EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION AND JOB SATISFACTION ON DAIRY FARMS IN THE NORTHEAST

Economies of size have translated into much larger herd sizes and, therefore, employee bases on dairy farms throughout the Northeast. These non-family employees present managerial issues many farm managers are not accustomed to. This research quantifies and illustrates the internal pay structure and enumerates that current employee satisfaction levels present on the farms of members of the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA).Human Resource Management, Compensation, Satisfaction, Labor and Human Capital,

Greenhouse gas production in degrading ice-rich permafrost deposits in northeastern Siberia

Permafrost deposits have been a sink for atmospheric carbon for millennia. Thaw-erosional processes, however, can lead to rapid degradation of ice-rich permafrost and the release of substantial amounts of organic carbon (OC). The amount of the OC stored in these deposits and their potential to be microbially decomposed to the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) depends on climatic and environmental conditions during deposition and the decomposition history before incorporation into the permafrost. Here, we examine potential greenhouse gas production in degrading ice-rich permafrost deposits from three locations in the northeast Siberian Laptev Sea region. The deposits span a period of about 55 kyr from the last glacial period and Holocene interglacial. Samples from all three locations were incubated under aerobic and anaerobic conditions for 134 days at 4 °C. Greenhouse gas production was generally higher in deposits from glacial periods, where 0.2–6.1% of the initially available OC was decomposed to CO2. In contrast, only 0.1–4.0% of initial OC were decomposed in permafrost deposits from the Holocene and the late glacial transition. Within the deposits from the Kargin interstadial period (Marine Isotope Stage 3), local depositional environments, especially soil moisture, also affected the preservation of OC. Sediments deposited under wet conditions contained more labile OC and thus produced more greenhouse gases than sediments deposited under drier conditions. To assess the greenhouse gas production potentials over longer periods, deposits from two locations were incubated for a total of 785 days. However, more than 50% of total CO2 production over 785 days occurred within the first 134 days under aerobic conditions while even 80% were produced over the same period under anaerobic conditions, which emphasizes the non-linearity of the OC decomposition processes. Methanogenesis was generally observed in active layer samples but only sporadically in permafrost samples and was several orders of magnitude smaller than CO2 production

Nap sleep spindle correlates of intelligence

Contains fulltext : 152518.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Sleep spindles are thalamocortical oscillations in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, that play an important role in sleep-related neuroplasticity and offline information processing. Several studies with full-night sleep recordings have reported a positive association between sleep spindles and fluid intelligence scores, however more recently it has been shown that only few sleep spindle measures correlate with intelligence in females, and none in males. Sleep spindle regulation underlies a circadian rhythm, however the association between spindles and intelligence has not been investigated in daytime nap sleep so far. In a sample of 86 healthy male human subjects, we investigated the correlation between fluid intelligence and sleep spindle parameters in an afternoon nap of 100 minutes. Mean sleep spindle length, amplitude and density were computed for each subject and for each derivation for both slow and fast spindles. A positive association was found between intelligence and slow spindle duration, but not any other sleep spindle parameter. As a positive correlation between intelligence and slow sleep spindle duration in full-night polysomnography has only been reported in females but not males, our results suggest that the association between intelligence and sleep spindles is more complex than previously assumed

Pedestrian Accidents Occurring on Freeways: An Investigation of Causative Factors, Accident Data Collection and Analysis. Vol. I. Executive Summary

DOT-HS-355-3-7l8The objective of this study was to collect and analyze data on freeway pedestrian accidents. Data on 236 accidents involving pedestrians struck on limited-access highways were collected. The data included behavioral sequence items, site characteristic items, identification items, pedestrian factors, driver factors and vehicle factors. The accident investigations were intended to identify the precipitating and predisposing factors in each accident. The data reduction and data analysis phase resulted in the identification of a number of characteristic accident situations or accident types. Although 14 different accident types were identified, the most frequent types accounted for nearly 60% of the accidents. Countermeasures intended to impact on each of the accident types are discussed. The relatively infrequent occurrences (less than 1,000 nationwide annually) and the varied causal factors involved (suicide, alcohol, poor weather, disabled vehicles) suggest that countermeasure implementation be very carefully considered on a site-by-site basis. This report is the first in a series

A phase I study of the safety and pharmacokinetics of the histone deacetylase inhibitor belinostat administered in combination with carboplatin and/or paclitaxel in patients with solid tumours

BACKGROUND: This phase I study assessed the maximum tolerated dose, dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) and pharmacokinetics of belinostat with carboplatin and paclitaxel and the anti-tumour activity of the combination in solid tumours. METHODS: Cohorts of three to six patients were treated with escalating doses of belinostat administered intravenously once daily, days 1-5 q21 days; on day 3, carboplatin (area under the curve (AUC) 5) and/or paclitaxel (175 mgm(-2)) were administered 2-3 h after the end of the belinostat infusion. RESULTS: In all 23 patients received 600-1000 mgm(-2) per day of belinostat with carboplatin and/or paclitaxel. No DLT was observed. The maximal administered dose of belinostat was 1000 mgm(-2) per day for days 1-5, with paclitaxel (175 mgm-2) and carboplatin AUC 5 administered on day 3. Grade III/IV adverse events were (n; %): leucopenia (5; 22%), neutropenia (7; 30%), thrombocytopenia (3; 13%) anaemia (1; 4%), peripheral sensory neuropathy (2; 9%), fatigue (1; 4%), vomiting (1; 4%) and myalgia (1; 4%). The pharmacokinetics of belinostat, paclitaxel and carboplatin were unaltered by the concurrent administration. There were two partial responses (one rectal cancer and one pancreatic cancer). A third patient (mixed mullerian tumour of ovarian origin) showed a complete CA-125 response. In addition, six patients showed a stable disease lasting >= 6 months. CONCLUSION: The combination was well tolerated, with no evidence of pharmacokinetic interaction. Further evaluation of anti-tumour activity is warranted. British Journal of Cancer (2010) 103, 12-17. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6605726 www.bjcancer.com Published online 15 June 2010 (C) 2010 Cancer Research U

Binary Willshaw learning yields high synaptic capacity for long-term familiarity memory

We investigate from a computational perspective the efficiency of the Willshaw synaptic update rule in the context of familiarity discrimination, a binary-answer, memory-related task that has been linked through psychophysical experiments with modified neural activity patterns in the prefrontal and perirhinal cortex regions. Our motivation for recovering this well-known learning prescription is two-fold: first, the switch-like nature of the induced synaptic bonds, as there is evidence that biological synaptic transitions might occur in a discrete stepwise fashion. Second, the possibility that in the mammalian brain, unused, silent synapses might be pruned in the long-term. Besides the usual pattern and network capacities, we calculate the synaptic capacity of the model, a recently proposed measure where only the functional subset of synapses is taken into account. We find that in terms of network capacity, Willshaw learning is strongly affected by the pattern coding rates, which have to be kept fixed and very low at any time to achieve a non-zero capacity in the large network limit. The information carried per functional synapse, however, diverges and is comparable to that of the pattern association case, even for more realistic moderately low activity levels that are a function of network size.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Participating together: dialogic space for children and architects in the design process

© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupTypically enmeshed in the ‘voice’ perspective within children’s participation debates, there are currently sporadic insights into designer–child creative dialogue. Drawing on the findings of a Leverhulme Trust-funded research project, this paper articulates moments of dialogue between architects and children in spatial design processes, whose spatial and symbolic qualities help to understand the interactions and meeting of cultures. Several authors have discussed the transformational potential for adults and children to ‘co-author’ identities in dialogical contexts. The paper builds on this body of research to suggest that design dialogue offers the space, literally and metaphorically, for children and architects to participate together. Identifying the qualities of the dialogic design space as potentially present in children’s and adults’ everyday cultures and interdependent relations, it is proposed that this dialogical framework might diversify architects’ and children’s roles in the design process and enrich practices and perceptions of design participation

Safety Evaluation of Ultraviolet-Activated Fluorescent Roadway, Delineation: Preliminary Field Experiment

DTFH61-95-R-00093A new technology is being developed in Sweden to improve visibility for nighttime driving. This technology consists of Ultraviolet (UV) headlights in combination with fluorescent traffic control devices. Vehicles will be equipped with headlamps that supply UV radiation in a high-beam pattern, along with conventional halogen or metal halide low-beam headlamps. UV light is not visible to the human observer, but after striking certain materials it will cause them to "fluoresce", that is, the UV radiation is converted to longer wavelength, visible light. UV-activated fluorescent materials can be incorporated into roadway delineation, such as pavement markings. A field test was conducted to examine the effectiveness of using UV headlights, with fluorescent pavement markings, in increasing the visibility of roadway delineation. This included measurement of both a visibility distance and subjective ratings. The study examined drivers opinions of the UV light as well as measured distance and general visibility of the fluorescent roadway markings as compared to standard roadway markings. Results showed that UV headlights provided a significant increase in UV-activated fluorescent pavement marking delineation visibility

Search for Chargino-Neutralino Associated Production at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider

We have searched in $p \bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8 TeV for events with three charged leptons and missing transverse energy. In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, we expect trilepton events from chargino-neutralino (\chione \chitwo) pair production, with subsequent decay into leptons. We observe no candidate $e^+e^-e^\pm$, $e^+e^-\mu^\pm$, $e^\pm\mu^+\mu^-$ or $\mu^+\mu^-\mu^\pm$ events in 106 pb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. We present limits on the sum of the branching ratios times cross section for the four channels: \sigma_{\chione\chitwo}\cdot BR(\chione\chitwo\to 3\ell+X) 81.5 \mgev\sp and M_\chitwo > 82.2 \mgev\sp for $\tan\beta=2$, $\mu =-600$~\mgev\sp and M_\squark= M_\gluino.Comment: 9 pages and 3 figure

Observation of Hadronic W Decays in t-tbar Events with the Collider Detector at Fermilab

We observe hadronic W decays in t-tbar -> W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet events using a 109 pb-1 data sample of p-pbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). A peak in the dijet invariant mass distribution is obtained that is consistent with W decay and inconsistent with the background prediction by 3.3 standard deviations. From this peak we measure the W mass to be 77.2 +- 4.6 (stat+syst) GeV/c^2. This result demonstrates the presence of two W bosons in t-tbar candidates in the W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet channel.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR