cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Solving Liouville-type Problems on Manifolds with Poincaré-Sobolev Inequality by Broadening q-Energy from Finite to Infinite

The aim of this article is to investigate Liouville-type problems on complete non-compact Riemannian manifolds with Poincar e -Sobolev Inequality. Two significant technical breakthroughs are demonstrated in research findings. The first breakthrough is an extension from non-flat manifolds with non-negative Ricci curvatures to curved manifolds with Ricci curvatures varying among negative values, zero, and positive values. Poincar e -Sobolev Inequality has been applied to overcome difficulties of an extension on manifolds. Poincar e -Sobolev Inequality has offered a special structure on curved manifolds with a mix of Ricci curvature signs. The second breakthrough is a generalization of $q$-energy from finite to infinite. At this point, a technique of $p$-balanced growth has been introduced to overcome difficulties of broadening from finite $q$-energy in $L^q$ spaces to infinite $q$-energy in non-$L^q$ spaces. An innovative computational method and new estimation techniques are illustrated. At the end of this article, Liouville-type results including vanishing properties for differential forms and constancy properties for differential maps have been verified on manifolds with Poincar e -Sobolev Inequality approaching to infinite $q$-energy growth.
University for All Programs (ProUni): Engagement, Satisfaction, and Employability

A training at Higher Education level needs, in addition to improve the skills specific in the area chosen, to develop a set of skills and/or personal attributes that make him or her more likely to succeed in the profession. In this context, this paper was developed and has the objective to identify the relationships between engagement, satisfaction, and employability of students who completed the university as University for All Program (ProUni) scholarship. This target group of students was chosen because of the importance of ProUni for the Advancement of Education policies of affirmative actions in Brazil. The ProUni gives scholarships to students from minority (underrepresented) groups to study at private universities, through the National Secondary Education Exam – ENEM (Brasil, 2005). Among these groups are students who attend public high schools (a proxy for lower social class), low-income students, African Brazilian students, Indigenous Brazilian students, students with disabilities, and not graduated teachers that work in public elementary and secondary schools. The research involved 198 ProUni graduates invited to answer an online questionnaire. There were 134 respondents, 123 (91.8%) were working since we were interested in employment, only these participants were included in the analysis. The results suggest that employability consolidates and reflects in the conquest of labor activity, as well as in graduate satisfaction with their training and job. These results are indicative of the engagement of the student with their learning, therefore with their graduate degree.
Soil Quality Improvement through Conversion to Sprinkler Irrigation

Conversion from furrow to sprinkler irrigation is a recommended conservation practice for improved water use efficiency (and/or erosion control), but effects on soil quality indicators were unknown. Several soil quality indicators were therefore quantified within a northwestern U.S. Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) watershed after changing from long-term furrow to sprinkler irrigation. Four on-farm sites were identified where producers were growing irrigated barley (Hordecum vulgare L.) using both irrigation practices. Climate, soil type, and management were similar between sites. Soil samples were collected from the upper and lower ends of furrow irrigated fields at three in-field positions (bed, shoulder, and furrow); fields converted to sprinkler irrigation were sampled where the upper and lower ends were when the field was furrow irrigated. Soil quality indices (physical, chemical, biological, nutrient, and overall) were computed using the Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF). Regardless of in-field position, furrow irrigated field bottoms had higher soil quality index scores than field tops due to long-term erosional deposition. Within sprinkler irrigated fields, soil quality indices for field tops and bottoms showed minimal differences. Overall, when all sampling locations and in-field positions were combined, soil quality was similar for both irrigation methods. However, as compared to furrow irrigation, sprinkler irrigation had greater soil quality indices in the field tops, suggesting that sprinkler irrigation improved soil quality of historically eroded furrow irrigated fields.
The B Corp handbook: How to use business as a force for good

The daily business news rarely fails to contain at least one report of corporate perfidy. Mistreating employees, polluting the environment, selling unsafe products, bribing government officials, co...
Two-dimensional topological insulator transistors as energy efficient switches robust against material and device imperfections

Two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators (TIs) are 2D semiconductors/insulators that distinguish themselves from ‘conventional’ 2D semiconductors/insulators (like monolayer hBN or MoS 2 ) by the presence of electronic states on their edges. These TI edge states traverse the bandgap and exhibit spin-momentum locking. The spin-momentum locking prohibits intra-edge scattering giving rise to efficient electronic transport. Electronic transport will proceed efficiently along the TI edge states as long as the Fermi level is positioned in the bandgap of the 2D TI. If the Fermi level in the 2D TI is close to or lies in the bulk conduction or valence band, scattering is no longer prohibited and can dramatically reduce the conductivity of the 2D TI. Gating a 2D TI enables the modulation of the Fermi level and subsequently the current, realizing a 2D TI field-effect transistor (FET) [1].
‘Sliding’ in English dialects

Although variants of the form [fri] and [bof] for standard [θri] ‘three’ and [boθ] ‘both’ are well attested in dialects as divergent as Cockney (Sivertsen 1960) and Black English Vernacular (Wolfram and Fasold 1974), there has been no attempt, to my knowledge, to treat these “substitutions” (a term with which they are frequently dismissed) as anything but isolated phenomena. Wyld (1936) and Dobson (1957), who are among the most respected authorities on English phonology, both specifically identify the [θ]/[f] alternation as an “isolative change.
Photophysics of Thermally-Assisted Photobleaching in "Giant" Quantum Dots Revealed in Single Nanocrystals.

Quantum dots (QDs) are steadily being implemented as down-conversion phosphors in market-ready display products to enhance color rendering, brightness, and energy efficiency. However, for adequate longevity, QDs must be encased in a protective barrier that separates them from ambient oxygen and humidity, and device architectures are designed to avoid significant heating of the QDs as well as direct contact between the QDs and the excitation source. In order to increase the utility of QDs in display technologies and to extend their usefulness to more demanding applications as, for example, alternative phosphors for solid-state lighting (SSL), QDs must retain their photoluminescence emission properties over extended periods of time under conditions of high temperature and high light flux. Doing so would simplify the fabrication costs for QD display technologies and enable QDs to be used as down-conversion materials in light-emitting diodes for SSL, where direct-on-chip configurations expose the emitters to ...
Langerian Mindfulness and Its Psychotherapeutic Implications: Recomposing/Decomposing Mindlessly Constructed Life Stories

Fatemi and Langer’s chapter of the book demonstrates how an enhancement of mindfulness in one’s life would lead to an increase of agency, empowerment and novelty. They explore the role of art and artistic expressiveness as an effective strategy to implement a mindful phenomenology of life. This chapter examines how mindlessness would impede the process of re-authoring one’s life and impose a self-limiting mental, emotional, behavioral and cognitive incarceration. The chapter illustrates the power of poetry and art in creating lively moments of an experimental mindfulness where people may go beyond the mundane discourse of disempowerment and helplessness and create a novel realm of being.
Oxidative stabilization of acrylic fibres - Part 1 Oxygen uptake and general model

Abstract : The mechanism of oxidative stabilization of acrylic fibers is characterized by two limiting cases which are determined by the fiber chemistry, the reaction conditions, and the diameter of the filament. These limiting cases correspond to diffusion-limited and reaction-limited kinetic processes. Although the chemistry of stabilization is too complex to specify, the various reactions are separated into two categories: those which occur prior to or concurrently with polymerization of the nitrile groups, called prefatory reactions; and those which occur subsequent to nitrile polymerization, called sequent reactions. Under conditions which allow the prefatory reactions to occur significantly before the sequent reactions, the diffusion of oxygen to reactive sites is limited by previously oxidized material; and the fiber shows a typical two-zone morphology. Under conditions where the prefatory and sequent reactions occur sequentially, the overall stabilization process is limited by the rate of the prefatory reactions; but a skin is established at the fiber surface which acts as an oxygen barrier. Data from a variety of sources, including oxygen analysis, microscopic examination, fiber residue after etching, tension developed in fibers held at constant length, and small angle X-ray patterns, are cited as evidence for the two limiting cases. (Author)
Delegation of Specification: An Agency Theory of Organizations

To date, much of the literature on institutional economics has relied on abstract metaphors based in exchange. Thus, Williamson introduced the fundamental insights surrounding his “transaction costs” model and discussed the governance of contracts in exchange relationships. Yet organizations are horizontal exchange systems only in metaphor; we also need to understand how vertical agency is directed -- how it is that people arrive with skills and learn what they need to know to make the enterprise successful. The distribution of higher-level decision patterns or residual claims do not fully explain the processes of specification of what organizational members actually do. This paper rejects the view common in the agency literature that an organization should be seen as a "nexus of contracts." It develops an explicit theory of delegation of specification in which economizing principals prefer to hire imperfect agents as organizational members, allowing (and manipulating) third-party mechanisms in the organization to perfect or correct for agent shortcomings. In this way, collective or emergent features of organization settings are joined to dyadic concerns. A number of propositions follow. The logic allows us to link organization literatures now treated as disjunct. Organizations are created -- exist -- as efficient means of directing (and correcting) the behavior of agents. Organizations exist to tell people what to do.
Optima: A phase II dose and volume de-escalation trial for high- and low-risk HPV+ oropharynx cancers.

6066Background: In this prospective phase II de-escalation study, we used induction chemotherapy to identify favorable HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) pts, including those with high-risk tumors, an...
Inherent auditory skills rather than formal music training shape the neural encoding of speech.

Musical training is associated with a myriad of neuroplastic changes in the brain, including more robust and efficient neural processing of clean and degraded speech signals at brainstem and cortical levels. These assumptions stem largely from cross-sectional studies between musicians and nonmusicians which cannot address whether training itself is sufficient to induce physiological changes or whether preexisting superiority in auditory function before training predisposes individuals to pursue musical interests and appear to have similar neuroplastic benefits as musicians. Here, we recorded neuroelectric brain activity to clear and noise-degraded speech sounds in individuals without formal music training but who differed in their receptive musical perceptual abilities as assessed objectively via the Profile of Music Perception Skills. We found that listeners with naturally more adept listening skills (“musical sleepers”) had enhanced frequency-following responses to speech that were also more resilient to the detrimental effects of noise, consistent with the increased fidelity of speech encoding and speech-in-noise benefits observed previously in highly trained musicians. Further comparisons between these musical sleepers and actual trained musicians suggested that experience provides an additional boost to the neural encoding and perception of speech. Collectively, our findings suggest that the auditory neuroplasticity of music engagement likely involves a layering of both preexisting (nature) and experience-driven (nurture) factors in complex sound processing. In the absence of formal training, individuals with intrinsically proficient auditory systems can exhibit musician-like auditory function that can be further shaped in an experience-dependent manner.
Characterization of 300 GHz Wireless Channels for Rack-to-Rack Communications in Data Centers

This paper presents characterization of 300 GHz channel with optical lenses for wireless rack-to-rack data center communications. Measurements are conducted in line-of-sight (LoS), obstructed-LoS (OLoS), reflected-non-LoS (RNLoS), and obstructed-RNLoS (ORNLoS) scenarios, which evaluate the impact of obstructions such as cables on THz propagation as well as possibility of using existing metal objects as reflectors that guide waves for non-LoS type of links that are prevalent in data centers. Since optical lenses are needed to extend the communication range beyond 1m, we have evaluated path loss in such an environment and estimated path loss model parameters. The results indicate that optical lenses create a waveguide-like environment with PLEs of 1.54 in the LoS link and 1.36 in the RNLoS link. Multiple reflections are observed in PDPs when lenses are used to extend the distance but they decay as the distance increases. Additionally, reflector in the RNLoS link preserves multiple reflections longer than traditional LoS link and thus limit the coherence bandwidth $B_{c}$ . Finally, when obstructions are present, the ORNLoS link has lower pathloss at distance beyond 130 cm and has less multipath compared to the OLoS link. If obstructions caused by cables are unavoidable, ORNLoS link performs better than OLoS link.
Tollbooth workers and mobile source-related hazardous air pollutants: How protective is the indoor environment?

Tollbooth workers are potentially exposed to high levels of mobile source-related air pollutants due to the proximity and intensity of the source. To evaluate this worker hazard, we measured the concentration of air toxins including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) inside and outside a Baltimore Harbor Tunnel tollbooth during the summer of 2001. Mean outdoor benzene and 1,3-butadiene concentrations varied by shift with the morning (10.7 and 19.8 μg/m3) exceeding afternoon (7.2 and 14.9 μg/m3) and the lowest levels observed during the night (3.7 and 4.9 μg/m3, respectively) when traffic volume was the lowest. In comparison, considerable protection was provided to workers by the indoor environment where lower concentrations of 1,3-butadiene and benzene were observed for all three shifts (2.9 and 6.7, 0.9 and 3.2, and 0.9 and 2.4 μg/m3, respectively). The greatest protection offered by the tollbooth was observed during the afternoon shift (5−8-fold ...
Two Theories of Substance

In this section of the book, I want to investigate the topic of substance. It is notorious that philosophers have employed the term ‘substance’ in a variety of ways. My use of the term will be tied to a long tradition (one stemming from Aristotle) in which the term ‘substance’ is used in contrast with the term ‘attribute’, so that substances are particulars that can exemplify attributes, but cannot themselves be exemplified. In this tradition the paradigmatic substances are familiar concrete objects — material bodies, plants, animals, and human beings.1 They are contingent beings: they come into being, persist through time, and then pass out of existence. Furthermore, they take up space, and they are subject to a variety of changes through which they remain numerically the same. Philosophers in this tradition have sometimes wanted to extend the term ‘substance’ to apply to objects with no corporeal characteristics at all; sometimes they have even claimed that God is a substance, although in an analogous sense of that term. But while philosophers in this tradition may have occasionally extended the concept in these ways, they have been in general agreement that the things an account of substance should in the first instance characterize are ordinary objects of the spatio-temporal sort. In what follows, I shall limit my use of the term ‘substance’ to the familiar objects that provide the paradigms for the traditional Aristotelian notion of substance.
High Oxidation State Complexes of Rhodium and Iridium

Abstract Coordination complexes of Rh(IV) and of Ir(IV) and Ir(V) in an N- and O-donor ligand set are emphasized; some leading organometallics are also included. Difficulties in the authentication of high oxidation states are discussed.
‘To Shock the Conscience’: Rhetoric in Death Penalty Judgements of the Supreme Court of India

AbstractThe dominant paradigm in scholarship on death penalty law in India is doctrinal and empirical. There is an equally indispensable need for a third approach that focuses on the rhetoric of an...
Neural oscillatory dynamics of inhibitory control in young adult binge drinkers.

Abstract Alcohol consumption is often characterized by heavy episodic, or binge drinking, which has been on the rise. The aim of this study was to examine the neural dynamics of inhibitory control in demographically matched groups of young, healthy adults (N = 61) who reported engaging in binge (BD) or light drinking patterns (LD). Electroencephalography signal was recorded during a fast-paced visual Go/NoGo paradigm probing the ability to inhibit prepotent responses. No group differences were found in task performance. BDs showed attenuated event-related theta (4–7 Hz) on inhibition trials compared to LDs, which correlated with binge episodes and alcohol consumption but not with measures of mood or disposition including impulsivity. A greater overall decrease of early beta power (15–25 Hz) in BDs may indicate deficient preparatory “inhibitory brake” before deliberate responding. The results are consistent with deficits in the inhibitory control circuitry and are suggestive of allostatic neuroadaptive changes associated with binge drinking.
Experimental and theoretical studies of tumor growth

Most biological phenomena commonly involve growth and expansion mechanics. In this work, we propose an innovative model of cancerous growth which posits that an expandable tumor can be described as...
Exclusively Proton Conductive Membranes Based on Reduced Graphene Oxide Polymer Composites.

Proton exchange membranes are at the heart of various technologies utilizing electrochemical storage of intermittent energy sources and powering electrical devices. Current state of the art membran...
Tai chi reduces the number of falls

Falls and fall injuries among older adults are common. Exercise interventions are a safe and effective way to reduce falls. Tai chi is a form of exercise therapy aimed at improving postural control, sensory integration and anticipatory control. In recent years, tai chi has already been shown to reduce the number of falls in older adults, compared to a control intervention. Recently, an American study reported that tai chi is also more effective than conventional exercise programme in reducing the number of falls. Implementation of tai chi in daily practice may be an effective solution for an important health problem.
Exploring the limits of electronic transmutation: Ab initio study of LinBen (n = 3–5)

Abstract We report the results obtained via ab initio studies for electronic transmutation of beryllium to boron. According to the electronic transmutation concept, an element Z, by acquiring an extra electron, begins to exhibit similar chemical bonding and geometric structure properties of compounds composed of neigh- boring elements Z + 1. Comprehensive searches for the most stable structures of LinBen and Bn (n = 3–5) demonstrate that the global minimum isomer of Li3Be3 resembles the chemical bonding and geometric structure of B3. However, for n = 4 and 5, low lying isomers of the B e n n - - kernels–and not the global minimum–are what resemble their Bn counterparts.
Peer firms’ earnings predictability and pricing efficiency – evidence from IPOs*

We examine the effect of peer firms’ earnings predictability on initial public offering (IPO) underpricing by investigating whether peer firms’ financial characteristics affect IPO pricing and whet...
Early-Stage Diabetic Neuropathy Reduces Foot Strength and Intrinsic but Not Extrinsic Foot Muscle Size.

Background Tracking progression of diabetic peripheral polyneuropathy (DPN) is usually focused on sensory nerves and subjective testing methods. Recent studies have suggested that distal muscle atrophy may precede sensation loss. Methods to objectively measure distal muscle size and strength are needed to help understand how neuropathy affects muscle function. Purpose To evaluate individual intrinsic and extrinsic foot muscle sizes and functional foot strength in participants with DPN. Methods Thirty individuals participated in this cross-sectional study (15 DPN and 15 matched controls). Sizes of 10 separate muscles of the lower leg and foot were measured using ultrasound imaging. Functional foot strength was also quantified using custom great toe and lateral toe flexion tests along with a doming test. Muscle size and strength metrics were compared between groups using ANOVAs and paired t-tests (α = 0.05). Correlations between strength and relevant muscle sizes were also evaluated. Results The sizes of all four intrinsic foot muscles were smaller in individuals with DPN (p ≤ 0.03), while only one (toe extensor) of the six extrinsic muscles was smaller (p ≤ 0.03), while only one (toe extensor) of the six extrinsic muscles was smaller (p ≤ 0.03), while only one (toe extensor) of the six extrinsic muscles was smaller (p ≤ 0.03), while only one (toe extensor) of the six extrinsic muscles was smaller (r ≤ 0.80) with several corresponding intrinsic muscle sizes. The doming strength test did not show any difference between groups and was moderately correlated with one muscle size (r ≤ 0.80) with several corresponding intrinsic muscle sizes. The doming strength test did not show any difference between groups and was moderately correlated with one muscle size (. Conclusion Diabetic peripheral polyneuropathy affects intrinsic muscles before extrinsics. Ultrasound imaging of individual muscles and functional toe flexion tests can be used clinically to monitor DPN progression and foot function. Participants need to be trained in the doming test before a relationship can be established between this test and DPN foot function. Future studies should include muscle quality measurements to better understand characteristics of affected muscles.
Multiple Cranial Dural and Pial Arteriovenous Fistulas with Occlusion of All After Embolization of Primary Superior Sagittal Sinus Dural Fistula.

Background We present a rare case of multiple intracranial arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs). A young female presented with headache and a left eyelid pulsatile swelling. Case Description Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated numerous dilated cortical veins, along with a prominent left superior ophthalmic vein. A diagnostic cerebral angiogram revealed 5 distinct AVFs including 4 dural AVFs (dAVFs) and a pial AVF (pAVF). The largest dAVF was at the superior sagittal sinus. The others included bilateral ethmoidal, torcular, and a pAVF arising of the right pericallosal artery. She was treated by endovascular transarterial Onyx embolization. Only the superior sagittal sinus fistula was treated via middle meningeal artery feeders with complete occlusion. Immediate follow-up angiogram also showed complete spontaneous occlusion of the untreated dAVFs and pial AVF. Conclusions This case is exceedingly unique considering the multiplicity of AVFs, concurrent presence of pial and dural AVF, and spontaneous occlusion of all untreated AVFs after embolizing the largest shunting fistula.
An accelerator facility for intermediate energy proton irradiation and testing of nuclear materials

Abstract The bulk irradiation of materials with 10–30 MeV protons promises to advance the study of radiation damage for fission and fusion power plants. Intermediate energy proton beams can now be dedicated to materials irradiation within university-scale laboratories. This paper describes the first such facility, with an Ionetix ION-12SC cyclotron producing 12 MeV proton beams. Samples are mm-scale tensile specimens with thicknesses up to 300 μ m, mounted to a cooled beam target with control over temperature. A specialized tensile tester for radioactive specimens at high temperature ( 500 + °C) and/or vacuum represents the conditions in fission and fusion systems, while a digital image correlation system remotely measures strain. Overall, the facility provides university-scale irradiation and testing capability with intermediate energy protons to complement traditional in-core fission reactor and micro-scale ion irradiation. This facility demonstrates that bulk proton irradiation is a scalable and effective approach for nuclear materials research, down-selection, and qualification.
Systemic Crisis of Housing and Communal Services in Russia

The article discusses issues related to the systemic crisis of housing and communal services in Russia, the course of housing and utilities reform, the state of fixed assets of housing and communal services,
Properties and applications of natural dendritic nanostructures: Phytoglycogen and its derivatives

Abstract Background Phytoglycogen (PG) exists as natural hyperbranched starch-like dendritic nanoparticles which are biosynthesized mainly by sugary mutant grains that are lack of debranching enzymes. In recent decade, PG has received considerable attention as a biodegradable nanoscale delivery system to improve solubility and bioavailability of bioactive compounds, due to its excellent loading capacity and low toxicity. However, there is no comprehensive reviews that provide a state-of-the-art summary on its natural origins, extractions, structures, properties and applications. Scope and approach This review aims to firstly review the biosynthesis of PG nanoparticles in natural grains and compare current extraction and purification methods that are widely used in recent years. Meanwhile, structural and physicochemical properties, as well as chemical modifications of PG nanoparticles are introduced in detail. Furthermore, traditional and novel applications of PG nanoparticles in food and pharmaceutical fields are discussed, providing the in-depth understanding on how the new discoveries could potentially revolutionize the food and pharmaceutical industries. Key findings and conclusions The unique hyperbranched dendritic nanostructure makes PG an excellent nanocarrier for lipophilic bioactive compounds. Although the applications of PG nanoparticles as an oral delivery system are limited by its rapid digestion in intestinal fluids, various strategies including surface modification and complexation with other biopolymers may offer new possibilities to address this challenge. Furthermore, current limitations and our vision for future research directions on using PG nanoparticles as oral delivery system are also provided in this critical review.
Personalized prediction of circadian time from gene expression in human blood

Measuring the body's response to treatments for circadian dysfunction, as well as optimizing the daily timing of treatments for other health conditions, requires a method for accurately tracking the state of a person's circadian clock. We used a recently developed method called ZeitZeiger to predict circadian time (CT, time of day according to the circadian clock) from genome-wide gene expression in human blood. In 10-fold cross-validation on 498 samples from 60 individuals across three publicly available datasets, ZeitZeiger predicted CT with a median absolute error of 2.1 h. The predictor trained on all 498 samples used 15 genes, only two of which are part of the core circadian clock. We then extended ZeitZeiger to make predictions for groups of samples and to personalize predictions using samples from only the respective individual. Each of these strategies improved accuracy by ~20%. Our results are an important step towards precision circadian medicine.
Interactions Between Genome Architecture and Virulence Genes in Pseudomonas syringae, strain CC1557 as a model

stract Both type III effector proteins and non-ribosomal peptide toxins play important roles for Pseudomonas syringae pathogenicity in host plants, but if and how these virulence pathways interact to promote infection remains unclear. Genomic evidence from one clade of P. syringae suggests a tradeoff between the total number of type III effector proteins and presence of syringomycin, syringopeptin, and syringolin A toxins. Here we report the complete genome sequence from P. syringae CC1557, which contains the lowest number of known type III effectors to date and has also acquired a highly similar toxin to syringomycin through horizontal transfer. We demonstrate that this strain is pathogenic on Nicotiana benthamiana and that both the type III secretion system and a new type III effector family, hopBJ1, contribute to virulence. Taken together, our results provide independent evolutionary confirmation of a negative correlation between type III effector repertoires and some non-ribosomal peptide toxins while also highlighting how genomic synteny can be used to identify novel virulence proteins.
From revolutionary Paris to Nootka Sound to Saint-Domingue: The international politics and prejudice behind Wollstonecraft’s theory of the rights of humanity, 1789–91:

Against the background of the international political crises generated by the early phase of the French Revolution at Nootka Sound in 1790 and in Saint-Domingue in 1791, Mary Wollstonecraft develop...
Lyapunov-type inequalities for third-order linear and half-linear difference equations and extensions

We derive Lyapunov-type inequalities for third-order half-linear difference equations. The results are significant as the existing work on Lyapunov-type inequalities for difference equations is lim...
Bridging the Reporting Gap: A Proposal for More Informative Reconciling of Book and Tax Income

In this paper, we review the history and purpose of the corporation income tax return's Schedule M-1 in light of recent attention to corporate reporting issues. Although the traditional role for th...
Discovering and Decoding Sexuality at the Collegiate Level: How Does Sex Education Shape our Sexual Identity and Expression?

This exploratory research project investigates the ways in which formal and informal sex education during high school influences an individual’s development of their sexual identity. Due to changes in federal funding, formal sex education curriculum shifted from an abstinence-only model to a medical model, which focuses on information regarding birth control and self-health. Attending to this change, this research focuses on persons who attended high school during two specific periods: 2006-2010 and 2014-2016. After the primary investigator submitted an application to the UCCS IRB, IRB 19-079 and received approval, twelve semi-structured interviews, with six participants in each time period were conducted. This exploratory project used a snowball technique to recruit participants for this study. Based on analysis, participants’ narratives in the 2014-2016-cohort showed movement away from the use of abstinence-only (AO) education. In both cohorts three major themes were visible: a strong use of fear tactics in the delivery of sex education, a “Mean Girl” method of teaching, and a clear connection between messages learned by individuals during high school regarding sex that have contributed to the shaping of their overall and sexual identity. After conducting this research and analyzing the experiences and information shared by participants, it is clear that the formal and/or informal education individuals received from both cohorts was on a basis of fear and shaming tactics, which continues to affect the ways in which these individuals view and engage with sex in their own lives.
Oil extraction and public attitudes: A conjoint experiment in Turkana, Kenya

Abstract This study examines the impacts of economic, social and environmental consequences of oil extraction on public opinion in an economically and politically marginalised community in northern Kenya. We conduct a conjoint experiment on a sample of 801 respondents in urban and semi-urban locations in Turkana county and find that our respondents strongly support the oil extraction overall. Although priming about the environmental and social costs decreases local residents’ support for oil extraction, the decrease is so small that the community's perception of oil extraction remains positive. However, the support is significantly higher among the respondents living in the neighbourhoods distant from oil wells in operation relative to those who live close to oil sites. In addition the responses to economic benefits of oil extraction also vary by respondents’ distance from oil wells. Contrary to the existing literature, we do not find evidence for strong resentment toward oil extraction in Turkana county.
Risks, Procedures, and Error Models

This chapter introduces the necessary background and notation for the study of the signal detection and support estimation problems in the high-dimensional setting. First, a general notion of statistical risk is formulated and used to provide a unified treatment of a variety of signal detection and support estimation problems considered in the literature. The relationship between various choices of risk functionals and their implications on the approximate and exact support recovery are discussed. Depending on the type of control of the false discovery and false non-discovery, four different risk functionals are defined, each of which is shown to yield a different type of phase transition in the support estimation problems in Chaps. 3 and 7. The chapter proceeds with a review of several popular signal detection and support estimation procedures such as Tukey’s Higher Criticism and the general class of thresholding procedures. The latter is at the center of the investigation in the subsequent chapters. The existing literature is discussed in the context of the defined statistical risks and procedures. The chapter concludes with some probabilistic background. Introduced is the class of asymptotically generalized Gaussian (AGG) distributions, which provide flexible additive error distribution models. Reviewed are the notions of rapid variation, relative stability, as well as fundamental tools for Gaussian models such as Slepian’s lemma and the Sudakov–Fernique inequality.
NEURONS, ASTROCYTES, AND OLIGODENDROCYTES OF THE RAT CEREBRAL-CORTEX ORIGINATE FROM SEPARATE PROGENITOR CELLS - AN ULTRASTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF CLONALLY RELATED CELLS

The diverse array of neurons and glia in the mammalian cerebral cortex arises from proliferating cells of the ventricular zone that surrounds the lateral ventricles of the developing brain. A fundamental but unresolved question is whether the individual cells of the ventricular zone are committed to producing progeny of only one particular phenotype or whether they generate progeny of more than one phenotype. We have begun to address this question by asking if individual cells of the ventricular zone generate exclusively neurons or glia at the onset of cortical neurogenesis in the rat. To assess the phenotypes of cells derived from a common progenitor cell, retroviral-mediated gene transfer was used to introduce the reporter gene, Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase, into ventricular zone cells at embryonic day 15 or 16. We used histochemistry to reveal beta-galactosidase-expressing cells in the mature rat cerebral cortex. Isolated clusters of beta-galactosidase-expressing cells, presumably clones, were identified in serial sections. Since the histochemical reaction product is electron dense, each cell could be examined at the ultrastructural level and assigned definitively to one of the major classes of cells in the cerebral cortex on the basis of well-established morphological criteria. This approach overcomes the problems of cell type identification encountered with light microscopy, where it is not always possible to distinguish between different cell phenotypes. We found that virtually all clones contained cells of exclusively one type: either all astrocytes, all oligodendrocytes, or all neurons. Furthermore, each particular cell type exhibited a different pattern and intensity of staining. The neuronal clones, with one exception, were composed of either all pyramidal cells (projection neurons), or all nonpyramidal cells (interneurons). The size and composition of neuronal clones did not seem related to their position in the cerebral cortex. Collectively, our observations indicate that separate progenitor cells exist for pyramidal neurons, nonpyramidal neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. The striking phenotypic homogeneity in the clones arising from individual progenitor cells suggests that by the onset of cortical neurogenesis, at least some lineage restrictions have already occurred among the precursor cell population. Thus, our results suggest that lineage may play a pivotal role in determining some of the functionally important phenotypic attributes of cells in the cerebral cortex.
Introduction to Markov Chain Monte Carlo Simulations and their Statistical Analysis

This article is a tutorial on Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations and their statistical analysis. The theoretical concepts are illustrated through many numerical assignments from the author's book on the subject. Computer code (in Fortran) is available for all subjects covered and can be downloaded from the web.
Microtubule-Membrane Interactions in Cilia and Flagella

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the microtubule-membrane interactions in cilia and flagella. Cilia and eukaryotic flagella are specialized organelles that project from the cell surface. They are responsible for the movements of whole cells and for the movements of materials across cell surfaces. All eukaryotic cilia and flagella possess the same uniform substructure of nine doublet microtubules (the outer doublets) surrounding two single central microtubules. The microtubule-membrane bridges, along the long axis of the doublet microtubule, are the second major sites to which membranes are attached. These bridges are responsible for the attachment of the doublet microtubules to the ciliary necklace and ciliary granule plaques at the ciliary base, to accessory fibers in sperm, protozoans, and ctenophores, to extraciliary structures such as mastigonemes, and to adjacent ciliary or plasma membranes as in ctenophores, mussel gill laterofrontal cilia, and in trypanosomes. The morphological studies of cilia in a wide variety of organisms revealed that the microtubules comprising the axonemes are attached to the membrane where they are enveloped.
Relaxation of backbone bond geometry improves protein energy landscape modeling

A key issue in macromolecular structure modeling is the granularity of the molecular representation. A fine-grained representation can approximate the actual structure more accurately, but may require many more degrees of freedom than a coarse-grained representation and hence make conformational search more challenging. We investigate this tradeoff between the accuracy and the size of protein conformational search space for two frequently used representations: one with fixed bond angles and lengths and one that has full flexibility. We performed large-scale explorations of the energy landscapes of 82 protein domains under each model, and find that the introduction of bond angle flexibility significantly increases the average energy gap between native and non-native structures. We also find that incorporating bonded geometry flexibility improves low resolution X-ray crystallographic refinement. These results suggest that backbone bond angle relaxation makes an important contribution to native structure energetics, that current energy functions are sufficiently accurate to capture the energetic gain associated with subtle deformations from chain ideality, and more speculatively, that backbone geometry distortions occur late in protein folding to optimize packing in the native state.
Role of ubiquitin in proteasomal degradation of mutant α1-antitrypsin Z in the endoplasmic reticulum

A delay in intracellular degradation of the mutant α1-antitrypsin (α1AT)Z molecule is associated with greater retention within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and susceptibility to liver disease in ...
The Flower of Kalanchoe

The tiny red flowers of Kalanchoe blossfeldiana open and close at 23-hour intervals. They do this for a week even when plucked from the plant and placed in a vial of sugar water under constant green light, at a constant temperature. Though blind to green, the flower s clock is sensitive to red light. By exposing the flower to red light of intensity several watts per square meter for minutes to hours, one disrupts the normal rhythmicity. In most cases, it recovers sufficiently within four days so that a phase shift can be measured.
The development of romiplostim for patients with immune thrombocytopenia

Comprised of peptide and carrier components in an overall structure superficially resembling an antibody, romiplostim is the prototype of a new class of protein therapeutics called peptibodies. Romiplostim (AMG 531, Nplate) was designed to evade the immune response to recombinant thrombopoietin and offer a new method of treatment for patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), an "orphan" disease. In contrast with agents designed to suppress immune function or hinder the processes of platelet destruction, romiplostim works by stimulating the production of new platelets. It was proven to increase platelet counts, reduce the need for other ITP therapies and emergency treatments, and demonstrate an acceptable safety profile. In addition, romiplostim improves patient-reported outcomes and quality of life in those suffering from this rare disease.
An AUV vision system for target detection and precise positioning

As autonomous underwater vehicle missions expand to include more hazardous situations, there is an increasing need to develop techniques for incorporating high resolution feedback to the mission planner, vehicle navigation, and robotic manipulator systems. This paper describes in-progress results in the development of the computer vision system that is part of a sensor-in-the-loop AUV simulation platform utilizing high resolution imaging to perform target detection, range-to-target estimation, and target orientation estimation.
Variability in the summer diets of juvenile polar cod ( Boreogadus saida ) in the northeastern Chukchi and western Beaufort Seas

Polar cod (Boreogadus saida) is an important link between top predators and lower trophic levels in high-latitude marine ecosystems. Previous findings describe differences in its diet throughout the western Arctic; however, the causes of this variation are not well known. This study examined the diets of juvenile polar cod collected via demersal trawling methods over three summers in the northeastern Chukchi Sea (2010–2012) and one summer in the western Beaufort Sea (2011) to determine the amount of variability explained by biological, spatial, and interannual factors. Prey were identified, measured for length, and aggregated by percent mean weight into taxonomically coarse prey categories for analysis. Within seas, variation in juvenile polar cod diet composition was significantly related to body size, latitude, longitude, depth, and interannual (Chukchi Sea only) factors. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated body size was the most important factor contributing to the total variance in juvenile polar cod diet in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Body size-based diet differences between the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas were evaluated using non-metric multidimensional scaling. This method revealed that similar-sized polar cod consumed similar-sized prey in both seas, but their diets were more benthically influenced in the Chukchi Sea and more pelagically influenced in the Beaufort Sea. Juvenile polar cod diet compositions vary by body size and region of inhabitance throughout their distribution. Here, we show that body size was the primary factor explaining variation in the summer diet of juvenile polar cod within the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.
Surface states of a semi-infinite s-p hybrid diatomic linear chain

Abstract The electronic densities of states of a semi-infinite diatomic linear chain consisting of atoms with two s-p hybrid orbitals have been studied by using the Green function method. We observed that there might exist one surface state within each of the three energy gaps associated with the s-p hybrid diatomic chain. Since these surface states appeared in the absence of any surface potential perturbation, they cannot be classified as Tamm states. Furthermore, as some of these surface states persisted even in the atomic limit, neither can they be identified as Shockley states. A systematic study of the nature of this new type of surface state has been carried out in detail.