes in outcomes, these have and may continue to improve with improved diabetes care in and out of the hospital, and other changes in post-transplant care.
Ubicoustics: Plug-and-Play Acoustic Activity Recognition

Despite sound being a rich source of information, computing devices with microphones do not leverage audio to glean useful insights about their physical and social context. For example, a smart speaker sitting on a kitchen countertop cannot figure out if it is in a kitchen, let alone know what a user is doing in a kitchen - a missed opportunity. In this work, we describe a novel, real-time, sound-based activity recognition system. We start by taking an existing, state-of-the-art sound labeling model, which we then tune to classes of interest by drawing data from professional sound effect libraries traditionally used in the entertainment industry. These well-labeled and high-quality sounds are the perfect atomic unit for data augmentation, including amplitude, reverb, and mixing, allowing us to exponentially grow our tuning data in realistic ways. We quantify the performance of our approach across a range of environments and device categories and show that microphone-equipped computing devices already have the requisite capability to unlock real-time activity recognition comparable to human accuracy.