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Showing papers by "Mississippi State University published in 2008"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study analyzes the impact of trust and risk perceptions on one's willingness to use e-government services and proposes a model of e- government trust composed of disposition to trust, trust of the Internet (TOI), Trust of the government (TOG) and perceived risk.
Abstract: Citizen confidence in government and technology is imperative to the wide-spread adoption of e-government. This study analyzes the impact of trust and risk perceptions on one's willingness to use e-government services. We propose a model of e-government trust composed of disposition to trust, trust of the Internet (TOI), trust of the government (TOG) and perceived risk. Results from a citizen survey indicate that disposition to trust positively affects TOI and TOG, which in turn affect intentions to use an e-government service. TOG also affects negatively perceived risk, which affects use intentions as well. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

902 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the development of the family firm context and identified its dimensions and explored the nomological relationships of the construct based on a social capital theory perspective and offer a theory of familiness.
Abstract: In the search for ways in which the family firm context is unique to organizational science, the construct of “familiness” has been identified and defined as resources and capabilities that are unique to the family’s involvement and interactions in the business. While identification and isolation of a construct unique to family firms is both groundbreaking and important for family firm research, it is also important that the development of the construct continues to be examined from complementing theoretical viewpoints. As such, we set out to review the development of the familiness construct and identify its dimensions. We also explore the nomological relationships of the construct based on a social capital theory perspective and offer a theory of familiness.

764 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The evaluation of the pan-sharpened images using global validation indexes reveal that the adaptive PCA approach helps reducing the spectral distortion, and its merger with contourlets provides better fusion results.
Abstract: High correlation among the neighboring pixels both spatially and spectrally in a multispectral image makes it necessary to use an efficient data transformation approach before performing pan-sharpening. Wavelets and principal component analysis (PCA) methods have been a popular choice for spatial and spectral transformations, respectively. Current PCA-based pan-sharpening methods make an assumption that the first principal component (PC) of high variance is an ideal choice for replacing or injecting it with high spatial details from the high-resolution histogram-matched panchromatic (PAN) image. This paper presents a combined adaptive PCA-contourlet approach for pan-sharpening, where the adaptive PCA is used to reduce the spectral distortion and the use of nonsubsampled contourlets for spatial transformation in pan-sharpening is incorporated to overcome the limitation of the wavelets in representing the directional information efficiently and capturing intrinsic geometrical structures of the objects. The efficiency of the presented method is tested by performing pan-sharpening of the high-resolution (IKONOS and QuickBird) and the medium-resolution (Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) datasets. The evaluation of the pan-sharpened images using global validation indexes reveal that the adaptive PCA approach helps reducing the spectral distortion, and its merger with contourlets provides better fusion results.

587 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a preliminary model on the factors that prevent intra-family succession is presented, based on a review and analysis of the literature, and the model is applied to the family business literature.
Abstract: Although research on management succession is a dominant topic in the family business literature, little systematic attention has been given to the factors that prevent intra-family succession from occurring. Based on a review and analysis of the literature, this article presents a preliminary model on the factors that prevent intra-family succession.

559 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a small-size dual medical implant communications service (MICS) (402-405 MHz) and industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) (2.4-2.48 GHz) band implantable antenna for continuous glucose-monitoring applications is presented.
Abstract: In this study, we present a small-size dual medical implant communications service (MICS) (402-405 MHz) and industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) (2.4-2.48 GHz) band implantable antenna for continuous glucose-monitoring applications. The antenna is optimized for dual-band operation by combining an in-house finite-element boundary integral electromagnetic simulation code and particle swarm optimization algorithm. In order to test the designed antenna in vitro, gels mimicking the electrical properties of human skin are also developed. The optimized antenna is fabricated and measured in the gel. The simulated and measured bandwidths are found to be 20.4% MICS, 4.2% ISM, and 35.3% MICS, and 7.1% ISM, respectively. Although we have emphasized continuous glucose monitoring throughout this paper, the antenna and skin mimicking gels presented here can be used for many other wireless telemetry applications.

551 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the empirical relationships of these variables to both entrepreneurial behavior and subsequent firm growth, finding that entrepreneurial behavior can be influenced by inherent characteristics of the CEO, such as age and tenure, as well as by the degree of family influence in the firm, as indicated by the number of generations involved in the business.
Abstract: Family firms are essential for economic growth and development through new business startups and growth of existing family firms. Entrepreneurial behavior by the CEO is essential for such growth to occur. Entrepreneurial behavior can be influenced by inherent characteristics of the CEO, such as age and tenure, as well as by the degree of family influence in the firm, as indicated by the number of generations involved in the business. We assess the empirical relationships of these variables to both entrepreneurial behavior and subsequent firm growth.

545 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of regenerative organic Rankine cycles using dry organic fluids, to convert waste energy to power from low-grade heat sources is presented, and the evaluation for both configurations will be performed using a combined first and second law analysis by varying certain system operating parameters at various reference temperatures and pressures.

520 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an eddy-viscosity turbulence model employing three additional transport equations is presented and applied to a number of transitional flow test cases, which is based on the k- framework and represents a substantial refinement to a transition-sensitive model that has been previously documented in the open literature.
Abstract: An eddy-viscosity turbulence model employing three additional transport equations is presented and applied to a number of transitional flow test cases. The model is based on the k- framework and represents a substantial refinement to a transition-sensitive model that has been previously documented in the open literature. The third transport equation is included to predict the magnitude of low-frequency velocity fluctuations in the pretransitional boundary layer that have been identified as the precursors to transition. The closure of model terms is based on a phenomenological (i.e., physics-based) rather than a purely empirical approach and the rationale for the forms of these terms is discussed. The model has been implemented into a commercial computational fluid dynamics code and applied to a number of relevant test cases, including flat plate boundary layers with and without applied pressure gradients, as well as a variety of airfoil test cases with different geometries, Reynolds numbers, freestream turbulence conditions, and angles of attack. The test cases demonstrate the ability of the model to successfully reproduce transitional flow behavior with a reasonable degree of accuracy, particularly in comparison with commonly used models that exhibit no capability of predicting laminar-toturbulent boundary layer development. While it is impossible to resolve all of the complex features of transitional and turbulent flows with a relatively simple Reynolds-averaged modeling approach, the results shown here demonstrate that the new model can provide a useful and practical tool for engineers addressing the simulation and prediction of transitional flow behavior in fluid systems. DOI: 10.1115/1.2979230

508 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: No-tillage is defined as planting crops in unprepared soil with at least 30% mulch cover as mentioned in this paper, which is a very effective erosion control measure and improves water and fertilizer use efficiency so that many crops yield better under NT than under tilled systems.
Abstract: For thousands of years, agriculture and tillage were considered synonymous. It was simply not thought possible to grow crops without first tilling the soil before planting and for weed control. The advent of modern herbicides permitted no-tillage (NT) to be developed and practiced on actual working family farms. No-tillage is generally defined as planting crops in unprepared soil with at least 30% mulch cover. Adoption of NT after its successful demonstration in the 1950s was slow. However, with better planters, herbicides, and accumulated experience, NT began to be widely adopted in the 1980s in the United States and then in Australia, South America, and Canada. Today, approximately 23% of the total cropland in the United States is planted using NT. No-tillage has revolutionized agricultural systems because it allows individual producers to manage greater amounts of land with reduced energy, labor, and machinery inputs. At the same time, NT is a very effective erosion control measure and improves water and fertilizer use efficiency so that many crops yield better under NT than under tilled systems. Tillage, like crops, can be rotated but the benefits of NT are most likely to be realized with continuous application. We review some of the early work that led to the development of NT and how NT impacts the crop, soil, hydrology, and farm economics. While highly sustainable, there are still many challenges that remain for researchers to solve so the benefits of NT can be realized on expanded land area and for more crops, worldwide.

498 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of fertilizer amendment on bacterial communities was found to be more dramatic than either land use or season, and the changes in the composition of bacterial groups were more pronounced in cropland than in pastures.
Abstract: Soil microbial communities under three agricultural management systems (conventionally tilled cropland, hayed pasture, and grazed pasture) and two fertilizer systems (inorganic fertilizer and poultry litter) were compared to that of a w150-y-old forest near Watkinsville, Georgia. Both 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analyses indicated that the structure and composition of bacterial communities in the forest soil were significantly different than in the agricultural soils. Within the agricultural soils, the effect of fertilizer amendment on bacterial communities was more dramatic than either land use or season. Fertilizer amendment altered the abundance of more bacterial groups throughout the agricultural soils. In addition, the changes in the composition of bacterial groups were more pronounced in cropland than in pastures. There was much less seasonal variation between the soil libraries. Community-level differences were associated with differences in soil pH, mineralizable carbon and nitrogen, and extractable nutrients. Bacterial community diversity exhibited a complex relationship with the land use intensity in these agro-ecosystems. The pastures had the highest bacterial diversity and could be characterized as having an intermediate degree of intervention compared to low intervention in forest and high intervention in cropland. Changes in bacterial diversity could be attributed to the abundance of a few operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The microdiversity of abundant OTUs in both forest and cropland was consistent with an increase in abundance of many phenotypically similar species rather than a single species for each OTU. Soil microbial communities were significantly altered by long-term agricultural management systems, especially fertilizer amendment, and these results provide a basis for promoting conservation agricultural systems.

480 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
03 Oct 2008-Science
TL;DR: It is shown that southern pine beetles use symbiotic fungi to help overcome host-tree defenses and to provide nutrition for their larvae, and that this beetle-fungal mutualism is chemically mediated by a bacterially produced polyunsaturated peroxide.
Abstract: Host-microbe symbioses play a critical role in the evolution of biological diversity and complexity. In a notably intricate system, southern pine beetles use symbiotic fungi to help overcome host-tree defenses and to provide nutrition for their larvae. We show that this beetle-fungal mutualism is chemically mediated by a bacterially produced polyunsaturated peroxide. The molecule's selective toxicity toward the beetle's fungal antagonist, combined with the prevalence and localization of its bacterial source, indicates an insect-microbe association that is both mutualistic and coevolved. This unexpected finding in a well-studied system indicates that mutualistic associations between insects and antibiotic-producing bacteria are more common than currently recognized and that identifying their small-molecule mediators can provide a powerful search strategy for therapeutically useful antimicrobial compounds.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The experimental result shows that the proposed unsupervised band selection algorithms based on band similarity measurement can yield a better result in terms of information conservation and class separability than other widely used techniques.
Abstract: Band selection is a common approach to reduce the data dimensionality of hyperspectral imagery. It extracts several bands of importance in some sense by taking advantage of high spectral correlation. Driven by detection or classification accuracy, one would expect that, using a subset of original bands, the accuracy is unchanged or tolerably degraded, whereas computational burden is significantly relaxed. When the desired object information is known, this task can be achieved by finding the bands that contain the most information about these objects. When the desired object information is unknown, i.e., unsupervised band selection, the objective is to select the most distinctive and informative bands. It is expected that these bands can provide an overall satisfactory detection and classification performance. In this letter, we propose unsupervised band selection algorithms based on band similarity measurement. The experimental result shows that our approach can yield a better result in terms of information conservation and class separability than other widely used techniques.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper identifies two types of replications: exact replications, in which the procedures of an experiment are followed as closely as possible; and conceptual replication, inWhich the same research question is evaluated by using a different experimental procedure.
Abstract: Replications play a key role in Empirical Software Engineering by allowing the community to build knowledge about which results or observations hold under which conditions. Therefore, not only can a replication that produces similar results as the original experiment be viewed as successful, but a replication that produce results different from those of the original experiment can also be viewed as successful. In this paper we identify two types of replications: exact replications, in which the procedures of an experiment are followed as closely as possible; and conceptual replications, in which the same research question is evaluated by using a different experimental procedure. The focus of this paper is on exact replications. We further explore them to identify two sub-categories: dependent replications, where researchers attempt to keep all the conditions of the experiment the same or very similar and independent replications, where researchers deliberately vary one or more major aspects of the conditions of the experiment. We then discuss the role played by each type of replication in terms of its goals, benefits, and limitations. Finally, we highlight the importance of producing adequate documentation for an experiment (original or replication) to allow for replication. A properly documented replication provides the details necessary to gain a sufficient understanding of the study being replicated without requiring the replicator to slavishly follow the given procedures.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that DAWDLE (DDL), an FHA domain-containing protein in Arabidopsis, acts in the biogenesis of miRNAs and endogenous siRNAs by facilitating DCL1 to access or recognize pri-miRNAs.
Abstract: Proteins containing the forkhead-associated domain (FHA) are known to act in biological processes such as DNA damage repair, protein degradation, and signal transduction. Here we report that DAWDLE (DDL), an FHA domain-containing protein in Arabidopsis, acts in the biogenesis of miRNAs and endogenous siRNAs. Unlike mutants of genes known to participate in the processing of miRNA precursors, such as dcl1, hyponastic leaves1, and serrate, ddl mutants show reduced levels of pri-miRNAs as well as mature miRNAs. Promoter activity of MIR genes, however, is not affected by ddl mutations. DDL is an RNA binding protein and is able to interact with DCL1. In addition, we found that SNIP1, the human homolog of DDL, is involved in miRNA biogenesis and interacts with Drosha. Therefore, we uncovered an evolutionarily conserved factor in miRNA biogenesis. We propose that DDL participates in miRNA biogenesis by facilitating DCL1 to access or recognize pri-miRNAs.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review relevant threads of the poverty traps literature to motivate a description of the opportunities presented by innovative index-based risk transfer products for low-income countries.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed an ImageJ plugin that extracts the dimensions from a digital image of disjoint particles after identifying their shapes and determining their particles size distribution, which can be applied to variety of particle analysis applications.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that water-related emotional distress develops as a byproduct of the social and economic negotiations people employ to gain access to water distribution systems in the absence of clear procedures or established water rights rather than as a result of water scarcity per se.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The theoretical analysis of the effects of PCA on the discrimination power of the projected subspace is presented from a general pattern classification perspective for two possible scenarios: when PCA is used as a simple dimensionality reduction tool and when it is used to recondition an ill-posed LDA formulation.
Abstract: Dimensionality reduction is a necessity in most hyperspectral imaging applications. Tradeoffs exist between unsupervised statistical methods, which are typically based on principal components analysis (PCA), and supervised ones, which are often based on Fisher's linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and proponents for each approach exist in the remote sensing community. Recently, a combined approach known as subspace LDA has been proposed, where PCA is employed to recondition ill-posed LDA formulations. The key idea behind this approach is to use a PCA transformation as a preprocessor to discard the null space of rank-deficient scatter matrices, so that LDA can be applied on this reconditioned space. Thus, in theory, the subspace LDA technique benefits from the advantages of both methods. In this letter, we present a theoretical analysis of the effects (often ill effects) of PCA on the discrimination power of the projected subspace. The theoretical analysis is presented from a general pattern classification perspective for two possible scenarios: (1) when PCA is used as a simple dimensionality reduction tool and (2) when it is used to recondition an ill-posed LDA formulation. We also provide experimental evidence of the ineffectiveness of both scenarios for hyperspectral target recognition applications.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This is the first comprehensive description of the bovine spermatozoa proteome and suggests a hypothesis that low fertility sperm DNA integrity may be compromised because cell cycle: G2/M DNA damage checkpoint regulation was most significant signaling pathway identified in low fertility semen.
Abstract: Male infertility is a major problem for mammalian reproduction. However, molecular details including the underlying mechanisms of male fertility are still not known. A thorough understanding of these mechanisms is essential for obtaining consistently high reproductive efficiency and to ensure lower cost and time-loss by breeder. Using high and low fertility bull spermatozoa, here we employed differential detergent fractionation multidimensional protein identification technology (DDF-Mud PIT) and identified 125 putative biomarkers of fertility. We next used quantitative Systems Biology modeling and canonical protein interaction pathways and networks to show that high fertility spermatozoa differ from low fertility spermatozoa in four main ways. Compared to sperm from low fertility bulls, sperm from high fertility bulls have higher expression of proteins involved in: energy metabolism, cell communication, spermatogenesis, and cell motility. Our data also suggests a hypothesis that low fertility sperm DNA integrity may be compromised because cell cycle: G2/M DNA damage checkpoint regulation was most significant signaling pathway identified in low fertility spermatozoa. This is the first comprehensive description of the bovine spermatozoa proteome. Comparative proteomic analysis of high fertility and low fertility bulls, in the context of protein interaction networks identified putative molecular markers associated with high fertility phenotype.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an exploratory examination of the use of Coh-Metrix, a computational tool that measures cohesion and text difficulty at various levels of language, discourse, and conceptual analysis, is presented.
Abstract: Many programs designed to compute the readability of texts are narrowly based on surface-level linguistic features and take too little account of the processes which a reader brings to the text. This study is an exploratory examination of the use of Coh-Metrix, a computational tool that measures cohesion and text difficulty at various levels of language, discourse, and conceptual analysis. It is suggested that Coh-Metrix provides an improved means of measuring English text readability for second language (L2) readers, not least because three Coh-Metrix variables, one employing lexical coreferentiality, one measuring syntactic sentence similarity, and one measuring word frequency, have correlates in psycholinguistic theory. The current study draws on the validation exercise conducted by Greenfield (1999) with Japanese EFL students, which partially replicated Bormuth's (1971) study with American students. It finds that Coh-Metrix, with its inclusion of the three variables, yields a more accurate prediction of reading difficulty than traditional readability measures. The finding indicates that linguistic variables related to cognitive reading processes contribute significandy to better readability prediction than the surface variables used in traditional formulas. Additionally, because these Coh-Metrix variables better reflect psycholinguistic factors in reading comprehension such as decoding, syntactic parsing, and meaning construction, the formula appears to be more soundly based and avoids criticism on the grounds of construct validity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A practical guide to spatial demographic analysis, with a focus on the use of spatial regression models, is given and opportunities and directions for future research on spatial demographic theories and practice are suggested.
Abstract: While spatial data analysis has received increasing attention in demographic studies, it remains a difficult subject to learn for practitioners due to its complexity and various unresolved issues. Here we give a practical guide to spatial demographic analysis, with a focus on the use of spatial regression models. We first summarize spatially explicit and implicit theories of population dynamics. We then describe basic concepts in exploratory spatial data analysis and spatial regression modeling through an illustration of population change in the 1990s at the minor civil division level in the state of Wisconsin. We also review spatial regression models including spatial lag models, spatial error models, and spatial autoregressive moving average models and use these models for analyzing the data example. We finally suggest opportunities and directions for future research on spatial demographic theories and practice.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Side-by-side evaluations of six of the most widely used ab initio repeat finding programs reveal profound differences in the utility with some identifying virtually their entire substrate as repetitive, others making reasonable estimates of repetition, and some missing almost all repeats.
Abstract: Identification of dispersed repetitive elements can be difficult, especially when elements share little or no homology with previously described repeats. Consequently, a growing number of computational tools have been designed to identify repetitive elements in an ab initio manner, i.e. without using prior sequence data. Here we present the results of side-by-side evaluations of six of the most widely used ab initio repeat finding programs. Using sequence from rice chromosome 12, tools were compared with regard to time requirements, ability to find known repeats, utility in identifying potential novel repeats, number and types of repeat elements recognized and compactness of family descriptions. The study reveals profound differences in the utility of the tools with some identifying virtually their entire substrate as repetitive, others making reasonable estimates of repetition, and some missing almost all repeats. Of note, even when tools recognized similar numbers of repeats they often showed marked differences in the nature and number of repeat families identified. Within the context of this comparative study, ReAS and RepeatScout showed the most promise in analysis of sequence reads and assembled genomic regions, respectively. Our results should help biologists identify the program(s), if any, that is best suited for their needs.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the use of glycerin as a biorenewable substrate for hydrogen production, using a steam reforming process, has been evaluated, and the maximum hydrogen yield was obtained at 650°C with MgO supported catalysts.

Journal ArticleDOI
21 Mar 2008-Science
TL;DR: GenBank, the public repository for nucleotide and protein sequences, is a critical resource for molecular biology, evolutionary biology, and ecology as discussed by the authors, and some attention has been drawn to sequence errors ([1][1]), common annotation errors also reduce the value of this database.
Abstract: GenBank, the public repository for nucleotide and protein sequences, is a critical resource for molecular biology, evolutionary biology, and ecology. While some attention has been drawn to sequence errors ([1][1]), common annotation errors also reduce the value of this database. In fact, for

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Analysis of discriminating feature sets used in the study reflect a clear indication that glottal descriptors are vital components of vocal affect analysis.
Abstract: The motivation for this work is in an attempt to rectify the current lack of objective tools for clinical analysis of emotional disorders. This study involves the examination of a large breadth of objectively measurable features for use in discriminating depressed speech. Analysis is based on features related to prosodics, the vocal tract, and parameters extracted directly from the glottal waveform. Discrimination of the depressed speech was based on a feature selection strategy utilizing the following combinations of feature domains: prosodic measures alone, prosodic and vocal tract measures, prosodic and glottal measures, and all three domains. The combination of glottal and prosodic features produced better discrimination overall than the combination of prosodic and vocal tract features. Analysis of discriminating feature sets used in the study reflect a clear indication that glottal descriptors are vital components of vocal affect analysis.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that mastery-oriented students jeopardize their exam performance by allowing their individual interests to dictate their study efforts such that they neglect boring topics in favor of preferred ones, and this in turn predicted low grades in the class.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a compact antipodal Vivaldi antenna for ultrawide-band (UWB) applications is proposed, which operates across the entire UWB spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, and also has low cross-polarization levels and reasonable gain values over the same frequency band.
Abstract: A compact antipodal Vivaldi antenna for ultrawide-band (UWB) applications is proposed. The antenna operates across the entire UWB spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, and also has low cross-polarization levels and reasonable gain values over the same frequency band. Two different substrates, Rogers RO3006 and FR4, are considered, and results regarding return loss, far field pattern, phase response, group delay, and gain are presented.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Mar 2008
TL;DR: This paper presents the stability of the proposed cluster structure, and communication overhead for maintaining the structure and connectivity in an application context, and comparative studies using CORSIM and NS-2 simulators.
Abstract: Intervehicle communication is a key technique of intelligent transport systems. Ad hoc networking in the vehicular environment was investigated intensively. This paper proposes a new clustering technique for large multihop vehicular ad hoc networks. The cluster structure is determined by the geographic position of nodes and the priorities associated with the vehicle traffic information. Each cluster elects one node as its cluster head. The cluster size is controlled by a predefined maximum distance between a cluster head and its members. Clusters are independently controlled and dynamically reconfigured as nodes move. This paper presents the stability of the proposed cluster structure, and communication overhead for maintaining the structure and connectivity in an application context. The simulation is performed with comparative studies using CORSIM and NS-2 simulators.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Emphasis is placed on proper diagnostic sampling of the prostate gland, its fluid, and interpretation of findings, as well as emerging medical options for treatment of canine prostatic disease.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a semi-empirical density-based model for supercritical carbon dioxide solubility was proposed. But the model is not suitable for the case where the reduced density of the solvent is below 1.