Guest editorial for the special issue on software-defined radio transceivers and circuits for 5G wireless communications

Yichuang Sun, Baoyong Chi, and Heng Zhang, Guest Editorial for the Special Issue on Software-Defined Radio Transceivers and Circuits for 5G Wireless Communications, published in IEEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, Vol. 63 (1): 1-3, January 2016, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSII.2015.2506979.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Relationships of Coaching Leadership and Team Cohesion on Team Performance in Taiwanese College Basketball Programs

This research explored the relationships between perceived leadership behaviors of college basketball coaches, team cohesion, and team performance, according to conference levels, genders, and years of team participation in Taiwanese college basketball programs. The study employed stratified random sampling to select 640 subjects fiom male and female Taiwanese college conference Al, A2, and A3, participated in the University Basketball Association (UBA) of Taiwan in 2005. A total of 522 participants who responded were valid. This study employed a four-part questionnaire to measure the variables and consists of the Socio-Demographic Profile, Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS), Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ), and team performance, which was used to obtain the winning percentage of the subject\u27s team in the season competitions of University Basketball Association (UBA) of Taiwan in 2005. Varied statistical techniques were utilized to perform the collected data analysis in the study, including descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Pearson r Correlation Coefficients, and multiple regression analysis. Findings indicated that the Taiwanese college basketball conference A1 players perceived greater Democratic Behavior and Positive Feedback from coaches than conference A2 and A3 players. Male Taiwanese college basketball players perceived greater Training and Instruction Behavior from coaches while female Taiwanese college basketball players perceived more Autocratic and Social Support Behavior. The under 1 year Taiwanese college basketball players perceived more Social Support from their coaches than players in the 1 to under 2 year , 2 to under 3 year and 3 and above 3 year categories. These findings suggest that in order to enhance the team\u27s cohesion, the college basketball conference A1 and A2 players\u27 coaches should engage in a higher achievement goal to excite the aspirations. For Taiwanese college basketball conference A3 players, coaches should create an atmosphere where respect and concern are fostered through practice and play among team members. Coach\u27s Autocratic Behavior (from coach\u27s leadership behaviors), Individual Attraction to Group-Task and Group Integration-Task (from team cohesion) are significant predictors of team performance. The limitations and future research recommendations are also included in this study

Development of A Processing Aid Containing Sodium Lactate, Sodium Erythorbate and Sodium Bicarbonate Applied to Beef Trimmings to Assess Their Impact on Quality of Ground Beef Patties

A significant portion of fresh beef trimmings are distributed aerobically under refrigeration from large beef fabrication plants to further processors to use as the raw material source for products such as beef patties. Time from fabrication to arrival at further processing facilities may be anywhere from 0 to 5 days, or longer due to inclement weather conditions. This variation impacts the overall condition (color, odor/flavor/spoilage) of these trimmings destined for further processing, i.e, beef pattie manufacture. The economic loss due to meat discoloration was estimated to be 1 billion/year. Most researches utilized single ingredient to address a specific problem, such as myoglobin oxidation, lipid peroxidation, etc. Hence, we proposed to develop a processing aid containing multiple selected ingredients to resolve the myoglobin oxidation, lipid peroxidation, off odor, and microbial spoilage which reduce the shelf life of aerobically stored beef trimmings. Phase 1 and 2 were conducted to investigate the effect of sodium lactate (NaL), potassium lactate (KL), sodium erythorbate (NaE), and sodium bicarbonate (NaB) on fresh beef trimmings for ground beef production within and exceeding federal regulations. For phase 1 and 2, a full factorial design was used to generate treatment combinations containing NaL (0.1 to 1.5 M), NaE (1 mM to 0.6 M), and NaB (0.1 to 1.5 M) with water used as a control in both studies. Based on phase 1 and 2, a 2^3 central composite response surface design (RSM), which generated 15 treatment combinations containing NaL (0.1 to 1.5 M), NaE (0.1 to 0.6 M), and NaB (0.1 to 1.5 M) with water used as a control was used to optimize the concentration level of treatment combinations. All phases used the same the procedure for treatment preparation, sample preparation, treatment application, sample collection and analysis. Beef trimmings fabricated from 14-day-postmortem carcasses were aerobically stored for 6 days at 5 oC. After storage, beef trimmings were coarse ground, treated with various treatments, reground, and formed into beef patties wrapped with oxygen permeable films. The patties were stored under simulated retail conditions: 5°C, cool white fluorescent light (200 to 300 lux) and analyzed at day 0, 3, 6, and 9 of storage to assess the effectiveness of each treatment in preventing further quality deterioration. Objective color (L*, a*, and b*), 2- thiobarbituric acid (TBA) determinations, GC-MS for off-odor assessment and aerobic plate counts (APC) were measured. The treated beef patties with NaB (1.5 M), NaE (0.1 to 0.8 M) and NaL (1 M) had the greatest effect on enhancing the color stability, reducing the lipid peroxidation and controlling the microbial spoilage compared to the control upon storage day 6 for phase 1 and 2, respectively. Based on these results, we optimized the concentration levels of NaL, NaE, and NaB which were active ingredients using response surface methodology (RSM) to develop a processing aid. The treated beef patties showed improved a* values, MMb formations, TBA values and total ion counts of hexanal compared to the control upon storage day 6 (P 11 and TBA values < 0.52. Results of the research suggested that a combination of NaL, NaE and NaB (0.43 to 0.57, 0.35 and 1 M, respectively) could be applied into ground beef patties generated from aerobically 6-days-stored (5 oC) beef trimmings to improve color stability, reduce lipid oxidation and mitigate off-odor upon 6 days storage with retail display condition

Development of A Processing Aid Containing Sodium Lactate, Sodium Erythorbate and Sodium Bicarbonate Applied to Beef Trimmings to Assess Their Impact on Quality of Ground Beef Patties

A significant portion of fresh beef trimmings are distributed aerobically under refrigeration from large beef fabrication plants to further processors to use as the raw material source for products such as beef patties. Time from fabrication to arrival at further processing facilities may be anywhere from 0 to 5 days, or longer due to inclement weather conditions. This variation impacts the overall condition (color, odor/flavor/spoilage) of these trimmings destined for further processing, i.e, beef pattie manufacture. The economic loss due to meat discoloration was estimated to be 1 billion/year. Most researches utilized single ingredient to address a specific problem, such as myoglobin oxidation, lipid peroxidation, etc. Hence, we proposed to develop a processing aid containing multiple selected ingredients to resolve the myoglobin oxidation, lipid peroxidation, off odor, and microbial spoilage which reduce the shelf life of aerobically stored beef trimmings. Phase 1 and 2 were conducted to investigate the effect of sodium lactate (NaL), potassium lactate (KL), sodium erythorbate (NaE), and sodium bicarbonate (NaB) on fresh beef trimmings for ground beef production within and exceeding federal regulations. For phase 1 and 2, a full factorial design was used to generate treatment combinations containing NaL (0.1 to 1.5 M), NaE (1 mM to 0.6 M), and NaB (0.1 to 1.5 M) with water used as a control in both studies. Based on phase 1 and 2, a 2^3 central composite response surface design (RSM), which generated 15 treatment combinations containing NaL (0.1 to 1.5 M), NaE (0.1 to 0.6 M), and NaB (0.1 to 1.5 M) with water used as a control was used to optimize the concentration level of treatment combinations. All phases used the same the procedure for treatment preparation, sample preparation, treatment application, sample collection and analysis. Beef trimmings fabricated from 14-day-postmortem carcasses were aerobically stored for 6 days at 5 oC. After storage, beef trimmings were coarse ground, treated with various treatments, reground, and formed into beef patties wrapped with oxygen permeable films. The patties were stored under simulated retail conditions: 5°C, cool white fluorescent light (200 to 300 lux) and analyzed at day 0, 3, 6, and 9 of storage to assess the effectiveness of each treatment in preventing further quality deterioration. Objective color (L*, a*, and b*), 2- thiobarbituric acid (TBA) determinations, GC-MS for off-odor assessment and aerobic plate counts (APC) were measured. The treated beef patties with NaB (1.5 M), NaE (0.1 to 0.8 M) and NaL (1 M) had the greatest effect on enhancing the color stability, reducing the lipid peroxidation and controlling the microbial spoilage compared to the control upon storage day 6 for phase 1 and 2, respectively. Based on these results, we optimized the concentration levels of NaL, NaE, and NaB which were active ingredients using response surface methodology (RSM) to develop a processing aid. The treated beef patties showed improved a* values, MMb formations, TBA values and total ion counts of hexanal compared to the control upon storage day 6 (P 11 and TBA values < 0.52. Results of the research suggested that a combination of NaL, NaE and NaB (0.43 to 0.57, 0.35 and 1 M, respectively) could be applied into ground beef patties generated from aerobically 6-days-stored (5 oC) beef trimmings to improve color stability, reduce lipid oxidation and mitigate off-odor upon 6 days storage with retail display condition

Physiochemical characteristics contributing to the cytotoxicity of transition metal oxides

In the past ten years nanotechnology has not only evolved to play a prominent role in our economy but also increased the concern over potential adverse effects caused by nanomaterials to human health and the environment. Nanotoxicity is to understand the nature and origin of the toxicity imposed by nanomaterials. Studies from our laboratory have shown that nanoparticle induces oxidative stress, perturbs calcium homeostasis, alter gene expression, and produces pro-inflammatory responses. We also identified a trend of toxicity: TiO₂ \u3c Cr₂O₃ \u3c Fe₂O₃ \u3c Mn₂O₃ \u3c NiO \u3c ZnO \u3c CuO. We then asked a question: what are physiochemical factors of transition metal nanoparticles that contributed to this increasing cytotoxicity. In this thesis I investigated the correlation between physicochemical properties and toxicity of the transition metal oxides in the 4th Period of the Periodic Table of Elements. Particle size, BET surface area, point of zero charge, metal dissolution, and degree of surface adsorption of transition metal oxide nanoparticles were measured. There were no increasing trends in both particle size and specific surface area. The point of zero charge showed an increasing trend as TiO₂ \u3c Cr₂O₃ \u3c Fe₂O₃ \u3c NiO \u3c CuO = ZnO \u3c Mn₂O₃. The number of available binding sites of nanoparticle showed an increasing trend as Cr₂O₃ \u3e ZnO \u3e CuO \u3e NiO \u3e Fe₂O₃ \u3e Mn₂O₃ \u3e TiO₂. The degree of adsorption on the surface of nanoparticles showed an increasing trend with atomic number, with the exception of Cr₂O₃. The degree of dissolution of transition metal oxides increases with atomic number. In summary, the factors that contribute to cytotoxicity of transition metal oxides were a combination of point of zero charge, number of available binding sites on the surface of nanoparticles, and metal dissolution. This study advances our understanding in mechanisms of nanotoxicity, which may lead to safer design of nanomaterials --Abstract, page iii

Leakage and Comparative Advantage Implications of Agricultural Participation in Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation

The world is moving toward efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Net emission reduction efforts may involve the agricultural sector through options such as planting of trees, crop and livestock management changes, and production of biofuels. However, such options can be competitive with domestic food production. In a free trade arena, reduced domestic food production could stimulate increased production and exports in other countries, which are not pursuing similar mitigative courses of action. As a consequence, net emission reductions in implementing countries may be offset by activities stimulated in other countries. In addition producers in countries where agriculture is subject to greenhouse gas mitigation have expressed concern about their competitive position to countries which are not trying to reduce net emissions.Emission Leakage, Agricultural Sector Model, Greenhouse Gas Policy, Mitigation, Carbon Sequestration