Economics and Other Factors Affecting the Adoption of Novel Endophyte Technology

Endophyte infected tall fescue impacts cattle and other livestock across vast regions of the world. Toxicosis from wild type endophyte is widespread in regions where toxic tall fescue is the base perennial forage. The Alliance for Grassland Renewal was founded to address this complex issue and to facilitate appropriate adoption of Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue, the only potentially 100% effective remedy for fescue toxicosis. A poor understanding of the Cost/Benefit ratio of renovating pasture is one of the main reason farmers give for not renovating tall fescue pastures. An Excel-based spreadsheet tool was developed by University of Missouri Extension to analyze costs and benefits of tall fescue pasture renovation. A team from the Alliance for Grassland Renewal worked with the tool and the developer to set default values for both costs and benefits. This tool will be made available in the future to extension agents and other advisors that are trained on the basics of Tall Fescue Toxicosis Management

Thermodynamic description of a dynamical glassy transition

For the dynamical glassy transition in the $p$-spin mean field spin glass model a thermodynamic description is given. The often considered marginal states are not the relevant ones for this purpose. This leads to consider a cooling experiment on exponential timescales, where lower states are accessed. The very slow configurational modes are at quasi-equilibrium at an effective temperature. A system independent law is derived that expresses their contribution to the specific heat. $t/t_w$-scaling in the aging regime of two-time quantities is explained.Comment: 5 pages revte

Quantitative determination of calcium oxalate and oxalate in developing seeds of soybean (Leguminosae)

Developing soybean seeds accumulate very large amounts of both soluble oxalate and insoluble crystalline calcium (Ca) oxalate. Use of two methods of detection for the determination of total, soluble, and insoluble oxalate revealed that at +16 d postfertilization, the seeds were 24% dry mass of oxalate, and three-fourths of this oxalate (18%) was bound Ca oxalate. During later seed development, the dry mass of oxalate decreased. Crystals were isolated from the seeds, and X-ray diffraction and polarizing microscopy identified them as Ca oxalate monohydrate. These crystals were a mixture of kinked and straight prismatics. Even though certain plant tissues are known to contain significant amounts of oxalate and Ca oxalate during certain periods of growth, the accumulation of oxalate during soybean seed development was surprising and raises interesting questions regarding its function

Differential negative reinforcement of other behavior to increase compliance with wearing an anti-strip suit

Using a changing-criterion design, we replicated and extended a study (Cook, Rapp, & Schulze, 2015) on differential negative reinforcement of other behavior (DNRO). More specifically, educational assistants implemented DNRO to teach a 12-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder to comply with wearing an anti-strip suit to prevent inappropriate fecal behavior in a school setting. The duration for which the participant wore the suit systematically increased from 2 s at the start of treatment to the entire duration of the school day at the termination of the study. Moreover, these effects were generalized to a new school with novel staff and persisted for more than a year. These findings replicate prior research on DNRO and further support the use of the intervention to increase compliance with wearing protective items, or medical devices, in practical settings

Dynamics of on-line Hebbian learning with structurally unrealizable restricted training sets

We present an exact solution for the dynamics of on-line Hebbian learning in neural networks, with restricted and unrealizable training sets. In contrast to other studies on learning with restricted training sets, unrealizability is here caused by structural mismatch, rather than data noise: the teacher machine is a perceptron with a reversed wedge-type transfer function, while the student machine is a perceptron with a sigmoidal transfer function. We calculate the glassy dynamics of the macroscopic performance measures, training error and generalization error, and the (non-Gaussian) student field distribution. Our results, which find excellent confirmation in numerical simulations, provide a new benchmark test for general formalisms with which to study unrealizable learning processes with restricted training sets.Comment: 7 pages including 3 figures, using IOP latex2e preprint class fil

The WARPS Survey. VIII. Evolution of the Galaxy Cluster X-ray Luminosity Function

We present measurements of the galaxy cluster X-ray Luminosity Function (XLF) from the Wide Angle ROSAT Pointed Survey (WARPS) and quantify its evolution. WARPS is a serendipitous survey of the central region of ROSAT pointed observations and was carried out in two phases (WARPS-I and WARPS-II). The results here are based on a final sample of 124 clusters, complete above a flux limit of 6.5 10E-15 erg/s/cm2, with members out to redshift z ~ 1.05, and a sky coverage of 70.9 deg2. We find significant evidence for negative evolution of the XLF, which complements the majority of X-ray cluster surveys. To quantify the suggested evolution, we perform a maximum likelihood analysis and conclude that the evolution is driven by a decreasing number density of high luminosity clusters with redshift, while the bulk of the cluster population remains nearly unchanged out to redshift z ~ 1.1, as expected in a low density Universe. The results are found to be insensitive to a variety of sources of systematic uncertainty that affect the measurement of the XLF and determination of the survey selection function. We perform a Bayesian analysis of the XLF to fully account for uncertainties in the local XLF on the measured evolution, and find that the detected evolution remains significant at the 95% level. We observe a significant excess of clusters in the WARPS at 0.1 < z < 0.3 and LX ~ 2 10E42 erg/s compared with the reference low-redshift XLF, or our Bayesian fit to the WARPS data. We find that the excess cannot be explained by sample variance, or Eddington bias, and is unlikely to be due to problems with the survey selection function.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Nonequilibrium Dynamics and Aging in the Three--Dimensional Ising Spin Glass Model

The low temperature dynamics of the three dimensional Ising spin glass in zero field with a discrete bond distribution is investigated via MC simulations. The thermoremanent magnetization is found to decay algebraically and the temperature dependent exponents agree very well with the experimentally determined values. The nonequilibrium autocorrelation function $C(t,t_w)$ shows a crossover at the waiting (or {\em aging}) time $t_w$ from algebraic {\em quasi-equilibrium} decay for times $t$$\ll$$t_w$ to another, faster algebraic decay for $t$$\gg$$t_w$ with an exponent similar to one for the remanent magnetization.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages + 4 figures (included as Latex-files

Education not Incarceration: A Conceptual Model for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality in School Discipline

Extension of retribution- and incapacitation-based criminal justice policies and practices to schools has exacerbated racial and ethnic disproportionality in school discipline, a serious and unsolved threat to equity in education and social opportunity. Common approaches implemented to reduce discipline disproportionality have not been shown to be widely effective. A more comprehensive, theory-driven understanding of the factors associated with disproportionate discipline is needed to enhance equity. In this article, we propose a conceptual model of how racial and ethnic bias affects school discipline, with direct implications for practical interventions. The model includes a multidimensional view of bias, informed by research from the field of social psychology, with multiple points identified for intervention to reduce disproportionality over time. The authors conclude with a proposed multicomponent intervention that builds on a foundation of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) and includes specific strategies for reducing the effects of explicit and implicit bias on school discipline decision making

Quantitative analysis of epithelial cells in urine from men with and without urethritis: implications for studying epithelial: pathogen interactions in vivo

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epithelial cells in first catch urine (FCU) specimens from 87 men with and without urethritis were quantified. Epithelial cells were broadly categorised into transitional and squamous populations using morphological characteristics and immunostaining with anti-pan leukocyte and anti-cytokeratin monoclonal antibodies.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The majority (77/87 = 89%) of samples contained both transitional (76/87 = 87%; range 1 × 10⁴– 6 × 10⁵, median 6 × 10⁴) and squamous (57/87 = 66%; range 1 × 10⁴– 8 × 10⁵, median 2 × 10⁴) epithelial cells. The number of transitional cells correlated with the number of squamous cells (Spearman's rho = 0.697 p < 0.001). Squamous, but not transitional, cell numbers correlated with leukocyte numbers (Spearman's rho = 0.216 p = 0.045 and rho = 0.171 and p = 0.113, respectively). However there was no significant difference in epithelial cell numbers between men with and without urethritis. Nevertheless, some men with urethritis had relatively high numbers of transitional cells in their FCU. Transitional cells were morphologically heterogeneous and appeared to display complex cytokeratin phenotypes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Further studies are required to explore the complexity of epithelial cell populations in urine. These would provide novel opportunities for studying cellular interactions of <it>C. trachomatis </it>in male urethral infections, about which little is currently known.</p