Computer and Internet Use by Great Plains Farmers

This study uses data from a 2001 survey of Great Plains farmers to explore the adoption, usage patterns, and perceived benefits of computers and the Internet. Adoption results suggest that exposure to the technology through college, outside employment, friends, and family is ultimately more influential than farmer age and farm size. Notably, about half of those who use the Internet for farm-related business report zero economic benefits from it. Whether a farmer perceives that the Internet generates economic benefits depends primarily on how long the farmer has used the Internet for farm business and for what purposes.agriculture, competitiveness, net benefits, technology adoption, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Criminal Law and Procedure

This article aims to give the criminal law practitioner a succinct review of significant cases regarding criminal law and procedure decided by the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court ofAppeals of Virginia during the past year. The authors have focused their discussion of the cases on cogent points found in the holdings. The article also briefly summarizes recent legislative enactments pertaining to criminal law

Computer and Internet Use by Great Plains Farmers

We use data from a 2001 survey of Great Plains farmers to explore the adoption, usage patterns, and perceived benefits of computers and the Internet. Our adoption results suggest that exposure to the technology through college, outside employment, friends, and family is ultimately more influential than farmer age and farm size. Notably, about half of those who use the Internet for farm-related business report zero economic benefits from it. Whether a farmer perceives that the Internet generates economic benefits depends primarily on how long the farmer has used the Internet for farm business and for what purposes.Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Multi-Pion Systems in Lattice QCD and the Three-Pion Interaction

The ground-state energies of 2, 3, 4 and 5 \pi^+'s in a spatial volume V (2.5 fm)^3 are computed with lattice QCD. By eliminating the leading contribution from three-\pi^+ interactions, particular combinations of these n-\pi^+ ground-state energies provide precise extractions of the \pi^+\pi^+ scattering length in agreement with that obtained from calculations involving only two \pi^+'s. The three-\pi^+ interaction can be isolated by forming other combinations of the n-\pi^+ ground-state energies. We find a result that is consistent with a repulsive three-\pi^+ interaction for m_\pi < 352 MeV.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Persistent risk for new, subsequent new and recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma despite successful anti-hepatitis B virus therapy and tumor ablation: The need for hepatitis B virus cure.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the most significant hepatocarcinogens. The ultimate goal of anti-HBV treatment is to prevent the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). During the last two decades, with the use of currently available anti-HBV therapies (lamivudine, entecavir and tenofovir disoproxil fumatate), there has been a decrease in the incidence of HBV-associated HCC (HBV-HCC). Furthermore, several studies have demonstrated a reduction in recurrent or new HCC development after initial HCC tumor ablation. However, during an observation period spanning 10 to 20 years, several case reports have demonstrated the development of new, subsequent new and recurrent HCC even in patients with undetectable serum HBV DNA. The persistent risk for HCC is attributed to the presence of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) in the hepatocyte nucleus which continues to work as a template for HBV replication. While a functional cure (loss of hepatitis B surface antigen and undetectable viral DNA) can be attained with nucleos(t)ide analogues, these therapies do not eliminate cccDNA. Of utmost importance is successful eradication of the transcriptionally active HBV cccDNA from hepatocyte nuclei which would be considered a complete cure. The unpredictable nature of HCC development in patients with chronic HBV infection shows the need for a complete cure. Continued support and encouragement for research efforts aimed at developing curative therapies is imperative. The aims of this minireview are to highlight these observations and emphasize the need for a cure for HBV

Rapid acquisition of wideline MAS solid-state NMR spectra with fast MAS, proton detection, and dipolar HMQC pulse sequences

The solid-state NMR spectra of many NMR active elements are often extremely broad due to the presence of chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) and/or the quadrupolar interaction (for nuclei with spin I \u3e 1/2). These NMR interactions often give rise to wideline solid-state NMR spectra which can span hundreds of kHz or several MHz. Here we demonstrate that by using fast MAS, proton detection and dipolar hetero-nuclear multiple-quantum (D-HMQC) pulse sequences, it is possible to rapidly acquire 2D spectra which correlate 1H chemical shifts to the indirectly detected wideline MAS powder patterns of dipolar coupled hetero-nuclei. The D-HMQC pulse sequence enables broadband excitation of the wideline hetero-nuclear NMR spectrum and provides higher sensitivity by detecting the narrower and more sensitive 1H NMR signal. This approach is demonstrated for the rapid acquisition of 2D 1H detected 195Pt solid-state NMR spectra of cisplatin and transplatin and the 71Ga solid-state NMR spectrum of a self-assembled Ga coordination polymer of unconfirmed structure. This approach should be broadly applicable for the rapid acquisition of wideline MAS solid-state NMR spectra of moderately abundant NMR nuclei

Hydraulic Model Study: Detroit Metropolitan Airport Stormwater Pump Station No. 11

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154205/1/39015101405366.pd

High Statistics Analysis using Anisotropic Clover Lattices: (I) Single Hadron Correlation Functions

We present the results of high-statistics calculations of correlation functions generated with single-baryon interpolating operators on an ensemble of dynamical anisotropic gauge-field configurations generated by the Hadron Spectrum Collaboration using a tadpole-improved clover fermion action and Symanzik-improved gauge action. A total of 292,500 sets of measurements are made using 1194 gauge configurations of size 20^3 x 128 with an anisotropy parameter \xi= b_s/b_t = 3.5, a spatial lattice spacing of b_s=0.1227\pm 0.0008 fm, and pion mass of m_\pi ~ 390 MeV. Ground state baryon masses are extracted with fully quantified uncertainties that are at or below the ~0.2%-level in lattice units. The lowest-lying negative-parity states are also extracted albeit with a somewhat lower level of precision. In the case of the nucleon, this negative-parity state is above the N\pi threshold and, therefore, the isospin-1/2 \pi N s-wave scattering phase-shift can be extracted using Luescher's method. The disconnected contributions to this process are included indirectly in the gauge-field configurations and do not require additional calculations. The signal-to-noise ratio in the various correlation functions is explored and is found to degrade exponentially faster than naive expectations on many time-slices. This is due to backward propagating states arising from the anti-periodic boundary conditions imposed on the quark-propagators in the time-direction. We explore how best to distribute computational resources between configuration generation and propagator measurements in order to optimize the extraction of single baryon observables

Phase transition in bulk single crystals and thin films of VO2 by nanoscale infrared spectroscopy and imaging

We have systematically studied a variety of vanadium dioxide (VO2) crystalline forms, including bulk single crystals and oriented thin films, using infrared (IR) near-field spectroscopic imaging techniques. By measuring the IR spectroscopic responses of electrons and phonons in VO2 with sub-grain-size spatial resolution (similar to 20 nm), we show that epitaxial strain in VO2 thin films not only triggers spontaneous local phase separations, but also leads to intermediate electronic and lattice states that are intrinsically different from those found in bulk. Generalized rules of strain-and symmetry-dependent mesoscopic phase inhomogeneity are also discussed. These results set the stage for a comprehensive understanding of complex energy landscapes that may not be readily determined by macroscopic approaches