cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Tidal pattern instabilities on multi-moon planets

The equilibrium tide-generating forces in the lunar orbital plane of a planet of radius R are calculated for the case of N moons of mass Mi orbiting the planet at instantaneous polar coordinates (Di, αi). For the case of a single moon, there are only two high tides. For the case of two moons, it is found that there can exist a critical lunar orbital distance at which two high tides become unstable with respect to formation of three high tides. Bifurcation diagrams are presented which depict how the angular positions of the high and low tides on the planet vary with the lunar distances and lunar separation angle. Tidal stability diagrams, which illustrate the stability regions for various tidal patterns as a function of lunar distances and lunar separation angle, are presented for various values of D2/D1 and M2/M1. Generally speaking, the aforementioned tidal instability, and hence the propensity for formation of three high tides on a two-moon planet, exists over a significant range of lunar distances and separation angles provided that M2/M1 ∼ (D2/D1) 3 . For the case of N > 2 moons, the tidal stability diagram becomes more complex, revealing a diversity of potential tidal patterns.
Invariant Chain and the MHC Class II Cytoplasmic Domains Regulate Localization of MHC Class II Molecules to Lipid Rafts in Tumor Cell-Based Vaccines

Cell-based tumor vaccines, consisting of MHC class I + tumor cells engineered to express MHC class II molecules, stimulate tumor-specific CD4 + T cells to mediate rejection of established, poorly immunogenic tumors. Previous experiments have demonstrated that these vaccines induce immunity by functioning as APCs for endogenously synthesized, tumor-encoded Ags. However, coexpression of the MHC class II accessory molecule invariant chain (Ii), or deletion of the MHC class II cytoplasmic domain abrogates vaccine immunogenicity. Recent reports have highlighted the role of lipid microdomains in Ag presentation. To determine whether Ii expression and/or truncation of MHC class II molecules impact vaccine efficacy by altering MHC class II localization to lipid microdomains, we examined the lipid raft affinity of MHC class II molecules in mouse M12.C3 B cell lymphomas and SaI/A k sarcoma vaccine cells. Functional MHC class II heterodimers were detected in lipid rafts of both cell types. Interestingly, expression of Ii in M12.C3 cells or SaI/A k cells blocked the MHC class II interactions with cell surface lipid rafts. In both cell types, truncation of either the α- or β-chain decreased the affinity of class II molecules for lipid rafts. Simultaneous deletion of both cytoplasmic domains further reduced localization of class II molecules to lipid rafts. Collectively, these data suggest that coexpression of Ii or deletion of the cytoplasmic domains of MHC class II molecules may reduce vaccine efficacy by blocking the constitutive association of MHC class II molecules with plasma membrane lipid rafts.
Prospects for the open treatment of uncertainty in environmental research

Current treatments of uncertainty in environmental research embody several myths about the causes and consequences of imperfect knowledge, namely: (1) the dominant role of environmental factors in ...
Security issues surrounding the use of open source software by online students

This study investigates the security issues related to the use of open source software by students in online education. Research studies and common wisdom contend that open source software, by having being developed and continuously updated by numerous knowing experts, is more secure and less prone to hacking attacks. Using a systematic three-step approach, this study surveys journal and conference proceedings articles that deal with the security of using open source software in education in general and online education in particular. The open source software most commonly used by online students are identified and the articles on the security of using them are categorized. It is discovered that not very many articles are dedicated to purely online education, but conclusions can be drawn from them that answer the study’s research questions. The articles and studies that are investigated report that open source software are indeed more secure and more quickly patched than their proprietary counterpart. Online students are also found to be not any more vulnerable than their onsite counterparts. The studies surveyed, however, indicate that the institutions and educators are the ones who should pay particular attention to their use of open-source software in their online education activities.
Toxins and Toothcombs: Potential Allospecific Chemical Defenses in Nycticebus and Perodicticus

An oral tradition exists in Indonesia that the slow loris or coucang, Nycticebus coucang, is venomous (personal observation, also see Wilde, 1972). Few mammals are known to produce toxic compounds, and none is known to routinely use these toxins in allospecific defenses. Yet inhabitants of Kalimantan insist that the coucang protects itself from humans by using its toxic bite. Over the years there have been many accounts of bite-induced shock and prolonged edema of appendages which have been bitten, but the literature is devoid of reports identifying the source of putative toxins. If slow lorises do produce toxins which are used in defense against allospecifics then three sorts of questions might be asked. The most obvious questions are descriptive in nature. What tissue(s) is (are) the source of this venom? What is the chemical nature of putative toxins?
Absorption and Clearance of Pharmaceutical Aerosols in the Human Nose: Development of a CFD Model.

Abstract Purpose: The objective of this study was to develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to predict the deposition, dissolution, clearance, and absorption of pharmaceutical particles in the human nasal cavity. Methods: A three-dimensional nasal cavity geometry was converted to a surface-based model, providing an anatomically-accurate domain for the simulations. Particle deposition data from a commercial nasal spray product was mapped onto the surface model, and a mucus velocity field was calculated and validated with in vivo nasal clearance rates. A submodel for the dissolution of deposited particles was developed and validated based on comparisons to existing in vitro data for multiple pharmaceutical products. A parametric study was then performed to assess sensitivity of epithelial drug uptake to model conditions and assumptions. Results: The particle displacement distance (depth) in the mucus layer had a modest effect on overall drug absorption, while the mucociliary clearance rate was f...
Water Sources for Cyanobacteria Below Desert Rocks in the Negev Desert Determined by Conductivity

We present year round meteorological and conductivity measurements of colonized hypolithic rocks in the Arava Valley, Negev Desert, Israel. The data indicate that while dew is common in the Negev it is not an important source of moisture for hypolithic organisms at this site. The dominance of cyanobacteria in the hypolithic community are consistent with predictions that cyanobacteria are confined to habitats supplied by rain. To monitor the presence of liquid water under the small Negev rocks we developed and tested a simple field conductivity system based on two wires placed about 0.5 cm apart. Based on 21 replicates recorded for one year in the Negev we conclude that in natural rains (0.25 mm to 6 mm) the variability between sensor readings is between 20 and 60% decreasing with increasing rain amount. We conclude that the simple small electrical conductivity system described here can be used effectively to monitor liquid water levels in lithic habitats. However, the natural variability of these sensors indicates that several replicates should be deployed. The results and method presented have use in arid desert reclamation programs.
Organotellurium Fluorescence Probes for Redox Reactions: 9-Aryl-3,6-diaminotelluroxanthylium Dyes and Their Telluroxides

Several 9-aryl-3,6-diaminotelluroxanthylium dyes with phenyl, 2-methylphenyl, and 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl substituents at the 9-position were prepared. The characterization of these compounds included determination of 125Te NMR spectra, fluorescence quantum yields (ΦF), and quantum yields for the generation of singlet oxygen [Φ(1O2)]. While these compounds were essentially nonfluorescent (ΦF < 0.005), they produce 1O2 with Φ(1O2) between 0.43 and 0.90. The tellurorosamines were oxidized with 1O2 via self-photosensitization to the corresponding telluroxides, which allowed their preparation free of excess oxidant. Telluroxides with a 9-(2-methylphenyl) or 9-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl) substituent were fluorescent with quantum yields for fluorescence between 0.20 and 0.31. Steric bulk at the 9-position of the resulting telluroxides impacted rates of inter- and intramolecular attack of nucleophiles and stability of the telluroxide in aqueous media near physiological pH. The yield of reduction of the telluroxide wit...
Unrealistic Hope and Unnecessary Fear: Exploring How Sensationalistic News Stories Influence Health Behavior Motivation

In light of the inherent conflict between the nature of science (slow, subject to correction) and the nature of news (immediate, dramatic, novel), this study examines the effect of emotional health news coverage on intentions to engage in protective health behaviors. One hundred seventy-seven students read news stories designed to evoke either fear or hope about human papillomavirus (HPV) followed by different levels of response efficacy information regarding an impending HPV vaccine. Results indicated no main effects for emotion frame or response efficacy, but a significant interaction suggested that emotionally-consistent presentations (fear/low efficacy; hope/high efficacy) boosted intentions to engage in protective actions relative to emotionally-inconsistent, sensationalized presentations (fear/high efficacy, hope/low efficacy). Consistent with the emotion-as-frame perspective, this effect was moderated by perceived knowledge about HPV prevention. Effects of the sensationalized story constructions on trust in health news were also evidenced. Implications for the role of emotional health news coverage in priming prior knowledge about preventative health behaviors, along with future research directions, are discussed.
Robust Control Invariant Sets and Lyapunov-Based MPC for IPM Synchronous Motor Drives

This paper proposes a novel simplified model predictive control (MPC) scheme for interior permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) drive systems. The control problem is formulated in the $\alpha\beta$ stator flux space. The current–flux relation is eliminated from the MPC formulation and can be implemented as nonlinear map or an affine approximation without affecting the MPC complexity. The model is combined with the Lyapunov-based MPC concept. This scheme is shown to be asymptotically stable using the convex control set (CCS) input constraint with space vector modulation or pulse width modulation and asymptotically set stable using the finite control set (FCS) input constraint (with direct actuation). The stability properties are guaranteed for any cost function that is globally defined and any prediction horizon $N\geq 1$ . These results are validated using a software-in-the-loop (SiL) platform and an experimental test bench.
Proliferation of jejunal mucosal cells in rats flown in space.

To examine the effects of spaceflight on the proliferation and turnover of jejunal mucosal cells, we compared the percentages of mitotic cells present in the crypts of Lieberkuhn in the proximal, m...
A host interface architecture for HIPPI

High performance communication in the gigabit range can cause the end host to be the bottleneck. To relieve the host from the processing requirements of gigabit communication, specialized hardware is needed in the host interface. At the aggregate HIPPI input and output peak rate of 1.6 Gb/s, the major bottlenecks are in moving the data between the host's memory and the I/O channels, and in meeting the requirements of the physical protocol. An architecture that solves these problems is implemented on the HIPPI node of the Paragon Supercomputer. The architecture is highly parallel to facilitate in transferring the data at high speeds and in handling the requirements of the HIPPI physical protocol. Dedicated hardware is implemented for fast connect/disconnect to utilize the channel bandwidth efficiently. >
Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region

Some of the youngest nations of the world are situated along the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf: Saudi Arabia (1932), Kuwait (1961), Bahrain (1971), Qatar (1971), and the United Arab Emirates (1...
Copyright and Cultural Capital

This Article explores the oft-ignored relationship between copyright law and class stratification. Copyright law widens and perpetuates the gulf between the elite and the masses in three ways. First, within copyright doctrine, the values of originality, lone artistic creation, and a fetishism of the original over the copy (evident in the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990) align with the American high-brow's claim to avant-garde newness, utter originality, and the demoted status of art forms dependent on copies (chromolithography, photography, industrial arts). Second, copyright's legal remedies — including control over rote copying and the derivative works right — facilitate the high-brow's obsession with limited production and against appropriation ("watering down") by the middle brow and low brow. Third, a copyright holder’s monopoly power puts a high price on cultural fluency that may be impossible to achieve for those in emerging economies and the less affluent. In this way, copyright law incorporates, perpetuates, and exacerbates the cultural and capitalist class divide. As the late '80s and early '90s gave way to what I term a reverse-culturalization, or, the high-brow appropriating from the low-brow and making it high art, the relevance of copyright to the domestic artistic elite has diminished. Instead, copyright is now being deployed by big Hollywood studios and the recording industry as a means of denying equal access to knowledge in foreign countries. If the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu had written many years ago that it is only the rich, upper-class who can afford to engage in limited production or the coded literary language of high-brow culture, we are now seeing that adage playing itself out on the global arena in relation to culture as a whole — with copyright as its means of separating the cultural elite from the culturally less affluent.
The Importance of Both Supply and Demand to Policymaking Designed to Alter Preschool Attendance

Preschool attendance not only benefits the later learning of an individual and her subsequent income, it also provides external benefits to society in the forms of skill spillovers, education peer effects, reduced crime, and less government welfare spending/greater government tax revenue. Concern has accordingly arisen that the United States lags behind other developed countries in preschool attendance. This attendance deficit however is not consistent across all types of children and locations. To understand why, this paper offers a regression analysis of what influences the preschool attendance of three-, four-, and five-year olds from a supply and demand perspective using data from the California Health Interview Survey. The discovery of a positive influence of nearby available preschool slots per those that could possibly attend (supply) on the likelihood of preschool attendance that is greater in magnitude to influences detected for differences in parent education or income (demand), suggests the desirability of further pursuing public policies intended to increase this supply.
Assessing the Politics of Protest Political Science and the Study of Social Movements

Social movements represent a challenge not only to more conventional political action, but also to academic analysis. To be sure, scholarly inquiry often does not neatly follow disciplinary boundaries. Topics, ideas, methods, and even scholars borrow move across disciplinary boundaries. Such disciplinary spillover figures to be even more pronounced in an area of inquiry like social movements, where the definitional boundaries are not well delineated and the questions to be explored are extremely diverse. As a discipline, political science touches on many aspects of social movements and the politics of protest
DH on the fringe

Charles Dickens lured me into the world of digital humanities (DH). A tweeted call for volunteer editors to correct OCR errors was my introduction to crowdsourcing work. I spent a number of hours g...
Cu/Mn bimetallic catalysis enables carbonylative Suzuki-Miyaura coupling with unactivated alkyl electrophiles.

A bimetallic system consisting of Cu-carbene and Mn-carbonyl co-catalysts was employed for carbonylative C–C coupling of arylboronic esters with alkyl halides, allowing for the convergent synthesis of ketones. The system operates under mild conditions and exhibits complementary reactivity to Pd catalysis. The method is compatible with a wide range of arylboronic ester nucleophiles and proceeds smoothly for both primary and secondary alkyl iodide electrophiles. Preliminary mechanistic experiments corroborate a hypothetical catalytic mechanism consisting of co-dependent cycles wherein the Cu-carbene co-catalyst engages in transmetallation to generate an organocopper nucleophile, while the Mn-carbonyl co-catalyst activates the alkyl halide electrophile by single-electron transfer and then undergoes reversible carbonylation to generate an acylmanganese electrophile. The two cycles then intersect with a heterobimetallic, product-releasing C–C coupling step.
Exergy and economic comparison between kW-scale hybrid and stand-alone solid oxide fuel cell systems

Abstract Although hybrid solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) microturbine systems generate power more efficiently than stand-alone SOFC systems, hybrid systems remain in the demonstration phase. This study compares a hybrid system's exergetic and economic performance with that of a stand-alone system. Both systems meet a university building's kW-scale power demand. The hybrid system operates at 66 % exergetic efficiency, and the stand-alone system operates at 59 % exergetic efficiency. Increasing the fuel cell's operating voltage increases the systems' exergetic efficiencies, and varying the fuel cell's temperature, pressure, and fuel utilization influences the systems' exergetic performances, though to a lesser extent. This study calculates the systems' life cycle costs. We find that the systems' life cycle costs depend significantly on the systems' operation. During baseline operation, the hybrid system costs less than the stand-alone system. After optimizing the systems during cogeneration operation, the hybrid system costs slightly more than the stand-alone system. Overall, our findings support hybrid systems' continued research and development; it is recommended that future work simulate hybrid and stand-alone systems under a range of thermal-to-electric ratios to reflect different building types and operation.
Lineage Plasticity in Cancer Progression and Treatment

Historically, it has been widely presumed that differentiated cells are determined during development and become irreversibly committed to their designated fates. In certain circumstances, however, differentiated cells can display plasticity by changing their identity, either by dedifferentiation to a progenitor-like state or by transdifferentiation to an alternative differentiated cell type. Such cellular plasticity can be triggered by physiological or oncogenic stress, or it can be experimentally induced through cellular reprogramming. Notably, physiological stresses that promote plasticity, such as severe tissue damage, inflammation, or senescence, also represent hallmarks of cancer. Furthermore, key drivers of cellular plasticity include major oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways and can be exacerbated by drug treatment. Thus, plasticity may help cancer cells evade detection and treatment. We propose that cancer can be considered as a disease of excess plasticity, a notion that has important implications for intervention and treatment.
Data-Driven Synthesis of Full Probabilistic Programs

Probabilistic programming languages (PPLs) provide users a clean syntax for concisely representing probabilistic processes and easy access to sophisticated built-in inference algorithms. Unfortunately, writing a PPL program by hand can be difficult for non-experts, requiring extensive knowledge of statistics and deep insights into the data. To make the modeling process easier, we have created a tool that synthesizes PPL programs from relational datasets. Our synthesizer leverages the input data to generate a program sketch, then applies simulated annealing to complete the sketch. We introduce a data-guided approach to the program mutation stage of simulated annealing; this innovation allows our tool to scale to synthesizing complete probabilistic programs from scratch. We find that our synthesizer produces accurate programs from 10,000-row datasets in 21 s on average.
REGULATION OF ADRENOCEPTORS BY THYROID HORMONE

ABSTRACT Triiodothyronine (T 3 ) treatment of thyroidectomized rats increased the concentration of β-adrenergic receptors (β-AR) and decreased the density of α-adrenergic receptors (α-AR) in heart and submaxillary gland. Thyroidectomy decreased the density of β-AR in skeletal muscle sarcolemmal membrane. These results provide evidence for the involvement of thyroid hormone in the regulation of adrenoceptors.
Global, regional, and megacity trends in the highest temperature of the year: Diagnostics and evidence for accelerating trends

Trends in short-lived high-temperature extremes record a different dimension of change than the extensively studied annual and seasonal mean daily temperatures. They also have important socioeconomic, environmental, and human health implications. Here, we present analysis of the highest temperature of the year for approximately 9000 stations globally, focusing on quantifying spatially explicit exceedance probabilities during the recent 50- and 30-year periods. A global increase of 0.19°C per decade during the past 50 years (through 2015) accelerated to 0.25°C per decade during the last 30 years, a faster increase than in the mean annual temperature. Strong positive 30-year trends are detected in large regions of Eurasia and Australia with rates higher than 0.60°C per decade. In cities with more than 5 million inhabitants, where most heat-related fatalities occur, the average change is 0.33°C per decade, while some east Asia cities, Paris, Moscow, and Houston have experienced changes higher than 0.60°C per decade.
An evolutionary routing game for energy balance in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract In a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), the sensor nodes rely on each other to forward packets from the origin to the base station via some routes. Computation of a desirable route is challenging. Some of the routes can be better than others, which might lead to an imbalance in contention for disparate routes as one route may be congested more frequently or exhausted quicker than the others. Since each node self-interest is to save its own energy due to the limited energy resource, it can lead to congestion resulting in higher delays and additional packet collisions– which may eventually result in quicker energy depletion along such routes and shorten the lifespan of the network. In this paper, we analyze this issue from a game theoretic perspective and model the route selection problem in a WSN as an evolutionary anti-coordination routing game. We derive the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) of the game and prove that the derived incumbent strategy cannot be invaded by a greedy strategy i.e., mutant strategy. Furthermore, we derive the replicator dynamic of the proposed game in order to show the behavior of the sensors in selecting the paths. The mechanism of the replicator dynamics also shows how the nodes learn from their strategic interactions and modify their strategies at every stage of the game until reaching a stable strategy (ESS). Furthermore, the evolutionary game can be implemented in a distributed manner. Finally, in order to achieve increased lifetime, we analyze the fairness of the proposed equilibrium solution under the selfish node behavior by utilizing Jain’s fairness index. The results show that the proposed system is successful in converging the strategy choices to ESS even under dynamic conditions.
Extracellular Matrix Effects on Mammary Cell Behavior

Developmental biologists have long recognized that the extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a vital role in various developmental processes such as tissue morphogenesis and cytodifferentiation (1,2,3). Expression of the proliferative, morphogenetic and functional potentialities of the mammary epitheliumin vivo and in culture are clearly influenced by the ECM (4,5). The mechanistic details of how the ECM affects mammary epithelial cell behavior remain to be defined. As the ECM supports the mammary epithelium in vivo includes both acellular and cellular domains, ECM-mediated effects are likely to include interactions between different acellular ECM components, between cells and acellular ECM components and between different cell types. Additionally, such interactions must be coupled to the hormonal and growth factor requirements known to exist for expression of the mammary cell phenotype.
Methane Partial Oxidation by Unsupported and Silica Supported Iron Phosphate Catalysts: Influence of Reaction Conditions and Co-Feeding of Water on Activity and Selectivity

Abstract The partial oxidation of methane to methanol and formaldehyde by molecular oxygen has been investigated over crystalline and silica supported FePO 4 at a pressure of 1 atm and in the temperature range of 723–973 K. The quartz phase of FePO 4 , as well as silica supported FePO 4 prepared by impregnation (5 wt%), were examined in a continuous flow reactor. Experiments carried out over FePO 4 show high selectivity to formaldehyde at low conversion and suggest that formaldehyde is the primary reaction product, but selectivity decreased rapidly as conversion was increased. The highest space-time yield of formaldehyde observed for this catalyst was 59 g/kg cat -h. Above 5% methane conversion, carbon oxides were the only products. For silica-supported FePO 4 , formaldehyde selectivity did not fall off rapidly, exhibiting a formaldehyde selectivity of 12% at about 10% conversion (STY=285 g/kg cat -h). Quantifiable yields of methanol were observed at very low conversion levels, i.e. below 3% (STY=11 g/kg cat -h). Addition of steam (up to 0.1 atm partial pressure) into the feed stream increased the selectivity to methanol (∼25 g/kg cat/h with up to 3% selectivity) and formaldehyde (∼487 g/kg cat/h with up to 94% selectivity) for the silica-supported FePO 4 catalyst. Steam addition had little effect on catalyst activity. Characterization results indicate the presence of FePO 4 , as well as fivefold coordinate Fe 3+ in silica supported catalyst samples, and this species is proposed to be responsible for methane activation. After catalysis in the presence of steam, the fivefold coordinate iron is present, but a significant fraction of the FePO 4 has been reduced to Fe 2 P 2 O 7 . Enhanced selectivity in the presence of steam is attributed in part to the ease of the reversible formation of surface hydroxyl groups (P-OH) from pyrophosphate (P-O-P) groups.
A Survey of Methods and Issues in ESP Research

Interest in psychic phenomena in general, now often referred to as psi, was based originally on a wealth of anecdotal material. We will first define some basic terms and then go on to use anecdotes to illustrate some of the main forms of psi.
A Two-Ribosome Model for Attenuation

The first insights into the mechanisms of gene regulation were provided by the work of Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod in early 1960s. The results of their elegant genetic studies concerning the regulation of the lactose utilization operon of Escherichia coli suggested the presence of a repressor molecule that acted in trans to repress the expression of the genes of the operon.1,2 Later, Ellis Englesberg and his colleagues showed that trans-acting factors could affect gene expression in a positive manner as well.3 Subsequently, positive and negative trans-acting effectors of gene expression were demonstrated for many metabolic pathways in bacteria, bacteriophage, and eukaryotic organisms. In each of these systems, however, regulation was exerted at the level of transcription initiation. It was not until the late 1970s that Charles Yanofsky and his colleagues demonstrated a fundamentally different type of gene regulation. They showed that, in addition to regulation by repression, the genes of the tryptophan operon of E. coli are subject to regulation by transcription termination. The regulation of transcription termination at a site preceding the structural genes of an operon is called attenuation. Transcription attenuation is now recognized as a common mechanism for the regulation of gene expression in bacteria and more general forms of attenuation have been described in eukaryotic cells and their viruses (reviewed in refs. 4–6).
Safe Design of Controller for Smart Communicating Vehicles

the adaptive cruise control system (ACC) is being adopted in smart vehicles. ACC aims to keep the vehicle cruise system 2-3 seconds far from the front vehicle. The ACC depends strongly on hardware equipment to receive information from the surrounding environment. In this work, we propose a safe design of an automatic speed controller for smart communicating vehicles. Without the need of any extra radars or sensors in the vehicle, the cruise system will be able to become an adaptive control system. It uses the discrete controller synthesis method to generate a controller locally at each vehicle and employs the multiagent system to implement the network of the communicating vehicles.
Using Workforce Inter-Personnel Diversity to Alleviate Generational Differences

The history of the American workplace has been predicated on a variety of generations of employees working together to meet organization goals. The systems within the organizations usually were designed around seniority when there were unions in many workplaces. Unions are very infrequent in the American work system and seniority is not valued as it had been in the past. Intergenerational differences are great within organizations when the generations cooperate with each other and the system does not reward seniority over skill. This theme is not suggesting that seniority or generational differences are bad. It is just focusing on solving some of the problems by using workforce inter-personnel diversity to increase the skill levels of all employees and providing recognition of these differences. To achieve success through generational differences, comprehensive workforce changes are needed. As the baby boomers retire and many young people have left rural communities for urban areas, understanding generational differences in the workplace has become much more important. The use of workforce inter-personnel diversity can help organizational leaders shift their focus from employee ages and toward employee performance.
Real Time and In-Situ Spectroscopic Ellipsometry of Cu y In 1− x Ga x Se 2 for Complex Dielectric Function Determination and Parameterization

Real time spectroscopic ellipsometry (RTSE) has been applied to characterize the structural evolution and final structural properties of ~50–60 nm thin film Cuy(In1−xGax)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell absorber layers deposited by single stage co-evaporation onto crystalline silicon wafer substrates. Two series of depositions were explored; the first spans the range of copper atomic fraction y = [Cu]/([In] + [Ga]) of 0.45 < y < 1.20 for fixed gallium atomic fraction x = [Ga]/([In] + [Ga]) = 0.30 and the second spans the range of 0 ≤ x < 0.50 with fixed y ~ 0.90, as measured by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Systematic variations in the structural evolution with y reveal that near stoichiometric films undergo significant roughening typically associated with crystallite nucleation and growth whereas films with low and high Cu contents undergo significant smoothening during coalescence typically associated with disordered films or surface regions. The final film structural parameters determined from RTSE enable accurate determination of complex dielectric functions at the deposition temperature and at room temperature based on in-situ SE measurements performed immediately after the deposition process and after film cooling, respectively. Critical point (CP) analysis applying a standard lineshape was performed by fitting twice differentiated dielectric functions. Thus, the resulting CP resonance energies were obtained in accordance with the standardized procedures developed for research on the optical properties of semiconductors. An analytical expression describing the complex dielectric functions of the CIGS films over the range 0.75–3.8 eV was developed that incorporates photon energy independent parameters associated with four CP resonances, a modified Lorentz oscillator as a broad background between CPs, and a sub-bandgap Urbach tail. The procedure for fitting the dielectric functions by this expression was stabilized by fixing the CP energies deduced in the CP analysis. Polynomials describing the dependence on the Cu content y and the Ga content x for each of the photon energy independent parameters were obtained by fitting the plots of these parameter values as functions of y and x. The utility of the dielectric function expression and associated polynomials has been demonstrated through ex-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) applications in which the compositional parameters of x and y for a ~450 nm CIGS film have been mapped over a 10 cm × 10 cm sample area. Although the dielectric functions have been deduced from ~50–60 nm films on ideal smooth substrates, they have been effective in serving as a database for compositional analysis of much thicker films, as well as films on Mo coated glass substrates in the solar cell configuration.
Successful treatment with infliximab after adalimumab failure in pediatric noninfectious uveitis

Purpose To describe the use of infliximab after adalimumab failure in the treatment of pediatric noninfectious uveitis. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical records of pediatric patients with noninfectious uveitis treated with infliximab for a minimum of 6 months after previously failing to achieve steroid-free remission using adalimumab at the University of Texas Medical School and Children's Medical Center between September 2015 and March 2018. Rates of achieving disease activity quiescence and steroid-free remission as well as incidence of adverse events were calculated. Results A total of 13 patients with noninfectious uveitis refractory to treatment with adalimumab met inclusion criteria. Three (23%) had anterior uveitis, 4 (31%) had pars planitis, and 6 (46%) had panuveitis. Eleven (85%) patients had preexisting ocular comorbidities. Of these, 4 (31%) had retinal vasculitis, and 1 (7.7%) had cystoid macular edema. There was a 100% response rate to treatment with infliximab following failure to achieve disease quiescence on adalimumab. At mean follow-up time of 21 months (range, 8-31) from initiation of infliximab, there was a reduction in steroid dependence from 100% to 15% after transitioning from adalimumab to infliximab (P Conclusions In our study cohort, infliximab was used successfully in all cases of recalcitrant pediatric noninfectious uveitis that previously failed adalimumab therapy.
Two-Stage Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review of Bone Graft Options for Tunnel Augmentation.

Background:No consensus is available regarding the optimal choice of bone graft material for bone tunnel augmentation in revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery.Purpose:To compare the out...
International Childbirth Initiative: A new Paradigm in Maternal Health Care.

The International Childbirth Initiative (ICI) Twelve Steps to Safe and Respectful Maternity Care was developed to promote quality in practice within a broader scope and multidimensional approach to quality that ensures evidence based practice focusing on better (bio)-medical and psychosocial health outcomes for the Mother-Baby-Family unit. It also addresses a number of health system issues that contribute to the achievement of quality of care in practice including working conditions and relationships between health care providers. The ICI Foundational Principles and 12 Steps are building blocks for equitable, Mother-Baby-Family focused, timely, effective and respectful care that can be implemented by facilities, centres, hospitals and units providing care before, during and after birth to women and their babies throughout the world. The ICI supports organizational implementation and facilitates a learning community of practice for ICI implementers. As one of the founding organizations with IMBCO, FIGO has embraced this initiative and Dr. Carlos Fuchtner has declared it as a FIGO Presidential Initiative for the period 2019-2022 and has established a FIGO Working Group for the ICI that will continue to collaborate with partners to support ICI implementation and recognition status.
Transcriptomic response to soybean meal-based diets as the first formulated feed in juvenile yellow perch (Perca flavescens)

With increasing levels of fish meal (FM) protein in aquafeeds being replaced with soybean meal (SBM) protein, understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in response to alternative diets has become a critical concern. Thus, the goal of this study was to examine transcriptional differences in the intestine of juvenile yellow perch through RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), after their initial introduction to a formulated diet with 75% SBM protein inclusion for 61 days, compared to those fed a traditional FM-based diet. Transcriptomic analysis revealed a concise set of differentially expressed genes in juveniles fed the SBM-based diet, the majority of which were intrinsic to the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway. Analysis of total body lipid and cholesterol levels were also investigated, with no between-treatment differences detected. Results of this study demonstrate that in response to SBM-based diets, yellow perch juveniles up-regulate the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway in order to maintain homeostasis. These findings suggest that the upregulation of the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway may negatively impact fish growth due to its large energy expenditure, and future studies are warranted.
Speakers enhance contextually confusable words

Recent work has found evidence that natural languages are shaped by pressures for efficient communication — e.g. the more contextually predictable a word is, the fewer speech sounds or syllables it has (Piantadosi et al. 2011). Research on the degree to which speech and language are shaped by pressures for effective communication — robustness in the face of noise and uncertainty — has been more equivocal. We develop a measure of contextual confusability during word recognition based on psychoacoustic data. Applying this measure to naturalistic speech corpora, we find evidence suggesting that speakers alter their productions to make contextually more confusable words easier to understand.
Leaving Kashi: Sanskrit knowledge and cultures of consumption in eighteenth-century South India:

Recent studies of scholarly life in early modern India have concentrated on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. My essay has two aims: to push this study into the long eighteenth century, and ...
Are investors moonstruck? : lunar phases and stock returns

This paper investigates the relation between lunar phases and stock market returns of 48 countries. The findings indicate that stock returns are lower on the days around a full moon than on the days around a new moon. The magnitude of the return difference is 3% to 5% per annum based on analyses of two global portfolios: one equal-weighted and the other value-weighted. The return difference is not due to changes in stock market volatility or trading volumes. The data show that the lunar effect is not explained away by announcements of macroeconomic indicators, nor is it driven by major global shocks. Moreover, the lunar effect is independent of other calendar-related anomalies such as the January effect, the day-of-week effect, the calendar month effect, and the holiday effect (including lunar holidays).
Maternity Units in Rural Hospitals in North Carolina: Successful Models for Staffing and Structure.

OBJECTIVES Almost 15% of all US births occur in rural hospitals, yet rural hospitals are closing at an alarming rate because of shortages of delivering clinicians, nurses, and anesthesia support. We describe maternity staffing patterns in successful rural hospitals across North Carolina. METHODS All of the hospitals in the state with ≤200 beds and active maternity units were surveyed. Hospitals were categorized into three sizes: critical access hospitals (CAHs) had ≤25 acute staffed hospital beds, small rural hospitals had ≤100 beds without being defined as CAHs, and intermediate rural hospitals had 101 to 200 beds. Qualitative data were collected at a selection of study hospitals during site visits. Eighteen hospitals were surveyed. Site visits were completed at 8 of the surveyed hospitals. RESULTS Nurses in CAHs were more likely to float to other units when Labor and Delivery did not have patients and nursing management was more likely to assist on Labor and Delivery when patient census was high. Anesthesia staffing patterns varied but certified nurse anesthetists were highly used. CAHs were almost twice as likely to accept patients choosing a trial of labor after cesarean section (CS) than larger hospitals, but CS rates were similar across all hospital types. Hospitals with only obstetricians as delivering providers had the highest CS rate (32%). The types of hospitals with the lowest CS rates were the hospitals with only family physicians (24%) or high proportions of certified nurse midwives (22%). CONCLUSIONS Innovative staffing models, including family physicians, nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists, are critical for the survival of rural hospitals that provide vital maternity services in underserved areas.
Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat substrains show differences in premorbid addiction vulnerability traits and cocaine self-administration: Implications for a novel rat reduced complexity cross

Forward genetic mapping of F2 crosses between closely related substrains of inbred rodents - referred to as a reduced complexity cross (RCC) - is a relatively new strategy for accelerating the pace of gene discovery for complex traits, such as drug addiction. RCCs to date were generated in mice, but rats are thought to be optimal for addiction genetic studies. Based on past literature, one inbred Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat substrain, SHR/NCrl, is predicted to exhibit a distinct behavioral profile as it relates to cocaine vulnerability traits relative to another substrain, SHR/NHsd. Direct substrain comparisons are a necessary first step before implementing an RCC. We evaluated a number of premorbid addiction vulnerability traits and cocaine self-administration behaviors using a longitudinal within-subjects design. Trait impulsivity and compulsivity were greater in SHR/NCrl than SHR/NHsd, as were reactivity to sucrose reward, sensitivity to acute psychostimulant effects of cocaine, and cocaine abuse liability studied under fixed-ratio and chained schedules of cocaine self-administration. Trait compulsivity correlated with the acute psychostimulant effects of cocaine, which in turn correlated with cocaine taking under the chained schedule. Trait compulsivity also was the best predictor of cocaine seeking responses. Heritability estimates indicated that 22%-40% of the variances for the above phenotypes can be explained by additive genetic factors, providing sufficient genetic variance to conduct genetic mapping in F2 crosses of SHR/NCrl and SHR/NHsd. These results provide compelling support for using an RCC approach in SHR substrains to uncover candidate genes and variants that are of relevance to cocaine use disorders. HighlightsO_LIClosely related SHR substrains have distinct cocaine vulnerability traits C_LIO_LIInhibitory control was poorer in SHR/NCrl than SHR/NHsd C_LIO_LISHR/NCrl were more sucrose reactive and sensitive to acute cocaine than SHR/NHsd C_LIO_LICocaine abuse liability was greater in SHR/NCrl than SHR/NHsd C_LIO_LISHR substrains can be used in an RCC to uncover cocaine vulnerability genes & variants C_LI
Pay More Stocks and Options to Directors? Theory and Evidence of Board Compensation

The compensation of board directors has received much attention, along with the growing debates on corporate governance in recent years, partly due to the ongoing financial crisis. While prior studies including Hall and Liebman (1998) have shown evidence of a dramatic increase in the use of equity-based incentives, resulting in an increase in the sensitivity of executive pay to firm performance, we ask whether it benefits shareholders to offer similar incentive contracts to board directors. This paper suggests that equity-based compensation for board directors is necessary and the level of incentives depends on directors’ effectiveness in monitoring and friendliness in advising CEOs. Using the market competition and pay correlation to proxy for monitoring effectiveness and advisory friendliness, we report empirical evidence supporting our hypotheses.
Large wood and sediment storage in a mixed bedrock-alluvial stream, western Montana, USA

Abstract Sediment storage by instream wood in forested mountain streams mediates sediment movement from hillslopes through the channel network and can alter channel morphology at multiple spatial scales. Mixed bedrock-alluvial channels are prevalent in mountain stream networks, yet the distribution and geomorphic impact of large wood within these streams are poorly understood. To estimate how the distribution of large wood in a mixed bedrock-alluvial stream relates to sediment storage, we measured and characterized large wood, and we surveyed the volume of associated sediment within a stream in the Bitterroot Mountains, Montana. The upstream portion of the study reach is predominantly alluvial and the downstream portion has significant bedrock exposure along the channel bed and banks. Wood volume and sediment storage in the mixed bedrock-alluvial subreach are 50% and 15%, respectively, of those measured in the alluvial subreach. Most wood is organized into jams, and two channel-spanning jams within the upstream subreach account for 50% and 80% of the reach-averaged wood and sediment volume, respectively. The volume of sediment stored by wood in the full reach is the same order of magnitude as the estimated annual bedload export. Our study highlights the interactions among channel form and the fluxes and storage of wood and sediment. Wood that forms channel-spanning jams, which store a disproportionate amount of wood and sediment in the study reach, may accentuate differences between alluvial and bedrock-dominated subreaches in mountain stream networks, by promoting sediment deposition and storage upstream and by reducing sediment supply to downstream reaches.