cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Representation for the Symbol Error Rate Using Completely Monotone Functions

The symbol error rate of an arbitrary multidimensional constellation in the absence of coding impaired by additive white Gaussian noise is characterized as the product of a completely monotone function with a nonnegative power of the signal-to-noise ratio, when the minimum distance detector is used. This representation is also shown to apply to cases when the impairing noise is compound Gaussian. Using this general result, it is proved that the symbol error rate is completely monotone if the rank of its constellation matrix is either one or two. Further, a necessary and sufficient condition for the complete monotonicity of the symbol error rate of a constellation of any dimension is also obtained. Applications to stochastic ordering of wireless system performance are also discussed.
Reactions accompanying the firing of brick

Results are presented of an investigation of the reactions taking place when brick, particularly those made from fire clay containing some organic matter and sulfides, are fired. In making this investigation the differential thermal method was used. This method permitted a study of the temperature at which various reactions take place, the intensity of these reactions, and the speed with which they reach completion. The reactions for carbon are slow. The reactions for sulfur are also slow and somewhat different from those taking place when similar sulfur compounds are heated in air. The loss of (OH) lattice water from the clay mineral components is accompanied by an intense and abrupt reaction which shows slight relation to the heating rate. The structural change accompanying the loss of (OH) water fortunately causes little or no disruption of the brick.
Characterization of Prostaglandin E2 Production by Candida albicans

Candida albicans produces lipid metabolites that are functionally similar to host prostaglandins. These studies, using mass spectrometry, demonstrate that C. albicans produces authentic prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) from arachidonic acid. Maximal PGE(2) production was achieved at 37 degrees C in stationary-phase culture supernatants and in cell-free lysates generated from stationary-phase cells. Interestingly, PGE(2) production is inhibited by both nonspecific cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase inhibitors but not by inhibitors specific for the cyclooxygenase 2 isoenzyme. The C. albicans genome does not possess a cyclooxygenase homolog; however, several genes that may play a role in prostaglandin production from C. albicans were investigated. It was found that a C. albicans fatty acid desaturase homolog (Ole2) and a multicopper oxidase homolog (Fet3) play roles in prostaglandin production, with ole2/ole2 and fet3/fet3 mutant strains exhibiting reduced PGE(2) levels compared with parent strains. This work demonstrates that the synthesis of PGE(2) in C. albicans proceeds via novel pathways.
Distributed power control for underwater acoustic networks

Multi-hop transmission is considered for large coverage area in bandwidth-limited underwater acoustic networks. Discrete power control is introduced as a practical means of optimizing the overall system performance across the physical and the medium access control layers. The required number of power levels and the way in which they are distributed for increasing network densities is analyzed in light of minimum energy per bit consumption. The system performance is evaluated for different frequency allocation patterns (center frequency fc and bandwidth B). The results show that the total energy per bit consumption can be reduced by moving to higher frequencies, where the background interference is decreased and a greater bandwidth is available. A greater bandwidth supports transmission at higher bit-rates, resulting in a twofold effect: first, the total energy consumption is reduced because the transmission time is shorter, and second, shorter packets are less likely to collide. These facts encourage the use of high bit-rates even if the application does not require it. In addition, they motivate a review of the medium access control protocols, whose performance depends on the number of collisions. Two MAC protocols are considered: the Distance Aware Collision Avoidance Protocol (DACAP), a virtual carrier-sense-like protocol that completely avoids harmful collisions, and the simple Carrier Sensing ALOHA. Coupled with power control, both protocols are shown to be well-suited for networks containing static and mobile nodes which are not synchronized to a global clock.
Neural Correlates of Encoding Space from Route and Survey Perspectives

The neural mechanisms underlying ground-level spatial navigation have been investigated, but little is known about other kinds of spatial navigation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify differences in brain activation for two types of spatial information, information from the ground-level perspective (route) and information from a global perspective (survey). Participants were scanned during the encoding of two different virtual reality environments, one from each perspective. Comparisons of brain activation during route and survey encoding suggested that both types of information recruited a common network of brain areas, but with important differences. Survey encoding recruited a subset of areas recruited by route encoding, but with greater activation in some areas, including inferior temporal cortex and posterior superior parietal cortex. Route encoding, in contrast, recruited regions that were not activated by survey encoding, including medial temporal lobe structures, anterior superior parietal cortex, and postcentral gyrus. These differences in brain activation are associated with differences in memory performance for the two types of spatial information and contribute to specification of brain components of spatial knowledge.
Use of dimensionless ratios to determine minimum‐cost inventory quantities

The iteration usually necessary for simultaneous determination of minimum-cost order quantity and reorder point in (Q, r) inventory systems may be eliminated by a graphical technique employing dimensionless ratios. This technique is illustrated for three different types of stock-out penalty.
Silencing of TonEBP/NFAT5 Transcriptional Activator by RNA Interference

TonEBP is a transcriptional activator that is expressed throughout development in many tissues and cell types. In the kidney medulla, TonEBP appears to be an important local regulator of differentiation by virtue of stimulating several genes. To study the function of TonEBP, two small interfering RNA (siRNA) duplexes were developed that reduced TonEBP expression effectively via RNA interference. The silencing lasted only 3 d after introduction of the TonEBP-siRNA's. As expected, TonEBP-driven reporter gene expression and expression of the sodium/myo-inositol cotransproter (SMIT), aldose reductase (AR) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) mRNA were significantly decreased in cells where TonEBP expression was silenced. These data provide direct evidence that the SMIT, AR, and HSP70 genes are targets of TonEBP, although the potential role of other proteins, such as accessory proteins, cannot be excluded. The TonEBP-siRNA is an effective tool that should prove useful in the investigation of loss-of-function relationship in cells.
Small-amplitude perturbations of shape for a nearly spherical bubble in an inviscid straining flow (steady shapes and oscillatory motion)

The method of domain perturbations is used to study the problem of a nearly spherical bubble in an inviscid, axisymmetric straining flow. Steady-state shapes and axisymmetric oscillatory motions are considered. The steady-state solutions suggest the existence of a limit point at a critical Weber number, beyond which no solution exists on the steady-state solution branch which includes the spherical equilibrium state in the absence of flow (e.g. the critical value of 1.73 is estimated from the third-order solution). In addition, the first-order steady-state shape exhibits a maximum radius at θ = 1/6π which clearly indicates the barrel-like shape that was found earlier via numerical finite-deformation theories for higher Weber numbers. The oscillatory motion of a nearly spherical bubble is considered in two different ways. First, a small perturbation to a spherical base state is studied with the ad hoc assumption that the steady-state shape is spherical for the complete Weber-number range of interest. This analysis shows that the frequency of oscillation decreases as Weber number increases, and that a spherical bubble shape is unstable if Weber number is larger than 4.62. Secondly, the correct steady-state shape up to O(W) is included to obtain a rigorous asymptotic formula for the frequency change at small Weber number. This asymptotic analysis also shows that the frequency decreases as Weber number increases; for example, in the case of the principal mode (n = 2), ω^2 = ω_0^0(1−0.31W), where ω_0 is the oscillation frequency of a bubble in a quiescent fluid.
Static Analysis-based program evolution support in the common lisp framework

The common Lisp framework (CLF) is an object-oriented environment to support the development and maintenance of programs written in the language common Lisp. A static analysis tool, which is part of CLF, supports program evolution in CLF. Since the effectiveness of the approach stems from the basic design and architecture of CLF, the author provides an overview of the relevant features of CLF. The static analysis tool asserts the static properties of program objects definitions in the CLF object base. CLF's general mechanism to add rules to the object base provides a conceptual basis respond to changes in the static properties of program objects in several interesting ways, from programming routine responses to program changes to viewing program alterations idiomatically. >
Using semantic and structural similarities for indexing and searching scientific papers

Finding relevant scientific documents from a huge set of academic papers is a challenging task and with the tremendous growth in electronic publication, locating the most relevant and related scientific documents when going through a new research paper is becoming even more challenging. In this paper, we present a new way of indexing and searching the scientific documents to assist researchers in finding relevant documents when coming across a new research document. In particular, we explored how DT-Tree (DocumentTerm-Tree) - a new structure for the representation of scientific documents - can be used to create an index of scientific documents. We used MVP-Tree to create index using DT-Tree representation of the documents. We then performed search experiments, using new scientific documents as queries, to show that relevant documents are retrieved when DT-Tree structures are used to create MVP-Tree.
III. Chemokines and other mediators, 8. Chemokines and their receptors in cell-mediated immune responses in the lung.

Chemokines constitute a large family of chemotactic cytokines that belong to a super-gene family of 8 -10 kDa proteins. The chemokines are considered to be primarily beneficial in host defense against invading pathogens. However, the reactions induced by chemokines can be occasionally excessive, resulting in a harmful response to the host. Recent studies in chemokine biology have elucidated that chemokines are involved in the initiation, development, and mainte- nance of numbers of diseases including lung diseases. In addition to its chemotactic activity, evidence suggests that chemokines can modify the outcome of the cell-mediated immune responses by altering the Th1/Th2 cytokine profile. Chemokines are also capable of dictating the direction of specific immune responses. Chemokine action is mediated by a large super-family of G-protein coupled receptors, and the receptors are preferentially expressed on Th1/Th2 cells. Certain chemo- kine receptors are constitutively expressed in immune surveying cells such as dendritic cells and naive T cells. The corresponding chemokines are present in normal lymphoid tissues, suggesting a role of chemokines/receptors in cell homing and cell-cell communication in lymphoid tissue that can be an initial step for immune recognition. Thus, comprehension of the chemokine biology in immune responses appears to be fundamental for understanding the pathogenesis of T cell-mediated immune responses. The following review will highlight the current insight into the role of chemo- kines and their receptors in the cell-mediated immune response, with a special focus on lung diseases. Microsc. Res. Tech. 53:298 -306, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Vitamins B6 and B12 supplementation to prevent chemotherapy-induced neuropathy (CiN): Interim analysis of the taxane cohort

e20621 Background: Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy (CiN) is common with heavy metals, taxanes, and vinca alcaloids. Pyridoxine (Vit B6) is used for diabetic neuropathy and cyanocobalamine (Vit B12)...
Importance of Correctly Identifying Kidney Structure When Performing Quantitative Analysis in Bilateral Renal Scintigraphy

Occasionally, clear visualization of the kidneys in the early phase of bilateral renal scintigraphy is not readily apparent. Knowledge of the normal sequence of the injected bolus of Tc-99m-DTPA and of kidney morphology and its variations aids in distinguishing the kidney from surrounding structures. However, various hypervascular structures, such as the spleen, may mislead the technologist who performs differential count analysis. All or part of the spleen may be included if there is poor visualization of the left kidney. If the technologist mistakenly compares the right kidney to the spleen on the left side, the end results or quantitation will be misleading and incorrect. By viewing both the dynamic and static images collectively, the technologist is able to define kidney tissue and proceed with the quantitative analysis.
A Randomized Trial of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Mentoring Program

Individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The purpose of this study was to experimentally evaluate the impact of a STEM mentor ...
3-D Visualization of Intrinsic Contrast in Neoplastic Colon Tissue Using Hyperspectral Two-Photon Microscopy

Hyperspectral two-photon imaging of endogenous fluorescence and SHG allows 3-D visualization of gastrointestinal tissue without slicing or staining. A study of the morphological changes that occur in two mouse models of cancer is presented.
The effect of carbon impurities on lightly doped MOCVD GaN Schottky diodes

Schottky diodes have been fabricated on metalorganic chemical vapor deposition GaN epitaxial layers grown on sapphire substrates. Carbon impurities limit the ability of these films to be used in high-power devices. Although its effect can be mitigated by growing the films at higher pressure, higher flow rates, and larger V/III ratios, it still effectively limits the net carrier concentration to ~10 cm−3 and therefore the breakdown voltage to ~1200 V by acting as a compensating deep acceptor for n-type material. The net carrier concentration is smaller than the carbon concentration indicating that not all of the carbon occupies a nitrogen site acting as a deep acceptor. It is not known whether some of the carbon occupies gallium sites acting as a donor, interstitial sites creating states in the midgap region, and/or is tied up in the large number of dislocations in the films where it is not electrically active.
Concerning Dr. Zavala’s Chapter on Religion in Colonial America

Since the general framework of the Commission’s history of the Americas is unknown to me, it would be presumptuous to comment on the style and organization of any one chapter; therefore, a prudent silence shall be maintained on that aspect of Dr. Zavala’s work. 1. Has sufficient attention been paid to the possible effect of wilderness conditions upon the early development of institutional Christianity in'America? The chapter quite properly displays the Americas as a frontier in which European institutions met almost nothing in the way of a competing civilization to contest their plantation and expansion. On the other hand, it may have been that without such competition European institutions in some cases were modified to suit frontier circumstances more cheerfully and easily than if those institutions had been self-consciously propagated in the midst of a resilient alien culture.
RFID tag antenna based temperature sensing using shape memory polymer actuation

Ubiquitous temperature monitoring is important to boost visibility in applications such as cold supply chain management. Current sensors monitor and log a time history of temperature data, but their cost limits the scale of deployment. In this paper, we propose an ultra-low cost temperature threshold sensor using the UHF RFID tag antenna as a sensing mechanism. Permanent changes are induced in the tag antenna electrical properties upon violation of a temperature threshold. This manifests itself in a change in backscatter power detected at the reader. We demonstrate how these changes are effected via shape memory polymer actuation. Experiments demonstrate that cheap, reliable temperature threshold sensors can be developed which are independent of the material of deployment, orientation of the sensor, which have a read range of over 3 m and which have a customizable critical temperature threshold.
High thermal conductivity in polaritonic SiO2 nanoparticle beds

Recent theoretical works predict the ability of surface phonon polaritons to increase thermal conduction along nanoparticle chains, but measurement of this effect has proven elusive. Here we demonstrate a new approach to observe thermal conduction by surface phonon polaritons – packed beds of SiO2 nanoparticles. When we modify the interstitial material with adsorbed water or a coating of ethylene glycol, we experimentally resolve thermal conductivities as high as 1.5 and 18 times the phonon value, respectively. Although existing models do not fully explain our results, we develop a new scaling relation that suggests thermal conduction is primarily dependent on the 3D density of states. An examination of classical heat transport mechanisms shows that these are unlikely sources for the observed thermal conductivities, suggesting that surface phonon polaritons play an observable role in SiO2 nanoparticle bed heat transfer properties.
Analysis of Lightning Flashover for Overhead Transmission Lines from 2004 to 2006 in Jiangsu Power Grid

This paper firstly counts lightning day from 1988 to 2006 and lightning flashover rate of overhead transmission lines from 2004 to 2006 in Jiangsu Power Grid.The main reasons of lightning flashover are increase of tower height and lower insulation strength of composite insulator and porcelain long-rod insulator.Finally some anti-lightning-flashover measures in Jiangsu are introduced.
The CPSU: The Guiding Force in Soviet Society

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) is the nucleus of all political activity in the USSR. It proclaims itself the “leading and guiding force of Soviet society.”1 At all levels of government, it is charged with making policies and supervising the prompt, efficient execution of policy decisions. Since 1917, the Party has developed from a handful of professional revolutionaries into a massive bureaucracy incorporating more than 19 million members. Its growth has been accompanied by a proliferation of responsibilities, as well as an erosion of the revolutionary zeal of its members.
Can States Simultaneously Improve Health Outcomes and Reduce Health Outcome Disparities

INTRODUCTION Reducing racial health disparities is often stated as a population health goal, but specific targets for such improvement are seldom set. It is often assumed that improving overall health outcomes will be linked to disparity reduction, but this is not necessarily the case. METHODS We compared the annual change from 1999 through 2013 in combined-race (black and white) mortality with the annual change in absolute and relative racial mortality disparities for US states. RESULTS Median annual improvement in combined-race mortality was 1.08% per year. Annual overall mortality rate reductions ranged from 0.24% per year in Oklahoma to 1.83% per year in Maryland. For disparities, the median for the black-white absolute gap was 3.60% per year, and the median for the relative black-to-white ratio was 1.19% per year. There was no significant correlation between the combined-race measure and either the absolute (0.03) or relative disparity measure reductions (-0.17). CONCLUSION For mortality in US states over a recent period, improvement in the population mean and disparity reduction do not usually occur together. The disparity reduction rates observed may provide realistic guidance for public and private policy makers in setting goals for reducing population health disparity and creating investment priorities. As a starting point for discussion, the observed national median annual percentage improvement of 1.1 per year combined, 3.6% per year absolute gap reduction, and 1.2% per year relative gap reduction would be modest and reasonable goals.
Galanin – 25 years with a multitalented neuropeptide

Neuroanatomical localization and physiological properties of galanin suggest that the peptide may be involved in the regulation of seizures. Indeed, administration of galanin receptor agonists into brain areas pertinent to the initiation and propagation of epileptic activity attenuated seizure responses under conditions of animal models of epilepsy; pharmacological blocking of galanin receptors exerted proconvulsant effects. Functional deletion of both galanin and galanin type 1 receptor genes produced transgenic mice with either spontaneous seizure phenotype, or with enhanced susceptibility to seizure stimuli. At the same time, overexpression of galanin in seizure pathways, using both transgenic and virus vector transfection techniques, hindered the epileptic process. Galanin exerts anticonvulsant effects through both type 1 and type 2 receptors, with distinct downstream signaling cascades. Several synthetic agonists of galanin receptors with optimized bioavailability have been synthesized and inhibited experimental seizures upon systemic administration, thus opening an opportunity for the development of galanin-based antiepileptic drugs. (Part of a Multi-author Review)
Palliative Care Assessment

Palliative radiotherapy can be highly effective in the management of complex symptoms of advanced cancer. However, a detailed assessment of patient and family, including an evaluation of overall distress, symptom burden, illness understanding, and goals of care is imperative in informing decision-making in patients with advanced cancer. This chapter outlines how to conceptualize differences between palliative and curative radiotherapy. Further, the chapter outlines an approach to patient and family that introduces fundamental concepts in palliative medicine, screening tools for assessing patients and families referred for palliative radiotherapy, and questions important in considering whether palliative radiotherapy may be appropriate for an individual patient. The chapter concludes with an analysis of factors that impact dose/fractionation and radiotherapy technique that may be most appropriate for palliative radiotherapy.
Survival difference among patients with hepatocelluar carcinoma (HCC) based on stage of disease: The pre- and post-sorafenib era.

411Background: Sorafenib was approved for unresectable and metastatic HCC in 2007. We conducted this retrospective study using U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End results (SEER) database to evaluate the relative survival rates of HCC patients before and after the approval of sorafenib. Methods: We analyzed SEER database: Incidence - SEER 18 Regs Research Data + Hurricane Katrina Impacted Louisiana Cases, Nov 2015 Sub (1973-2013 varying). Relative survival at 12,24,36,48 and 60 months interval was measured for patients diagnosed with HCC between 2001 and 2013. Relative survival rates were compared between pre sorafenib (2001-2007) and post sorafenib (2008-2013) eras. Results: A total of 54,901 patients (23,963 in pre sorafenib era and 30,938 in post-sorafenib era) were reported with HCC in SEER database. Relative survival at 5-years significantly improved for HCC patients diagnosed after 2007 (16.00±0.30% vs 18.90±0.30% for pre and post sorafenib era respectively; P-value < 0.001). Relative survival fo...
Inferring reservoir operating patterns across the Mekong Basin using only space observations

This study explores the operating pattern of artificial reservoirs by examining their impact on streamflow through two parameters, residence time and flow alteration, using a purely satellite-based technique for the Mekong Basin. Overall residence times of individual reservoirs ranged from 0.09 to 4.04 years, while streamflow was altered between 11 and 130% of its natural variability. The current set of reservoirs appears to have increased the residence time of the entire Mekong basin by about 1 month. However, if subbasin variability is considered, the satellite-based method depicts a different picture. Residence time increases to 4 months when only regulated flows are considered. If low residence time reservoirs on major rivers are excluded and reservoirs on higher stream-order rivers considered, residence time increases to 1.3 years. Predictable strong seasonal patterns emerged in residence time, where reservoirs experience higher residence time in the dry season and lower residence time in the wet season and residence time varies inversely with precipitation. High variability in reservoir effects on streamflow between reservoirs could not be explained by any reservoir properties (e.g., size, use, location, etc.), highlighting the variability in the human decisions operating these reservoirs. The take-home message of this study is that satellite observations, in combination with physical models forced with satellite data, can elucidate the spatiotemporal variability of reservoir behavior in ungauged basins of the developing world. We demonstrate in this study that the requirement for ground data to monitor current or historical behavior of dams is not necessary.
Long‐term agricultural management does not alter the evolution of a soybean–rhizobium mutualism

Leguminous crops, like soybeans, often rely on biologically fixed nitrogen via their symbiosis with rhizobia rather than synthetic nitrogen inputs. However, agricultural management practices may influence the effectiveness of biological nitrogen fixation. While the ecological effects of agricultural management on rhizobia have received some attention, the evolutionary effects have been neglected in comparison. Resource mutualism theory predicts that evolutionary effects are likely, however. Both fertilization and tillage are predicted to cause the evolution of rhizobia that provide fewer growth benefits to plant hosts and fix less nitrogen. This study capitalized on an LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) experiment that manipulated agricultural management practices in a corn-soybean-wheat row crop system for 24 years to investigate whether four different management practices (conventional, no-till, low chemical input, and certified organic) cause rhizobia populations to evolve to become more or less cooperative. We found little evidence that 24 years of varying management practices affect the net growth benefits rhizobia provide to soybeans, although soybean plants inoculated with soils collected from conventional treatments tended to have lower biological nitrogen fixation rates than plants inoculated with soils from the no-till, low input, and organic management treatments. These findings suggest that rhizobia will continue to provide adequate growth benefits to leguminous crops in the future, even in intensively managed systems. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
An integrative mating system assessment of a nonmodel, economically important Pacific rockfish (Sebastes melanops) reveals nonterritorial polygamy and conservation implications for a large species flock.

Characterizing the mating systems of long-lived, economically important Pacific rockfishes comprising the viviparous Sebastes species flock is crucial for their conservation. However, direct assignment of mating success to sires is precluded by open, offshore populations and high female fecundity. We addressed this challenge by integrating paternity-assigned mating success of females with the adult sex ratio (ASR) of the population, male evolutionary responses to receptive females, and reproductive life history traits-in the framework of sexual selection theory-to assess the mating system of Sebastes melanops. Microsatellite parentage analysis of 17 pregnant females, 1,256 of their progeny, and 106 adults from the population yielded one to four sires per brood, a mean of two sires, and a female mate frequency distribution with a truncated normal (random) pattern. The 11 multiple paternity broods all contained higher median allele richness than the six single paternity broods (Wilcoxon test: W = 0, p < .001), despite similar levels of average heterozygosity. By sampling sperm and alleles from different males, polyandrous females gain opportunities to enhance their sperm supply and to lower the cost of mating with genetically incompatible males through reproductive compensation. A mean of two mates per mated female with a variance of one, an ASR = 1.2 females per male, and the expected population mean of 2.4 mates for mated males (and the estimated 35 unavailable sires), fits polygamous male mate frequency distributions that distinguish polygynandry and polyandrogyny mating systems, that is, variations of polygamy, but not polyandry. Inference for polygamy is consistent with weak premating sexual selection on males, expected in mid-water, schooling S. melanops, owing to polyandrous mating, moderately aggregated receptive females, an even ASR, and no territories and nests used for reproduction. Each of these characteristics facilitates more mating males and erodes conspicuous sexual dimorphism. Evaluation of male evolutionary responses of demersal congeners that express reproductively territorial behavior revealed they have more potential mechanisms for producing premating sexual selection, greater variation in reproductive success, and a reduced breeding effective population size of adults and annual effective size of a cohort, compared to S. melanops modeled with two mates per adult. Such divergence in behavior and mating system by territorial species may differentially lower their per capita birth rates, subsequent population growth, and slow their recovery from exploitation.
A New Method for the Measurement of Real Area of Contact by the Adhesive Transfer of Thin Au film

In this study, a new experimental method is proposed to measure the real area of contact between a ceramic sphere and an Al surface based on the adhesive transfer of the Au film and the scanning electron microscope (SEM) in the back-scattered mode. A thin film of Au is sputtered on the ceramic sphere before the indentation with the Al surface. The success of this method relies on the fundamental assumption that the adhesive transfer of Au only occurs everywhere inside the contact area. A thin polymer (PMMA) film is deposited between gold film and the ceramic surface to further reduce adhesive strength. After indentation, the interfaces of the ceramic sphere and Al surface are observed by SEM. Experimental evidence that the adhesive transfer of the Au film occurs inside the contact area is given. The entire contact regions on the ceramic sphere and the Al surface are captured in the second electron and back-scattered images with a magnification of 220× (resolution: 432 nm, i.e., distance between neighboring pixels). The contact area can be identified based on both the distributions of the ceramic and Au on the ceramic sphere and Al surface, respectively. The back-scattered images with the magnifications of 5000× and 10,000× (resolution: 20 and 4 nm) are captured at four different locations along the radial direction (starting from the contact center), respectively. The real area of contact decreases from the center to the contact edge.
Evaluation of fodder production systems for organic dairy farms

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the feasibility and challenges of implementing sprouted fodder on organic dairy farms. In study 1, 5 grains (barley, oats, wheat, rye, and triticale) were sprouted for 7 d and analyzed for yield and nutritional content. In study 2, lactating cows were fed a TMR during winter and supplemented with either no fodder or 1.4 kg (DM) of sprouted barley fodder. In study 3, 3 organic dairies that fed sprouted barley fodder were monitored monthly for 12 mo to collect data on feed nutritional analysis, milk production and composition, and management. Data from studies 1 and 2 were analyzed as separate replicated complete block designs, and study 3 was a case study. Barley and oats had the greatest (P
Firearm Ownership, Storage Practices, and Suicide Risk Factors in Washington State, 2013-2016.

Objectives. To characterize firearm ownership and storage practices in Washington State and assess their relationship with suicide risk factors.Methods. Using Washington State Behavioral Risk Facto...
TRANSCENDENTAL LEADERSHIP FOR THE 21st CENTURY: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY ON EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY

Researchers have shown that transcendental leadership theory is an extension of transactional, transformational, servant, and spiritual leadership theories in terms of internal locus control, leadership effectiveness, and spirituality. The problem that the researcher addressed in this study was that while transcendental leaders may be yielding financial results, they are not as successful in gaining spiritual results by influencing their followers. The purpose of this qualitative narrative research study was to explore the conceptualizations of spiritual leadership in a secular workplace context and to explore the challenges and potential barriers confronting spiritual and transcendental leadership. Data collection involved individual interviews with 10 executive members of the Academy of Management who practice transcendental leadership and workplace spirituality. The results of the thematic analysis indicated that transcendental leaders develop and practice seven dimensions of spirituality: organizational commitment, altruistic love, hope and/or faith, trust, civic/social responsibility, solidarity, and spiritual connectedness. While the participants described differing ways of inspiring and reinforcing spirituality, the overarching methods of developing and practicing all seven of these dimensions included a relationship between the leader and employee — as well as a focus on the individual employee themselves, including a unified vision, behavior modeling, as well as a sense of meaning or greater purpose. The results of the present study may increase transcendental leaders’ ability to encourage spirituality through improved understanding of the barriers and challenges to implementing dimensions of spirituality in the workplace. Additionally, companies may experience greater benefits associated with transcendental leadership, such as increased productivity and employee satisfaction.
Service Economy, Geography of

The producer services supply specialized information to business and government clients. These industries historically are concentrated in large metropolitan areas, although they are also growing rapidly in smaller metropolitan areas. In recent years the geographic distribution of producer services has decentralized among metropolitan regions, and their growth rate is equal in metropolitan and rural areas in the United States. The demand for these services is driven primarily for the need for specialized knowledge, not because clients seek least cost sources of supply. Producer service businesses develop niche market concepts and specialized expertise to attract client demand as they attempt to differentiate themselves from competitors. Advanced information technologies are produced and used by these industries, while work is produced in large measure by face-to-face contact. Markets of producer service businesses vary from being highly localized to global. Their export-market orientation is growing, increasing their contribution to the regional economic base of communities. They also have a growing reliance on the use of specialized services in their production process and collaborate to a growing extent with other service businesses to gain markets.
An Empirical Analysis of Financing the Small Firm

This study provides an empirical analysis of a theoretical model that explains the linkages among the various short-term and long-term sources of financing the small firm. The small firm -with annual sales of less $15 million - depends mainly on short-term trade credit and bank credit and non traditional long-term fmancing such as owners’ personal investments, informal investment, and venture capital. This study shows that bank and trade credit are used as substitutes and how dependent small firms are on non-traditional financing means. The empirical results are based on ordinary least squares regressions on a pooled timeseries/cross-section data set of small firms reporting data on the over-the-counter COMPUSTAT tape. The statistical results leave many opportunities for further analysis as new data are collected, but they show some of the important relationships and methods for analyzing the financing of the small firm.
Status and habitat preferences of Uganda cheetahs: an attempt to predict carnivore occurrence based on vegetation structure

In this paper we examine whether the occurrence of cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) in Uganda can be predicted from habitat characteristics extracted from a vegetation map. We first established the status of the cheetah in Uganda through field-interviews that Gros conducted in 1990. Cheetahs occurred almost exclusively in the Karamoja region where we estimated 53–310 individuals. Based on 216 sightings, the average number of adults in all-adults sightings was 1.65 + SD 0.95 and the average number of cubs in family groups 2.5 + SD 1.65. Compared to Graham and Parker's 1965 East African survey, average adult group size was slightly smaller in 1990 and large family groups were rarer. Comparison with Gros 1990 survey showed considerably lower cub-to-adult ratio and percent of observations with cubs in Uganda than in Kenya. A Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of vegetation structure in areas where cheetahs were observed and in those where none were reported suggested that cheetahs might favor habitats with 25–50% woody cover and grasses of medium height (50–100 cm). A discriminant analysis correctly classified 72.1% of ‘used’ habitats and 70.4% of ‘no-report’ habitats. A logistic regression analysis improved the correct allocation of ‘used’ habitats by 2.2%. Either the discriminant function or the logistic regression, which require only four easily obtainable vegetation characteristics, may help to pinpoint suitable cheetah habitats for conservation purposes. Our approach could be adapted for analyzing habitat suitability for other species of carnivores.
Two-stage thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion of corn stover and cattle manure to enhance biomethane production

Two-stage thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion of cattle manure and corn stover was conducted to increase biomethane production. The first stage pre-digestion of corn stover was studied based on the following treatment variables: corn stover to liquid fraction of digestate (CS:LFD) ratio (1:7, 1:10, 1:13, 1:14), digestion temperature (55 °C, 60 °C) and digestion time (3, 7, 14 days). The reduction in lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose (LCH) was between 3.97% and 11.98%, which increased the biodegradability of corn stover. Corn stover pre-digested with a CS:LFD ratio of 1:10 at 55 °C for a period of 3 and 7 days was subjected to anaerobic co-digestion with cattle manure. The highest biomethane yield was observed on day 21 with a value of 357.41 mL/g volatile solids (VS) for untreated corn stover, 446.84 mL/g VS for corn stover pre-digested for 3 days and 518.58 mL/g VS for corn stover pre-digested for 7 days with LFD. The VS conversion efficiency for co-digestion of cattle manure with untreated corn stover, corn stover pre-digested for 3 days and 7 days was 42.8%, 43.3% and 51.8%, respectively, on day 21, which was higher than that (34.0%) of cattle manure only.
First point-of-care PSA test for prostate cancer detection.

The FDA’s approval of the first point-of-care total PSA test for prostate cancer has the potential to improve patient care by streamlining PSA testing. However, a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments waiver is needed before this test can be fully integrated into clinical care.
Multilattice Structures for Dynamic Beam Forming and Steering

Beam steering and electromagnetic (EM) image scanning form a basis for a large variety of devices and applications, including wireless communication, radar, lidar, antenna arrays, and much more. Modern communication devices (cell phones being the most ubiquitous example) and various imaging systems require flat and compact beam steering, beam forming and scanning mechanisms. Toward this end, much research and development in recent years has been devoted to tunable metamaterial guides, metasurfaces and metamaterial-based apertures whose EM properties can be controlled electrically, thermally or optically. References [1–8] are but a small sample of the available literature.
Simplified Admix Archaeal Glycolipid Adjuvanted Vaccine and Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy Combination Enhances Protection from Murine Melanoma

Archaeosomes are liposomes composed of natural or synthetic archaeal lipids that when used as adjuvants induce strong long-lasting humoral and cell-mediated immune responses against entrapped antigens. However, traditional entrapped archaeosome formulations have only low entrapment efficiency, therefore we have developed a novel admixed formulation which offers many advantages, including reduced loss of antigen, consistency of batch-to-batch production as well as providing the option to formulate the vaccine immediately before use, which is beneficial for next generation cancer therapy platforms that include patient specific neo-antigens or for use with antigens that are less stable. Herein, we demonstrate that, when used in combination with anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 checkpoint therapy, this novel admixed archaeosome formulation, comprised of preformed sulfated lactosyl archaeol (SLA) archaeosomes admixed with OVA antigen (SLA-OVA (adm)), was as effective at inducing strong CD8+ T cell responses and protection from a B16-OVA melanoma tumor challenge as the traditionally formulated archaeosomes with encapsulated OVA protein. Furthermore, archaeosome vaccine formulations combined with anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 therapy, induced OVA-CD8+ T cells within the tumor and immunohistochemical analysis revealed the presence of CD8+ T cells associated with dying or dead tumor cells as well as within or around tumor blood vessels. Overall, archaeosomes constitute an attractive option for use with combinatorial checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy platforms.
The primary mechanism of cytotoxicity of the chemotherapeutic agent CX-5461 is topoisomerase II poisoning

Small molecules can affect many cellular processes. The disambiguation of these effects to identify the causative mechanisms of cell death is extremely challenging. This challenge impacts both clinical development and the interpretation of chemical genetic experiments. CX-5461 was developed as a selective RNA polymerase I inhibitor, but recent evidence suggests that it may cause DNA damage and induce G-quadraplex formation. Here we use three complimentary data mining modalities alongside biochemical and cell biological assays to show that CX-5461 exerts its primary cytotoxic activity through topoisomerase II poisoning. We then show that acquired resistance to CX-5461 in previously sensitive lymphoma cells confers collateral resistance to the topoisomerase II poison doxorubicin. Doxorubicin is already a frontline chemotherapy in a variety of hematopoietic malignancies, and CX-5461 is being tested in relapse/refractory hematopoietic tumors. Our data suggest that the mechanism of cell death induced by CX-5461 is critical for rational clinical development in these patients. Moreover, CX-5461 usage as a specific chemical genetic probe of RNA polymerase I function is challenging to interpret. Our multimodal data-driven approach is a useful way to detangle the intended and unintended mechanisms of drug action across diverse essential cellular processes.
Purity and peoples (1328–1510)

Sometime before 1391, an anonymous writer against the Waldenses threw at them a familiar charge: because they were divided, their religious beliefs must not be true. God was unity and harmony, not fragmentation and weakness. As we've seen, this criticism was often used throughout the Middle Ages by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike – with the critics usually ignoring their own religion's splits and diversity. However, this anti-Waldensian polemicist gave the traditional accusation a decidedly national spin: They are divided into three parts in their opinions and errors. And therefore they by no means constitute the Church, since the Church is one … These Waldensians constitute a three-headed monster in nature, for they say they make one body and yet they have three heads. For some of their heresiarchs are called ‘Romans’, others ‘Piedmontese’, others ‘Germans’, nor does any one of them receive jurisdiction or authority from another, nor profess himself [to be] the subject of another. This accusation referred to the schism that had broken the Waldenses in 1205, which had split the group into French and northern Italian branches. But it also reflects a very late-medieval way to think about and to organize people, one in which heresy was deeply engaged. We see in the late Middle Ages an increasing consciousness about people as naturally distributed into nations, with vernacular languages as an important component of that identity. Certainly, persons everywhere had long understood and described themselves (and others) as different kinds of collectives, whether “people” or “nation.” We might recall from Chapter 3, for instance, twelfth-century Muslim heresiographer al-Shahrastani, who observed that humans could be grouped by language, ethnicity, or geography in addition to religious creed. But something began to change in the late Middle Ages.
The US Taxpayer Bill of Rights: Reflections on a Toddler

In the US the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) is only seven years old, and moreover no successful challenge to the IRS under it has been brought so far. The following first describes the existing case law under the US TBOR. The main conclusion is that the US TBOR is a toddler with uncertain prospects. The article then offers some observations on the application of the TBOR to corporate taxpayers.