SUNY Canton

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (Nanoceria) have shown promise as catalytic antioxidants in the test tube, cell culture models and animal models of disease. However given the reactivity that is well established at the surface of these nanoparticles, the biological utilization of Nanoceria as a therapeutic still poses many challenges. Moreover the form that these particles take in a biological environment, such as the changes that can occur due to a protein corona, are not well established. This review aims to summarize the existing literature on biological use of Nanoceria, and to raise questions about what further study is needed to apply this interesting catalytic material to biomedical applications. These questions include: 1) How does preparation, exposure dose, route and experimental model influence the reported effects of Nanoceria in animal studies? 2) What are the considerations to develop Nanoceria as a therapeutic agent in regards to these parameters? 3) What biological targets of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are relevant to this targeting, and how do these properties also influence the safety of these nanomaterials?

The efficacy of a bilayered, living skin construct (APLIGRAF(R) [Graftskin]) was evaluated in patients (n = 120) with hard- to-heal venous leg ulcers of greater than 1 year's duration. The study was prospective, randomized, and controlled. Patients received Graftskin plus compression therapy, or standard compression therapy (active control). Patients were evaluated for frequency and time to complete (100%) wound closure. Treatment with Graftskin was significantly more effective than active control in the percentage of patients healed by 6 months (47% vs. 19%; p < 0.005) and the median time to complete wound closure (p < 0.005). Analysis with multivariate regression methods, adjusting for factors generally thought to influence wound healing (duration, baseline area, depth, location, fibrinous wound bed, and infection), showed that patients treated with Graftskin were twice as likely to achieve complete wound closure by 6 months (p < 0.005), and over 60% more effective in achieving wound closure than active control (p < 0.01). These data indicate that Graftskin is an effective treatment for venous ulcers of greater than 1 year's duration.

This paper introduces and describes a learning system for analyzing devices in a virtual world and points out its significance for current research collaboration. Now we are in Society 5.0, so daily problems should be solved by IoT (Internet of Things) with a mutual collaboration without borders. The authors need to collaborate with each other among remote organizations and different nations. For such situations, we need to establish the learning system for analyzing devices which would lead to an actual sharing system in the future. In this paper, the proposed concept for the learning system in metaverse is explained. The significance of the system is described, too.

Maintaining the standard of excellence set by the previous edition, this textbook covers the basic geometry of two- and three-dimensional spaces Written by a master expositor, leading researcher in the field, and MacArthur Fellow, it includes experiments to determine the true shape of the universe and contains illustrated examples and engaging exercises that teach mind-expanding ideas in an intuitive and informal way. Bridging the gap from geometry to the latest work in observational cosmology, the book illustrates the connection between geometry and the behavior of the physical universe and explains how radiation remaining from the big bang may reveal the actual shape of the universe.

This research investigates the relationship between inter‐domain conflict in the form of work‐family conflict and family‐work conflict with various facets of employee job satisfaction. The study was conducted among police personnel ( n = 119) in a large southeastern state. Results indicate that work‐family conflict is significantly related to satisfaction with job in general, pay, supervision, promotion, work, and co‐workers. Family‐work conflict is not as consistently related to the facets of job satisfaction. In general, as expected, conflict between work‐family is more closely related to employee job satisfaction than conflict between family‐work. Managerial implications are included as well as directions for future theoretical research.

The census provides a basic collection of noncompact hyperbolic 3-manifolds of finite volume. It contains descriptions of all hyperbolic 3-manifolds obtained by gluing the faces of at most seven ideal tetrahedra. Additionally, various geometric and topological invariants are calculated for these manifolds. The findings are summarized and a listing of all manifolds appears in the microfiche supplement.

This paper derives singular 1-soliton solution for optical metamaterials. There are two integration approaches that obtains the solution. These are the ansatz approach and the simplest equation approach. The second method also leads to an additional set of solutions that emerge as a by-product. These are topological soliton, rational solution and singular periodic solution. The constraint conditions for the existence of these solutions are also exhibited. The numerical simulation of a topological 1-soliton solution is also exhibited.

This paper addresses solitons in nonlinear directional couplers in non-Kerr law media, with spatio-temporal dispersion. Both twin-core couplers as well as multiple-core couplers are studied. The nonlinearities studied are Kerr law, power law, parabolic law, dual-power law and log law. Bright, dark and singular soliton solutions of the governing equation are studied.

There are no clear transition guidelines for adolescent and young adult cancer patients, their parents, and their primary care providers (PCPs) when completing active therapy and within the first few years after therapy. The purpose of this pilot study was to identify needs and concerns of recently treated adolescent cancer patients and their parents, young adult cancer survivors, and the community PCPs of adolescent patients. Four focus group interviews were conducted with survivors and parents, and 3 in-depth interviews were conducted with PCPs. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed for content analysis. A range of needs were identified, including lack of adequate written and verbal information about their prior treatment, its potential side effects, and appropriate follow-up care. The best sources for education were identified as the primary oncologist, nurse practitioner, or nurse. At completion of treatment, parents and adult survivors felt a lack of psychosocial support. Suggestions from participants included use of informational videos for survivors, weekend education and support programs, ongoing support groups, use of the Internet, and educational newsletters. The PCPs reported a lack of general pediatric oncology knowledge and specific patient information, time constraints in their patient schedules, and having few survivors in their practices as barriers to optimal survivorship care. Further research is needed to look at the unmet educational and psychological needs of childhood cancer survivors and their parents during the critical time when they transition off treatment.

Biofilms have caused many problems, not only in the industrial fields, but also in our daily lives. Therefore, it is important for us to control them by evaluating them properly. There are many instrumental analytical methods available for evaluating formed biofilm qualitatively. These methods include the use of Raman spectroscopy and various microscopes (optical microscopes, confocal laser microscopes, scanning electron microscopes, transmission electron microscopes, atomic force microscopes, etc.). On the other hand, there are some biological methods, such as staining, gene analyses, etc. From the practical viewpoint, staining methods seem to be the best due to various reasons. Therefore, we focused on the staining method that used a crystal violet solution. In the previous study, we devised an evaluation process for biofilms using a color meter to analyze the various staining situations. However, this method was complicated and expensive for practical engineers. For this experiment, we investigated the process of using regular photos that were quantified without any instruments except for digitized cameras. Digitized cameras were used to compare the results. As a result, we confirmed that the absolute values were different for both cases, respectively. However, the tendency of changes was the same. Therefore, we plan to utilize the changes before and after biofilm formation as indicators for the future.

A method to generalize square-wave core-loss data to predict core loss with any common rectangular voltage waveform is proposed. An automated measurement system was used to collect the required square-wave core characterization data for ferrite and powdered-iron cores, and to collect additional data to assess the accuracy of the method for other voltage waveforms. Measurement data is presented and the application of the method in power-electronics design is discussed.

This article gives the construction and complete classification of all three-dimensional spherical manifolds, and orders them by decreasing volume, in the context of multiconnected universe models with positive spatial curvature. It discusses which spherical topologies are likely to be detectable by crystallographic methods using three-dimensional catalogs of cosmic objects. The expected form of the pair separation histogram is predicted (including the location and height of the spikes) and is compared to computer simulations, showing that this method is stable with respect to observational uncertainties and is well suited for detecting spherical topologies.

Mushrooms are a potent source of dietary antioxidants and are often marketed for their capability of decreasing oxidative stress and preventing diseases. To date, however, little research has been done on the antioxidant activity of commercially available mushroom extractions, or their stability over time. Herein, the antioxidant capacity of six commercially available mushroom tinctures (hydro-alcoholic extracts of chaga, maitake, shiitake, reishi, lion's mane, and turkey tail) were evaluated using a panel of five antioxidant assays: Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), Nanoceria Reducing Antioxidant Capacity (NanoCerac), DPPH radical scavenging, Total Phenolic Content (TPC), and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP). Commercial samples were compared to our own laboratory preparations of the same species, in a preliminary assessment of extraction technique and antioxidant stability. Mushroom extracts exhibited different antioxidant capacities depending on species and extraction method (e.g., 0.023 to 0.63 μmol TE/mg for commercial ORAC vs. 0.05 to 1.8 μmol TE/mg for laboratory ORAC for all species). In all cases, laboratory extracts exhibited considerably higher antioxidant activities than commercial extracts. In both extract types, chaga and maitake consistently demonstrated higher antioxidant activity than the other mushrooms. Preliminary antioxidant stability testing of our samples revealed stable ORAC values for one month at room temperature, followed by a 48% decrease after 4 months. Our results provide important insights regarding the effects of extraction techniques and storage conditions, on the antioxidant activity in mushroom extracts, particularly those made and sold commercially.

While the crossing number is the standard notion of complexity for knots, the number of ideal tetrahedra required to construct the complement provides a natural alternative. We determine which hyperbolic manifolds with 6 or fewer ideal tetrahedra are knot complements, and explicitly describe the corresponding knots in the 3-sphere. Thus, these 72 knots are the simplest knots according to this notion of complexity. Many of these knots have the structure of twisted torus knots. The initial observation that led to the project was the abundance of knot complements with small Seifert-fibered Dehn fillings among the census manifolds. Since many of these knots have rather large crossing number they do not appear in the knot tables. Our methods, while ad hoc, yield some detailed information about the knot complements as well as the manifolds that arise from exceptional surgeries on these knots.

This article gives the construction and complete classification of all three-dimensional spherical manifolds, and orders them by decreasing volume, in the context of multiconnected universe models with positive spatial curvature. It discusses which spherical topologies are likely to be detectable by crystallographic methods using three-dimensional catalogs of cosmic objects. The expected form of the pair separation histogram is predicted (including the location and height of the spikes) and is compared to computer simulations, showing that this method is stable with respect to observational uncertainties and is well suited for detecting spherical topologies.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between women in the board of directors, firm performance and corporate decisions as well as the risk of the firm, debt level, and research and development (R&amp;D). Design/methodology/approach This study investigates a sample of 41 Italian listed companies. In particular, using a panel data of 369 firm-year observations, during the period 2005-2013, through a generalized method of moment, the relationship between women in the board of directors and corporate decisions has been investigated. Findings The results suggest that female representation in the board of directors affects corporate decisions. Women in the boardroom affect both financing and investment decisions. In particular, the presence of women seems to take on a complementary role to debt; it has a negative effect on risk and appears to have a positive impact on investment in R&amp;D The results also suggest a strong relationship between female directors and firm value, especially when certain multicultural factors are considered. Finally, considering the concept of “critical mass,” in line with the arguments of Kanter (1977), the results seem to emphasize a greater influence of women with respect to corporate decisions, moving from “tokenism” to a “critical mass” scenario. Practical implications The outcomes of the application, besides improving the current knowledge on the relationship between female representation in the board of directors, innovation, financial, and accounting decisions, intend to reveal if the governance of Italian listed companies is efficient in determining company results and in pursuing optimal decisions. Moreover, the results could be useful for both policy makers for the regulation of corporate governance and the board of directors and as a suggestion to companies that regularly appoint the members of the board of directors. Originality/value The work is not limited to examining the relationship between female representation and the performance of firms but instead uses a series of indicators of corporate decisions and multicultural, such as, the nationality of women in board of directors, the educational level, the past experience, and their interaction with the variables concerning the decision-making process. To the best knowledge of authors, this is the first study that investigates the relationship between women and corporate decisions in a single civil law country.

This paper describes the computation of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in a universe with multiconnected spatial sections and focuses on the implementation of the topology in standard CMB computer codes. The key ingredient is the computation of the eigenmodes of the Laplacian with boundary conditions compatible with multiconnected space topology. The correlators of the coefficients of the decomposition of the temperature fluctuation in spherical harmonics are computed and examples are given for spatially flat spaces and one family of spherical spaces, namely, the lens spaces. Under the hypothesis of Gaussian initial conditions, these correlators encode all the topological information of the CMB and suffice to simulate CMB maps.

Abstract There is considerable evidence from the social loafing literature that groups can often undermine task motivation (relative to comparable individual performers). There is less but growing evidence that under the appropriate conditions, working in a group can have the opposite effect and actually produce a motivation gain. Little is known about how such motivation losses and gains are affected by the social relationships among group members. The present experiment examined the effect of being ostracized by one's work partner on the Köhler motivation gain (which occurs when less able team members work harder under conjunctive group task demands than when working individually). Such ostracism attenuated but did not eliminate the Köhler motivation gain. Ostracism only had such a moderating effect when participants worked in a group, not under comparable coactive work conditions. It is argued that social ostracism can undermine group members' concern for group success or for protecting their reputation in the group without affecting the social comparison processes that also contribute to the Köhler effect. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Detailed particulate and gaseous emission characterizations were conducted on six commercially available residential-scale wood pellet boilers. The objective of the study was to define emission factors for these six different appliances burning wood pellets, grass pellets, and a blend of grass pellets and corn as fuels under low and high loads. Continuous monitoring of criteria pollutants, including PM2.5, NOx, SO2, and CO, was conducted using an EPA CTM-039 dilution sampling system. The PM10 emissions with wood as the fuel ranged between 14 and 17 mg/MJ and between 16 and 21 mg/MJ at low and high loads, respectively. The PM10 emissions from grass were found to be higher for all of the appliances compared to wood pellets at both low and high loads (28–33 and 37–44 mg/MJ, respectively). CO emissions, an indication of combustion efficiency, were found to be higher for the grass pellets, indicating less complete combustion. NOx and SO2 emissions were also higher for grass and grass/corn blends, attributable to the higher fuel N and S. PM samples collected on Teflon and quartz substrates were analyzed for ions and trace elements. Semi-volatile organic compounds collected on quartz and polyurethane foam (PUF) plugs were also analyzed. Levoglucosan, a molecular marker for wood combustion, was the predominant organic compound found in the grass combustion PM2.5 and ranged between 6 and 100 μg/MJ for grass and between 9 and 130 μg/MJ for wood. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions were relatively higher for grass combustion ranging from 10 to 700 μg/MJ than for wood combustion ranging from about 5 to 200 μg/MJ. Dioxin and dibenzofuran emissions were found to be substantially higher for grass pellet emissions compared to wood pellet emissions at both high and low loads for all of the appliances.

This paper studies the perturbation of the improved version of the nonlinear Schrödinger's equation that governs the propagation of solitons through nonlinear optical fibers. The semi-inverse variational principle is employed in order to obtain an analytical soliton solution in presence of the perturbation terms. There are three types of nonlinearity that will be studied. They are Kerr law, power law and the log law. The constraint conditions will naturally fall out in order for the soliton solutions to exist. The numerical simulations supplement the analytical results for each of the three laws of nonlinearity.