cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Determinants of students’ e-learning acceptance in developing countries: An approach based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

Several studies have shown that apart from the mechanics of specific technologies involved in such educational solutions, successful implementation of e-learning is also based on behavioral and social factors. However, no substantial studies have been conducted to understand the importance of these factors in undeveloped countries as it relates to the acceptance and use of e-learning. This study validates the extended technology acceptance model by incorporating two intrinsic motivation attributes, namely, quality of life and social influence in underdeveloped countries such as Liberia. This quantitative study used an online survey to collect data from 269 secondary and post-secondary students in Liberia (N=269). Responses from the survey were analyzed using the structural equation modeling. The results indicated that student’s behavioral intention to accept and use e-learning in underdeveloped countries was significantly affected by their perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, quality of life and social influence. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Microarchitectural techniques to reduce energy consumption in the memory hierarchy

This thesis states that dynamic profiling of the memory reference stream can improve energy and performance in the memory hierarchy. The research presented in this theses provides multiple instances of using lightweight hardware structures to profile the memory reference stream. The objective of this research is to develop microarchitectural techniques to reduce energy consumption at different levels of the memory hierarchy. Several simple and implementable techniques were developed as a part of this research. One of the techniques identifies and eliminates redundant refresh operations in DRAM and reduces DRAM refresh power. Another, reduces leakage energy in L2 and higher level caches for multiprocessor systems. The emphasis of this research has been to develop several techniques of obtaining energy savings in caches using a simple hardware structure called the counting Bloom filter (CBF). CBFs have been used to predict L2 cache misses and obtain energy savings by not accessing the L2 cache on a predicted miss. A simple extension of this technique allows CBFs to do way-estimation of set associative caches to reduce energy in cache lookups. Another technique using CBFs track addresses in a Virtual Cache and reduce false synonym lookups. Finally this thesis presents a technique to reduce dynamic power consumption in level one caches using significance compression. The significant energy and performance improvements demonstrated by the techniques presented in this thesis suggest that this work will be of great value for designing memory hierarchies of future computing platforms.
Results of Laparoscopic Repair of Inguinal Hernia

There are 600–800 thousand inguinal hernia repaired a year. Of these, approximately 30% are performed laparoscopically. Since 1990, this technique has evolved through phases of exploration, scrutiny, and clinical studies. The history, results and considerations are reviewed.
Methods and Approaches in Using Secondary Data Sources to Study Race and Ethnicity Factors

Race and ethnicity are increasing used in cancer research to assess differences in cancer incidence and response to therapy. In this chapter, we discuss the measurement and methodologic issues that should be addressed to minimize bias and derive valid estimates when performing such assessments. These issues include 1) lack of national standards for race and ethnicity categories; 2) difficulty in comparing race and ethnic categories in longitudinal assessments; 3) broad categorization of race and ethnicity groups that do not provide adequate details for meaningful assessments; 4) inaccuracies in race and ethnicity data collection, and 5) confounding by socioeconomic and other factors. Recommendations for improving race and ethnicity data collection also are discussed.
The Last Years of the Protectorate

In November 1655 a judge of the High Court of Admiralty and of the Court for the Probate of Wills published a pamphlet, England’s Compleat Law-Judge and Lawyer, calling for a moderate approach to the question of legal reform. The original printing was signed “The ophilus Philopatros” The following March it was reprinted and this time the author — Charles George Cocke — revealed his identity. Since Admiralty jurisdiction had been granted an immunity of sorts by the Commonwealth, Cocke’s interest in law reform was more academic than personal. As a judge of Probate he had been the gainer as a result of the abolition of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. The opinions he expressed might be taken as symptomatic of the emergence of the English politiques. As for the constitutional issue the following quotation from the preface or “Epistle Dedicatory” summed up his feelings: “in the politick body, each great alteration is dangerous; Constitutions must be altered slowly; the fowler the body, the more need of preparatives before the Purgation comes.”1
Take a deep breath: A randomized control trial of Pranayama breathing on uncontrolled hypertension

Abstract Objective Our objective was to determine whether 15 min yogic breathing exercises practiced 5 times a week can lower blood pressure in uncontrolled hypertensive patients. Design Take a deep Breath study was a 3-arm randomized controlled blood pressure trial, 2016–2017 with in-class instruction, home DVD/YouTube instruction, and a control arm. Blood pressure measurements with a 1-month follow-up. Methods A list of uncontrolled hypertensive patients (n = 5507) generated from Family Medicine Department’s Electronic Medical Record registry was given to their respective providers to recommend. After chart review of the 1682 recommended patients, the number reduced to 984 of which 610 were contacted and 22% of 610 (n = 133) were enrolled. Eligible participants were randomly assigned to in-class instruction (n = 44), DVD/YouTube group (n = 57), or control (n = 32). The outcome measured was at least 5 mm Hg systolic blood pressure reduction. Results Participants were predominately white (89%), approximately half male (52%) with a mean age of 61 years (sd = 12 years). Of the 133 participants who were allocated to a study arm, 30 never participated in any aspect of the study, 20 partially completed and 83 completed the study. Compared to those who completed the study, no differences were noted in demographics or initial blood pressure for those who partially completed. From chart review 6% of participants made a change to their blood pressure medications during the study. Intervention participants were significantly more likely to have ≥5 mm Hg decrease in systolic blood pressure (OR = 4.49, 95% CI: 1.18–17.0) compared to controls in the multivariable logistics model. DVD/YouTube instruction did just as well as in-class instruction group. Conclusions In this RCT, statistically significant systolic blood pressure reduction was noted in the intervention groups. Yogic breathing exercises may provide an additional non- pharmacologic tool to treat uncontrolled blood pressure.
Associations between marijuana use and anxious mood lability during adolescence

Abstract Objective To date, research investigating the association between adolescent marijuana use and anxiety is mixed, given differences in how anxiety is measured and the age ranges studied. The research is further limited as many relevant studies have small sample sizes. This investigation examines the association between marijuana use (use in the past 30 days) and anxious mood lability (rapid fluctuation in emotional states) during early adolescence (average age 14.4, spring of 8th grade) through midadolescence (10th grade). Methods Participating adolescents (N = 466; 52.8% female) were from rural and suburban communities and 38% were Hispanic/Latino. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used to measure adolescents' anxious mood in real time; the EMAs were collected within 30 days of the adolescent report of their marijuana use. Results Multilevel models with measurement waves (7 time points) nested in individuals showed that anxious mood lability was significantly higher for adolescents reporting recent marijuana use compared to those reporting no recent marijuana use. Although females were higher than males in anxious mood lability, the association between anxious mood lability and recent marijuana use did not differ by gender. Post hoc analysis showed that the associations between anxious mood lability and recent marijuana use did not differ between assessments conducted pre and post legalization of adult recreational marijuana use. Conclusions The association between recent marijuana use and anxious mood lability for youth is important for understanding the developmental processes of cannabis use and anxious mood disorders in adolescence and young adulthood.
There’s more to “sparkle” than meets the eye: Knowledge of vision and light verbs among congenitally blind and sighted individuals

Abstract We examined the contribution of first-person sensory experience to concepts by comparing the meanings of perception (visual/tactile) and emission (light/sound) verbs among congenitally blind (N = 25) and sighted speakers (N = 22). Participants judged semantic similarity for pairs of verbs referring to events of visual (e.g. to peek), tactile (e.g. to feel) and amodal perception (e.g. to perceive) as well as light (e.g. to shimmer) and sound (e.g. to boom) emission and manner of motion (to roll) (total word pairs, N = 2041). Relative to the sighted, blind speakers had higher agreement among themselves on touch perception and sound emission verbs. However, for visual verbs, the judgments of blind and sighted participants were indistinguishable, both in the semantic criteria used and subject-wise variability. Blind and sighted individuals alike differentiate visual perception verbs from verbs of touch and amodal perception and differentiate among acts of visual perception e.g. intense/continuous from brief acts of looking (e.g. peek vs. stare). Light emission verbs are differentiated according to intensity (blaze vs. glow) and stability (blaze vs. flash). Thus detailed knowledge of visual word meanings is acquired without first-person sensory access.
Engaging Boys in Active Literacy: Evidence and Practice

Too many boys do not like to read, are choosing not to read, and are suffering academically as a result. All concerned adults need to redouble their efforts to ensure that boys who bring the greatest challenges to our classrooms and schools receive responsive literacy texts and practices to increase their chances for academic, personal, and occupational success. This book is more than a compendium of techniques, it also provides an analysis of the research literature on central issues and related aspects of literacy and learning for boys. The author identifies issues that impinge on boys' literacy development and explores what the research literature has to say about these issues. The descriptions of how teachers have used engaging texts and practices to help boys overcome low literacy engagement and skill in order to stay on course as readers and writers are highly informative and practical as models of best practice.
Legal Science as a Source of Law: A Late Reply by Puchta to Kantorowicz

The paper explores a claim made by Hermann Ulrich Kantorowicz in a historically signification pamphlet, which may in some respect well have prepared the intellectual ground for the American legal realist movement. The claim is that the legal science is a source of law. It is startling, to say the least, to find this claim articulated in the context of a piece of "sociological" jurisprudence. The paper then contrasts Kantorowicz's claim with the the parallel claim made by the historical school and concludes that the ideas articulated by its members - Georg Friedrich Puchta, in particular - were exceedingly more plausible. In order to understand this, however, it is necessary to conceive of all legal knowledge as a species of self-knowledge. This is the idea that the paper tries to make plausible and, indeed, to defend.
Miscellaneous Analgesic Agents

Pain medicine can be extremely challenging, and the wide array of patient responses and reactions to the numerous agents available can limit their use. Often, several medications will need to be combined in order to produce a satisfactory outcome. This chapter will cover several classes of medications that may be employed as a part of a multimodal analgesic regimen for a variety of pain states.
Mogrifier LSTM.

Many advances in Natural Language Processing have been based upon more expressive models for how inputs interact with the context in which they occur. Recurrent networks, which have enjoyed a modicum of success, still lack the generalization and systematicity ultimately required for modelling language. In this work, we propose an extension to the venerable Long Short-Term Memory in the form of mutual gating of the current input and the previous output. This mechanism affords the modelling of a richer space of interactions between inputs and their context. Equivalently, our model can be viewed as making the transition function given by the LSTM context-dependent. Experiments demonstrate markedly improved generalization on language modelling in the range of 3-4 perplexity points on Penn Treebank and Wikitext-2, and 0.01-0.05 bpc on four character-based datasets. We establish a new state of the art on all datasets with the exception of Enwik8, where we close a large gap between the LSTM and Transformer models.
Blood-borne biomarkers may help predict COVID-19 mortality

A machine learning algorithm identifies blood-borne markers that are predictive of COVID-19 mortality.
Abstract B35: Isolation and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from bladder cancer patients using a highly sensitive graphene oxide-based microfluidic device (GO chip)

Introduction: A critical research topic in bladder cancer is determining the key regulators in the progression from noninvasive tumor to invasive and ultimately metastatic disease. Although patients with noninvasive bladder cancer can be treated through transurethral resection of bladder tumor and have a high survival rate (~95%), noninvasive bladder tumors recur in 50%-70% of cases. Of these, 10-15% of cases progress to invasive disease. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) represent the transitional phase of progression between lymphovascular intravasation and distant metastases. Molecular profiling of these CTCs, beyond enumeration, can inform the molecules/pathways important in the invasion process, and potentially help unravel the mechanism of metastasis and provide new targets for therapy. Here we report the application of a highly sensitive graphene oxide-based microfluidic device to isolate and characterize CTCs from bladder cancer patients for the expression of markers implicated in an invasive phenotype. Methods: An anti-EpCAM and anti-EGFR biotinylated antibody cocktail was immobilized onto the graphene oxide chip (GO chip) to capture CTCs from whole blood. In patient samples, immunofluorescence staining for DAPI (nuclei), cytokeratin (cancer cell marker), EGFR and HER2 (markers of invasive phenotype), and CD45 (white blood cell marker) was used to enumerate CTCs. Cells with a DAPI+CK+CD45- phenotype were counted as CTCs. Blood samples from ten metastatic bladder cancer patients and two healthy controls were processed, stained, and analyzed. Results: CTCs were found in 10/10 (100%) patients, with an average of 17.70 cells/mL (s = 10.69 cells/mL). 9/10 patients exhibited CTCs that express EGFR, but only one patient had one CTC express HER2. Conclusion: The antibody-functionalized GO chips were able to successfully capture and enable characterization of CTCs from metastatic bladder cancer patients. EGFR potentially plays an important role in the vascular invasion process. Citation Format: Zeqi Niu, Molly A. Kozminsky, Kathleen C. Day, Phillip L. Palmbos, Mark L. Day, Sunitha Nagrath. Isolation and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from bladder cancer patients using a highly sensitive graphene oxide-based microfluidic device (GO chip) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Liquid Biopsies; Jan 13-16, 2020; Miami, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(11_Suppl):Abstract nr B35.
Outcomes After Tracheostomy in Patients with Severe Acute Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

To synthesize reported long-term outcomes in patients undergoing tracheostomy after severe acute brain injury (SABI). We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library for studies in English, German, and Spanish between 1990 and 2019, reporting outcomes in patients with SABI who underwent tracheostomy. We adhered to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines and the meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology guidelines. We excluded studies reporting on less than 10 patients, mixed populations with other neurological diseases, or studies assessing highly select subgroups defined by age or procedures. Data were extracted independently by two investigators. Results were pooled using random effects modeling. The primary outcome was long-term functional outcome (mRS or GOS) at 6–12 months. Secondary outcomes included hospital and long-term mortality, decannulation rates, and discharge home rates. Of 1405 studies identified, 61 underwent full manuscript review and 19 studies comprising 35,362 patients from 10 countries were included in the meta-analysis. The primary outcome was available from five studies with 451 patients. At 6–12 months, about one-third of patients (30%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 17–48) achieved independence, and about one-third survived in a dependent state (36%, 95% CI 28–46%). The pooled short-term mortality for 19,048 patients was 12%, (95% CI 9–17%) with no significant difference between stroke (10%) and TBI patients (13%), and the pooled long-term mortality was 21% (95% CI 11–36). Decannulation occurred in 79% (95% CI 51–93%) of survivors. Heterogeneity was high for most outcome assessments (I2 > 75%). Our findings suggest that about one in three patients with SABI who undergo tracheostomy may eventually achieve independence. Future research is needed to understand the reasons for the heterogeneity between studies and to identify those patients with promising outcomes as well as factors influencing outcome.
CGRP Antibodies for Animal Models of Primary and Secondary Headache Disorders

As our understanding of the importance of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in headache disorders has evolved, the therapeutic use of CGRP monoclonal antibodies has marked a new era in the headache field. Anti-CGRP antibodies that block either the ligand or the receptor are effective in the prevention of migraine and cluster headache. Nevertheless, there are still many uncertainties about mechanisms underlying the effects of CGRP and the antibodies that target either the ligand or the receptor in headache disorders. In particular, whether CGRP and the anti-CGRP antibodies act through peripheral or central actions remains vigorously debated. Studies utilizing animal models of headache disorders have generated important clues that can help in this debate. This review aims to explore the advances on the effects and action sites of anti-CGRP antibodies in different animal models of headache disorders, with an emphasis on migraine, but also including animal models of secondary headaches, including post-traumatic headache (PTH) and medication overuse headache (MOH). Based on current preclinical studies, anti-CGRP antibodies are able to inhibit trigeminal pathways involving Aδ meningeal nociceptors and high threshold (HT) neurons in the spinal trigeminal nucleus, and vasodilation of dural vessels.
Spinocerebellar ataxia clinical trials: opportunities and challenges

The spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a group of dominantly inherited diseases that share the defining feature of progressive cerebellar ataxia. The disease process, however, is not confined to the cerebellum; other areas of the brain, in particular, the brainstem, are also affected, resulting in a high burden of morbidity and mortality. Currently, there are no disease-modifying treatments for the SCAs, but preclinical research has led to the development of therapeutic agents ripe for testing in patients. Unfortunately, due to the rarity of these diseases and their slow and variable progression, there are substantial hurdles to overcome in conducting clinical trials. While the epidemiological features of the SCAs are immutable, the feasibility of conducting clinical trials is being addressed through a combination of strategies. These include improvements in clinical outcome measures, the identification of imaging and fluid biomarkers, and innovations in clinical trial design. In this review, we highlight current challenges in initiating clinical trials for the SCAs and also discuss pathways for researchers and clinicians to mitigate these challenges and harness opportunities for clinical trial development.
Effect of Cotton Leafroll Dwarf Virus on Physiological Processes and Yield of Individual Cotton Plants.

Cotton leafroll dwarf disease (CLRDD) caused by cotton leafroll dwarf virus (CLRDV) is an emerging threat to cotton production in the United States. The disease was first reported in Alabama in 2017 and subsequently has been reported in 10 other cotton producing states in the United States, including Georgia. A field study was conducted at field sites near Tifton, Georgia in 2019 and 2020 to evaluate leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, and leaf temperature responses for a symptomatic cultivar (diseased plants observed at regular frequency) at multiple stages of disease progression and for asymptomatic cultivars (0% disease incidence observed). Disease-induced reductions in net photosynthetic rate (An, decreased by 63-101%), stomatal conductance (gs, decreased by 65-99%), and efficiency of the thylakoid reactions (32-92% decline in primary photochemistry) were observed, whereas leaf temperature significantly increased by 0.5-3.8°C at advanced stages of the disease. Net photosynthesis was substantially more sensitive to disease-induced declines in gs than the thylakoid reactions. Symptomatic plants with more advanced disease stages remained stunted throughout the growing season, and yield was reduced by 99% by CLRDD due to reductions in boll number per plant and declines in boll mass resulting from fewer seeds per boll. Asymptomatic cultivars exhibited more conservative gas exchange responses than apparently healthy plants of the symptomatic cultivar but were less productive. Overall, it is concluded that CLRDV limits stomatal conductance and photosynthetic activity of individual leaves, causing substantial declines in productivity for individual plants. Future studies should evaluate the physiological contributors to genotypic variation in disease tolerance under controlled conditions.
Data Mining and Marketing

The rapid rise in available cloud based big data on marketing transactions and consumers and the increasing sophistication of data mining methods is transforming scholarly research and managerial practice. Following an historical review of marketing research, this entry focuses on trends and challenges of big data for scholarly and commercial marketing research with respect to data acquisition, data analytics, data privacy, and security. Critical issues pertaining to the new analytical approaches for data mining, as well as theory building and knowledge creation, are summarized. A key issue for future marketing research is how to divide efforts between fast and accurate customer response prediction with the help of big data – employing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks – and research aimed at developing in-depth understanding of big data-led changes in markets, consumers, and social networks. Keywords: big data; market research; mass customization; neural networks; personalization; social media
Patterns of Spread of Disease from the Large Intestine

The colon and rectum develop from the distal segment of the midgut and the hindgut. As described in the preceding chapter, migration, elongation, and counterclockwise rotation of the midgut locate the jejunum in the left side and the ileum and ascending colon in the right side of the abdomen. Outpouching of the intestinal tube distal to the intestinal–vitelline duct forms the cecum and the vermiform appendix.
The Role of Faith in Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution

When we speak of the role of faith in cross-cultural conflict resolution, our challenge is to honor the diversity of the world‟s humanistic and spiritual traditions while seeking common ground among them. What is needed, in other words, is an agenda for research, dialogue, and activism that is global in conception, and responsive to common challenges of peacemaking and coexistence within and among the world‟s many traditions. It is no longer sufficient for transnational research agendas for peace to be defined primarily by the cultural experiences and perceived security threats of a particular nation or culture. We need new frameworks for organizing knowledge about religion, culture, and spirituality – frameworks that recognize the powerful role that faith and belief play in conflict and conflict resolution, and that do not privilege one culture as “normal” and label another as “exceptional.”
Dental Informatics and Intra-oral Photography in Communicating with Dental Students in the Dominican Republic

The purpose of this article is to report on the use of the smartphone camera for intra-oral photography by a group of dental students located in the Dominican Republic during the summer of 2013. We investigated the transmission of intra-oral photographs to Creighton University Dental School. We also investigated the capture and transmission of a high-definition video demonstrating a surgical procedure to the students at the remote site. The smartphone photographs were evaluated to determine if they would be useful for diagnosis and other applications in dentistry. In the absence of a standard intra-oral camera system, it was found that smartphones could be useful in capturing and transmitting digital intra-oral images that could assist in dental education and teledentistry.
Data mining: an introducation

This chapter provides an introductory overview of data mining. Data mining, also referred to as knowledge discovery in databases, is concerned with nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful information from data in databases. The main focus of the chapter is on different data mining methodologies and their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Phospholipase A of Snake Venoms I. ISOLATION AND MOLECULAR PROPERTIES OF ISOENZYMES FROM NAJA NAJA AND VIPERA RUSSELLII VENOMS

Abstract A combination of narrow range isoelectric focusing, electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel, and gel exclusion on Sephadex reveals the presence of at least 9, possibly 11 isoenzymes of phospholipase A in Naja naja (cobra) venom. Their isoelectric points range from pH 4.60 to 5.66 and their molecular weights from 8,500 to 20,200. The most abundant form (isoelectric point = pH 4.95) has been isolated in apparently homogeneous state. All other forms have been prepared free from catalytically inactive impurities and partially or completely separated from each other. Vipera russellii venom has been shown to contain seven isoenzymes with isoelectric points ranging from pH 4.62 to 9.90 and molecular weights from below 15,000 to 23,800. The two components responsible for most of the catalytic activity of the venom on pure phosphatides (isoelectric points = pH 9.52 and 9.90) may be isolated from crude venom in a single isoelectric focusing step in approximately 90% homogeneous state. It has been shown that the isoenzymes of cobra venom do not arise by proteolysis or other preparative modification during isolation and they do not appear to have a subunit structure. A simple and rapid assay method involving a recording pH meter and aqueous media suitable for kinetic studies on the enzyme, is described.
Investigation hydrologic scaling: Observed effects of heterogeneity and nonlocal processes across hillslope, watershed, and regional scales

[1] The relationship between soil moisture and outflow is fundamental to land surface water and energy balance monitoring and modeling. However, characterizing it at levels above a point scale is complicated by factors including climate and surface heterogeneity, presence of lateral transports, and mismatches between spatial resolutions of measurements and models. We investigate the distinct roles of heterogeneity and nonlocal interactions in scaling this relationship from points to areas. Locations are modeled as independent columns, using measured soil moisture and precipitation data in a conditional averaging approach to estimate the local moisture outflow relationship. These estimates are aggregated using a distributional approach to account for the effect of heterogeneity. The locations are then treated as one large column; that is, the moisture outflow relationship is estimated directly from spatially aggregated data. We demonstrate that statistically significant differences between the two estimates indicate that the system is not well represented by the independence assumption; that is, local outflow is dependent on local moisture and is also independently influenced by large-scale moisture. We applied these methods to data from a hillslope, a watershed, and the state of Illinois and found that heterogeneity and nonlocal processes significantly affected scaling in all three. The identified nonlocal effect is to decrease (increase) local outflow during large-scale dry (wet) anomalies. A possible pathway is through decreased wind speed during dry anomalies. The combined effect increases the sensitivity of outflow to soil moisture as scale increases. These results could have implications for specifying parameters in large-scale models, especially those calibrated with smaller-scale field data.
Scanning Electron Microscopy

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is one of the most widely used instruments in materials research laboratories and is common in various forms in fabrication plants. Scanning electron microscopy is central to microstructural analysis and therefore important to any investigation relating to the processing, properties, and behavior of materials that involves their microstructure. The SEM provides information relating to topographical features, morphology, phase distribution, compositional differences, crystal structure, crystal orientation, and the presence and location of electrical defects. The SEM is also capable of determining elemental composition of micro-volumes with the addition of an x-ray or electron spectrometer and phase identification through analysis of electron diffraction patterns. The strength of the SEM lies in its inherent versatility due to the multiple signals generated, simple image formation process, wide magnification range, and excellent depth of field. Lenses in the SEM are not a part of the image formation system but are used to demagnify and focus the electron beam onto the sample surface. This gives rise to two of the major benefits of the SEM: range of magnification and depth of field in the image. Depth of field is that property of SEM images where surfaces at different distances from the lens appear in focus, giving the image three-dimensional information. The SEM has more than 300 times the depth of field of the light microscope. Another important advantage of the SEM over the optical microscope is its high resolution. Resolution of 1 nm is now achievable from an SEM with a field emission (FE) electron gun. Magnification is a function of the scanning system rather than the lenses, and therefore a surface in focus can be imaged at a wide range of magnifications from 3× up to 150,000×. The higher magnifications of the SEM are rivaled only by the transmission electron microscope (TEM), which requires the electrons to penetrate through the entire thickness of the sample. As a consequence, TEM sample preparation of bulk materials is tedious and time consuming, compared to the ease of SEM sample preparation, and may damage the microstructure. The information content of the SEM and TEM images is different, with the TEM image showing the internal structure of the material. Due to these unique features, SEM images frequently appear not only in the scientific literature but also in the daily newspapers and popular magazines. The SEM is relatively easy to operate and affordable and allows for multiple operation modes, corresponding to the collection of different signals. This article reviews the SEM instrumentation and principles, its capabilities and applications, and recent trends and developments. Keywords: scanning electron microscopy (SEM); principles; image formation; practical aspects; resolution; SEM instrumentation; contrast; detectors; method automation; data analysis; initial interpretation; sample preparation; specimen modification; selection guidelines
COMPARING METHODS OF ANALYSES FOR SELECTED TRACE ELEMENTS IN TURKEY MUSCLE

Selected trace elements were determined in dried, cooked turkey breast muscle (pectoralis major) by three methods: atomic absorption spectro-photometry, (AAS), neutron activation analysis (NAA), and x-ray fluorescence (XRF). Atomic absorption and NAA gave similar values for zinc, but XRF determinations were significantly higher. Iron values were higher when determined by XRF than when determined by AAS. Neutron activation and XRF gave similar values for rubidium. Copper and iron were not detectable by NAA and copper not detectable by XRF. Generally, atomic absorption spectrophotometry was the most precise method.
Intralayer interaction effects on surface resistivity: sulfur and oxygen on Cu(100)

Abstract Sulfur and oxygen adsorbed on Cu(1 0 0) have nearly identical bonding geometries and electronic structures. But they show strikingly different trends in their scattering of conduction electrons, as reflected in the variation of the substrate’s surface resistivity with adsorbate coverage. For oxygen the surface resistivity varies linearly with coverage, as expected for noninteracting adsorbates. For sulfur, however, the coverage dependence is highly nonlinear, with the resistivity increasing strongly at low coverage and then becoming nearly constant above about 0.15 ML. Measurements on sputtered surfaces show that defects and adlayer ordering are not responsible for the nonlinearity. Instead, it must be attributed to interactions between the adsorbed atoms that modify the electronic structure near the Fermi level so as to diminish each atom’s scattering cross-section.
The technical code of the internet/world wide web

Using Feenberg's (1995a, 1995b) concept of the technical code of technological artifacts, this essay examines the evolution and current status of the Internet/World Wide Web. The idea of technical code—the cultural and social values and choices that become manifest in a technology's physical and structural forms—helps to isolate and uncover issues of design, usage, and policy that guide the Internet. In turn, the Internet/WWW can be seen in terms of the values, priorities, and assumptions that have literally become built into it. Based on this analysts, implications of the Internet's technical code and alternative outcomes are discussed.
Extrusion of highly oriented polyolefin fibers

This study demonstrates that it is possible to extrude highly oriented polyethylene fibers using only a plasticating single screw extruder, specially designed and operated dies, and a simple take up mechanism. The degree of orientation achieved is as high as that achieved in solid state extrusion studies but accomplished at a fraction of the pressure. The degree of orientation is significantly greater than that of commercial grade fibers. The orientation is developed in the elongational flow of the “wine glass stem” region preceding the die entrance and is retained by crystallization in the die. Crystallization is inhibited in the pre-die region by maintaining a temperature above the effective melting point of the flowing, oriented (hence lowered entropy) melt.
Specification tests for the sample selection and two-part models

We conduct Monte Carlo analysis to compare specification tests in choosing between the sample selection and two-part models for corner solutions when errors are correlated but there are no identifying instruments.
Cancer: one step at a time.

Traditional chemotherapy kills tumour cells directly; some newer drugs work instead by cutting the tumour's blood supply. An innovative approach combines these strategies sequentially to pack a double whammy.
Toward Sustainable Educational Changes through School-Based Professional Development on ELL Assessment for New Teachers

Developing teachers' knowledge about assessing English language learners (ELLs) is critical for achieving intended policy outcomes of improving teaching under Race to the Top policy and Common Core State Standards. In addition to teachers' expressed concerns about teaching Common Core State Standards to ELLs in a national survey published in Education Week (Gewertz, 2013), the formation of two assessment consortiums (i.e., Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC) indicates the urgency for teachers to demonstrate their assessment knowledge and for schools to provide meaningful professional development opportunities in that area. In this article, we detail the rationale for school-based professional development targeting assessment, especially for new teachers, and outline a proposed procedure for providing such training.
Grain refinement of high strength steels to improve cryogenic toughness

Grain-refining techniques using multistep heat treatments to reduce the grain size of five commercial high-strength steels were investigated. The goal of this investigation was to improve the low-temperature toughness as measured by Charpy V-notch impact test without a significant loss in tensile strength. The grain size of four of five alloys investigated was successfully reduced up to 1/10 of original size or smaller with increases in Charpy impact energy of 50 to 180 percent at -320 F. Tensile properties were reduced from 0 to 25 percent for the various alloys tested. An unexpected but highly beneficial side effect from grain refining was improved machinability.
A rapid LC/MS/MS method for the analysis of nonvolatile antiinflammatory agents from Mentha spp.

: Mints (Mentha spp.), aromatic crops grown largely for their essential oils, also are rich sources of nonvolatile antiinflammatory agents. Identification and quantitation of the constituents responsible for their antiinflammatory activity is challenging owing to the lack of suitable chromatographic methodology. In the present research, the simultaneous quantitation of antiinflammatory constituents rosmarinic acid, oleanolic acid, and ursolic acid in mints was attained by using a unique tandem HPLC column system coupled with an electrospray ionization mass detection (MRM mode). The ion mode optimization for rosmarinic acid under negative and triterpenoid acids under positive was achieved by setting 2 time segments in a single run where the polarity mode was switched from negative (0 to 10 min) to positive (10 to 40 min). For the investigated concentration ranges of antiinflammatory agents in mints, good linearities (r2≥ 0.998) were obtained for each calibration curve. Validation of precision and accuracy for this method showed that intra- and inter-day repeatabilities for all analytes were less than 5.51%, and the recoveries varied from 97.8% to 99.3%. The developed LC/MS/MS assay provides a suitable quality control method for the determination of antiinflammatory constituents in Mentha spp. There is a wide range of diversity in the natural product composition for these acids across the Mentha germplasm collection evaluated. The presence of these antiinflammatory acids in post-distilled mints shows that value-added nutraceutical enriched products can be developed with proper processing and recovery systems in addition to the distillation and capture of the valuable volatile essential oils. Practical Application: Results from this research would benefit both commercial farmers growing mint for essential oil and those in the food industry where value-added phytopharmaceutical enriched products can be developed with proper processing, quality control, and recovery systems during mint essential oil distillation.
Housing Rental Contracts and Adverse Selection with an Application to the Rent‐Own Decision

A model of rental housing is developed in which landlords cannot observe the utilization rate of their tenants. As a result of this imperfect information, an adverse selection problem exists where high utilization households have an incentive to conceal their type in order to obtain more favorable contract terms. Consequently, the market equilibrium must satisfy a self-selection constraint, which imposes certain restrictions on the set of contracts that will be offered by landlords. These restrictions are examined in detail, and their implications for a household's decision to rent or own its housing are derived.
The Relationship between Human Endocardial Fibroelastosis and Obstruction of the Cardiac Lymphatics

Two patients with marked ventricular endocardial fibroelastosis and evidence of obstruction of cardiac lymphatic vessels lend support to the hypothesis derived from dog experiments that chronic impairment of the cardiac lymph flow leads to endocardial fibroelastosis. One patient, aged 52 years, developed chronic myocarditis 7 years prior to her death. The other patient, a 6-month-old infant, had congenital lymphangiectasis with diffuse involvement of the gastrointestinal tract, lymph nodes, and heart. Microscopic examination of the hearts revealed markedly dilated and tortuous lymphatic channels throughout the myocardium and epicardium, a finding present with long-standing obstruction to lymph flow. It is concluded that chronic obstruction of cardiac lymph flow, from whatever cause, results in ventricular endocardial fibroelastosis.
MH60S/R helicopter multi-platform & Web-based crew trainer with FLIR

The US Navy's PMA-205, in conjunction with the training and simulation industry, has developed and deployed OMIA: a flexible, multi-platform, Web-based crew trainer for the Navy's new MH-60S and MH-60R helicopters. 12OMIA is currently in use by HSC-2, HSC-3 and HSM-41 and is available to all crewmembers throughout the Navy. To maximize access to the trainer and to make deployment easier, OMIA is written in Java, and deployed both as a portable application and as a web application. A portable application does not require any special user rights to install; a web application is run over the internet from a browser. OMIA includes a simulation of the MH-60S/R Common Cockpit, including a FLIR capability that includes using an actual hardware FLIR hand-control unit when attached through USB. OMIA has been designed and implemented to be flexible to changing Navy needs, a design aspect which proved itself again in 2009 when OMIA's FLIR was converted for use in the fixed wing EP-3E aircraft. OMIA illustrates solutions to three critical issues in developing low-cost training software for aircraft: quickly responding to the ever-changing demands, re-use of interface components across multiple aircraft, and providing training that can be accessed where and when it is needed.
Validation of a New Measure of Concept of a Good Death

Background: The concept of a good death is central to end-of-life care research. Despite its importance and the high interest in the topic, there are few measures currently available for use in clinical research. Purpose: The present work describes the development and testing of a set of items intended to measure the importance of several components posited to be critical to the concept of a good death. It is intended for use with health care providers and lay people in the context of end-of-life care research and education. Population: Four cohorts (n = 596) were recruited to participate, representing two helping profession disciplines, nonhelping professionals, and a range of ages, specifically: (1) undergraduate medical students; (2) master's degree students in nursing; (3) graduate students from the life sciences; and (4) practicing hospice nurses. Methods: Participants completed self-report questionnaires at baseline and retest. Psychometric analyses included item frequency distributions, factor anal...
Sweeping algorithms for inverting the discrete Ginzburg-Landau operator

The Ginzburg Landau equations we study arise in the modeling of superconductivity. One widely used method of discretizing the equations together with the associated periodic boundary conditions, in the case of a rectangle of dimension 2, leads to a five-point stencil. Solving the system means inverting a sparse matrix of dimension N^2, where N is the number of grid points on each side of the rectangle. We propose a method that is similar to the shooting technique in the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations. For small N, the method requires inverting a full matrix of dimension 2N. When N is large, an iterative procedure combining partial sweeping and the technique of divide and conquer (domain decomposition) is appropriate.
Quality variations in the circular model of variety-differentiated products

Quality variations are introduced in the circular model of differentiated products. Two main game structures are analyzed. The three-stage game has entry in the first stage, location in the second, and quality and price choice in the third. The four-stage game replaces the quality and price subgame of the three-stage game with two stages, quality choice followed by price choice. It is found that precommitment in quality (in the four-stage game) allows firms to support the same prices (as in the no-precommitment three-stage game) with lower quality levels and expenditure. This induces entry so that, at the free entry equilibrium, quality is lower and there is a larger number of brands in the precommitment game. In relation to optimality, both games result in higher diversity and under-provision of quality with bigger divergence from optimality observed in the four-stage precommitment game. Compared with a market without competition in quality, the equilibria with quality competition may result in a lower total surplus. A basic inverse relationship is established between the level of quality and the number of varieties at equilibrium. Thus, the establishment of minimum quality standards can reduce the number of varieties and increase total surplus.
The effect of sewage sludge and manure on soil available calcium, magnesium, and potassium

Abstract Beef cattle feedlot manure at 0, 6.7, 20.2, and 40.4 mt/ha and anaerobically digested municipal sewage sludge at 0, 11.2, 33.6, and 67.2 mt/ha were applied and incorporated into an acid (pH 5.6) Byler loam soil (Typic Fragiudalf) for two consecutive years. Corn (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum vulgare L.) were grown in replicated plots (6.1m × 4.6m). At the end of each year, soil samples were taken at 0 to 20 cm and 20 to 40 cm depths. They were analyzed for available calcium, magnesium, and potassium (IN NH4‐acetate extractable, pH 7). Sewage sludge treatments had no effect on soil available calcium, magnesium, and potassium levels in the surface and subsurface soil in corn and sorghum plots. Immobilization of sludge nutrients with time and rates was indicated. In each year, manurial treatments did not change soil available calcium levels for both crops as calcium immobilization in the soil was suggested. However, at the 40.4 mt/ha rate, manurial treatments did significantly increase surface s...