cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
10.5 A digital PLL with feedforward multi-tone spur cancelation loop achieving <−73dBc fractional spur and <−110dBc Reference Spur in 65nm CMOS

A low-spur PLL is desirable for many applications since it avoides mixing unwanted blocker signals, prevents emission mask violations or minimizes jitter in the clock source. Internal spurs result from the nature of PLL operation and include reference spurs and fractional spurs when the PLL is operated in fractional-N mode. External spurs are caused by nearby disturbances, such as coupling from other clock domains in an SoC design. To achieve ultra-low spur levels, this work proposes a feedforward multi-tone spur cancellation loop for a fractional-N digital PLL architecture. The proposed scheme aims to cancel: a) fractional spurs caused by finite time-to-digital converter (TDC) quantization steps and its DNL when operated in fractional-N mode; b) external spurious tones that are in a harmonic relationship, and c) independent series of spurious tones that are not in a mutually harmonic relationship by cascading cancellation loops. A proof-of-concept 3-to-5GHz digital PLL prototype is implemented in 65nm CMOS and achieves a worst-case reference spur of −110.1dB and a worst-case in-band fractional spur of −73.66dB, both of which are lower than the reported spur level among state-of-the-art PLLs [1–4]. The internal or external spur magnitude reduction after enabling the cancellation loop ranges from 15 to 50dB over different operation scenarios; this reduction validates the effectiveness of the proposed spur cancellation scheme.
Processing-morphology relationships of compatibilized polyolefin/polyamide blends

The emulsifying effect of a polyethylene-based ionomer on the phase size/composition relationship was studied for polypropylene/polyamide and polyethylene/polyamide blends. The particle size measured for the uncompatibilized blends increased with minor phase concentration, particularly as the region of dual phase continuity was approached. This relationship was less pronounced when ionomer was added, and the dimensions of the dispersed phase were significantly reduced. A narrowing of the region of dual phase continuity was observed due to the addition of ionomer. An increase in the torque measured during melt blending in a Brabender mixing chamber resulted when ionomer was added, due to the increase in the interactions at the interface. The particle size determined for the uncompatibilized blends increased with viscosity ratio. The effect was also less pronounced for the compatibilized blends. From these observations, it was possible to conclude that the effect of interfacial modification on morphology predominates over that of composition and viscosity ratio. The effects were interpreted in terms of the reduction of interfacial mobility due to the compatibilization.
Tadarida femorosacca and Tadarida molossa at Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

Recent bat rabies investigations by the Communicable Disease Center at Carlsbad Caverns National Park have produced the new locality records reported herein. These bats were captured by a bat trap as they flew through the main entrance of Carlsbad …
Paediatric sleep apnoea and treatment with distraction osteogenesis.

Abstract Paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) associated with craniofacial anomalies frequently is refractory to traditional treatment modalities. Skeletal expansion using distraction osteogenesis to correct facial deformities has proven to be an excellent treatment modality for the resolution of OSA. This paper discusses the use of distraction osteogenesis from infancy through adolescence and will show objective improvement in not only facial norms but also in OSA indices.
Reversing the Surgical Stigma for Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Just as in recent years attitudes and treatment therapies have changed regarding non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), it is time that the same occur for its small-cell counterpart. Although treatment for advanced-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is fairly standardized, there remain a number of controversies that have yet to be clarified by evidence-based data.
Ontology learning and its application in software-intensive projects

Software artifacts, such as requirements, design, source code, documentation, and safety-related artifacts are typically expressed using domain-specific terminology. Automated tools which attempt to analyze software artifacts in order to perform tasks such as trace retrieval and maintenance, domain analysis, program comprehension, or to service natural language queries, need to understand the vocabulary and concepts of the domain in order to achieve acceptable levels of accuracy. Domain concepts can be captured and stored as an ontology. Unfortunately, constructing ontologies is extremely time-consuming and has proven hard to automate. This dissertation proposes a novel approach for semi-automated ontology building that leverages user-defined trace links to identify candidate domain facts. It uses a variety of web-mining, Natural Language Processing, and machine learning techniques to filter and rank the candidate facts, and to assist the user in building a domain-specific ontology. The benefits of the constructed ontology are described and evaluated within the context of automated trace link creation.
Developing and Using a Data Repository for Quality Improvement: The Genesis of IRIS

Article-at-a-Glance Background In 1991 the Inova Health System, a regional hospital system in Fairfax, Virginia, started developing a patient data repository, the Inova Research Information System (IRIS), to support clinical quality improvement, managed care contracting, and technology assessment. Building a database prototype The prototype was built with the help of five key early user groups; each group, led by an influential physician, was eager to have access to data important to their work in an integrated and standardized electronic format. Using the database IRIS serves as the principal resource that Ql committees, risk managers, managed care contracting officers, and others turn to for data to support their studies of the processes of care used and patient outcomes. Clinicians should use data analysis to identify opportunities for Ql and implement change in their processes of care as a result. IRIS has already been used to make selected comparisons of patient management. For example, at Inova's largest hospital, for patients with a primary diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (but without any unrelated secondary diagnoses), the length of stay was significantly shorter (5.5 days) when the attending physician was a cardiologist rather than an internist (7.5 days) or family practitioner (7.7 days). Summary IRIS represents an architecture of study of patients, clinicians, and administrators—and the outcomes and the results produced. By the end of 1995 three years of integrated clinical and financial data on inpatients will be available, permitting creation of a feedback loop for continuous clinical and managerial learning.
Should polymerase chain reaction analysis to detect minimal residual disease in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia be used in clinical decision making

C HRONIC MYELOGENOUS leukemia (CML) is a unique myeloproliferative disorder usually associated with a distinctive cytogenetic abnormality—the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)—that leads to leukemogenesis.[1][1] Ph is a shortened chromosome 22 resulting from a reciprocal translocation of the long
Revision of Neotropical species of ant-like stone beetles misplaced in Stenichnus and Scydmoraphes (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae).

Genera Stenichnus and Scydmoraphes are distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, with a few rather peculiar species described from South America. Type series of Stenichnus andicola Franz, Scydmoraphes venezolanus Franz and Scydmoraphes peruanus Franz were examined and the first of these species is transferred to Sciacharis Broun, while two new generic names are established to accommodate the two latter species: Meridaphes gen. n. and Perumicrus gen. n. This results in three new combinations: Sciacharis ( incertae sedis ) andicola (Franz) comb. n., Meridaphes venezolanus (Franz) comb. n. , and Perumicrus peruanus (Franz) comb. n. Morphological structures of all treated taxa are described and illustrated in detail.
With great power comes shared responsibility: Psychological power and the delegation of authority

Abstract Despite the importance of delegation as a managerial tool, we know little about how leaders' characteristics affect their decision to delegate. In this paper, we demonstrate that, holding objective markers of power constant, a psychological sense of power predicts preferences for delegation. Specifically, individuals who feel relatively powerless are less willing to delegate decision making authority compared to those who feel powerful. We find support for this pattern in two studies. These results provide insight into the factors linking power and delegation.
Chemotherapy Relative Dose Intensity and Therapy Efficacy in Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: The Effect of Dose Reductions and Delays on Cure

Introduction: The fundamental design behind combination chemotherapeutic regimens for hematologic malignancies is based on mathematical modeling that attempts to achieve rapid tumor reduction with appropriate cytotoxic doses given at predetermined intervals designed to minimize the chance of regrowth during treatment. The current standard primary treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma includes combination chemotherapy with Doxorubicin, Bleomycin, Vinblastine, and Dacarbazine given at 14 day intervals (ABVD). For high-grade Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the most common first line combination chemotherapy regimen includes Rituximab, Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubicin, Vincristine, and Prednisone given at 21 day intervals (RCHOP-21). In clinical practice, it is common for patients to experience chemotherapy dose reductions or treatment delays due to various factors leading to a decrease in relative dose intensity (RDI). The relationship between chemotherapy relative dose intensity (RDI) and treatment efficacy was investigated. Methods: Patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) who received ABVD and patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who received RCHOP-21 at our institution between 2004-2014 were retrospectively studied in 2 different cohorts. The following data was collected: age, sex, ethnicity, stage, Charleston Comorbidity Index (CCI), duration of follow-up, chemotherapy RDI, treatment outcome (remission vs primary refractory/relapse). The HL cohort consisted of 46 patients with the following characteristics: average age 36 years (range 18-74 years), 50% male/50% female, 50% Hispanic/50% Non-Hispanic, 44% early stage/56% late stage, 75% CCI 2/29% CCI >2, average follow-up 34 months (range 2-118 mo). The DLBCL cohort consisted of 104 patients with the following characteristics: average age 53 years (range 19-82 years), 50% male/50% female, 59% Hispanic/41% Non-Hispanic, 49% early stage/51% late stage, 60% CCI 2/40% CCI >2, average follow-up 34 months (range 2-163 mo). Results: The HL cohort treated with ABVD had a mean RDI of 83% (range 50-100%) with outcomes as follows: remission 38 (82%), primary refractory 4 (9%), relapsed 4 (9%). Univariate analysis showed no difference in outcome between patients who received ABVD RDI >90% vs 80-89% vs 90% vs 80-89% vs Conclusions: There was no correlation between chemotherapy relative dose intensity and treatment efficacy in two cohorts of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma and diffuse large B cell lymphoma. These findings may suggest that for patients with these potentially curative hematologic malignancies, small dose reductions or short delays between chemotherapy cycles that result in decreased chemotherapy relative dose intensity may not affect overall outcomes. However, further studies are needed to determine the level at which a decreased relative dose intensity becomes significant. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Radiologic presentation of a myofibroblastoma of the adult male breast

We present the case of a 50-year-old male with bilateral gynecomastia who was incidentally found to have 0.8-cm subareolar mass on computed tomography. Mammographic and sonographic characteristics of the lesion are described as well as a brief historical review of myofibroblastoma, a rare mesenchymal tumor.
Generating sets for the multiplicative groups of algebras over finite fields and expander graphs

Abstract We consider computational problems concerning algebras over finite fields. In particular, we propose an algorithm for finding a small generating set for the multiplicative group of F q [ x ] / F , where q = p n is a prime power and F ∈ F q [ x ] is a polynomial not necessarily irreducible. Based on this result, a new set of expander graphs can be explicitly constructed. In addition, we present algorithms for basis construction and decomposition of a given element with respect to the basis.
New Options for Investigating Macro-level Variation in Segregation

The previous chapter established that the difference of means framework for measuring segregation makes it possible to investigate segregation in a single city using individual-level models of residential attainment. The discussion in this chapter reviews how this approach can be extended to investigate ecological (i.e., aggregate-level) variation in segregation across cities and over time using multi-level models of individual residential attainments. The key is that ecological variation in segregation can be investigated by assessing how the effect of race on segregation-relevant individual residential outcomes is conditioned by time and/or city characteristics. A central advantage of this approach is that it permits researchers to also include relevant non-racial social and economic characteristics in the micro-model. This allows effects of community characteristics to be estimated at the “zero order” level or “net” of controls for non-racial factors. It also can help overcome the risk of errors of inference that are likely to occur in aggregate-level analyses that attempt to control for relevant individual-level social and economic characteristics using aggregate-level indicators of group disparity on these variables.
Frailty Correlates with Postoperative Mortality and Major Morbidity After Cytoreductive Surgery with Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy.

Frailty is increasingly being recognized as a powerful predictor of postoperative outcomes for cancer patients. This study examined the role of the modified frailty index (MFI) in predicting outcomes for patients undergoing cytoreduction (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). Data from National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) patients who underwent CRS/HIPEC between 2005 and 2014 were reviewed. The MFI, validated for use in NSQIP, was used to determine correlation between frailty and postoperative outcomes. The analysis included 1171 patients. The patients were divided into three groups: non-frail (MFI 0), mildly frail (MFI 1 or 2), or severely frail (MFI ≥ 3). More than 90% of patients had an MFI of 0 or 1. The MFI was 0 for 716 patients (61.1%), 1 for 373 patients (31.9%), 2 for 76 patients (6.5%), 3 for 5 patients (0.4%), and 4 for 1 patient (0.1%). Overall, grade 4 Clavien morbidity was observed in 99 patients (8.5%) and mortality in 26 patients (2.2%). For non-frail, mildly frail, and severely frail patients, worsening frailty correlated respectively with increases in grade 4 Clavien morbidity (6.7% vs. 10.9% vs. 33.3%; p = 0.004) and mortality (1.3% vs. 3.3% vs. 33.3%; p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, which included age of 70 years or older and albumin level of 3 or lower, frailty was the only factor that correlated with postoperative mortality: non-frail:reference, mildly frail [odds ratio (OR) 2.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.14–6.73; p = 0.025], severely frail (OR 29.1, 95% CI 4–210.87; p = 0.01), age of 70 years or older (OR 1.16, 95% CI 0.34–3.93; p = 0.81), and albumin level of 3 or lower (OR 2.42, 95% CI 0.84–6.98; p = 0.1). Frailty is a strong predictor of major grade 4 morbidity and mortality after CRS/HIPEC. Severe frailty should be a relative contraindication to CRS/HIPEC. Frailty correlates should be a selection factor in the evaluation of all candidates for CRS/HIPEC.
Enhanced thermophysical properties of multiwalled carbon nanotubes based nanofluids. Part 1: Critical review

Abstract Recently reported anomalous thermal conductivity enhancement in carbon nanotube nanofluids is in disagreement with the known physical theories for heat transfer fluids. Many researchers have modified existing theoretical models using recent experimental data to highlight the importance of certain physical mechanisms that should be prevalent at the nanoscale. In this study, available experimental data have been mapped and the discrepancies among them have been highlighted and compared using the available physical models. The proposed theories seem not capable of predicting the experimental data with reasonable accuracy. Analysis reveals that the measurement techniques used by researchers in the area of nanofluids should be standardized. In Part 2 of this study, collected experimental data indicate that the Maxwell's theory predictions can accurately be used to determine the effects of using nanoparticles on thermal conductivity.
Welfare to work propensities: administrative record evidence

The study examines the role of home-to-new-job-hub distance on employment propensity using a unique data set compiled from integrated micro-level administrative records of work-eligible welfare rec...
Pilot randomized controlled trial of a comprehensive smoking cessation intervention for patients with upper aerodigestive cancer undergoing radiotherapy.

Background Smoking among patients with cancer is associated with poor outcomes, however, smoking cessation interventions have had limited success. Methods This randomized controlled trial compared a novel smoking cessation intervention ("intervention") with enhanced usual care ("control"). Participants were smokers with head and neck or thoracic malignancies undergoing radiation. Controls received brief counseling. Intervention participants received intensive counseling, pharmacotherapy, text-messaging, and financial incentives. Biochemically confirmed 7-day abstinence at 8 weeks was compared using Fisher's exact t test. Smoking abstinence and intensity were also analyzed using time-series panel regression. Results The study population comprised 19 intervention and 10 control participants. More intervention (74%) than control (30%) participants abstained from smoking at 8 weeks (P = .05). Intervention participants were significantly more likely to abstain (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 14.70; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.56-60.76) and smoked fewer cigarettes (adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.16; 95% CI 0.06-0.40) during weeks 1 to 8. Conclusion This intervention decreased smoking among patients with upper aerodigestive cancers during radiotherapy.
Organizational Risk-Taking in Ambiguous Environments: Insurance and Hurricanes

Experiential learning can be effective in guiding organizational risk-taking in relatively stable environments. That effectiveness breaks down when unexpectedly severe environmental disruptions sig...
Hospitality Program Selection Criteria: A Comparison of International Undergraduate, Master’s, and Doctoral Students

Because of their cultural and financial contributions to their host institutions and communities, higher education has recruited more international students to its institutions. In order to underst...
Learning from failures: Optimal contracts for experimentation and production

Abstract Before embarking on a project, a principal must often rely on an agent to learn about its profitability. We model this learning as a two-armed bandit problem and highlight the interaction between learning (experimentation) and production. We derive the optimal contract for both experimentation and production when the agent has private information about the efficiency of experimentation. This private information in the experimentation stage generates asymmetric information in the production stage even though there was no disagreement about the profitability of the project at the outset. The degree of asymmetric information is endogenously determined by the length of the experimentation stage. An optimal contract uses the length of experimentation, the production scale, and the timing of payments to screen the agent. We find that over-experimentation and over-production can be used to reduce the agent's rent. An efficient type is rewarded early since he is more likely to succeed in experimenting, while an inefficient type is rewarded at the very end of the experimentation stage. This result is robust to the introduction of ex post moral hazard.
Don't Forget About Us: Understanding Rural and Small Town Principals' Values Toward Computer Science

Buffalo State College has hosted a number of summer institutes and conferences over the years to increase the availability of computer science (CS) courses taught in western and central New York high schools. These institutes and conferences have contributed to strong CS programs in suburban and private schools, but not in urban and rural/small town schools. In the summer of 2018, Buffalo State invited high school principals from across the area to a summit to discuss the future of CS. Forty-six principals participated in the summit and of those school leaders, 30% of them were from rural/small towns. In this poster, the research team will present the results of a mixed-methods school leadership study based on the value rural/small town principals place on CS. Results from a survey, conducted at the summit, and semi-structured interviews will be presented. A sociocultural approach was used to analyze the data since the principals' values and mediated actions toward CS were influenced by the socially situated environment of the schools they lead
Theses And Dissertations Completed In Home Economics: 1987

The compilation of theses and dissertations completed in home economics in colleges and universities in the United States during 1987 is presented. The 803 titles submitted by 69 institutions are listed by subject matter area and degree; each entry includes title, author, school, and availability of the document. Infor mation about graduate research in home economics is summarized by (1) numbers of titles submitted by each school, (2) numbers and percentages of titles by subject matter area, (3) institutions reporting highest numbers of theses and dissertations, (4) ranking of institutions reporting highest numbers of titles in each subject matter area and (5) total numbers of titles by degree and subject matter area since reporting began in 1982.
Family Life Education

Interest in the family and in family life education has become widespread and multifaceted during the past few decades. This interest, however, is not a new phenomenon; it evolved during the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries. Its beginning had many characteristics of a reform movement arising during the social-cultural upheavals ofthat period. During this time, there were a number of related social, economic, and scientific forces that inevitably impacted on the functions of the home and the family and led toward an increased interest in the problems of modern family life in the 1920s. Industrialization, urbanization, and smaller families were altering the established patterns of marital and parent—child relations; the result was a recognition of certain felt inadequacies and frustrations in American family life. Increasing numbers of women were entering the labor force; however, their expanding interests and roles were inextricably tied to a concurrent commitment to their homes and families. As a consequence, traditional family patterns began to change, as did expressed needs for assistance with family problems (Kerckhoff, 1964; Rockwood, 1948).
Update on Imaging of Spinal Fixation Hardware

This article discusses instrumented spinal surgeries, the radiologic assessment of spinal fixation hardware, and the potential complications of spinal hardware. Radiography is the standard for the postoperative assessment of spinal hardware. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging play a valuable role in the detection of hardware and postsurgical-related complications such as infection, pseudarthrosis, and malpositioned instrumentation. Familiarity with the normal imaging appearance of implanted spinal hardware along with the expected progression of normal postoperative osseous arthrodesis enables recognition of potential complications and helps facilitate appropriate clinical management.
ASIS: Autonomous Seismic Imaging System With In Situ Data Analytics and Renewable Energy

Understanding earthquakes and volcano eruptions phenomena require the analysis of large amounts of subsurface data. Currently, data collected from these events need post-processing in an off-line mode due to hardware limitations and strong bandwidth constraints. Furthermore, analytics may take days, even weeks, in being processed after collection. In some cases, underground structures require previous studies and subsurface knowledge from experts to establish certain input parameters. By leveraging current IoT technologies, we introduce an autonomous seismic imaging system (ASIS), a real-time system for monitoring and generating analytics of seismic data based on a sensor network. ASIS processes real-time analytics near where the events are generated (fog computing) to mitigate bandwidth limitations. Calculations for earthquake detection, location, and magnitude are processed in situ . ASIS allows monitoring sensor status, visualizing the data of each sensor, and generating two dimensional/three dimensional (2-D/3-D) subsurface structures. The system is able to learn the underground structure by taking advantage of ambient noise data analysis, which significantly reduces the need of initial parameters. We incorporated a renewable energy source to extend sensor functionality, and we made the system self-healing and fault-tolerant. Indoor and outdoor evaluation of the system showed the error of earthquake detection is 13.7 ms and the spatial location accuracy is 5.1 ft.
Incorporating ploidy diversity into ecological and community genetics

Studies in ecological and community genetics have advanced our understanding of the role of intraspecific diversity in structuring communities and ecosystems. However, in near-shore marine communities, these studies have mostly been restricted to seagrasses, marsh plants, and oysters. Yet, macroalgae are critically important ecosystem engineers in these communities. Greater intraspecific diversity in a macroalgal ecosystem engineer should result in higher primary and secondary production and community resilience. The paucity of studies investigating the consequences of macroalgal intraspecific genetic variation might be due, in part, to the complexity of macroalgal life cycles. The majority of macroalgae have seemingly subtle, but in actuality, profoundly different life cycles than the more typical animal and angiosperm models. Here, we develop a novel genetic diversity metric, PHD , that incorporates the ratio of gametophytic to sporophytic thalli in natural populations. This metric scales from 0 to 1 like many common genetic diversity metrics, such as genotypic richness, enabling comparisons among metrics. We discuss PHD and examples from the literature, with specific reference to the widespread, red seaweed Agarophyton vermiculophyllum. We also discuss a sex diversity metric, PFM , which also scales from 0 to 1, but fewer studies have identified males and females in natural populations. Nevertheless, by incorporating these novel metrics into the repertoire of diversity metrics, we can explore the role of genetic diversity in community and ecosystem dynamics with an emphasis on the unique biology of many macroalgae, as well as other haplodiplontic taxa such as ferns, foraminiferans, and some fungi.
Ethnic and generational differences in partnership patterns among Asians in the United States

Despite extensive research on the changes in partnership formation patterns in the United States over the past few decades, we know relatively little about how Asians are approaching marriage and c...
Age-related incidence and outcomes of sepsis in California, 2008-2015

Abstract Purpose Sepsis remains amongst the most common causes of death worldwide. It has been described as a disease of the elderly, but contemporary data on risk factors and mortality is lacking. Materials and methods Multi-center longitudinal cohort study using non-public, state of California data from January 1, 2008 to September 31, 2015. Patients with sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock were identified using ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes with age subgroups of 18–44, 45–64, 65–74, 75–84, and >85 years old. Descriptive statistics and a single direct logistic regression model were used to present data on incidence and mortality and to identify independent factors associated with mortality. Results Of 30,282,159 total inpatient encounters, 20,358,569 met inclusion criteria and 1,566,306 met sepsis criteria. Conditions associated with mortality included metastatic cancer, age, liver disease, residing in a care facility, and a gastrointestinal source of infection as well as fungal infection. Mortality in the >85-year-old subgroup with septic shock was 45.7%, lower than previously reported. Conclusion Age remains an important sepsis risk factor, but other conditions correlated more closely with sepsis-associated death. Patients over 85 years of age suffering from septic shock may have a better chance of survival than previously thought.
Producer Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices for Dry Beans and Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Kamuli District, Uganda

Past and current research toward increasing crop yield, nitrogen (N) use efficiency, and food security in east-central Africa includes the development of common beans varieties, inoculants and systems that improve biological N fixation (BNF) . Improved inoculants and bean varieties could play a role in increasing yields for subsistence farmers if the causes of, and limitations to maximum BNF efficiency can be identified and controlled through genetics, breeding, and improved management. However, adoption of new crop varieties and related technologies in developing regions is often poor due to agronomic, infrastructural, and socioeconomic factors. Community knowledge, attitudes, practices (KAP) and resources should be assessed alongside agronomic research in order to improve the potential for long-term adoption of new production methods and technologies. In collaboration with ongoing development of improved bean varieties and inoculants for BNF, we conducted a KAP survey of farmers regarding bean production. The study found that farmers viewed crop growth and yield in different areas and over time as indicators of soil health. Crop pests, diseases and weather were viewed as greater limiters of bean production than was soil health. Most growers (54%) were farming without inputs and 32% reported using green manure. Only 4% were currently using mineral fertilizer; however, 64% said that they would prefer to use fertilizer over other agricultural inputs. When deciding which bean varieties to plant, market price and yields were the most important determining factors. By identifying current practices, beliefs, desires, and concerns of producers, research and extension on soil and crop improvement can become more effective. Such KAP data as these can be used to improve the relevance, dissemination, and adoption of agronomic and genetic research outputs.
Algorithms and Complexity of Power Domination in Graphs

Given a graph G = (V, E) and a set S ⊆ V of vertices, we say that: (i) if a vertex v ∈ S, then v and all vertices in N(v) are observed, and (ii) (Kirchhoff’s Rule) if a vertex v is observed and there is a vertex u ∈ N(v) that is the only unobserved vertex in N(v), then vertex u is observed. A set S is called a power dominating set if all vertices in V are observed using rules (i) and (ii) when applied to S. The power domination number γP(G) equals the minimum cardinality of a power dominating set in G. In this chapter we consider algorithms and complexity of computing the power domination number γP(G) in various classes of graphs G.
Variability Analysis for Ferroelectric Field-Effect Transistors

The random variation sources have a significant influence on the performance of ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs). We conducted a comparative analysis in TCAD on the process variation induced variability of the 28nm Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 based FeFETs. The ferroelectric/dielectric phase variation in the HZO gate stack, the metal work function variation and the gate line-edge roughness effects are incorporated to quantify their impacts on the threshold voltage and memory window variation. The phase variation, modeled in a Voronoi diagram, agrees with the measured distribution in HZO thin film, which is found to be one of the critical factors in FeFETs memory window variation.
Differential impacts of particulate air pollution exposure on early and late stages of spermatogenesis

Abstract Background Despite increasing evidence that particulate air pollution has adverse effects on human semen quality, few studies examine the impact of air pollution on clinically relevant thresholds used to diagnose male fertility problems. Furthermore, exposure is often assessed using average air pollution levels in a geographic area rather than individualized estimates. Finally, physiologically-informed exposure windows are inconsistent. Objectives We sought to test the hypothesis that airborne particulate exposures during early-phase spermatogenesis will have a differential impact on spermatogenic formation compared to late-phase exposures, using an individualized model of exposure to particulate matter ≤ 2.5 µm and ≤ 10 µm (PM2.5 and PM10, respectively). Methods From an original cohort of 183 couples, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 130 healthy males seeking to become parents, using spermatogenesis-relevant exposure windows of 77–34 days and 37–0 days prior to semen collection to encompass sperm development stages of mitosis/meiosis and spermiogenesis, respectively. Individualized residential exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 was estimated by selecting multiple air pollution sensors within the same geographic air basin as participants and employing inverse distance weighting to calculate mean daily exposure levels. We used multiple logistic regression to assess the association between pollution, temperature, and dichotomized World Health Organization semen parameters. Results During the early phase of spermatogenesis, air pollution exposure is associated with 1.52 (95% CI: 1.04–2.32) times greater odds of Conclusion Particulate exposure has a differential and more deleterious impact on sperm during early-phase spermatogenesis than late-phase.
Apoptotic Find-me Signals are an Essential Driver of Stem Cell Conversion To The Cardiac Lineage

Pluripotent stem cells can be driven by manipulation of Wnt signaling through a series of states similar to those that occur during early embryonic development, transitioning from an epithelial phenotype into the cardiogenic mesoderm lineage and ultimately into functional cardiomyocytes. Strikingly, we observed that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) undergo widespread apoptosis upon 49 hrs of Wnt activation, followed by a synchronous epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The EMT requires induction of transcription factors SNAI1/SNAI2 downstream of MESP1 expression, and double knock-out of SNAI1/2, or loss of MESP1 in iPSCs blocks EMT and prevents cardiac differentiation. Remarkably, blockade of early apoptosis chemically or by ablation of pro-apoptotic genes also completely prevents the EMT, suppressing even the earliest events in mesoderm conversion, including EOMES, TBX6, and MESP1 induction. Conditioned medium from WNT-activated WT iPSCs overcomes the block to EMT by cells incapable of apoptosis (Apop-), suggesting the involvement of soluble factors from apoptotic cells in mesoderm conversion. Treatment with a purinergic P2Y receptor inhibitor or addition of apyrase demonstrated a requirement for nucleotide triphosphate signaling. ATP was sufficient to induce a partial EMT in Apop- cells treated with WNT activator. We conclude that nucleotides, in addition to acting as chemo-attractants for clearance of apoptotic cells can, unexpectedly, function as essential paracrine signals in mesoderm specification.
Leptin receptor signaling is required for intact hypoglycemic counterregulation: A study in male Zucker rats

Hypoglycemia is a major barrier to clinical management of persons with diabetes. Emerging evidence supports a role for leptin in gating hypoglycemic counterregulation. This work demonstrates that male leptin receptor null, Zucker (fa/fa), rats display severe impairments in hypoglycemic counterregulation. Thus, augmenting leptin levels may have clinical utility for preventing hypoglycemia.
The Advantages of Markets

For much of the twentieth century, a lively debate raged between the advocates of capitalism and the advocates of socialism. Today, that debate is over, and the capitalists have won. No governments currently attempt to centrally plan their economies, and almost nobody – including most self-described socialists - thinks that it would be a good idea for them to do so. Regardless of their place on the political spectrum, virtually all economists and political theorists today grant that markets ought to play a significant, if not dominant, role in the organization of society’s economic activities. The purpose of this chapter is to survey the economic and moral advantages that have given rise to the ubiquity of markets. The paper begins with a discussion of the key terms “market” and “market economy.” It then turns to an examination of the economic advantages of markets, with special emphasis on their incentivizing and information-producing functions. The paper concludes with an examination of the moral advantages of markets, including a discussion of what Deirdre McCloskey has called the Great Enrichment, the effect of markets on poverty and inequality, and the relationship between markets and key moral concepts such as virtue, rights, and desert.
Empirical Studies of Control Dependence Graph Size forC Programs

Many tools and techniques for performing software engineering tasks require control-dependence information, represented in the form of control-dependence graphs. Worst-case analysis of these graphs has shown that their size may be quadratic in the number of statements in the procedure that they represent. Despite this result, two empirical studies suggest that in practice, the relationship between control-dependence graph size and program size is linear. These studies, however, were performed on a relatively small number of Fortran procedures, all of which were derived from numerical methods programs. To further investigate control-dependence size, we implemented tools for constructing the two most popular types of control-dependence graphs, and ran our tools on over 3000 C functions extracted from a wide range of source programs. Our results support the earlier conclusions about control-dependence graph size.
Pain Management in Older Adults: Role of Fear and Avoidance

The present study examined the relationship between fear/ anxiety associated with pain, coping self-statements, depression, health status, and medication intake in a sample of 38 older (M age = 73.24 years) adults. Correlational analyses revealed that pain anxiety was significantly related to CCSI catastrophic coping, GDS-SF depression, and self-rated health status, but not with medication usage. These results indicate that Lethem et al.'s (1983) and McCracken's (1997) models associating fear and avoidance with chronic pain may be relevant to the development and maintenance of pain problems in older persons as well as in younger adults. It is suggested that targeting such variables in treatment may prove beneficial for managing pain in the elderly.
Natural Frequency on Programmable Calculator

Programmable calculators are being used for many civil engineering applications. From a programming standpoint, a major difficulty is the limited number of program steps and data storage locations available with programmable calculators. This note presents a procedure for determining an approximation to the fundamental frequency of a shear flexible structure using a programmable calculator with as few as 14 data storage locations and 225 program steps. A number of structures was investigated to determine the accuracy of the approximate method. The approximation involved is shown to yield results within 2% of exact values.
Effect of 20-hydroxyecdysone on chitinase and β-N-acetylglucosaminidase during the larval-pupal transformation of Manduca sexta (L.)

Abstract The relationship between ecdysteroid and chitinolytic enzyme activities was investigated using isolated abdomens from fifth instar larvae of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta (L.). Low levels of 20-hydroxyecdysone (1 μg/g live weight) stimulated exo-splitting β-N- acetylglucosaminidase about four-fold in integument while higher hormonal levels (15 μg/g) which were less effective for β-N- acetylglucosaminidase induced endo-splitting chitinase about 50-fold. Chitinase activity was increased by about ten-fold over the control level in response to injection of 7.5 μg of 20-hydroxyecdysone/g live weight into abdomens, while β-N- acetylglucosaminidase activity was elevated only about 1.5-fold over control. Apparently, ecdysteroid causes synthesis or activation of chitinolytic enzymes in vivo and the major regulatory effect is on the level of the endo-splitting chitinase.
Information Technology and Integration Effects on Merger Value in the U.S. Commercial Banking Industry

We study the effect of information technology (IT) investment and merger integration on the value derived from 118 mergers in the U.S. banking industry. We quantify integration depth based on expenditures in merger-related integration, and examine how pre-merger IT intensity of the acquiring firm moderates the effect of merger-integration depth on firm performance. The effect of IT intensity becomes increasingly positive in mergers involving a large depth of integration. We also measure anticipated integration difficulty using information reported publicly prior to the merger effective date. IT intensity of the acquiring firm has a positive moderating influence in the effect of anticipated integration difficulty on the stock market reaction to merger announcements. We discuss the results in light of existing theory and cases from the banking industry press.
Structure of the superconducting La 2 CuO 4 + δ phases (δ≊0.08,0.12) prepared by electrochemical oxidation

Two powder samples of electrochemically oxidized La[sub 2]CuO[sub 4+[delta]] (nominally [delta][approx]0.08 and 0.12) and one single crystal ([delta][approx]0.1), with superconducting critical temperatures of 32, 42, and 40 K, respectively, were studied using neutron diffraction. All samples appear to be single phase, both at room temperature and at low temperature (10--18 K), as evidenced by sharp Bragg peaks, indicating that these samples have compositions beyond the phase-separated region of the phase diagram. A detailed analysis of the Bragg reflections demonstrated that the basic crystallographic structure of all samples has [ital Fmmm] symmetry, with the excess oxygen located between adjacent LaO layers. However, a number of low-intensity peaks in the powder data suggested the existence of a very large superstructure. The satellites could be clearly identified in the single-crystal data, allowing the propagation vectors of the modulation to be determined. Rietveld refinements of the average structure, based on the main Bragg peaks, are presented here for samples prepared with this technique.
Non-NMDA receptor-mediated neurotoxicity in cortical culture

The neurotoxicity of 3 non-NMDA glutamate receptor agonists--kainate, alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionate (AMPA), and quisqualate--was investigated quantitatively in dissociated murine cortical cultures. Five minute exposure to 500 microM kainate, but not AMPA, produced widespread acute neuronal swelling. Kainate-induced swelling was resistant to 2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (APV) or replacement of extracellular sodium with choline but attenuated by either kynurenate or low concentrations of quisqualate. Unlike NMDA agonists, kainate or AMPA did not produce much late neuronal loss after a 5 min exposure. In contrast, 5 min exposure to 500 microM quisqualate produced both acute neuronal swelling and widespread late neuronal degeneration. This acute swelling was blocked by APV or by replacement of extracellular sodium by choline, consistent with mediation by NMDA receptors; we speculate that high concentrations of quisqualate may directly activate NMDA receptors or induce the release of endogenous glutamate. Quisqualate-induced late neuronal degeneration may be due to another unexpected process: cellular quisqualate uptake and delayed release, converting brief addition into prolonged exposure. Hours after thorough washout of exogenously added quisqualate, micromolar concentrations could be detected in the bathing medium by high performance liquid chromatography. With lengthy exposure (20-24 hr), all 3 non-NMDA agonists were potent neurotoxins, able to destroy neurons with EC50's of about 20 microM for kainate, 4 microM for AMPA, and 1 microM for quisqualate. Kynurenate and 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX), but not APV or L-glutamate diethyl ester, were effective in attenuating the neuronal degeneration induced by these agonists. CNQX was about 3 times more selective than kynurenate against kainate-induced neuronal injury, but CNQX was still nearly equipotent with APV against NMDA-induced injury. Gamma-D-glutamylaminomethyl sulfonate exhibited partial antagonist specificity for AMPA-induced toxicity.
In vitro studies of human reaginic allergy.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the development and application of an in vitro system in the study of human reaginic allergy. The system utilizes human leukocytes as indicators that release histamine when reaginic antibody fixed to them interacts with its specific allergen. In this system, blocking or nonreaginic antibody can also be assayed by its interference with histamine liberation. Study of allergic patients by this means indicates that severity of their disease is directly related to their cell-bound regain and demonstrates the protective effects of blocking antibody; it also allows an immunological characterization of the course of the patient. In many respects, the human pollinoses provide appropriate and convenient models for the study of immunological diseases attributable to allergic reactions of the immediate type. In diseases, such as hay fever, the specific antigens are usually known, the etiologic role of the immune event can be readily established, and several mediators of the tissue response have been identified and characterized. Skin tests have been used successfully for the detection and assay of the incriminated antigens and the antibodies formed during the natural course of the disease or as a result of therapeutic immunization.
From Certainty to Fallibility

IF YOU DO mathematics every day, it seems the most natural thing in the world. if you stop to think about what you are doing and what you means, it seems one of the most mysterious. How are we able to tell about things no one has ever seen, and understand them better than the solid objects of daily life? Why is Euclidean geometry still correct, while Aristotelian physics is dead long since? What do we know in mathematics, and how do we know it?