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We report that the neutral hydrogen (H i) mass density of the Universe (ρH i) increases with cosmic time since z ∼ 5, peaks at z ∼ 3, and then decreases toward z ∼ 0. This is the first result of Qz5, our spectroscopic survey of 63 quasars at z ≳ 5 with VLT/X-SHOOTER and Keck/ESI aimed at characterizing intervening H i gas absorbers at z ∼ 5. The main feature of Qz5 is the high resolution (R ∼ 7000–9000) of the spectra, which allows us to (1) accurately detect high column density H i gas absorbers in an increasingly neutral intergalactic medium at z ∼ 5 and (2) determine the reliability of previous ρH i measurements derived with lower resolution spectroscopy. We find five intervening damped Lyα absorbers (DLAs) at z > 4.5, which corresponds to the lowest DLA incidence rate () at z ≳ 2. We also measure the lowest ρH i at z ≳ 2 from our sample of DLAs and subDLAs, corresponding to ρH i Mpc−3 at z ∼ 5. Taking into account our measurements at z ∼ 5 and systematic biases in the DLA detection rate at lower spectral resolutions, we conclude that ρH i doubles from z ∼ 5 to z ∼ 3. From these results emerges a qualitative agreement between how the cosmic densities of H i gas mass, molecular gas mass, and star formation rate build up with cosmic time.

Both urban and rural firm entry rates have declined over the last three decades, and the urban–rural gap in firm entry rates has increased. We investigate which local market factors are associated with the divergence between 1993 and 2019. Our model includes local measures of firm agglomeration, population agglomeration, human capital, consumption demand, government fiscal policies, and natural amenities. Their effects on firm entry are consistent over time and have similar signs in both rural and urban markets. While the magnitudes of these factors have remained fairly stable over time, their impact on firm entry has diminished in both markets, which has lowered the rate of firm entry overall. Larger rural market declines in the importance of firm agglomeration, population agglomeration, and educated labor supply are the main factors driving the rising gap in urban–rural firm entry.

Academic success is now coupled with social media engagement. Social media has become so normalized in the academy that absent a carefully curated social media presence, scholars risk being seen as unscholarly, unproductive, and unpopular. This article lays bare the pressures, mechanisms, and monstrosities of using social media to promote scholarship. We argue that the widespread adoption of social media outpaces critical attention to its ethics and wonder about the future of public scholarship and the monstrous scholarly selves we are becoming. Thinking of monstrosity, with Krecˇicˇ and Žižek, as the preontological domain that rests beneath society and constitutes alterity and otherness, we ask what kinds of #scholarfamousmonsters we want to be, become, and promote in the digital era.

Photovoltaic systems have proven to be one of the most widely used renewable energies and the best replacement for conventional energy. Yet, their non-linear nature remains a challenge when it comes to extracting maximum power from photovoltaic modules. Therefore, in this work, a nonlinear PID controller has been used to meet the requirements of the photovoltaic system. In addition, to improve system performance and response, metaheuristic search algorithms were introduced into the tuning process of both the NPID controller and conventional PID controller parameters in order to compare them. The use of Artificial Intelligence to fine-tune the controller parameters will enable the optimum values of proportional, integral, derivative and nonlinear gains to be determined as system condition change. Finally, a comparison between the algorithms applied is conducted in terms of efficiency, rise time, settling time and overshoot as well as the overall system stability.

There is an “under-representation problem” in philosophy departments and journals. Empirical data suggest that while we have seen some improvements since the 1990s, the rate of change has slowed down. Some posit that philosophy has disciplinary norms making it uniquely resistant to change. We present results from an empirical case study of a philosophy department that achieved and maintained male-female gender parity among its faculty as early as 2014. Our analysis extends beyond matters of gender parity because that is only one, albeit important, dimension of inclusion. We build from the study to reflect on strategies that may catalyze change.

Purpose: In the United States, 15 states maintain policies and 25 states represent some level of edTPA affiliation. This study investigated how the edTPA was integrated and aligned into different physical education teacher education (PETE) programs in New Jersey. It also sought to understand teacher educators’ perceptions and experiences in preparing teacher candidates for the edTPA. Methods: This study utilized three data sources: semistructured interviews (n = 4), one focus group interview (n = 1), and documents (n = 17). Data analysis reflected a conventional approach toward qualitative content analysis. Results: In analyzing the data, four themes were established: (a) benefits and drawbacks of edTPA in PETE, (b) goals and success of edTPA in PETE, (c) integrating edTPA into PETE—macro- and microperspectives, and (d) analytic insights into edTPA and future recommendations. Discussion/Conclusion: In states requiring the edTPA, early exposure, scaffolding, curriculum mapping, and a shared mission and vision are critical. In states not requiring the edTPA, programs may want to consider indicators of performance, such as artifacts, reports, elements of the edTPA, university-based assessments, or a portfolio. Regardless of the type of assessment, “a” performance-based assessment may help to determine teacher candidates’ ability to plan, instruct, assess, and reflect.

Visualizing Violence in Francophone Cultures brings together two complex and powerful loci of meaning: violence and the visual. As such, it offers a comprehensive overview from which one can gain a better understanding of the complexity of the visual rhetoric of violence. The visual representations of violence explored in this volume include both fictional works, including, for example, narrative films, graphic novels, and theatre, and non-fictional genres, such as news media and cultural artifacts. This volume’s strength is also grounded in its interdisciplinary approach; by bringing together scholars from a variety of academic fields to examine a broad range of visual artifacts, such as photography, graphic novel, films, paintings, objects, the book offers a substantive corpus focusing on the rhetoric of violence. The essays collected in this volume explore the ways in which visual expressions of violence have infiltrated diverse narrative forms, and, as such, how they both construct and challenge general understandings of contemporary violence. They all chart, with cultural and historical specificity, the way in which images of violence shape the visual imaginary of ethical worlds.

The present study, a part of researcher's Ph.D. project, aimed at exploring the reading trends of young Pakistani students (i.e., Generation Y: born during the 1980s and early 1990s, also known as internet generation), and the impact of digital media on their reading behavior. It was conducted as a pilot study on final year's master level students of the University of the Punjab. Quantitative research design, based on a survey was used. Convenient sampling technique was used to collect data from 50 students through questionnaire survey. It revealed that the students' reading behavior has been significantly changed during the last five years. Their overall reading time and digital reading time has been increased due to the availability of digital devices and digital reading material. The findings of this study are helpful in identifying the trends of reading behavior as well as in planning and designing library services with regard to the considering of the behavior of the students.

This study aimed to find out the effects of demographic variable i.e. gender, age, group of studies, GPA etc. on level of academic integrity among Pakistani students. The design of the study is quantitative in nature, in which the survey research method was employed to gather data from the respondents. A self-reported questionnaire was adapted on the basis of previously developed and validated questionnaire, with the consent of the authors. The developed scale was validated with the help of experts and pilot tested. Multilevel stratified convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from 4 provinces and federal area of Pakistan. The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 version

This research aims to assess tire service quality of public libraries of Lahore by evaluating the disparities between the users' expectation and currently received services. The survey method based on questionnaire was used. Four of the largest libraries in Lahore, in terms of services, collection and other facilities, were the population of the study. A sample of four hundred library users was selected with one hundred library users for each library based on convenience sampling. A modified LibQUAL+ tool was adopted to collect the data. The findings revealed that users have very high expectations regarding the accessibility of library's electronic resources from home or office, library website, printed material, availability of electronic information resource, modem equipment, tools that allow the users to find the material themselves, and provision of the information in an easy manner. The findings are helpful for public libraries' authorities to redcsign/upgradc the quality of library services, policies and procedures according to users' expectations and requirements.

The study examined granularity of lexical partitioning of the blue area in speakers of English, which encodes the term blue; Russian, which encodes two terms, sinij [dark/navy blue] and goluboj [light/sky blue]; and Ukrainian, which encodes the terms synij [dark/navy blue] and blakytnyj and golubyj [light/sky blue]. Five groups of participants took part in the study: (1) 30 L1 speakers of English, (2) 30 L1 speakers of Russian, (3) 30 Russian–English bilinguals, (4) 30 English–Russian bilinguals, and (5) 25 Ukrainian–Russian–English trilinguals. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed that L1 Russian speakers referred to different types of blue significantly more frequently than all other groups, while bilinguals patterned with L1 English speakers. These findings suggest that classroom exposure to L2 Russian does not make the distinction between sinij and goluboj communicatively relevant for L1 English speakers and that everyday use of L2 English may trigger attrition of the contrast in L1 Russian.

Motivated by the ongoing debate on the costs and benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR), we explore how talented managers view CSR investments. Based on nearly 20,000 observations across 17 years, our evidence reveals a nonmonotonic effect of managerial talent on CSR. Exploiting a novel measure of managerial ability, we find that talented managers view CSR investments favorably. However, only those with especially strong talent are in favor of CSR investments. For executives ranked above the 75th percentile in terms of managerial talent, an increase in managerial ability leads to more CSR investments, suggesting that these strongly talented managers perceive CSR as enhancing firm performance. In contrast, for those with weaker talent, CSR investments are negatively associated with managerial ability, implying that these weakly talented managers view CSR as a wasteful deployment of resources. Further evidence shows that our conclusion is unlikely confounded by endogeneity.

Motivated by recent productivity-based theories of diversification, we argue that only conglomerates with an optimal degree of diversification can utilize their comparative advantages across various industries and achieve economies of scope by eliminating redundancies. Evidence from both corporate bond and equity markets suggests that optimally diversified conglomerates consist of either (1) approximately five equally weighted divisions, or (2) one large core business segment that roughly accounts for 75 % sales. Moreover, the relative size of divisions has a critical impact on how diversification affects credit spreads and excess values. Nonparity among divisions correlates with greater costs that increase with the number of divisions.

Background The purpose of this study was to examine weight loss, physical activity, fitness and diet changes in response to a standard behavioral weight loss intervention in adults with self-reported juvenile onset (n = 61) or adult onset (n = 116) obesity. Methods Participants (n = 177; 43.0 ± 8.6 years; body mass index [BMI] = 33.0 ± 3.4 kg m−2) engaged in an 18-month standard behavioral weight loss intervention. Participants were randomized into three different intervention groups as part of the larger parent trial. BMI, physical activity, fitness and diet were assessed at baseline, 6, 12 and 18 months. Separate adjusted mixed models were constructed using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Results There was significant weight loss, increased physical activity, improved fitness and reduced caloric intake over time (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in these outcome variables by obesity onset group. However, there was a significant group by time interaction for fitness (p = 0.001), with the adult onset making significantly greater gains in fitness from baseline to 6 months (p < 0.001); however, this difference was no longer present at 12 or 18 months. Conclusions With the exception of fitness at 6 months, weight loss, physical activity and diet did not differ between juvenile onset and adult onset participants, suggesting that those with juvenile onset obesity are equally responsive to a standard behavioral weight loss intervention in adulthood.

The impact of legal status on romantic relationships has not been adequately explored in the literature. Based on video and phone interviews with 25 undocumented activists from the ages of 18 to 28 years old, this research examines how legal status affects the romantic relationships of undocumented women and men. The hegemony of traditional dating scripts made it difficult for those without legal status to participate. Gender roles were consistent with stereotypical male and female roles in dating, which often attribute more power and responsibility to men. As such, women experienced a slight advantage because traditional notions of courtship did not require them to provide the resources required for dating, such as money or transportation, which in contrast were commonly expected of the men. In contrast, women noted the difficulties of disclosing their legal status and depending on their partners for everyday activities. Additionally, both men and women faced exclusion that inhibited their dating lives, as a direct result of their legal status. This suggests that the impact of legal status may be salient at all stages of family formation and that undocumented young adults are experiencing a distinct phenomenon compared to their documented and native-born peers.

PURPOSE: This formative research study describes the development and preliminary evaluation of a theory-guided, online multimedia psycho-educational program (PROGRESS) designed to facilitate adaptive coping among prostate cancer patients transitioning from treatment into long-term survivorship. METHODS: Guided by the Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing Model (C-SHIP) and using health communications best practices, we conducted a two-phase, qualitative formative research study with early stage prostate cancer patients (n = 29) to inform the Web program development. Phase 1 included individual (n = 5) and group (n = 12) interviews to help determine intervention content and interface. Phase 2 employed iterative user/usability testing (n = 12) to finalize the intervention. Interview data were independently coded and collectively analyzed to achieve consensus. RESULTS: Survivors expressed interest in action-oriented content on (1) managing treatment side effects, (2) handling body image and comorbidities related to overweight/obesity, (3) coping with emotional and communication issues, (4) tips to reduce disruptions of daily living activities, and (5) health skills training tools. Patients also desired the use of realistic and diverse survivor images. CONCLUSIONS: Incorporation of an established theoretical framework, application of multimedia intervention development best practices, and an evidence-based approach to content and format resulted in a psycho-educational tool that comprehensively addresses survivors' needs in a tailored fashion. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: The results suggest that an interactive Web-based multimedia program is useful for survivors if it covers the key topics of symptom control, emotional well-being, and coping skills training; this tool has the potential to be disseminated and implemented as an adjunct to routine clinical care.

Rural communities, compared with their urban counterparts, have higher rates of disease and adverse health conditions, fueling disparities in health outcomes. This encourages the need for effective curricula to engage students and enable them to address such disparate health outcomes as imminent health professionals. Incorporating learner-centered teaching strategies, such as collaboration and power-sharing, into public health (PH) courses can enhance student learning and help faculty enable future health professionals to address needs of rural, underserved populations. Successfully engaging students to explore issues related to rural health disparities in their education, research, and training can thereby advance PH practice. This paper describes the collaborative efforts of five PH faculty, an instructional designer, and administrators to develop a learner-centered curriculum for a newly launched PH program in a rural Midwestern United States (US) university.

Migratory fishes are renowned for their ability to home to natal streams for spawning. Learned olfactory cues play a critical role in natal homing of Pacific salmon and other fishes, but the underlying chemical signature of streams remains poorly understood after decades of study. The molecules that convey a stream-specific odour must differ among sites but remain constant over time. Among leading odorant candidates are amino acids; however, little research has assessed the spatial and temporal variability of amino acid profiles in streams. We report a comprehensive chemical study of dissolved amino acids as potential olfactory cues for homing by migratory fish. Specifically, we profiled amino acids in water from 23 streams in the upper Laurentian Great Lakes basin over 2 years. We investigated variation in amino acid profiles (1) among regions and rivers within a year, (2) between years and (3) among sites and across the seasons of migration and early life history within a stream. Liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry revealed nanomolar concentrations for most of the 20 L-amino acids measured, above the levels detectable by studied migratory fishes. Moreover, amino acid profiles were temporally stable between 2 years and across an annual season from adult spawning migration through offspring early-life development within a stream. However, spatial differences in amino acid profiles were evident primarily over large geographic distances (among regions) but not among tributaries within regions or among sites within a stream. Collectively, our results indicate dissolved amino acids may be consistent components of rivers' odorant profiles but suggest additional molecules are likely important for natal homing of migratory fishes to specific spawning sites. We suggest that future studies consider the combined importance of amino acids and molecules from other chemical classes. Understanding the chemical basis of olfactory-guided natal homing is especially important as human activities could alter the odorant profiles of streams and thereby disrupt fish migrations and negatively impact population recruitment.

We present an investigation into the rotation and stellar activity of four fully convective M dwarf “twin” wide binaries. Components in each pair have (1) astrometry confirming they are common-proper-motion binaries, (2) Gaia BP, RP, and 2MASS J, H, and K s magnitudes matching within 0.10 mag, and (3) presumably the same age and composition. We report long-term photometry, rotation periods, multiepoch Hα equivalent widths, X-ray luminosities, time series radial velocities, and speckle observations for all components. Although it might be expected for the twin components to have matching magnetic attributes, this is not the case. Decade-long photometry of GJ 1183 AB indicates consistently higher spot activity on A than B, a trend matched by A appearing 58% ± 9% stronger in L X and 26% ± 9% stronger in Hα on average—this is despite similar rotation periods of A = 0.86 day and B = 0.68 day, thereby informing the range in activity for otherwise identical and similarly rotating M dwarfs. The young β Pic Moving Group member 2MA 0201+0117 AB displays a consistently more active B component that is 3.6 ± 0.5 times stronger in L X and 52% ± 19% stronger in Hα on average, with distinct rotation at A = 6.01 days and B = 3.30 days. Finally, NLTT 44989 AB displays remarkable differences with implications for spindown evolution—B has sustained Hα emission while A shows absorption, and B is ≥39 ± 4 times stronger in L X, presumably stemming from the surprisingly different rotation periods of A = 38 days and B = 6.55 days. The last system, KX Com, has an unresolved radial velocity companion, and is therefore not a twin system.