bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Static and dynamic mechanical properties of flame‐retardant copolyester/nano‐ZnCO3 Composites
Authors: Liu Haiming , Wang Rui , Xu Xi
Published: April 2011

Novel phosphorus‐containing copolyester nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ polymerization with 2‐carboxyethyl(phenylphosphinic) acid (CEPPA) and nano‐ZnCO3. The flame retardancy and static and dynamic mechanical properties of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/nano‐ZnCO3 composites and phosphorus‐containing copolyester/nano‐ZnCO3 composites were evaluated with limiting oxygen index measurements, vertical burning testing (UL‐94), a universal tensile machine, and a dynamic mechanical analysis thermal analyzer. The phosphorus‐containing copolyester nanocomposites had higher limiting oxygen indices (ca. 32%) and a V0 rating according to the UL‐94 test; this indicated that nano‐ZnCO3 and CEPPA greatly improved the flame retardancy of PET. The static mechanical test results showed that the breaking strength, modulus, and yield stress of the composites tended to increase with increasing nano‐ZnCO3 content; when 3 wt % nano‐ZnCO3 was added to PET and the phosphorus‐containing copolyester, the breaking strength of the composites was higher than that of pure PET. Dynamic mechanical analysis indicated that the dynamic storage modulus and loss modulus of the PET composites increased markedly in comparison with those of pure PET. However, the glass‐transition temperatures associated with the peaks of the storage modulus, mechanical loss factor, and loss modulus significantly decreased with the addition of ZnCO3 and CEPPA. The morphologies of the composites were also investigated with scanning electron microscopy, which revealed that nano‐ZnCO3 was dispersed homogeneously in the PET and copolyester matrix without the formation of large aggregates. In addition, the interfacial adhesion of nano‐ZnCO3 and the matrix was perfect, and this might have significantly affected the mechanical properties of the composites. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011
Adversarial risk analysis: Borel games
Authors: Banks David , Petralia Francesca , Wang Shouqiang
Published: April 2011

Adversarial risk analysis (ARA) offers a new solution concept in game theory. This paper explores its application to a range of simple gambling games, enabling comparison with minimax solutions for similar problems. We find that ARA has several attractive advantages: it is easier to compute, it takes account of asymmetric information, it corresponds better to human behavior, and it reduces to previous solutions in appropriate circumstances. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Urea‐, Squaramide‐, and Sulfonamide‐Based Anion Receptors: A Thermodynamic Study
Authors: Amendola Valeria , Fabbrizzi Luigi , Mosca Lorenzo , Schmidtchen Franz‐Peter
Published: April 2011

In this work, we compare the anion‐binding capabilities of receptors 1–5, characterized by similar structures, but possessing different hydrogen‐bond‐donor moieties (urea, squaramide, and sulfonamide). The presence of chromophoric substituents on the receptor’s skeleton allowed the determination of association constants by performing UV/Vis titrations with the investigated anions on solutions of the receptors in pure acetonitrile. Additional quantitative studies of the anion‐binding properties of receptors 1–5 were performed by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The experimental results indicated that 1 and 2 formed 1:1 hydrogen‐bonded complexes with most of the anions investigated. In the case of receptors 3–5, the formation of the 1:1 adduct was observed only with anions of low basicity (i.e., chloride, bromide, iodide, and hydrogen sulfate). With more basic anions (i.e., acetate and dihydrogen phosphate), both spectrophotometric and ITC titrations accounted for the deprotonation of the sulfonamide group, involving the formation of the conjugated base of the receptor.
Image‐derived, three‐dimensional generative models of cellular organization
Authors: Peng Tao , Murphy Robert F.
Published: April 2011

Given the importance of subcellular location to protein function, computational simulations of cell behaviors will ultimately require the ability to model the distributions of proteins within organelles and other structures. Toward this end, statistical learning methods have previously been used to build models of sets of two‐dimensional microscope images, where each set contains multiple images for a single subcellular location pattern. The model learned from each set of images not only represents the pattern but also captures the variation in that pattern from cell to cell. The models consist of sub‐models for nuclear shape, cell shape, organelle size and shape, and organelle distribution relative to nuclear and cell boundaries, and allow synthesis of images with the expectation that they are drawn from the same underlying statistical distribution as the images used to train them. Here we extend this generative models approach to three dimensions using a similar framework, permitting protein subcellular locations to be described more accurately. Models of different patterns can be combined to yield a synthetic multi‐channel image containing as many proteins as desired, something that is difficult to obtain by direct microscope imaging for more than a few proteins. In addition, the model parameters represent a more compact and interpretable way of communicating subcellular patterns than descriptive image features and may be particularly effective for automated identification of changes in subcellular organization caused by perturbagens. © 2011 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.
Altered miR‐146a expression in Sjögren's syndrome and its functional role in innate immunity
Authors: Pauley Kaleb M. , Stewart Carol M. , Gauna Adrienne E. , Dupre Lauren C. , Kuklani Riya , Chan Annie L. , Pauley Brad A. , Reeves Westley H. , Chan Edward K. L. , Cha Seunghee
Published: April 2011

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non‐coding RNA molecules that post‐transcriptionally regulate gene expression, are known to play key roles in regulating immune responses and autoimmunity. We investigated miR‐146a expression in Sjögren's syndrome (SjS) patients as well as in the SjS‐prone C57BL/6.NOD‐Aec1Aec2 mouse model, to elucidate its involvement in SjS pathogenesis. Expression of miR‐146a was examined in the PBMCs of 25 SjS patients and ten healthy donors, as well as in PBMCs, salivary and lacrimal glands of SjS‐prone mice and WT C57BL/6J mice. Functional assays using THP‐1 human monocytes were conducted to determine the biological roles of miR‐146a in innate immunity. Expression of miR‐146a was significantly increased in SjS patients compared with healthy controls, and was upregulated in the salivary glands and PBMCs of the SjS‐prone mouse at both 8 wk (prior to disease onset) and 20 wk (full‐blown disease) of age. More importantly, functional analysis revealed roles for miR‐146a in increasing phagocytic activity and suppressing inflammatory cytokine production while migration, nitric oxide production and expression of antigen‐presenting/costimulatory molecules are not affected in human monocytic THP‐1 cells. Taken together, our data suggest that abnormal expression/regulation of microRNAs in innate immunity may contribute to, or be indicative of, the initiation and progression of SjS.
IL‐22 and TNF‐α represent a key cytokine combination for epidermal integrity during infection with Candida albicans
Authors: Eyerich Stefanie , Wagener Jeanette , Wenzel Vera , Scarponi Claudia , Pennino Davide , Albanesi Cristina , Schaller Martin , Behrendt Heidrun , Ring Johannes , Schmidt‐Weber Carsten B. , Cavani Andrea , Mempel Martin , Traidl‐Hoffmann Claudia , Eyerich Kilian
Published: April 2011

T cells exercise their full impact on target cells through a combination of secreted cytokines. The recently described T helper cell subset Th22 is characterized by a combinatorial secretion of IL‐22 and TNF‐α. Here, we demonstrate that IL‐22 increases the TNF‐α‐dependent induction and secretion of several immune‐modulatory molecules such as initial complement factors C1r and C1s, antimicrobial peptides S100A7 and HBD‐2 (human β defensin 2), and antimicrobial chemokines CXCL‐9/‐10/‐11 in primary human keratinocytes. The synergism of IL‐22 and TNF‐α is transmitted intracellularly by MAP kinases and downstream by transcription factors of the AP‐1 family. The induction of innate immunity is relevant in an in vitro infection model, where keratinocytes stimulated with Th22 supernatants or recombinant IL‐22 plus TNF‐α effectively inhibit the growth of Candida albicans and maintain survival of epithelia. Accordingly, the combinatorial stimulation of keratinocytes with IL‐22 and TNF‐α most efficiently conserves the integrity of the epidermal barrier in a three‐dimensional skin infection model as compared with IFN‐γ, IL‐17, IL‐22 or TNF‐α alone. In summary, we demonstrate that IL‐22 and TNF‐α represent a potent, synergistic cytokine combination for cutaneous immunity.
Complex phosphorylation dynamics control the composition of the Syk interactome in B cells
Authors: Bohnenberger Hanibal , Oellerich Thomas , Engelke Michael , Hsiao He‐Hsuan , Urlaub Henning , Wienands Jürgen
Published: April 2011

Spleen tyrosine kinase Syk provides critical transducer functions for a number of immune cell receptors and has been implicated in the generation of several forms of leukemias. Catalytic activity and the ability of Syk to interact with other signaling elements depend on the phosphorylation status of Syk. We have now identified and quantified the full spectrum of phosphoacceptor sites in human Syk as well as the interactome of Syk in resting and activated B cells by high‐resolution mass spectrometry. While the majority of inducible phosphorylations occurred on tyrosine residues, one of the most frequently detected phosphosites encompassed serine 297 located within the linker insert distinguishing the long and short isoforms of Syk. Full‐length Syk can associate with more than 25 distinct ligands including the 14‐3‐3γ adaptor protein, which binds directly to phosphoserine 297. The latter complex attenuates inducible plasma membrane recruitment of Syk, thereby limiting antigen receptor‐proximal signaling pathways. Collectively, the established ligand library provides a basis to understand the complexity of the Syk signaling network.
Silver Nanocomposite Electrode Modified with Hexacyanoferrate. Preparation, Characterization and Electrochemical Behaviour Towards Substituted Anilines
Authors: Fenga Paula Gonçalves , Stradiotto Nelson Ramos , Pividori Maria Isabel
Published: April 2011

A novel conducting silver nanocomposite (nanoAg‐GEC) material for electrochemical sensing of substituted anilines based on silver nanoparticles is presented. For the first time, the in situ growth of silver hexacyanoferrate nanoparticles (nanoAgHCF) on the surface of the silver nanocomposite electrodes was achieved. The surface morphology of the nanoAg‐GEC electrode modified with hexacyanoferrate (nanoAgHCF‐GEC) was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX). The electrochemical behaviour of the nanoAgHCF‐GEC electrode towards oxidation and reduction of substituted anilines (procaine and sulfamerazine) was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The results showed a linear dependence in the concentration range studied for each class of sulfonamides.
How to Determine Uranium Faster and Cheaper by Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetry in Water Samples Containing Surface Active Compounds
Authors: Grabarczyk Malgorzata , Koper Anna
Published: April 2011

A modification of the voltammetric procedure for the determination of uranium in the presence of cupferron using hanging mercury drop electrode is presented. The pulsed potential accumulation was proposed for the minimization of interferences of surface active substances. The calibration plot for U(VI) in the presence of 2 ppm Tritonu X‐100 was linear from 1.7×10−10 to 2.0×10−8 mol L−1 for an accumulation time of 60 s, with correlation coefficient of 0.996. The application of this method was tested in the determination of uranium in certified reference material NASS‐5 and river water samples.
Dynamic interaction of bridge–train system under non‐uniform seismic ground motion
Authors: Du X. T. , Xu Y. L. , Xia H.
Published: April 2011

The probability that an earthquake occurs when a train is running over a bridge in earthquake‐prone regions is much higher than before, for high‐speed railway lines are rapidly developed to connect major cities worldwide. This paper presents a finite element method‐based framework for dynamic analysis of coupled bridge–train systems under non‐uniform seismic ground motion, in which rail–wheel interactions and possible separations between wheels and rails are taken into consideration. The governing equations of motion of the coupled bridge–train system are established in an absolute coordinate system. Without considering the decomposition of seismic responses into pseudo‐static and inertia‐dynamic components, the equations of motion of the coupled system are formed in terms of displacement seismic ground motions. The mode superposition method is applied to the bridge structure to make the problem manageable while the Newmark‐β method with an iterative computation scheme is used to find the best solution for the problem concerned. Eight high‐speed trains running over a multi‐span steel truss‐arch bridge subject to earthquakes are taken as a case study. The results from the case study demonstrate that the spatial variation of seismic ground motion affects dynamic responses of the bridge–train system. The ignorance of pseudo‐static component when using acceleration seismic ground motions as input may underestimate seismic responses of the bridge–train system. The probability of separation between wheels and rails becomes higher with increasing train speed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A three‐dimensional phenomenological model for Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys
Authors: Auricchio Ferdinando , Bessoud Anne‐Laure , Reali Alessandro , Stefanelli Ulisse
Published: April 2011

We present a three‐dimensional thermodynamically‐consistent phenomenological model for the magneto‐mechanical behavior of magnetic shape memory materials featuring a cubic‐totetragonal martensitic transformation. Existence of energetic solutions for both the constitutive relation problem and the three‐dimensional quasi‐static evolution problem are proved. The proposed model reduces to some former one via parameter asymptotics by means of a rigorous Γ‐convergence argument (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
CARS spectral fitting with multiple resonant species using sparse libraries
Authors: Cutler Andrew D. , Magnotti Gaetano
Published: April 2011

The coherent anti‐Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) technique is often used in the study of turbulent flames. Fast and accurate algorithms are needed for fitting CARS spectra for temperature and multiple chemical species. This paper describes the development of such an algorithm. The algorithm employs sparse libraries whose size grows more slowly with number of species than a regular library. It was demonstrated by fitting synthetic ‘experimental’ dual‐pump CARS spectra containing four resonant species (N2, O2, H2 and CO2), both with added noise and without it, and by fitting experimental spectra from a H2air flat flame produced by a Hencken burner. In the four‐species example, the library was nearly an order of magnitude smaller than the equivalent regular library (fitting times are correspondingly faster), and the fitting errors in the absence of added noise were negligible compared to the random errors associated with fitting noisy spectra. When fitting noisy spectra, weighted least squares fitting to signal intensity, as opposed to least squares fitting or least squares fitting to square root of intensity, minimized random and bias errors in fit parameters. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Practical strategies for promoting full inclusion of individuals with disabilities in community‐based participatory intervention research
Authors: Hassouneh Dena , Alcala‐Moss Amana , McNeff E.
Published: April 2011

Community‐based participatory research (CBPR) with disability communities is directed toward facilitating full inclusion of individuals with disabilities and disability community organizations in all aspects of the research process. Within the CBPR framework, academic‐disability community partners may value and wish to use experimental designs to test interventions. Being aware of and proactively addressing barriers and challenges to inclusion in the areas of human resources, training, productivity, accommodation, and inadequate funding for disability community organizations are critical for success. Some of the strategies discussed in this article for addressing these challenges include creating redundant systems, providing benefits counseling and individualized payment options for employment, designing trainings to be disability friendly, and carefully considering selection of partners in light of available community resources. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 34:253–265, 2011
Psychometric properties of the interpersonal relationship inventory‐short form for active duty female service members
Authors: Nayback‐Beebe Ann M. , Yoder Linda H.
Published: April 2011

The Interpersonal Relationship Inventory‐Short Form (IPRI‐SF) has demonstrated psychometric consistency across several demographic and clinical populations; however, it has not been psychometrically tested in a military population. The purpose of this study was to psychometrically evaluate the reliability and component structure of the IPRI‐SF in active duty United States Army female service members (FSMs). The reliability estimates were .93 for the social support subscale and .91 for the conflict subscale. Principal component analysis demonstrated an obliquely rotated three‐component solution that accounted for 58.9% of the variance. The results of this study support the reliability and validity of the IPRI‐SF for use in FSMs; however, a three‐factor structure emerged in this sample of FSMs post‐deployment that represents “cultural context.” © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 34:241–252, 2011
Short‐ and Long‐Term Results of Open Versus Laparoscopic Appendectomy
Authors: Swank H. A. , Eshuis E. J. , van Berge Henegouwen M. I. , Bemelman W. A.
Published: April 2011

Background

Clinical advantages of laparoscopic appendectomy have been shown in numerous trials and reviews. Most of these advantages are small and of limited clinical relevance, while laparoscopic operation costs are reported to be higher. The present study compares short‐ and long‐term results of conventional appendectomy with or without diagnostic laparoscopy (OA), and laparoscopic appendectomy (LA).

Methods

All adult patients who underwent appendectomy in our institution from 1995 to 2005 were included retrospectively. Patient data were retrieved from medical records, questionnaires sent by mail, and records of general practitioners. Primary outcome parameters were long‐term complications, readmissions, and reinterventions (>30 days postoperatively). Secondary outcome parameters were short‐term complications, readmissions, and reinterventions (≤30 days postoperatively).

Results

A total of 755 patients were included, 545 of whom underwent OA, with the remaining 210 undergoing LA. In the long term there were few complications noted, and there were no significant differences in complications between the two groups. Within 30 days postoperatively, LA was associated with a significantly higher incidence of abdominal abscesses with consequent diagnostic investigations, interventions, and readmissions.

Conclusions

Although laparoscopic appendectomy is known to deliver clinical advantages, it is associated with a higher incidence of abdominal abscesses. Because the procedure is about to become the standard of care, future research must be directed at solving this issue. The expected lower incidence of incisional hernia and small bowel obstruction after laparoscopic appendectomy was not shown in the present study.
Reading Saint Flannery: Modernism, Sexuality, and the Culture of Psychoanalysis
Authors: Mellard James M.
Published: April 2011

Because flannery O'CONNOR was a Christian writer who suffered considerably from a painful and debilitating disease, died young, and left a legacy of remarkable stories and novels, critics of many persuasions have canonized her in ways few writers have been canonized. Since it is hard to argue with a saint, the vast majority of readers have capitulated to O'Connor's pronouncements on how to read those works. Several critics — myself among them — have reminded us how effectively O'Connor has set the terms of the discourse about her. Working in the modernist age, she thought herself not a modernist, but a throwback to an earlier age. Consequently, one of the more interesting, but generally ignored, questions about Flannery O'Connor is how to periodize her work. Whatever her claims, it is clear sheismodernist in important ways. We see that in her use of myth, for example, and in how she uses the devices of lyrical or poetic fiction such as powerful controlling metaphors and recurrent image-motifs to knit together a form in place of traditional emplotments. In her practice, moreover, she is a modernist easily allied with New Criticism. Of O'Connor's adherence to its tenets, Frederick Crews says, “As she freely admitted, she came into her own as an artist only after undergoing a full New Critical initiation at the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop under the tutelage of Paul Engle and Andrew Lytle, with Brooks and Warren's then ubiquitousUnderstanding Fictionproviding the models” (144). Indeed, says Crews, “Even the most impressive and original of her stories adhere to the classroom formula of her day: show, don't tell; keep the narrative voice distinct from those of your characters; cultivate understatement; develop a central image or symbol to convey your theme ‘objectively’; and point everything toward one neatly sprung ironic reversal. No one ever put it all together with greater deftness” (144–45).
Sexual Purity, White Men, and Slavery: Emerson and the Self-Reliant Body
Authors: Castronovo Russ
Published: April 2011

As white men surrendered to carnal impulses and lost control of their bodily flows, they became slaves. Such sensational conclusions were standard fare in a 19th-century rhetorical universe where self-reliance as a corporeal principle was also an issue of political gravity. Far from signaling a breakdown of the body's potential to analogize the body politic, the representational slide from Southern bondage to white corporeality is of tremendous national use. The “natural” body – especially in “aberrant” manifestations that violate ethical, hygienic, and democratic codes broadly classed under the dictum of self-reliance – is an enabling construction that allows white men to concentrate on disruptions in their own bodies while overlooking disruption in the body politic. The linguistic inequality that reads the white male's private body as the public's collective body acts in tandem with political inequality by misrepresenting the scope and character of African-American servitude. American liberal reformers participated in a political distortion by talking about the body as though it had the same valence as the body politic. Equipped with a catachrestic sensibility that (mis)understood the citizen's sexuality via national policies on race, a wide range of cultural critics including medical crusaders, abolitionists, educators, and transcendentalists reconceived of the abstract body politic in fairly specific, highly personal, and ultimately privatizing terms. But what happened when that abstract body became culturally particular, when, for instance, the transparency of white males became li bidinally bound to castigated representations of blackness? As an analogy for certain sexual behaviors, slavery plainly suggested the dire consequences of improper corporeal conduct.
Sex and Evolution in Willa Cather'sO Pioneers!andThe Song of the Lark
Authors: Bender Bert
Published: April 2011

Studies of Willa Cather refer to Charles Darwin so rarely that one might conclude she hardly knew of him. But at least one recent interpreter has begun to discuss the Darwinian shadow in her work, describing the “Darwinist cartography” in her novelThe Professor's House(1925) and noting the “striking parallels between Cather's mapping of America and that undertaken by her near contemporary, Thorstein Veblen.”
A Better Pluralism? The Example of Louis Adamic
Authors: Shiffman Dan
Published: April 2011

For the Slovenian-born journalist, novelist and populist historian Louis Adamic, Ellis Island was as central to American civilization as Plymouth Rock. Throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s, Adamic dedicated himself to raising public awareness about the essential role of immigrants in the life of the nation. Adamic chronicled the stories and contributions of famous and not-so-famous immigrants from a variety of ethnic groups and challenged his adopted country to be true to its democratic ideals.
Chinese Painting and Cultural Interpretation: Chiang Yee's Travel Writing During the Cold War Era
Authors: Da Zheng
Published: April 2011

On June 11, 1956, Chiang Yee was led into the Sanders Theater of Harvard University, where he began delivering his Phi Beta Kappa oration, entitled “The Chinese Painter”:

The word “Chinese” in my title conveys a reference both to the birthplace of the painter and to the type of work to be expected from him; but while that is what I mean, I wish to point out that the word has not the same significance today as it would have had fifty to a hundred years ago. Then a “Chinese” painter was a painter absolutely and exclusively Chinese, differing fundamentally from the painters of all other nations and races. When I speak of a Chinese painter of today, I mean one who is basically Chinese but not exclusively so in his creation. He is not, and should not be, isolated from or independent of the rest of the world, for he has his part to play in the cultural evolution of the world. (242)
The Flaneur in the Parlor: Poe's “Philosophy of Furniture”
Authors: Hayes Kevin J.
Published: April 2011

In one of the brief reflections Walter Benjamin composed as part of hisArcades Project, he personified the mid-19th-century domestic interior and made it and the flaneur onfidantes: “The space winks at the flaneur: What do you think may have gone on here?” (418–19). Benjamin typically filtered much of his thought through the figure of the flaneur, a recognizable urban type that emerged during the middle third of the 19th century, one who deliberately strolled the city streets and arcades and attempted to discern the meanings of what he observed. In the fullest scholarly treatment of the subject, Anke Gleber argued that the act of walking formed an essential part of the flaneur's observational process. Discussing such works as E. T. A. Hoffman's “The Cousin's Corner-Window,” however, Gleber did acknowledge a “paradoxical variant,” the stationary flaneur (13).
New Women in the New Pacific: Japanese–American Romances in the Context of U.S. Empire
Authors: Murphy Gretchen
Published: April 2011

In the title of a 1903 American Journal of Sociology essay, Ernest W. Clement announces a new phenomenon: “The New Woman in Japan.” By this title, he quickly explains, he does not mean to satirically compare this Japanese sociological development to the American “parody of man” usually associated with the phrase, because “such a creature as that called the ‘new woman’ in the Occident has not yet appeared to any great extent among the Japanese.” Although sometimes in Japan “the process of the new woman's evolution may be disfigured by some accident” producing “a sickening sort of person,” Clement's interest is not in particular aberrations, but rather in “the abstract, legal new woman” created by recent changes in Japan's civil code. In this abstraction Clement sees improvement on previous Japanese laws that “relegat[ed] woman to an abnormally inferior position.” Clement thus assures readers that, although Japan's modernization hinges upon its women's legal and cultural status, female advancement in Japan will not approach the “abnormal” excesses of the United States. Quoting Alice Mabel Bacon's influential book Japanese Girls and Women to stress this point, Clement explains that Japanese men are adopting many Western habits and opinions, but they still “shrink aghast, in many cases, at the thought that their women may ever become the forward, self-assertive, half-masculine women of the West.” Yet still, many of these Japanese men express “a growing dissatisfaction with the smallness and narrowness of the lives of their wives and daughters — a growing belief that better educated women make better homes.”
Neither Tramp Nor Hobo: Images of Unemployment in the Art of the Ashcan School
Authors: Boylan Alexis L.
Published: April 2011

This short notice, entitled “When a ‘Hobo’ Works,” which appeared in the New York Times, July 13, 1912, might seem overwrought to contemporary readers in its definitive nature. The need to delineate work and nonwork, however, was quite serious business for Americans in the first decades of the 20th century. During this period, as evidenced in newspaper and journal articles, legislation, and popular culture, there was growing apprehension about the perceived differences and slippage among the ideas of the tramp, the hobo, the vagrant, the unemployed worker, and the worker. Most of this conversation was directed toward defining work and nonwork for men — specifically for white men. Tramping came to be viewed as an affliction of both mind and body, with writers, politicians, and reformers seeking to define the tramp and then theorizing how to put these newly codified bodies to work.

Some of the most complex images of joblessness from this period were produced by the Ashcan school of artists, who frequently portrayed jobless men in their paintings and drawings. The Ashcan school, a group of six realist painters who lived and worked in New York City from 1900 to the First World War, established a national reputation as radicals rebelling against what they argued was a conservative artistic community woefully out of touch with modern American life. Ashcan artists depicted what they claimed to be the realities of the city around them — busy streets, shopgirls, ethnic communities, construction workers, and prostitutes, as well as tramps. John Sloan's The Coffee Line, 1905 (Figure 1), is typical of the kinds of images that Ashcan artists produced. The scene is a snowy winter's night in New York with a band of men in line to get a free cup of coffee. Jobless men are the stars here; unwitting leads in Sloan's slice of New York City life. The painting did much to communicate nationally a visual image of the tramp in New York City; it won honorable mention in 1905 at the Carnegie Institute International Exposition and was then exhibited in Chicago; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Dallas; and Seattle.
Dialogues with the Self: New Thoughts on Marsden Hartley's Self-Portraits
Authors: Coco Janice
Published: April 2011

Scholars have long acknowledged the crucial role biography plays in Marsden Hartley's oeuvre, as many have used his autobiography Somehow a Past and his homosexuality to interpret his recurring motifs. As a recognized writer and painter, he figured prominently in American modernism and was among the first to explore abstraction as his prime expression. Heavily influenced by European models, he forged a mature style drawn from German expressionism and his affinity for the mystic transcendentalism of writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Walt Whitman. A lifelong transient, he stood apart from those in the Alfred Stieglitz circle (Figure 1), spending more time outside the United States than in, returning at the end of his life to become “the painter of Maine.” General consensus allows that Hartley's early life influenced his images directly; but, more specifically, art historian Bruce Robertson suggests that Hartley turned to self-portraiture in his last years to work through childhood issues of loss and abandonment. Following suit, this essay considers these tender issues further with a reading of four late paintings, of which two are not yet recognized as self-portraits.

The paintings themselves are treated as sites to explore and define the self, in the words of the psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott, as a “potential space” in which the artist reengages with and attempts to resolve past issues. More specifically, Winnicott describes a psychological transition, a buffer zone between mind and reality, used to cope with maturational issues. In this metaphorical space, one creates symbols and forms object relationships, meaning, a personal language with which to negotiate the real world and one's place in it. All cultural production, Winnicott argues, results from this interim process, which acts as a defensive filter to mitigate harsh truths — in Hartley's case, the loss of both parents and feelings of rejection. From this perspective, I focus narrowly on the symbolic arrangement by which identity issues merge with metaphysics, sex, and death. Although much has been written on these themes, I interpret the paintings' usefulness to Hartley, the ways that they functioned as tools, moving him toward personal integration. In dealing with issues of loss and mourning, I necessarily reflect on dark subject matter; even so, this study is not meant to represent the whole of Hartley's character. A complex person, he was not in a constant state of turmoil and, as Jonathan Weinberg, Donna Cassidy, and many others have demonstrated, Hartley was driven by much more than psychological angst. However, the lens of psychoanalysis (in this case, psychobiography and object relations) provides an additional way to interpret these late images.
Narrative Jujitsu: Twain's “Studied Fictions” and Their Plot Against Audience
Authors: Slote Ben
Published: April 2011

Anyone familiar with mark twain's humor will recognize its traces in this description of an early stage performance. Here is selfmockery, the mockery of grandiloquent stage oratory, and the mockery of grandiloquence itself, all the more fun for our reviewer's high-serious complaint. Here is a trace of something else, though, that has not been fully appreciated in Twain criticism: the aggression his oral and literary performances exert against their audiences. As our reviewer describes it, Twain's comic gambit about the Sandwich Islands also mocks and catches out his listeners. In the process of seeming to gratify the sort of conventional, “serious” expectations that auditors like our reviewer take to the performance, Twain becomes “untrustworthy,” so that the audience's not knowing where “the fun will come in” comes close to its knowing that the fun is at the expense of these expectations. Its “queer state,” like a bruise, marks Twain's deepest aggression: while indulging his audience's highcultural desires – his “brilliant” purple prose signals the entry into a touristic transaction as clearly as buying a berth on theQuaker Citydoes inInnocents Abroad– Twain's concluding verbal self-consciousness flourishes before his auditors both the inauthenticity of his offer and the selfdelusion involved in their accepting it.
Natural Law and National Science: The “Star of Empire” in Manifest Destiny and the American Observatory Movement
Authors: White Craig Howard
Published: April 2011

From its revolution based on Newtonian physics to its Star-Spangled Banner on the Moon, the United States of America shares with astronomy a worldview of infinite expansion. As above, so below: in space, myriad galaxies multiply the stars; on earth, cities of light interminably sprawl with people and production. This cosmology of growth, which first materialized in the scientific revolution and conquest of America during the European Renaissance, reemerges in the “American Renaissance” of the 1840s and 1850s when the American Observatory Movement and Manifest Destiny declare expansion a natural law for the heavens and North America.
Call Me/It Ishmael: The Sound of Recognition inCall It SleepandInvisible Man
Authors: Newton Adam Zachary
Published: April 2011

These are, respectively, the first sentence of Ralph Ellison's InvisibleManand the last sentence of Henry Roth'sCall It Sleep. Each centrally keys into the title (and a governing trope) of its particular text; each locates its subject precisely. Ellison's protagonist speaks to us from within a state which he calls “hibernation”; David Schearl takes leave of his readers by entering into one – what the penultimate sentence tells us we “might as well call …sleep.” I want to read these two remarkably contiguous moments alongside each other for a moment before I proceed to a discussion of exactly what such reciprocal facing of texts might entail.
Discipline and delegation: colonial governance in Malayan towns, 1880–1930
Authors: LEES LYNN HOLLEN
Published: April 2011

British colonial administrators had two strategies for governing towns in Malaya during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They used Sanitary Boards to improve public health and to control populations indirectly, and they relied on police forces for direct forms of discipline. Both strategies reveal the overall weakness of the British colonial regime in that region.
Focused Ion Beam Induced Microstructural Alterations: Texture Development, Grain Growth, and Intermetallic Formation
Authors: Michael Joseph R.
Published: April 2011

Copper, gold, and tungsten thin films have been exposed to 30 kV Ga+ion irradiation, and the resulting microstructural modifications are studied as a function of ion dose. The observed microstructural changes include texture development with respect to the easy channeling direction in the target, and in the case of Cu, an additional intermetallic phase is produced. Texture development in these target materials is a function of the starting materials grain size, and these changes are not observed in large grained materials. The accepted models of differential damage driven grain growth are not supported by the results of this study. The implications of this study to the use of focused ion beam tools for sample preparation are discussed.
Geomechanical response to seasonal gas storage in depleted reservoirs: A case study in the Po River basin, Italy
Authors: Teatini P. , Castelletto N. , Ferronato M. , Gambolati G. , Janna C. , Cairo E. , Marzorati D. , Colombo D. , Ferretti A. , Bagliani A. , Bottazzi F.
Published: April 2011

Underground gas storage (UGS) in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs is a strategic practice to cope with the growing energy demand and occurs in many places in Europe and North America. In response to summer gas injection and winter gas withdrawal the reservoir expands and contracts essentially elastically as a major consequence of the fluid (gas and water) pore pressure fluctuations. Depending on a number of factors, including the reservoir burial depth, the difference between the largest and the smallest gas pore pressure, and the geomechanical properties of the injected formation and the overburden, the porous medium overlying the reservoir is subject to three‐dimensional deformation with the related cyclic motion of the land surface being both vertical and horizontal. We present a methodology to evaluate the environmental impact of underground gas storage and sequestration from the geomechanical perspective, particularly in relation to the ground surface displacements. Long‐term records of injected and removed gas volume and fluid pore pressure in the “Lombardia” gas field, northern Italy, are available together with multiyear detection of vertical and horizontal west‐east displacement of the land surface above the reservoir by an advanced permanent scatterer interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PSInSAR) analysis. These data have been used to calibrate a 3‐D fluid‐dynamic model and develop a 3‐D transversally isotropic geomechanical model. The latter has been successfully implemented and used to reproduce the vertical and horizontal cyclic displacements, on the range of 8–10 mm and 6–8 mm, respectively, measured between 2003 and 2007 above the reservoir where a UGS program has been underway by Stogit‐Eni S.p.A. since 1986 following a 5 year field production life. Because of the great economical interest to increase the working gas volume as much as possible, the model addresses two UGS scenarios where the gas pore overpressure is pushed from the current 103%pi, where pi is the gas pore pressure prior to the field development, to 107%pi and 120%pi. Results of both scenarios show that there is a negligible impact on the ground surface, with deformation gradients that remain well below the most restrictive admissible limits for the civil structures and infrastructures.
The origin of anomalous peak and negative capacitance in the forward bias capacitance-voltage characteristics of Au/PVA/n-Si structures
Authors: Altındal Şemsettin , Uslu Habibe
Published: April 2011

The frequency dependence of capacitance-voltage (C-V) and conductance-voltage (G/ω-V) characteristics of the Au/polyvinyl alcohol (Ni, Zn-doped)/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) was investigated in the frequency range of 3 kHz-3 MHz at room temperature by considering series resistance (Rs) and interface states (Nss) effects. The C-V and G/ω-V characteristics confirm that the Rs and Nss are important parameters that strongly influence the electrical parameters of SBDs. The C-V plots show an intersection point (∼2.9 V) at low frequencies (f ≤ 30 kHz) and then take negative values, which is known as negative capacitance (NC) behavior. The negativity of the C increases with the decreasing frequency in the forward bias voltage region, and this decrement in the NC corresponds to the increment in the conductance. Also, the forward bias C-V plots show an anomalous peak in the voltage range of 1.55–1.9 V depending on the frequency such that the anomalous peaks shift toward positive voltage values with the increasing frequency. The effect of Rs on the C is found appreciable at high frequencies. In addition, the values of Nss and Rs are found to decrease with the increasing frequency.
Nonferroelectric contributions to the hysteresis cycles in manganite thin films: A comparative study of measurement techniques
Authors: Fina I. , Fàbrega L. , Langenberg E. , Martí X. , Sánchez F. , Varela M. , Fontcuberta J.
Published: April 2011

Several experimental methods to measure ferroelectric hysteresis loops and to extract polarization values are compared for thin films with significant losses and different magnitudes of polarization. The analysis allows the determination of the most appropriate frequency range and technique to extract reliable values of the remanent polarization in materials with low polarization and high leakage. Examples include multiferroic YMnO3 and Bi0.9La0.1NiMnO6 thin films.
Three dimensional magnetic flux concentrators with improved efficiency for magnetoresistive sensors
Authors: Marinho Z. , Cardoso S. , Chaves R. , Ferreira R. , Melo L. V. , Freitas P. P.
Published: April 2011

Three dimensional (3D) magnetic flux concentrators (FC) based on 7000-Å-thick Co86Zr5Nb9 films were optimized for increased sensitivity in hybrid flux guide-magnetoresistive sensor structures. The vertical profile of the flux guide patterned by lift-off was replaced by a 3D structure where the sensor is recessed from the FC with a controlled edged slope defined by ion milling at controlled angles (20°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 85°). In this work, spin valve linear sensors (3 × 14 μm2) with initial sensitivity of 0.084%/Oe were integrated with the flux guides patterned with these 3D tapered profiles. Optimized flux guides with 45° slope could increase the sensitivity up to 7.4%/Oe, corresponding to a concentrator flux gain of ∼100.
Reducing turbulent transport in toroidal configurations via shaping
Authors: Mynick H. E. , Pomphrey N. , Xanthopoulos P.
Published: April 2011

Recent progress in reducing turbulent transport in stellarators and tokamaks by 3D shaping using a stellarator optimization code in conjunction with a gyrokinetic code is presented. The original applications of the method focused on ion temperature gradient transport in a quasi-axisymmetric stellarator design. Here, an examination both of other turbulence channels and other starting configurations is initiated. It is found that the designs evolved for transport from ion temperature gradient turbulence also display reduced transport from other transport channels whose modes are also stabilized by improved curvature, such as electron temperature gradient and ballooning modes. The optimizer is also applied to evolving from a tokamak, finding appreciable turbulence reduction for these devices as well. From these studies, improved understanding is obtained of why the deformations found by the optimizer are beneficial, and these deformations are related to earlier theoretical work in both stellarators and tokamaks.
Magnetic field dependent transport through a Mn4 single-molecule magnet
Authors: Haque F. , Langhirt M. , del Barco E. , Taguchi T. , Christou G.
Published: April 2011

We present a preliminary study of the single-electron transport response of a Mn4 single-molecule magnet in which pyridyl-alkoxide groups have been added to electrically protect the magnetic core and to increase the stability of the molecule during the experiments. Three-terminal single-electron transistors with nanogapped gold electrodes formed by electromigration and a naturally oxidized aluminum backgate were used to perform experiments at temperatures down to 240 mK in the presence of arbitrarily oriented magnetic fields. Coulomb blockade and electronic excitations that curve with the magnetic field and present zero-field splitting represent evidence of magnetic anisotropy. Level anticrossings and large excitation slopes are associated with the behavior of molecular states with high-spin values (S ∼ 9), as expected from Mn4.
Asymmetric magnetic dots: A way to control magnetic properties
Authors: Vargas N. M. , Allende S. , Leighton B. , Escrig J. , Mejía-López J. , Altbir D. , Schuller Ivan K.
Published: April 2011

We have used Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the magnetic properties of asymmetric dots as a function of their geometry. The asymmetry of round dots is produced by cutting off a fraction of the dot and is characterized by an asymmetry parameter α. This shape asymmetry has interesting effects on the coercivity (Hc), remanence (Mr), and barrier for vortex and C-state formation. The dependences of Hc and Mr are nonmonotonic as a function of α with a well defined minima in these parameters. The vortex enters the most asymmetric part and exits through the symmetric portion of the dot. With increasing α the vortex formation starts with a C-state which persists for longer fields and the barrier for vortex exit diminishes with increasing asymmetry, thus providing control over the magnetic chirality. This implies interesting, naively unexpected, magnetic behavior as a function of geometry and magnetic field.