1,919 research outputs found
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Oxybelis aeneus
Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science
Business Ethics and Ethics Education in American Business Programs
This essay presents an overview of what American business programs cover in their curricula regarding ethics and the reasons behind teaching ethics-related material to business students. Topics for the paperinclude; requirements for having ethics in the curricula, broad perspectives of what constitutes ethical business practices, and the difference between professional ethics and business ethics.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: M14, A2
The effects of changes in petroleum based input prices on the Tennessee fed beef industry
An analysis was made to estimate efficient adjustments the Tennessee beef industry can make to changing supply-price relations for petro-based inputs. The focus was on the economic feasibility of finishing feeder cattle produced inside the state instead of moving them to feedlots in either the Corn Belt or High Plains areas. Budgetary analysis was used to estimate costs of all vertical stages after backgrounding, including movement to feedlots, feeding, movement to slaughter points, slaughter, and movement to distribution points. The study focused on the comparative advantage of three cattle feeding areas in Tennessee located within 100 mile radii of pricing points in Knoxville, Columbia, and Memphis relative to the Corn Belt and High Plains. Cost budgets for Tennessee were based on two feeding systems - - one silage based (silage, hay, corn, and protein supplement) and the other grain based (whole shelled corn, protein supplement). These budgets were compared with the costs of feeding cattle in the Corn Belt using the system whose costs are published in the Livestock and Meat Situation as typical for that area. Comparisons were made also with the costs of custom feeding operations in the High Plains, using the system whose costs are published in the Livestock and Meat Situation. Cost estimates for the Corn Belt and Great Plains areas were adjusted to take into account increased shrinkage, transportation costs, and death losses that result from moving Tennessee feeder animals for finishing in these other two areas. Once the current total costs for feeding and transporting cattle were derived, the effects of projected increases in fuel costs of 50, 100 and 200 percent were then substituted for the current prices of transportation and feed.
The results showed feeding cattle in Tennessee to be competitive with the Corn Belt and High Plains regions. Given increased fuel price situations, feeding costs in Tennessee rose less than in either the Corn Belt or the High Plains. Increased fuel costs had a much greater estimated effect on the cost of cattle feeding than on the cost of of transporting feeder steers.
Within the state, the grain system offered a lower cost ration than the silage system under all fuel cost situations. Other factors which should be considered before engaging in a beef feeding enterprise in Tennessee include; price and availability of corn, initial investment costs and managerial ability.
Other data gathered included slaughter costs for the three areas, estimated total beef consumption in Tennessee, and the potential number of feeder cattle in the state. Results indicated that there would be enough feeder cattle and slaughter capacity in Tennessee to meet the state beef consumption requirement without having to rely on out-of-state sources
CNEA Fresh Fuel Plate Characterization Summary Report
Characterization summary report outlining the findings of the fresh fuel examinations of the plates received from CNEA
Structural Control of Metamaterial Oscillator Strength and Electric Field Enhancement at Terahertz Frequencies
The design of artificial nonlinear materials requires control over the
internal resonant charge densities and local electric field distributions. We
present a MM design with a structurally controllable oscillator strength and
local electric field enhancement at terahertz frequencies. The MM consists of a
split ring resonator (SRR) array stacked above an array of nonresonant closed
conducting rings. An in-plane, lateral shift of a half unit cell between the
SRR and closed ring arrays results in a decrease of the MM oscillator strength
by a factor of 4 and a 40% change in the amplitude of the resonant electric
field enhancement in the SRR capacitive gap. We use terahertz time-domain
spectroscopy and numerical simulations to confirm our results and we propose a
qualitative inductive coupling model to explain the observed electromagnetic
reponse.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Orally active antischistosomal early leads identified from the open access malaria box.
BACKGROUND: Worldwide hundreds of millions of schistosomiasis patients rely on treatment with a single drug, praziquantel. Therapeutic limitations and the threat of praziquantel resistance underline the need to discover and develop next generation drugs. METHODOLOGY: We studied the antischistosomal properties of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) malaria box containing 200 diverse drug-like and 200 probe-like compounds with confirmed in vitro activity against Plasmodium falciparum. Compounds were tested against schistosomula and adult Schistosoma mansoni in vitro. Based on in vitro performance, available pharmacokinetic profiles and toxicity data, selected compounds were investigated in vivo. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Promising antischistosomal activity (IC50: 1.4-9.5 µM) was observed for 34 compounds against schistosomula. Three compounds presented IC50 values between 0.8 and 1.3 µM against adult S. mansoni. Two promising early leads were identified, namely a N,N'-diarylurea and a 2,3-dianilinoquinoxaline. Treatment of S. mansoni infected mice with a single oral 400 mg/kg dose of these drugs resulted in significant worm burden reductions of 52.5% and 40.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The two candidates identified by investigating the MMV malaria box are characterized by good pharmacokinetic profiles, low cytotoxic potential and easy chemistry and therefore offer an excellent starting point for antischistosomal drug discovery and development
Decoupling Crossover in Asymmetric Broadside Coupled Split Ring Resonators at Terahertz Frequencies
We investigate the electromagnetic response of asymmetric broadside coupled
split ring resonators (ABC-SRRs) as a function of the relative in-plane
displacement between the two component SRRs. The asymmetry is defined as the
difference in the capacitive gap widths (\Delta g) between the two resonators
comprising a coupled unit. We characterize the response of ABC-SRRs both
numerically and experimentally via terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. As with
symmetric BC-SRRs (\Delta g=0 \mu m), a large redshift in the LC resonance is
observed with increasing displacement, resulting from changes in the capacitive
and inductive coupling. However, for ABC-SRRs, in-plane shifting between the
two resonators by more than 0.375Lo (Lo=SRR sidelength) results in a transition
to a response with two resonant modes, associated with decoupling in the
ABC-SRRs. For increasing \Delta g, the decoupling transition begins at the same
relative shift (0.375Lo), though with an increase in the oscillator strength of
the new mode. This strongly contrasts with symmetric BC-SRRs which present only
one resonance for shifts up to 0.75Lo. Since all BC-SRRs are effectively
asymmetric when placed on a substrate, an understanding of ABC-SRR behavior is
essential for a complete understanding of BC-SRR based metamaterials
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Validation of machine learning models to detect amyloid pathologies across institutions.
Semi-quantitative scoring schemes like the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) are the most commonly used method in Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology practice. Computational approaches based on machine learning have recently generated quantitative scores for whole slide images (WSIs) that are highly correlated with human derived semi-quantitative scores, such as those of CERAD, for Alzheimer's disease pathology. However, the robustness of such models have yet to be tested in different cohorts. To validate previously published machine learning algorithms using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and determine if pathological heterogeneity may alter algorithm derived measures, 40 cases from the Goizueta Emory Alzheimer's Disease Center brain bank displaying an array of pathological diagnoses (including AD with and without Lewy body disease (LBD), and / or TDP-43-positive inclusions) and levels of Aβ pathologies were evaluated. Furthermore, to provide deeper phenotyping, amyloid burden in gray matter vs whole tissue were compared, and quantitative CNN scores for both correlated significantly to CERAD-like scores. Quantitative scores also show clear stratification based on AD pathologies with or without additional diagnoses (including LBD and TDP-43 inclusions) vs cases with no significant neurodegeneration (control cases) as well as NIA Reagan scoring criteria. Specifically, the concomitant diagnosis group of AD + TDP-43 showed significantly greater CNN-score for cored plaques than the AD group. Finally, we report that whole tissue computational scores correlate better with CERAD-like categories than focusing on computational scores from a field of view with densest pathology, which is the standard of practice in neuropathological assessment per CERAD guidelines. Together these findings validate and expand CNN models to be robust to cohort variations and provide additional proof-of-concept for future studies to incorporate machine learning algorithms into neuropathological practice
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