cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Partial and Total Capture Probabilities of Negative Muons by C 12

The capture probability of negative muons by the ${\mathrm{C}}^{12}$ nucleus is calculated as a sum of partial transition rates to the individual levels of ${\mathrm{B}}^{12}$. The calculation is based on an extreme single-particle shell model. The calculation is an application of the general formalism developed by Morita and Fujii for predicting the transition rate between two definite nuclear states, following muon capture. Regarding bound-state captures, the agreement between theory and experiment is good. An exception is the prediction concerning the 1.67-MeV level of ${\mathrm{B}}^{12}$, the calculated transition rate being too large by a factor whose lower limit is about 2. This casts some doubt on the spin and parity assignments currently accepted for this level. The total capture probability is too small by a factor of 2, as is the ratio of unbound-to-bound captures. The discrepancy is accounted for in part by the existence of little-known, highly excited virtual states of ${\mathrm{B}}^{12}$. These conclusions are of limited scope because of the use of the single-particle shell model.
Thermal Properties of Erbium Glass Lasers

The relative influence of thermal loading on gain, lensing, birefringence and rod deformation has been studied in a flashlamp pumped Er.glass laser.
Superconducting Accelerators

In this paper the application of superconductivity to several devices which conventionally require large amounts of rf power is considered. Design characteristics are given for superconducting electron linacs, cavities for electron synchrotrons, rf separators and microtrons.
Exploring the Borderlands: Elementary School Teachers’ Navigation of Immigration Practices in a New Latino Diaspora Community

ABSTRACTDrawing primarily on interview data from a 5-year ethnography on the school experiences of Mexican immigrant children in a New Latino Diaspora community, we explore how their teachers understood and responded to increasing deportation-based immigration practices affecting children’s lives. We illustrate how teachers fell along a continuum regarding their desire and success in pushing beyond their comfort zones to create spaces in which they learned from, and built on, students’ immigration experiences. We argue for teacher education that prepares educators to become border crossers who engage with aspects of difference, such as immigration status, that are rarely discussed in schools.
Predictors of Maternal Grief in the Year after a Newborn Death

Existing interventions to assist mothers following newborn death are implemented once manifestations of distress are present. Preventive measures could be instituted if predictors of grief were defined. The objective of this study was to investigate the value of perceived support, relationship satisfaction, emotion-focused coping, problem-focused coping, and mixed coping in predicting maternal grief in the year after a newborn death. The sample consisted of seventy-five bereaved mothers. Measures used included the Perinatal Grief Scale, Short Version; the Ways of Coping Scale, Revised; the Personal Resources Questionnaire 85, Part II; the Relationship Satisfaction Questionnaire; and the Demographic Data Sheet. Perceived support and emotion-focused coping accounted for a significant proportion of variance in total grief (43 percent), demonstrating that these two variables together can predict maternal grief. Programs to help bereaved mothers mobilize perceived support and use different ways of coping could...
Industrial Location and Corporate Organization in High Technology Industries

High technology industries are thought to be different from other industries in their locational orientation and in their degree of spin-offs and firm births. This study uses a highly detailed data...
Evidence of a Fluted Point Tradition in Ecuador

The discovery of fluted points at one site in the Andean Highlands near Quito, Ecuador, suggests that the fluted-point tradition extended into South America. The association of scrapers, knives, and gravers with the fluted points indicates a hunting assemblage which may be related to paleo-Indian horizons of western United States.
CO2 Adsorption As a Flat-Lying, Tridentate Carbonate on CeO2(100)

Results of an experimental and computational study of CO2 adsorption onto a CeOX(100) thin-film surface are reported. For both oxidized CeO2(100) and reduced CeO1.7(100), a 5 L dose of CO2 at 180 K resulted in mainly carbonate ([CO3]2–) on the surface with a minute amount of physisorbed CO2 that desorbed by 250 K based on C 1s and O 1s photoemission and C k-edge NEXAFS. No evidence for the formation of a carboxylate intermediate was indicated. Angle-dependent C k-edge NEXAFS revealed that the carbonate species was oriented parallel to the surface suggesting a tridentate configuration. Various adsorption geometries were tested using DFT PBE+U calculations. The most stable configuration was a carbonate with its molecular plane parallel to the surface and each O atom bonded to two Ce cations. Through temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), it was determined that CO2 was the sole reaction product. CO was not detected in the TPD for the reduced surface, indicating that reoxidation of a reduced CeO2-X(100) sur...
Feasibility of Inverting Compaction-Induced Traveltime Shifts for Reservoir Pressure

Pore-pressure variations inside producing reservoirs result in excess stress and strain that cause time shifts of reflected waves. Inversion of seismic data for pressure changes requires better understanding of the dependence of compaction-induced time shifts on reservoir pressure reduction. Here, we investigate pressure-dependent behavior of P-, S-, and PS-wave time shifts from reflectors located above and below a rectangular reservoir embedded in a homogeneous half-space. Our geomechanical modeling algorithm generates the excess stress/strain field and the stress-induced stiffness tensor as linear functions of reservoir pressure. Analysis of time shifts obtained from full-waveform synthetic data shows that they vary linearly with pressure for reflectors above the reservoir, but become nonlinear for reflections from the reservoir or deeper interfaces. Time-shift misfit curves computed with respect to noise-contaminated data from a reference reservoir for a wide range of pressure reductions display well-defined minima. We also evaluate the influence of the reservoir width and third-order stiffness coefficients on time shifts because these parameters will be fixed in the inversion for reservoir pressure. Our results indicate that stable pressure estimation requires including multicomponent time shifts from reflectors below the reservoir and applying a nonlinear global inversion algorithm.
Progress report on ACTH and cortisone.

The use of corticotropin and cortisone is becoming more standardized. We are learning that the hormones are not a panacea for all diseases. This article is a progress report and incorporates the latest experiences of several clinicians in special fields.
A new technique for optimizing mode-stirred chamber efficiency

Mode-stirred chambers are widely employed throughout industry for performing electromagnetic susceptibility tests on a wide variety of electronic circuits and systems. The interior of this class of shielded electromagnetic chamber possesses a mechanically rotated metallic stirrer which is employed to perturb the internal field patterns. As the stirrer is rotated, this causes variation in the input VSWR of the chamber. This paper presents an electronic technique which compensates for the VSWR fluctuations inherent in this class of shielded chamber, and as a result, produces significantly improved chamber performance.
“One-Pot” Synthesis and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation with Nanocrystalline Ag(0)/CaTiO3 and in Situ Mechanistic Studies

We describe a previously not reported “one-pot” synthesis of nanocrystalline Ag(0)/CaTiO3 in aqueous suspension and the following in situ photocatalytic testing in the same suspension to generate hydrogen. The Ag(0)/CaTiO3 showed an enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen generation rate vs CaTiO3 precursor. The obtained Ag(0)/CaTiO3 photocatalyst was ex situ characterized by XPS, XRD, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and concluded to have metallic silver nanoparticles on the surface of calcium titanate nanocrystals. The three photocatalytic mechanisms in Ag(0)/CaTiO3 were considered: (a) bandgap narrowing in CaTiO3, (b) enhanced electron–hole separation in CaTiO3, and (c) excitation of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in metallic Ag nanoparticles. In mechanistic studies, photocatalytic suspensions with CaTiO3 precursor, with silver precursor, and with both CaTiO3 and Ag precursors to form Ag(0)/CaTiO3 were illuminated, flash-frozen to 77 K, and charact...
Using Software Non-Functional Assessment Process to Complement Function Points for Software Maintenance

Context: Most widely used cost models use source lines of code (SLOC) as the software size input measure, due to its quantifiability and high correlation with effort. Estimating the SLOC of a project is very difficult in early stages of the software lifecycle, especially for software maintenance tasks. Depending on the reuse model being used, one would need to size the existing code that needs modifications and the size of the changes being made in SLOC. Functional size measures, such as Function Points (FPs) and the Software Non-functional Assessment Process (SNAP), have been developed to improve the ability to estimate project size early in the lifecycle for both development and maintenance projects. While FPs represent software size by functions; SNAP complements FPs by sizing non-functional requirements, such as data operations and interface design. Goal: SNAP complements Function Points by sizing non-functional requirements, such as data operations and interface design. Through an empirical analysis, the authors want to determine whether SNAP might be an effective software size measure individually or in conjunction with FPs to improve effort estimation accuracy. Method: The empirical analysis will be run on Unified Code Count (UCC)'s dataset, a software tool maintained by University of Southern California (USC). Results: The analyses found that separating projects adding new functions from those modifying existing functions resulted in improved estimation models using SNAP. The effort estimation model for projects modifying functions in UCC had high prediction accuracy statistics, but less impressive results for projects adding existing functions to UCC. The effort estimation accuracy were satisfactory when using SNAP in conjunction with FPs for both groups of projects. Conclusions: SNAP, indeed, complements FPs in terms of the requirements that are considered and sized. Both size metrics should be treated as individual metrics, but can be used together for acceptably accurate cost models in UCC's development environment.
SDHB mutation status and tumor size but not tumor grade are important predictors of clinical outcome in pheochromocytoma and abdominal paraganglioma

Background A staging/prognostic system has long been desired to better categorize pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma which can be very aggressive in the setting of SDHB mutations. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted of clinical characteristics and outcomes including results of genetic testing, tumor recurrence/metastasis, Ki67/MIB1% staining, and tumor mitotic index in patients with pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma. Results Patients with SDHB mutation presented at younger age (33.0 years old vs 49.6 years old, P Conclusion SDHB status and primary tumor size are more predictive of patient outcome than Ki67% or mitotic index and should be part of any clinically relevant, prognostic scoring system.
Intraoperative chlorhexidine irrigation to prevent infection in total hip and knee arthroplasty

Background Surgical site irrigation during total hip (THA) and total knee (TKA) arthroplasty is a routine practice among orthopaedic surgeons to prevent periprosthetic joint infection. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) irrigation on infection rates following THA and TKA.
Paediatric mild head injury: is routine admission to a tertiary trauma hospital necessary?

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that children with isolated linear skull fractures have excellent clinical outcomes and low risk of surgery. We wish to identify other injury patterns within the spectrum of paediatric mild head injury, which need only conservative management. Children with low risk of evolving neurosurgical lesions could be safely managed in primary hospitals. METHODS We retrospectively analysed all children with mild head injury (i.e. admission Glasgow coma score 13-15) and skull fracture or haematoma on a head computed tomography scan admitted to Westmead Children's Hospital, Sydney over the years 2009-2014. Data were collected regarding demographics, clinical findings, mechanism of injury, head computed tomography scan findings, neurosurgical intervention, outcome and length of admission. Wilcoxon paired test was used with P value <0.05 considered significant. RESULTS Four hundred and ten children were analysed. Three hundred and eighty-one (93%) children were managed conservatively, 18 (4%) underwent evacuation of extradural haematoma (TBI surgery) and 11 (3%) needed fracture repair surgery. Two children evolved a surgical lesion 24 h post-admission. Only 17 of 214 children transferred from peripheral hospitals needed neurosurgery. Overall outcomes: zero deaths, one needed brain injury rehabilitation and 63 needed child protection unit intervention. Seventy-five percentage of children with non-surgical lesions were discharged within 2 days. Eighty-three percentage of road transfers were discharged within 3 days. CONCLUSIONS Children with small intracranial haematomas and/or skull fractures who need no surgery only require brief inpatient symptomatic treatment and could be safely managed in primary hospitals. Improved tertiary hospital transfer guidelines with protocols to manage clinical deterioration could have cost benefit without risking patient safety.
A fifth-order polynomial predistortion circuit for Mach-Zehnder modulator linearization in 65nm CMOS

Future RF photonic systems offer the promise of wideband front-end operation, but are limited by linearity in the electrical-to-optical conversion process. This paper presents a fifth-order polynomial predistortion circuit for optical Mach-Zehnder modulator linearization. Inclusion of independently tunable polynomial coefficients provides the flexibility to suppress both third-order (IM3) and fifth-order (IM5) intermodulation products. Fabricated in 65nm CMOS, the predistortion circuit achieves a measured IM3 suppression of 19.5dB and 17.1dB with modulation indexes of 49.6% and 60%, respectively.
From majority rule to inclusive politics: electing a power-sharing coalition

One of the perennial issues facing governments and especially in the establishment of democracy after a conflict is the choice of an election system for a particular jurisdiction. Historically, man...
Characterizing Defective Configuration Scripts Used for Continuous Deployment

In software engineering, validation and verification (V&V) resources are limited and characterization of defective software source files can help in efficiently allocating V&V resources. Similar to software source files, defects occur in the scripts used to automatically manage configurations and software deployment infrastructure, often known as infrastructure as code (IaC) scripts. Defects in IaC scripts can have dire consequences, for example, creating large-scale system outages. Identifying the characteristics of defective IaC scripts can help in mitigating these defects by allocating V&V efforts efficiently based upon these characteristics. The objective of this paper is to help software practitioners to prioritize validation and verification efforts for infrastructure as code (IaC) scripts by identifying the characteristics of defective IaC scripts. Researchers have previously extracted text features to characterize defective software source files written in general purpose programming languages. We investigate if text features can be used to identify properties that characterize defective IaC scripts. We use two text mining techniques to extract text features from IaC scripts: the bag-of-words technique, and the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) technique. Using the extracted features and applying grounded theory, we characterize defective IaC scripts. We also use the text features to build defect prediction models with tuned statistical learners. We mine open source repositories from Mozilla, Openstack, and Wikimedia Commons, to construct three case studies and evaluate our methodology. We identify three properties that characterize defective IaC scripts: filesystem operations, infrastructure provisioning, and managing user accounts. Using the bag-of-word technique, we observe a median F-Measure of 0.74, 0.71, and 0.73, respectively, for Mozilla, Openstack, and Wikimedia Commons. Using the TF-IDF technique, we observe a median F-Measure of 0.72, 0.74, and 0.70, respectively, for Mozilla, Openstack, and Wikimedia Commons.
The cultural ecology of Puebloan Pebble-Mulch gardens

Prehistoric Anasazi Pueblo Indians relied on a diverse set of agricultural strategies, each uniquely suited to specific micro-environments, in their attempts to mitigate subsistence risk. One variant strategy used during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries A.D. was pebble- mulch gardening. The Rio Grande Anasazi of northern New Mexico occasionally mulched some of their garden plots with pebbles in order to increase soil moisture, reduce erosion, moderate soil temperature, and increase crop yields. This labor intensive technique was primarily employed as a drought- evasive measure. And while pebble mulching is an effective agricultural adaptation to the constraints of a dryland environment, construction was limited to sites with natural gravel deposits and it never replaced more traditional food stress- coping mechanisms. In spite of their potential, pebblemulch gardens were used for only a short period of time, never contributed much to the total food yield of pueblos, and remained always a peripheral innovation outside of the Anasazi cultural core.
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SURFACE COATED MATERIALS

ABSTRACT The intrinsic mechanical properties of near-surface regions of homogeneous solids are briefly reviewed for both elastic brittle behavior and for plastic, ductile behavior. The many different ways in which surface coatings alter intrinsic behavior by suppressing certain critical processes, by triggering certain successions of auto-catalytic events, or by sealing the solid against the environment. The use of wear resistant coatings on cemented carbide cutting tools, and the procedure of chemical strengthening of glass articles by ion-exchange layers resulting in large residual compressive stresses are discussed in greater detail as two very successful examples of the use of surface coatings to dramatically improve mechanical performance.
Geochemistry of Mineral Surfaces and Factors Affecting Their Chemical Reactivity

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on mineral surfaces and some of the factors affecting their chemical reactivity with water and aqueous species. It presents a brief overview of the geochemistry of mineral surfaces, focusing on metal-oxide and metal-(oxy)hydroxide surfaces, including their dissolution mechanisms, development of electrical charge when in contact with aqueous solutions, and uptake of aqueous cations and anions. It also discusses some of the factors that control their chemical reactivity, including defect density, cooperative effects among adsorbates, intrinsic differences in surface properties such as isoelectric points, and differences in surface structure under hydrated conditions. It begins with a discussion of the most common minerals present in Earth's crust, soils, and troposphere, as well as some less common minerals that contain common environmental contaminants. Following this is it provides a discussion of the nature of environmentally important solid surfaces before and after reaction with aqueous solutions, including their charging behavior as a function of solution pH; and the nature of the electrical double layer. It also describes how it is altered by changes in the type of solid present and the ionic strength and pH of the solution in contact with the solid. Furthermore, it deals with dissolution, precipitation, and sorption processes relevant to environmental interfacial chemistry. Finally, it explores some of the factors affecting chemical reactivity at mineral/aqueous solution interfaces.
Results of an Ocean Trial of the Symbiotic Machine for Ocean uRanium Extraction.

Amidoxime-based adsorbents have become highly promising for seawater uranium extraction. However, current deployment schemes are stand-alone, intermittent operation systems that have significant pr...
GABA-A signaling maintains melanocyte stem cell quiescence in larval zebrafish

Adult stem cells (ASCs) contribute to long-term homeostasis and regeneration of many adult tissues. Some ASCs proliferate continuously, others remain quiescent awaiting activation. To identify pathways that regulate ASC quiescence and tissue homeostasis, we study melanocyte stem cells (MSCs) that drive vertebrate pigmentation. In larval zebrafish, MSCs are quiescent, but can be recruited to regenerate the larval pigment pattern following melanocyte ablation. Through pharmacological experiments, we found that inhibition of GABA-A receptor function, specifically the GABA-A rho subtype, induces excessive melanocyte production in larval zebrafish. Conversely, pharmacological activation of GABA-A inhibited melanocyte regeneration. We used CRISPR to generate two mutant alleles of gabrr1 , a subtype of GABA-A. Both alleles exhibited robust melanocyte overproduction, while conditional overexpression of gabrr1 inhibited larval melanocyte regeneration. Our data suggest that gabrr1 signaling is necessary and sufficient to maintain MSC quiescence and prevent excessive pigmentation of the larval zebrafish.
URPE’s Early Years: A Personal Memoir:

In this memoir, I recollect key debates in URPE, how URPE helped me survive graduate school, and my experience as one of the few women in the early years of URPE.JEL Classification: B3, Y9
Abstract LB-246: Apoptotic mechanisms of Vernonia amydalina delile in the prevention of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is one of the common cancers in males and its incidence keeps increasing globally. Approximately 81% of prostate cancer is diagnosed during the early stage of the disease. The treatment options for prostate care include surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, but these treatments often have side effects that may result in a poor quality of life such as impotence or decreased bowel function. Our central goal is to test the apoptotic mechanisms of Vernonia amydalina Delile (an edible medicinal plant that is relatively inexpensive, non-toxic, and virtually without side effects) for the prevention of prostate cancer using human adenocarcinoma (PC-3) cells as a test model. To address our specific goal, PC-3 cells were treated with Vernonia amydalina Delile (VAD). Cell viability was determined by the MTT assay and cell morphology was analyzed by acridine orange and propidium iodide (AO/PI) dye using the fluorescent microscope. Cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis were evaluated by Flow Cytometry assessment. Nucleosomal DNA fragmentation was detected by DNA laddering. Data obtained from the AO/PI dye assessment indicated that VAD significantly reduced the number of live cells in a dose-dependent manner, showing a gradual increase in the loss of viability in VAD-treated cells. A similar result was obtained by the MTT assay. We observed a significant increase in DNA damage in VAD-treated cells compared to the control group. Flow cytometry data demonstrated that VAD induced apoptosis in treated cells compared to the control cells. These results suggest that induction of cell death, cell cycle arrest, and cell apoptosis are involved in the therapeutic efficacy of VAD as anticancer candidate towards the prevention and/or treatment of prostate cancer. Citation Format: Clement G. Yedjou, Solange S. Tchounwou, William K. Johnson, Sylvianne Njiki, Paul B. Tchounwou. Apoptotic mechanisms of Vernonia amydalina delile in the prevention of prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-246.
The frequency of Kozai–Lidov disc oscillation driven giant outbursts in Be/X-ray binaries

Giant outbursts of Be/X-ray binaries may occur when a Be-star disc undergoes strong eccentricity growth due to the Kozai-Lidov (KL) mechanism. The KL effect acts on a disc that is highly inclined to the binary orbital plane provided that the disc aspect ratio is sufficiently small. The eccentric disc overflows its Roche lobe and material flows from the Be star disc over to the companion neutron star causing X-ray activity. With N-body simulations and steady state decretion disc models we explore system parameters for which a disc in the Be/X-ray binary 4U 0115+634 is KL unstable and the resulting timescale for the oscillations. We find good agreement between predictions of the model and the observed giant outburst timescale provided that the disc is not completely destroyed by the outburst. This allows the outer disc to be replenished between outbursts and a sufficiently short KL oscillation timescale. An initially eccentric disc has a shorter KL oscillation timescale compared to an initially circular orbit disc. We suggest that the chaotic nature of the outbursts is caused by the sensitivity of the mechanism to the distribution of material within the disc. The outbursts continue provided that the Be star supplies material that is sufficiently misaligned to the binary orbital plane. We generalise our results to Be/X-ray binaries with varying orbital period and find that if the Be star disc is flared, it is more likely to be unstable to KL oscillations in a smaller orbital period binary, in agreement with observations.
Dithione, the antipodal redox partner of ene-1,2-dithiol ligands and their metal complexes

Abstract Defining the oxidation state of the central atom in a coordination compound is fundamental in understanding the electronic structure and provides a starting point for elucidating molecular properties. The presence of non-innocent ligand(s) can obscure the oxidation state of the central atom as the ligand contribution to the electronic structure is difficult to ascertain. Redox-active ligands, such as dithiolene ligands, are well known non-innocent ligands that can exist in both a fully reduced (Dt2−) and fully oxidized (Dt0) states. Complexes containing the fully oxidized dithione state of the ligand are uncommon and only a few have been completely characterized. Dithione ligands are of interest due to their electron-deficient nature and ability to act as an electron acceptor for more electron-rich moieties, such as other dithiolene ligands or metal centers. This article focuses the syntheses, structures, and metal coordination, particularly coordination compounds, of dithione ligands. Various examples of mono, bis, and tris dithione complexes are discussed.
Autophagy promotes mammalian survival by suppressing oxidative stress and p53.

Autophagy captures intracellular components and delivers them to lysosomes for degradation and recycling. Conditional autophagy deficiency in adult mice causes liver damage, shortens life span to 3 mo due to neurodegeneration, and is lethal upon fasting. As autophagy deficiency causes p53 induction and cell death in neurons, we sought to test whether p53 mediates the lethal consequences of autophagy deficiency. Here, we conditionally deleted Trp53 (p53 hereafter) and/or the essential autophagy gene Atg7 throughout adult mice. Compared with Atg7 Δ/Δ mice, the life span of Atg7 Δ/Δ p53 Δ/Δ mice was extended due to delayed neurodegeneration and resistance to death upon fasting. Atg7 also suppressed apoptosis induced by p53 activator Nutlin-3, suggesting that autophagy inhibited p53 activation. To test whether increased oxidative stress in Atg7 Δ/Δ mice was responsible for p53 activation, Atg7 was deleted in the presence or absence of the master regulator of antioxidant defense nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Nrf2-/-Atg7 Δ/Δ mice died rapidly due to small intestine damage, which was not rescued by p53 codeletion. Thus, Atg7 limits p53 activation and p53-mediated neurodegeneration. In turn, NRF2 mitigates lethal intestine degeneration upon autophagy loss. These findings illustrate the tissue-specific roles for autophagy and functional dependencies on the p53 and NRF2 stress response mechanisms.
Synthesis and field emission properties of Cu-filled vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

Abstract A highly conductive metal core modifies the electronic properties of a carbon shell, offering the possibility of enhancing its field emission (FE) behavior. Herein, a method has been devised to synthesize copper-filled vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (Cu@VACNTs) directly on Cu disks without extra metal catalysts via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. An ensemble of Cu particles formed on the surface of Cu disks due to surface reconstruction in a reducing environment plays a crucial role in the nucleation and growth of Cu@VACNTs. The filling of Cu inside the VACNTs can be controlled by tuning the growth temperature. The study of FE properties revealed that a conductive Cu-core extending throughout the entire length of the VACNTs could significantly enhance the FE properties of the VACNTs. Excellent FE properties including low turn-on field (ETo = 1.57 V/µm), low threshold field (ETh = 2.43 V/µm), high field enhancement factor (β = 3061), and high FE stability were observed for the Cu@VACNTs. The enhanced FE properties of the Cu@VACNTs can be accredited to low field screening due to bundled morphology and improved electrical and thermal conductivities offered by the encapsulation of highly conductive Cu nanowires inside the cores of VACNTs.
Product ergonomics in industrial exoskeletons: potential enhancements for workforce efficiency and safety

Implementation of exoskeletons could be one of the solutions to augment human capacity towards reducing the large number of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) in the industry. While man...
A History of the UN Human Rights Programme and Secretariat. By Bertrand G. Ramcharan,. Leiden, Boston: Brill Nijhoff, 2020. Pp. xvii, 262. Index

The New York Times took the occasion to publish a downbeat assessment of the UN's current failures to prevent wars, curb refugee flows, alleviate poverty, meet development goals, confront the COVID-19 pandemic, reform the Security Council—and take human rights seriously 1 Discouraging recent signs in the field of human rights abound [ ]in a report cheekily entitled The People's Republic of the United Nations, a bipartisan U S think tank slams the increasing influence at the UN of China's “particularist view of human rights, in which governments can cite ‘unique’ local conditions to justify disregard for individual or minority claims ” Ranging well beyond a narrow institutional history, his book describes UN human rights norms and processes as they have evolved over time, and the broader forces that have shaped and continue to shape them: geopolitics, big power interests, Cold War divisions, the emergence and maturing of former colonies as independent states, and competing regional and ideological blocs Seventy-five years later the change is dramatic: (1) The UN has adopted and promoted a very widely accepted International Bill of Human Rights, covering not only civil and political, but also economic, social, and cultural rights;(2) Ten separate UN human rights treaty committees, and numerous experts appointed by the UN, monitor, report, review state reports, respond to complaints, and prod states on more than forty different human rights themes, ranging from the independence of judges and lawyers to the human right to safe drinking water;and (3) All UN members undergo a human rights peer review by other states every four and a half years which, however soft or politicized it may often be, reinforces a diplomatic culture in which states must regularly pledge allegiance to human rights [ ]these two regional systems have the advantage of memberships by states that are largely democratic and respect the rule of law 3 With 193 member states worldwide, the UN does not have that luxury
The Free Trader

A unilateral declaration of free trade on the part of our country is hardly at the top of the agenda of the government. But it may be of interest to examine this public policy alternative since it is the only one compatible with libertarianism.
Biochemical Aspects of H-2 Antigens

Plasma membranes are composed primarily of three constituents: lipids (and cholesterol), proteins, and water, their proportions varying from one cell to another.
Division and Combination of Labor in Aristotle's Biological Writings

In this paper, author explores the way in which Aristotle seems to appeal to certain principles of economicsmost notably, the division and combination of laborin describing and attempting to explain certain biological phenomena. He uses examples recently employed in the bioeconomics literature and discuss how Aristotle uses similar examples in similar ways.
Angular distribution of radiative scattering - Comparison of experiment and theory

such that for (?)c> I x\ -*°° as f-*fc (i--» e wave terminates in a shock wave in a finite time) where tc is given by Clarke, J. F., "Behaviour at Acoustic Wave Fronts in a Laminar Diffusion Flame," Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 27, 1974, pp. 161-173. Clarke, J. F., "Chemical Amplification at the Wave-Head of a Finite Amplitude Gasdynamic Disturbance," Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 81, 1977, pp. 257-264. Penner, S. S. and Olfe, D. B., Radiation and Re-Entry, Academic Press, New York and London, 1968. Pai, S. I., "Radiation Gasdynamics: High Temperature Gas Flow Including the Effects of Thermal Radiation," Mecanique Applique, Vol. 18, 1973, pp. 813-833.
Democracy after post-politics: a reply to Näsström and Kalm

This is a reply to:Nasstrom, S., and S. Kalm. 2015. “A democratic critique of precarity.” Global Discourse 5 (4): 556–573. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2014.992119.
Uncoordinated strategies for inter-BAN interference mitigation

A Body Area Network (BAN) is a radio standard for wireless connectivity of wearable and implantable sensor nodes that are located inside or in proximity to the human body. Many applications of BANs (e.g. physiological monitoring) require reliable communication of information between the sensor nodes and their controller. As there are currently no coordinating mechanisms among multiple co-located BANs, interference caused by co-channel transmission in adjacent BANs could impact the reliability and in general quality of the service experienced by a receiver node within an individual BAN. Here, we present a simulation platform that allows for statistical evaluation of interference in multi-BAN scenarios and performance of possible mitigation algorithms. Currently, there are no mechanisms for interfering BANs to explicitly coordinate their transmissions. As our analysis show, this may result in unacceptably high interference; and therefore, high link outage probability by the intended receiver. We propose uncoordinated approaches that could help to ease cross-interference among multiple adjacent BANs. Simulation results in our preliminary studies support the effectiveness of our approach.
AcconPred: Predicting Solvent Accessibility and Contact Number Simultaneously by a Multitask Learning Framework under the Conditional Neural Fields Model.

Motivation. The solvent accessibility of protein residues is one of the driving forces of protein folding, while the contact number of protein residues limits the possibilities of protein conformations. The de novo prediction of these properties from protein sequence is important for the study of protein structure and function. Although these two properties are certainly related with each other, it is challenging to exploit this dependency for the prediction. Method. We present a method AcconPred for predicting solvent accessibility and contact number simultaneously, which is based on a shared weight multitask learning framework under the CNF (conditional neural fields) model. The multitask learning framework on a collection of related tasks provides more accurate prediction than the framework trained only on a single task. The CNF method not only models the complex relationship between the input features and the predicted labels, but also exploits the interdependency among adjacent labels. Results. Trained on 5729 monomeric soluble globular protein datasets, AcconPred could reach 0.68 three-state accuracy for solvent accessibility and 0.75 correlation for contact number. Tested on the 105 CASP11 domain datasets for solvent accessibility, AcconPred could reach 0.64 accuracy, which outperforms existing methods.
The current status of toxicity protectants in cancer therapy

Current therapies for the treatment of malignancies are associated with significant toxicity, as chemotherapy and radiation therapy do not discriminate between normal and malignant cells. One approach to ameliorating the toxicity associated with therapy is through the use of chemoprotective agents. This article reviews a variety of agents that have been evaluated as possible protectants, including WR-2721 and the colony-stimulating factors. It is hoped that the understanding of how to optimally use chemoprotective agents will lead to more tolerable treatments for patients, and possibly allow for dose-escalation, which may contribute to improvement in patient survival.
Sexual self-concept, anxiety, and self-efficacy predict sexual activity in heart failure and healthy elders.

Background Little is known about sexual activity in patients with heart failure (HF), and existing evidence suggests that sexual activity is adversely affected. Objective This study explored the relationships and predictors between sexual activity and psychosexual, demographic variables in healthy elders and patients with HF. Methods Participants were 59 healthy elders and 85 patients with HF who completed instruments on depression and anxiety, sexual self-concept, sexual activity, and demographic/clinical variables. Results Those with increased sexual self-concept had 1.78 greater odds of being sexually active. The sexual self-concept subscales of sexual anxiety and sexual self-efficacy showed a statistically significant ( P Conclusion Sexual self-concept and the related subscales of sexual anxiety and sexual self-efficacy are important psychosexual variables for future research. Attention to patient psychosexual concerns is needed in both clinical practice and research.
Characteristics of the immediate postarthroscopic blood clot formation in the knee joint

The immediate postoperative bleeding and blood clot formation was observed in 26 human knee joints following a variety of arthroscopic surgical procedures. Observations were made following lavage with lactated Ringer's and normal saline solutions. Bleeding occurred from all incised vascular tissue. Blood clot accumulated after each solution within 5 min following tourniquet release and decompression of the joint. Most of the blood clot remained unattached within the joint cavity. Blood clot did attach to all surgically incised or excised surfaces. The clinical relevance of these observations is related to the potential role of the blood clot in intraarticular tissue repair following arthroscopic surgery.
Developing behaviorally-anchored scales for evaluating job performance of hotel managers.

Abstract This article discusses the steps undertaken to develop behaviorally-anchored rating scales for evaluating the job performance of hotel managers. Procedures employed in the study involved high levels of participation among hotel management personnel from three organization levels. The resulting appraisal instrument consists of seven scales, each anchored by six behavioral statements. When actually used by corporate hotel executives, the instrument demonstrated the ability to provide a discriminable set of ratings across dimensions and ratees. Implications for identifying desirable behaviors, providing performance feedback and establishing training programs for hotel managers are discussed.
Oxygen Radical Induced Gastric Mucosal Cell Death: Apoptosis or Necrosis?

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and resultant oxidative damage is a common pathway for gastric mucosal injury. This study was undertaken to determine whether apoptosis or necrosis was responsible for hydrogen peroxide (a representative ROS)-induced gastric mucosal death and whether caspase cascade blockade could prevent this process. AGS cells (human gastric adenocarcinoma cells) were exposed to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), 0.5–2 mM, from 6 to 24 h. Lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) measured necrosis, whereas Caspase-3 and PARP activation and DNA-histone complex formation measured apoptosis. In addition, AGS cells received no pretreatment or preincubation for 1 h with 50–100 μM z-VAD, a pan-caspase inhibitor, and were then treated with 1–2 mM H2O2. With high concentrations of H2O2, cell death was predominantly necrotic, whereas lower concentrations evoked time and concentration dependent apoptosis. Furthermore, z-VAD pretreatment prevented oxidant induced apoptosis and necrosis. Since caspase cascade blockade prevents both processes, our results support the hypothesis that H2O2 induced cell death is predominantly a caspase-mediated apoptosis.
Concentric circular trajectory sampling for super-resolution and image mosaicing

Ubiquitous applications in diverse fields motivate large-area sampling, super-resolution (SR) and image mosaicing. However, conventional translational sampling has drawbacks including laterally constrained variations between samples. Meanwhile, existing rotational sampling methods do not consider the uniformity of sampling points in Cartesian coordinates, resulting in additional distortion errors in sampled images. We design a novel optimized concentric circular trajectory sampling (OCCTS) method to acquire image information uniformly at fast sampling speeds. The sampling method allows multiple low-resolution images for conventional SR algorithms to be acquired by adding small variations in the angular dimension. Experimental results demonstrate that OCCTS can beat comparable CCTS methods that lack optimized sampling densities by reducing sampling time by more than 11.5% while maintaining 50% distortion error reduction. The SR quality of OCCTS has at least 5.2% fewer distortion errors than the comparable CCTS methods. This paper is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to present an OCCTS method for SR and image mosaicing.
Distinguishing dose, focus, and blur for lithography characterization and control

We derive a physical model to describe the dependence of pattern dimensions on dose, defocus and blur. The coefficients of our model are constants of a given lithographic process. Model inversion applied to dimensional measurements then determines effective dose, defocus and blur for wafers patterned with the same process. In practice, our approach entails the measurement of proximate grating targets of differing dose and focus sensitivity. In our embodiment, the measured attribute of one target is exclusively sensitive to dose, whereas the measured attributes of a second target are distinctly sensitive to defocus and blur. On step-and-scan exposure tools, z-blur is varied in a controlled manner by adjusting the across slit tilt of the image plane. The effects of z-blur and x,y-blur are shown to be equivalent. Furthermore, the exposure slit width is shown to determine the tilt response of the grating attributes. Thus, the response of the measured attributes can be characterized by a conventional focus-exposure matrix (FEM), over which the exposure tool settings are intentionally changed. The model coefficients are determined by a fit to the measured FEM response. The model then fully defines the response for wafers processed under "fixed" dose, focus and blur conditions. Model inversion applied to measurements from the same targets on all such wafers enables the simultaneous determination of effective dose and focus/tilt (DaFT) at each measurement site.
Photoperiod and Temperature Interaction in the Seasonal Reproduction of Female Mummichogs

Abstract Mummichogs Fundulus heteroclitus exhibit changes in the timing of their annual reproductive activity when exposed to experimental photoperiods and temperatures. Although long days and warm temperatures did not maintain gonad maturity past the normal end of the spawning season, premature recrudescence was induced in winter when fish were exposed to 13- or 15-hour light periods (long days) each 24 hours. Interruption of nonstimulatory short days with a brief light pulse during the dark phase was equally effective. This demonstrates that a circadian rhythm of photosensitivity could be responsible for photoperiodic responses. Pretreatment of sexually regressed fish with short days or low temperatures allowed the ovaries to respond to subsequent stimulation by long days and warm temperatures. The combination of short days and low temperatures produced the most rapid gonad response to warm long days. In the spring, fish were capable of spontaneous gonad recrudescence when held in constant darkness at 2...
Organic acid metastability in sedimentary basins

Thermodynamic calculations indicate that CO{sub 2} in sedimentary basins may be in stable redox equilibrium with organic acids found in basinal brines, but that CH{sub 4} is not. These calculations also show that the high concentrations of carboxylic acids are from equilibrium with decarboxylation reactions. A compilation of recent analyses of carboxylic acids from aqueous solutions associated with petroleum reservoirs shows that there is no trend in acid concentrations with temperature; however, inspection of these data at {approximately} 100 C indicates that acetic and propanoic acids are in homogeneous metastable equilibrium. Oxygen fugacities indicated by this metastable assemblage are consistently lower than those set by iron-oxide assemblages; this is not surprising, because both hematite and magnetite are unstable relative to siderite in the presence of detectable concentrations of acetic acid.