bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Talking about Disability in Prenatal Genetic Counseling: A Report of Two Interactive Workshops
Authors: Hodgson Jan , Weil Jon
Published: October 2011

Women are commonly offered testing in pregnancy to determine the health of their baby. An important component of informed decision‐making about prenatal testing is provision of relevant, accurate, meaningful information concerning the conditions that are being tested for—many of which, such as Down syndrome, are associated with a varying degree of physical and intellectual disability. A range of health professionals, including genetic counselors, may provide information and support throughout the testing process, but available data suggest that discussion of disability is frequently absent or limited. To investigate genetic counselors’ perceptions of this situation and identify potential barriers to discussion we facilitated interactive workshops at the 2007 National Society of Genetic Counselors Annual Education Conference (NSGC) and the 2008 European Meeting on Psychosocial Aspects of Genetics (EMPAG). Working groups identified relevant psychosocial issues and impediments to discussion (NSGC) or used a two‐part scenario to promote discussion (EMPAG) and reported findings in notes and a closing plenary discussion. Inductive content analysis revealed that participants considered informed decision making to be a major reason for presenting information about disabilities in prenatal genetic counseling and endorsed the value of including information about daily life with Down syndrome and other disabilities. However, they identified three broad types of impediments to such discussion: counseling issues concerning the most appropriate manner to discuss disability under the complex circumstances of prenatal genetic counseling, less than optimal training and experience in addressing these issues, and perceived limitations in the participants’ knowledge and understanding of life with disability. Our analysis of the responses from the workshop participants and additional thoughts on these issues have led us to develop recommendations for further research, training and clinical practice.
Hyperphagia and depression‐like behavior by adolescence social isolation in female rats
Authors: Jahng Jeong Won , Yoo Sang Bae , Ryu Vitaly , Lee Jong‐Ho
Published: October 2011

This study was conducted to examine the effects of adolescence social isolation on food intake and psycho‐emotional behaviors of female rats. Female littermates were either single‐caged (social isolation) or group‐caged (control) from postnatal day 28, and then subjected to behavioral sessions during postnatal day 50–53. Body weight gain of the isolates was accelerated during the experimental period and food intake was persistently greater than group‐caged controls from postnatal day 35. Isolated females showed a selective increase in cookie intake when they had additional cookie access to standard chow. The isolates exhibited hyperactivity with increased ambulatory counts and rearings during the activity test as compared with group‐caged controls. Behavioral scores of the elevated plus maze test did not differ between the isolates and group‐caged controls; however, immobility time during the forced swim test was significantly increased in the isolates. Basal levels of plasma corticosterone were elevated, but the corticosterone increase responding to an acute stress was blunted, in the isolates compared with group‐caged ones. Results suggest that adolescence social isolation induces hyperphagia and depression‐like behaviors in female rats and a tonic increase of plasma corticosterone may be implicated in its underlying mechanisms.
Behavioral and neuroendocrine effects of the exposure to chronic restraint or variable stress in early adolescent rats
Authors: Cruz Fábio C. , Marin Marcelo T. , Leão Rodrigo M. , Planeta Cleopatra S.
Published: October 2011

Stress events during adolescence may contribute to the expression or exacerbation of physical and behavioral disorders. However, little attention has been given to the physiological and behavioral changes promoted by stress during this period of ontogeny. In the present study we investigated, in adolescent male rats, the effects of repeated exposure to restraint or variable stress on: (a) locomotor activity and corticosterone levels after exposure to a novel environment; (b) corticosterone levels in response to the exposure to restraint stress; and (c) changes in body, thymus and adrenal weights. The results demonstrated that repeated exposure to restraint or variable stress reduced the locomotor response, but did not affect corticosterone secretion, in response to a novel environment. Moreover, both chronic stress procedures did not change corticosterone secretion in response to acute restraint stress. Furthermore, our results showed that repeated restraint, but not variable stress, produced a decrease in body weight along the stress exposure. Finally, we observed that the exposure to variable stress reduced the thymus relative weight. Taken together our results suggest that behavioral and physiological changes induced by exposure to chronic stress during adolescence depend on the stress regimen.
A novel gene–environment interaction involved in endometriosis
Authors: McCarty Catherine A. , Berg Richard L. , Welter Joseph D. , Kitchner Terrie E. , Kemnitz Joseph W.
Published: October 2011

Objective

To establish a well‐defined cohort for genetic epidemiology studies of endometriosis and conduct a pilot study to confirm validity using existing data associated with endometriosis.

Methods

Between January and May 2010, a nested cohort within a population‐based biobank was established in Marshfield, Wisconsin, USA. The inclusion criteria were women who had laparoscopy or hysterectomy. Fifty‐one pleiotropic genetic polymorphisms and other established risk factors, such as smoking status and body mass index, were compared between endometriosis cases and controls.

Results

From the existing biobank, 796 cases and 501 controls were identified, and 259 women with endometriosis were enrolled specifically for the nested cohort within this biobank. A single nucleotide polymorphism in the MMP1 gene significantly differed between cases and controls only when stratified by smoking status. Minor allele frequency was higher in control women who smoked than in women with endometriosis who smoked (55.5% versus 45.5%, χ2 = 8.2, P = 0.017); the inverse relationship was found in non‐smoker control women.

Conclusions

Women with endometriosis were successfully recruited to participate in a general biobank, and a novel gene–environment interaction was identified. The findings suggest that important potential genetic associations may be missed if gene–environment interactions with known epidemiologic risk factors are not considered.
Rethinking Culture: The Social Lineage Account
Authors: PATTEN ALAN
Published: October 2011

Persuaded by the critique of cultural essentialism, many critics believe that there is no defensible way of identifying distinct cultures, or of distinguishing cultural loss from cultural change, that is compatible with the normative agenda of multiculturalism. This article challenges this widely shared belief by developing a concept of culture that can withstand the critique of essentialism and support the positive claims of multiculturalists. Culture, in the view developed here, is what people share when they have shared subjection to a common formative context. A division of the world, or of particular societies, into distinct cultures is a recognition that distinct processes of socialization operate on different groups of people. Because culture in this view is the precipitate of a common social lineage, the view is called the “social lineage account” of culture.
Valence as Macro-Competence: An Analysis of Mood in Party Competence Evaluations in Great Britain
Authors: Green Jane , Jennings Will
Published: October 2011

There is a discernable mood in macro-level public evaluations of party issue competence. This paper argues that voters use heuristics to transfer issue competence ratings of parties between issues, therefore issue competence ratings move in common. Events, economic shocks and the costs of governing reinforce these shared dynamics. These expectations are analysed using issue competence data in Britain 1950–2008, and using Stimson's dyad ratios algorithm to estimate ‘macro-competence’. Effects on macro-competence are found for events and economic shocks, time in government, leader ratings, economic evaluations and partisanship, but macro-competence also accounts for unique variance in a model of party choice. The article presents an aggregate-level time-series measure to capture the long-term dynamics of ‘valence’.
Divine hiddenness as divine mercy
Authors: DUMSDAY TRAVIS
Published: October 2011

If God exists, why isn't His existence more apparent? In recent analytic philosophy this longstanding question has been developed into an argument for atheism typically referred to as the ‘problem of divine hiddenness’. My goal here is to put forward a new reply. The basic idea is that there is some reason to think that for many of us, our moral conduct would not improve even if God's existence were not subject to doubt. However, immoral conduct in such a state of affairs would be even more immoral, and hence justly subject to greater punishment, than it is in a state of affairs in which God's existence is subject to doubt. As such, God mercifully remains ‘hidden’ in order to limit our moral culpability.
A sonar ring with continuous matched filtering and dynamically switched templates
Authors: Browne Damien C. , Kleeman Lindsay
Published: October 2011

Matched filtering optimally estimates the arrival time for a sonar sensor by correlating received signals with templates. This paper presents a sonar ring with continuous matched filtering on 48 receiver channels sampled at 500kHz. The design dynamically switches the matched filter templates to account for pulse shape variations with range. To achieve real-time, low-latency and optimal performance, processing is implemented on an field-programmable gate array (FPGA) transmitting sonar pulses (2 periods of a 45kHz sine wave) at repetition rate of 30-Hz to 5.7-m range. The paper describes the removal of secondary peaks of the correlation output of matched filtering and template selection. Results include sonar maps, accuracy measurements and localization of weak targets.
Operaen abyme: The prodigious ritual of Korngold'sDie tote Stadt
Authors: Cheng William
Published: October 2011

This essay frames Erich Wolfgang Korngold'sDie tote Stadt(1920) as amise-en-abymenarrative containing four nested realms of diegesis: (1) the opera's ‘real’ world, (2) a prolonged dream sequence, (3) a dance troupe's rehearsal of an opera within that dream, and (4) an expressly requested baritone song performed by a ‘Pierrot’ character in the midst of that dreamt rehearsal. I conceptualise the opera's dense meta-theatrics as a reflexive celebration (and also a didactic warning against the escapist pleasures) of sung spectacle. Excerpts from my interviews with Inga Levant – director of the 2001 Strasbourg production ofDie tote Stadt– are used to supplement my broader examination of the ways in which Korngold's reputation as a ‘problemless’ and ‘apolitical’ child prodigy has impacted critical, dramaturgical and hermeneutical orientations towards this opera since its earliest post-war performances.
How theVixenlost its mores: gesture and music in Janáček's animal opera
Authors: Sheppard Jennifer
Published: October 2011

With a diverse and colourful cast of animals, birds, insects and human villagers,Příhody lišky Bystroušky(known in English asThe Cunning Little Vixen), is one of Leoš Janáček's most popular, if peculiar, operas. Though nowadaysBystrouškais typically characterised as a charming portrayal of the continuous renewal of life in nature, this idea emerged only gradually from a tangle of competing and occasionally contradictory views in which, however, the complexity of the moral laws by which the opera's inhabitants live was frequently central. By tracing the history of the opera's stagings in the Czech Republic; drawing out themes that developed in the journalistic and critical discourse around those performances; and reading the opera's music and stage action closely, this article argues that the amoral codes ofBystrouška's world not only inhere in the story, its text, and even, perhaps, in the idea of nature's cycle of life itself, but that at certain times in the opera they are also given expression through particular correlations and disjunctions between the opera's music and the physical actions and gestures of the singers on stage.
Non-disclosure for distributed mobile code
Authors: MATOS ANA ALMEIDA , CEDERQUIST JAN
Published: October 2011

With the emergence of the new possibilities offered by global computing, new security issues follow from the fact that these possibilities can be equally exploited by parties with malicious intentions. Many attacks arise at the application level, and can be tackled by means of programming language techniques. For instance, confidentiality can be violated during the execution of programs that reveal secret information. This kind of program behaviour can be avoided by information flow analyses that detect the encoding of illegal flows.

This paper studies information flows that occur in distributed programs with code mobility from a language-based security perspective. New forms of security leaks that are introduced by code mobility, which we callmigration leaks, are presented and compared with well-known forms of illegal flow. We propose an information flow property that is adequate for networks consisting of a generalisation of the non-disclosure policy. We design a type and effect system for enforcing it on an expressive distributed calculus, and explain a soundness proof methodology in detail.
Provenance as dependency analysis
Authors: CHENEY JAMES , AHMED AMAL , ACAR UMUT A.
Published: October 2011

Provenance is information recording the source, derivation or history of some information. Provenance tracking has been studied in a variety of settings, particularly database management systems. However, although many candidate definitions of provenance have been proposed, the mathematical or semantic foundations of data provenance have received comparatively little attention. In this paper, we argue that dependency analysis techniques familiar from program analysis and program slicing provide a formal foundation for forms of provenance that are intended to show how (part of) the output of a query depends on (parts of) its input. We introduce a semantic characterisation of such dependency provenance for a core database query language, show that minimal dependency provenance is not computable, and provide dynamic and static approximation techniques. We also discuss preliminary implementation experience with using dependency provenance to compute data slices, or summaries of the parts of the input relevant to a given part of the output.
February 2009 Airplane Crash at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport: An Overview of Injuries and Patient Distribution
Authors: Postma Ingri L.E. , Winkelhagen Jasper , Bloemers Frank W. , Heetveld Martin J. , Bijlsma Taco S. , Goslings J. Carel
Published: October 2011

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the injuries and distribution of casualties resulting from the crash of Turkish Airlines flight TK 1951 near Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands on 25 of February 2009.

Methods: This was a retrospective, descriptive study. Based on a review of the hospital records for all casualties of the airplane crash, triage at the scene, time to emergency department, Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS), mortality, length of hospital stay and surgical procedures were abstracted.

Results: Of the 135 passengers, nine died on-scene. A total of 126 survivors were examined in 15 hospitals; data for all survivors were available for the study. Median time between crash and arrival at an emergency department was 3.5 hours (range 1.25-5.5 hours). Six passengers were uninjured and 66 were admitted to hospital. A total of 305 injuries were recorded. The majority were head and facial injuries (92), spinal injuries (35), and fractures of extremities (38). Eighteen percent of the patients had a spinal injury. The mean ISS was 6.3 (range = 1–57). The ISS score was >15 for 13 patients. Surgical procedures (80) were necessary in 23 patients. There was no in-hospital mortality.

Conclusions: Although the accident was in an urban area, there was a significant delay between the time of the accident and the arrival of the casualties at hospital emergency departments. The Turkish Airlines crash provides extensive information for research into mass-casualty or disaster management, triage, plane crash injuries, and survivability. The “Medical Research Turkish Airlines Crash” (MOTAC) study group currently is investigating several of these issues.
Validation of protein and potassium intakes assessed from 24 h recalls against levels estimated from 24 h urine samples in children and adolescents of Turkish descent living in Germany: results from the EVET! Study
Authors: Bokhof Beate , Buyken Anette E , Doğan Canan , Karaboğa Arzu , Kaiser Josa , Sonntag Antje , Kroke Anja
Published: October 2011

Objective

Nutrition-related health problems such as obesity are frequent among children and adolescents of Turkish descent living in Germany, yet data on their dietary habits are scarce. One reason might be the lack of validated assessment tools for this target group. We therefore aimed to validate protein and K intakes from one 24 h recall against levels estimated from one 24 h urine sample in children and adolescents of Turkish descent living in Germany.

Design

Cross-sectional analyses comprised estimation of mean differences, Pearson correlation coefficients, cross-classifications and Bland–Altman plots to assess the agreement between the nutritional intake estimated from a single 24 h recall and a single 24 h urine sample collected on the previous day.

Setting

Dortmund, Germany.

Subjects

Data from forty-three study participants (aged 5–18 years; 26 % overweight) with a traditional Turkish background were included.

Results

The 24 h recall significantly overestimated mean protein and K intake by 10·7 g/d (95 % CI of mean difference: 0·6, 20·7 g/d) and 344 mg/d (95 % CI 8, 680 mg/d), respectively. Correlations between intake estimates werer= 0·25 (P= 0·1) and 0·31 (P= 0·05). Both methods classified 70 % and 69 % of the participants into the same/adjacent quartile of protein and K intake and misclassified 7 % and 7 %, respectively, into the opposite quartile. Bland–Altman plots indicated a wide scattering of differences in both protein and K intake.

Conclusions

Among children and adolescents of traditional Turkish descent living in Germany, one 24 h recall may only be valid for categorizing subjects into high, medium or low consumers.
DID BROWN FAIL?
Authors: Pettigrew Thomas F.
Published: October 2011

In 2004, the United States elaborately “celebrated” the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The country's mass media acclaimed May 17 as the date of a great national achievement while paying scant attention to the present racial scene in education. Yet those who believed in and fought for the racial desegregation of the nation's public schools found the widespread “celebration” grossly overstated and at best premature. With effective opposition to school desegregation unrelenting during the entire past half century, with the U.S. Supreme Court continually narrowing Brown's scope, and with African American and Hispanic American children still largely attending segregated schools, the nation's unmitigated self-congratulatory stance seemed unwarranted.
THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Authors: Du Bois W. E. B.
Published: October 2011

The late Booker T. Washington may be considered in four aspects. First there can be no doubt that his chief significance lies in the fact that he cannot be considered simply as an individual but that he is so inextricably woven into the national and even world movements of his day that his death becomes historic. Again, most Colored men in America are simply “Colored.” They are submerged in a great undifferentiated group; they are not considered as individuals but are lumped together as a “race.” Mr. Washington was more than “Colored.” He was an American, and the comments upon his career tend continually to emphasize the fact that such a struggle upward against terrific odds, such indomitable persistence and versatility of expedient was peculiarly American. After Frederick Douglass, Mr. Washington was the next great exemplification and revelation of problems of race and labor in America, so significant as to go to the very core of our democracy; and finally, there is to consider Mr. Washington's own personality: the silent, watchful, cautious man, rugged, nervous, popular but unsocial, slow but tireless.
MR. SECRETARY, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL
Authors: de Bodman Florent , Bennett Pamela R.
Published: October 2011

Racial segregation has been a persistent feature of the American social landscape and a longstanding contributor to racial inequality, particularly between Blacks and Whites. Affirmative action policies have been used to address the systemic discrimination and attendant socioeconomic consequences to which African Americans have been subjected. Yet affirmative action has not been widely used in all domains in which segregation and systemic discrimination occurred. Although such policies have been adopted in the domains of employment and postsecondary education, few federal affirmative action programs have been used in housing. This is surprising given high levels of segregation across the metropolitan United States, as well as the stated integrative objectives of the U.S. Congress when it passed theFair Housing Act of1968. To understand this puzzle, we use the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program, a housing mobility effort of the Federal government and the Chicago Housing Authority that used explicit racial criteria, as a surrogate for affirmative action in housing more broadly. We conduct a comparative analysis of Gautreaux and affirmative action in college admissions using insights from applied political philosophy and sociology. By confronting Gautreaux with a more traditional affirmative action program, we are able to identify and compare the judicial, moral, and instrumental justifications for each, enabling us to draw conclusions about whether and how affirmative action can justifiably be used on a large scale to reduce neighborhood segregation, the possible forms it could take, and the difficulties it would face. We close with a discussion of the recent shift toward integration taken by the Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration, its relationship to affirmative action, and its implications for declines in residential segregation in the United States.
Electromagnetic Theory for Telecommunications
Authors: Liu C. S. , Tripathi V. K.
Published: October 2011

This book presents the fundamental principles and applications of electromagnetic theory, with emphasis on applications in communication. The underlying theory for technological advances like medium and short wave communication, cellular communication, radar and satellite communication, laser and optical communication, remote sensing and geological and earth observing applications have also been explained lucidly. Thus, given the breadth of its coverage, besides being used as a textbook for electrodynamics for beginner and advanced undergraduate students of physics and engineering, this book may also serve as an effective reference source for telecommunication engineers, physicists and researchers. Key features- rigorous mathematical details provided for involved physical concepts- In-text problem with complete solutions at relevant places in the chapters- unsolved problems with hints and answers- list of references at the end of each unit for interested readers- extensive figures annotating the text
Human Capital
Authors: Rajaram R.
Published: October 2011

Human Capital is based on the concept that organisations should create an environment where people are valued and encouraged to maximise their abilities. An inside view of rewarding and retaining performing employees and assigning challenging tasks to them is revealed. The importance of nurturing a performance oriented culture to harness human capital for competitive advantages has been underlined. In the fast changing business world, organisations constantly evolve and this diversifies the managers role. Openness and perceptiveness are blended at various levels of organisation management. Human Capital uses several real life examples to explain theoretical concepts of human resource management. The book deftly redefines and reorients management tactics to create new understanding of the employer-employee relationship.
Forest Policy and Ecological Change
Authors: Thaha S. Abdul
Published: October 2011

Forest Policy and Ecological Change: Hyderabad State in Colonial India is an attempt to highlight the history of forestry in colonial India in the context of the Nizams Dominions, popularly called the Hyderabad State. The ownership of forests by the State through administrative authority and its monopoly over the commercial exploitation of forest resources were central to the history of state forestry in the Hyderabad State. Since the government categorized forests into reserved, protected and open forests, the main objective for the forest administration was to conserve the existing forests and exploit them systematically.
Introduction to English Phonetics and Phonology
Authors: Aslam Mohammed , Kak Aadil Amin
Published: October 2011

In the context of globalisation, advances in information technology and the wide spread use of the Internet, developing students ability to speak English with global intelligibility has become the focus of English language teaching. Introduction to English Phonetics and Phonology aims to help learners speak the language accurately with the right pronunciation, word and sentence stress and intonation. The book is designed for use in courses on English language and linguistics at the university level. A large number of well-labelled illustrations and minimal use of jargon make the book equally accessible to independent learners. Key features In-depth explanation of key concepts Place and manner of articulation discussed with accompanying figures Extensive examples from everyday English Use of flowcharts and diagrams to explain syllable structure Separate section on British and American English Tasks for reinforcement of concepts and practice Select glossary for ready reference
Mountain hydrology, snow color, and the fourth paradigm
Authors: Dozier Jeff
Published: October 2011

The world's mountain ranges accumulate substantial snow, whose melt produces the bulk of runoff and often combines with rain to cause floods. Worldwide, inadequate understanding and a reliance on sparsely distributed observations limit our ability to predict seasonal and paroxysmal runoff as climate changes, ecosystems adapt, populations grow, land use evolves, and societies make choices. To improve assessments of snow accumulation, melt, and runoff, scientists and community planners can take advantage of two emerging trends: (1) an ability to remotely sense snow properties from satellites at a spatial scale appropriate for mountain regions (10‐ to 100‐meter resolution, coverage of the order of 100,000 square kilometers) and a daily temporal scale appropriate for the dynamic nature of snow and (2) The Fourth Paradigm [Hey et al., 2009], which posits a new scientific approach in which insight is discovered through the manipulation of large data sets as the evolutionary step in scientific thinking beyond the first three paradigms: empiricism, analyses, and simulation. The inspiration for the book's title comes from pioneering computer scientist Jim Gray, based on a lecture he gave at the National Academy of Sciences 3 weeks before he disappeared at sea.
Last Glacial Maximum's effect on the Walker circulation
Authors: Schultz Colin
Published: October 2011

Over the tropical Pacific Ocean the Walker circulation is an atmospheric flow pattern that runs parallel to the equator, with ascending motion over the western Pacific and a horizontal tropospheric return flow that carries air back to the east. Scientists predict that the Walker circulation will weaken with global warming through a mechanism known as the Held, Soden, and Vecchi (HSV) mechanism. According to this system, as surface ocean temperatures increase, atmospheric humidity and precipitation rates will also increase. Conversely, as surface ocean temperatures decrease, atmospheric humidity and local precipitation will decrease. Humidity levels change much more easily than precipitation rates; as temperatures rise, this disparity leads to a decrease in vertical air motion as the atmosphere tries to maintain a balanced flow of air. If temperatures fall, vertical air motion will increase. Although the HSV mechanism is a robust feature of climate models, its observed sensitivity to changing temperatures remains uncertain.
Evaluation of 2B31 TRMM‐product rain estimates for single precipitation events over a region with complex topographic features
Authors: Montero‐Martínez Guillermo , Zarraluqui‐Such Víctor , García‐García Fernando
Published: October 2011

An evaluation of precipitation estimations on the ground for individual rainfall events was carried out by comparing the 2B31 Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) product versus a high‐density, rain gauge network deployed at the ground over a small (about 1000 km2) study area in a continental region characterized by complex topography and high altitude. This comparison, using categorical analysis, showed a good agreement for several skill parameters most frequently used in works of this type. In this paper, it is concluded that Odds Ratio Skill Score (ORSS) is a more reliable measure of skill for categorical statistics than other scores because it better reflects the agreement between the two data sets. Furthermore, ORSS allows one to test the significance of the results so it is possible to discriminate whether the resulting skill is due to pure chance (ORSS was significant in 70% of the cases studied). Although variance and mean analyses generally showed differences between data sets for both the amount and the distribution of rainfall rate over the study area, least squares fits indicate a very high and quite linear correlation for both the mean rainfall rate (r2 = 0.90) and the maximum amount of precipitation at a given point (r2 = 0.74). It is concluded that 2B31 TRMM data can be used in weather applications for the area studied here and others with complex orographical characteristics and also as a tool in the diagnosis of individual rain events in other regions where there are no other data sources available.
A new global empirical NmF2 model for operational use in radio systems
Authors: Hoque M. M. , Jakowski N.
Published: October 2011

The ionospheric F2 region around the peak electron density height hmF2 of about 250–500 km causes the most pronounced impact on transionospheric radio wave propagation. Therefore, the peak electron density of the F2 layer NmF2 is a key parameter for characterizing the ionosphere. We present an empirical model approach that allows determining global NmF2 with a limited number of model coefficients. The nonlinear approach needs 13 coefficients and a few empirically fixed parameters for describing the NmF2 dependencies on local time, geographic/geomagnetic location and solar irradiance and activity. The model approach is applied to a vast quantity of global NmF2 data derived from GNSS radio occultation measurements by CHAMP, GRACE and COSMIC satellite missions and about 60 years of processed NmF2 data from 177 worldwide ionosonde stations. The model fits to these input data with the same standard and root mean squared (RMS) deviations of 2 × 1011 m−3. The proposed Neustrelitz global NmF2 model (Neustrelitz Peak Density Model ‐ NPDM) is climatological, i.e., the model describes the average behavior under quiet geomagnetic conditions. A preliminary comparison with the electron density NeQuick model reveals similar results for NmF2 with RMS deviations in the order of 2 × 1011 m−3 and 5 × 1011 m−3 for low and high solar activity conditions, respectively.
An isoindigo and dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]silole copolymer for polymer solar cells
Authors: Stalder Romain , Grand Caroline , Subbiah Jegadesan , So Franky , Reynolds John R.
Published: October 2011

The conjugated copolymer of isoindigo and dithienosilole was synthesized and studied in bulk heterojunction solar cells with fullerene derivatives.
Induction of oxidative stress, lysosome activation and autophagy by nanoparticles in human brain-derived endothelial cells
Authors: Halamoda Kenzaoui Blanka , Chapuis Bernasconi Catherine , Guney-Ayra Seher , Juillerat-Jeanneret Lucienne
Published: October 2011

Different types of NPs (nanoparticles) are currently under development for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in the biomedical field, yet our knowledge about their possible effects and fate in living cells is still limited. In the present study, we examined the cellular response of human brain-derived endothelial cells to NPs of different size and structure: uncoated and oleic acid-coated iron oxide NPs (8–9 nm core), fluorescent 25 and 50 nm silica NPs, TiO2 NPs (21 nm mean core diameter) and PLGA [poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)]-PEO [poly(ethylene oxide)] polymeric NPs (150 nm). We evaluated their uptake by the cells, and their localization, generation of oxidative stress and DNA-damaging effects in exposed cells. We show that NPs are internalized by human brain-derived endothelial cells; however, the extent of their intracellular uptake is dependent on the characteristics of the NPs. After their uptake by human brain-derived endothelial cells NPs are transported into the lysosomes of these cells, where they enhance the activation of lysosomal proteases. In brain-derived endothelial cells, NPs induce the production of an oxidative stress after exposure to iron oxide and TiO2 NPs, which is correlated with an increase in DNA strand breaks and defensive mechanisms that ultimately induce an autophagy process in the cells.
Extended estimations of neoclassical transport for the TJ-II stellarator: The bootstrap current
Authors: Tribaldos V. , Beidler C. D. , Turkin Y. , Maaßberg H.
Published: October 2011

This work extends previous Monte Carlo estimations of neoclassical transport for the TJ-II stellarator [V. Tribaldos, Phys. Plasmas 8, 1229 (2001)] to include, for the first time, the bootstrap current in low collisionality electron cyclotron resonance heated (ECRH) plasmas. The calculations are based on the mono-energetic coefficients calculated with DKES [W. I. van Rij and S. P. Hirshman, Phys. Fluids B 1, 563 (1989)] and MOCA codes. It is shown that despite the difficulties of calculating these coefficient in the long mean free path for TJ-II configurations, the bootstrap current can be accurately estimated based on the moderate temperatures measured in this device with and without enforcing momentum conservation [H. Maaßberg et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 072504 (2009)]. The computed bootstrap current is found to be in fair agreement with the currents being measured in ECRH regimes. Finally, the effect of the bootstrap current on the rotational transform profile is discussed.
Lower bounds on the entanglement needed to play XOR non-local games
Authors: Slofstra William
Published: October 2011

We give an explicit family of XOR games with O(n)-bit questions requiring 2n ebits to play near-optimally. More generally, we introduce a new technique for proving lower bounds on the amount of entanglement required by an XOR game: we show that near-optimal strategies for an XOR game G correspond to approximate representations of a certain C*-algebra associated to G. Our results extend an earlier theorem of Tsirelson characterising the set of quantum strategies which implement extremal quantum correlations.
Optimization of a vacuum chamber for vibration measurements
Authors: Danyluk Mike , Dhingra Anoop
Published: October 2011

A 200 °C high vacuum chamber has been built to improve vibration measurement sensitivity. The optimized design addresses two significant issues: (i) vibration measurements under high vacuum conditions and (ii) use of design optimization tools to reduce operating costs. A test rig consisting of a cylindrical vessel with one access port has been constructed with a welded-bellows assembly used to seal the vessel and enable vibration measurements in high vacuum that are comparable with measurements in air. The welded-bellows assembly provides a force transmissibility of 0.1 or better at 15 Hz excitation under high vacuum conditions. Numerical results based on design optimization of a larger diameter chamber are presented. The general constraints on the new design include material yield stress, chamber first natural frequency, vibration isolation performance, and forced convection heat transfer capabilities over the exterior of the vessel access ports. Operating costs of the new chamber are reduced by 50% compared to a preexisting chamber of similar size and function.
Structural study on amorphous and crystalline state of phase change material
Authors: Upadhyay M. , Murugavel S. , Anbarasu M. , Ravindran T. R.
Published: October 2011

We report an inelastic (Raman) light scattering study on bulk crystalline GeTe (c-GeTe) and amorphous GeTe (a-GeTe) thin films and found to show pronounced similarities in local structure between the two states. In c-GeTe, the observed Raman modes represent the Ge atoms are in three different environments, namely, tetrahedral, distorted, and defective octahedral sites. On the other hand, in a-GeTe, Raman spectrum reveals Ge sites in tetrahedral and defective octahedral environment. We suggest that the structure of c-GeTe consists of highly distorted as well as defective Ge sites, which leads to the large concentration of intrinsic defects (vacancies). These random defects would act as topological disorder in the lattice and cause the bands to develop tails at the band edges, a continuum of localized levels appearing in the gap. The present study deepens the understanding of the local atomic structure, influence of defects and its close relation to the phase-change mechanism.
The canonical structure of Podolsky's generalized electrodynamics on the null-plane
Authors: Bertin M. C. , Pimentel B. M. , Zambrano G. E. R.
Published: October 2011

In this work, we analyze the canonical structure of Podolsky's generalized electrodynamics on the null-plane. We show that the constraint structure presents a set of second-class constraints, which are exclusive of the analysis on the null-plane, and an expected set of first-class ones. An inspection on the field equations leads to the generalized radiation gauge on the null-plane. Dirac Brackets are then introduced by considering the problem of uniqueness under the chosen initial-boundary conditions of the theory.
Static and pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance studies of water diffusion in protein matrices
Authors: Rosenstihl M. , Vogel M.
Published: October 2011

Static field gradient and pulsed field gradient NMR are used to study the temperature dependence of water diffusion in myoglobin and lysozyme matrices for low hydration levels of about 0.3 g/g. We show that in order to determine reliable self-diffusion coefficients D in a broad temperature range, it is very important to consider an exchange of magnetization between water and protein protons, often denoted as cross relaxation. Specifically, upon cooling, the observed stimulated-echo decays, which reflect water diffusion near ambient temperature, become more and more governed by cross relaxation. We demonstrate that comparison of experimental results for inhomogeneous and homogeneous magnetic fields enables successful separation of diffusion and relaxation contributions to the stimulated-echo decays. Making use of this possibility, we find that in the temperature range 230–300 K, the temperature-dependent diffusivities D exhibit a Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann behavior, where water diffusion in the studied protein matrices is substantially slower than in the bulk. By comparing present and previous data, we discuss relations between translational and rotational motions and between short-range and long-range water dynamics in protein matrices. In addition, we critically examine the significance of results from previous applications of NMR diffusometry to the temperature-dependent water diffusion in protein matrices.
Third-order nonlinear optical response and photoluminescence characterization of tellurite glasses with different alkali metal oxides as network modifiers
Authors: Castro-Beltrán R. , Desirena H. , Ramos-Ortiz G. , De la Rosa E. , Lanty G. , Lauret J. S. , Romero-Servin S. , Schülzgen A.
Published: October 2011

Studies of the third-order nonlinear optical properties in TeO2-MO-R2O glasses with three different alkali metal oxides R2O (R = Li, Na, K) as network modifiers and two network intermediates MO (M = Zn, Mg) are reported. The influence of such modifiers and intermediates on the nonlinear optical properties of these glasses was investigated using the standard Z-scan and the thermally managed Z-scan techniques under femtosecond pulse excitation at 800 nm. For different modifiers and intermediates, the nonlinear refraction indices n2 of these glasses varied in the range 1.31–2.81 (×10–15 cm2/W). It was found that n2 increases as the ionic radius of both network modifiers and intermediates decreases. Furthermore, the measurements show that the contribution from thermo-optical effects to the nonlinear refraction index is negligible for all of the studied glass compositions. In addition, the effect of modifiers and intermediates in the formation of localized states in the vicinity of the optical bandgap was also studied through photoluminescence experiments. These experiments revealed the presence of two emission bands (red and blue) originating from these localized states that can be populated after optical excitation and subsequent relaxation.
Moment estimation for chemically reacting systems by extended Kalman filtering
Authors: Ruess J. , Milias-Argeitis A. , Summers S. , Lygeros J.
Published: October 2011

In stochastic models of chemically reacting systems that contain bimolecular reactions, the dynamics of the moments of order up to n of the species populations do not form a closed system, in the sense that their time-derivatives depend on moments of order n + 1. To close the dynamics, the moments of order n + 1 are generally approximated by nonlinear functions of the lower order moments. If the molecule counts of some of the species have a high probability of becoming zero, such approximations may lead to imprecise results and stochastic simulation is the only viable alternative for system analysis. Stochastic simulation can produce exact realizations of chemically reacting systems, but tends to become computationally expensive, especially for stiff systems that involve reactions at different time scales. Further, in some systems, important stochastic events can be very rare and many simulations are necessary to obtain accurate estimates. The computational cost of stochastic simulation can then be prohibitively large. In this paper, we propose a novel method for estimating the moments of chemically reacting systems. The method is based on closing the moment dynamics by replacing the moments of order n + 1 by estimates calculated from a small number of stochastic simulation runs. The resulting stochastic system is then used in an extended Kalman filter, where estimates of the moments of order up to n, obtained from the same simulation, serve as outputs of the system. While the initial motivation for the method was improving over the performance of stochastic simulation and moment closure methods, we also demonstrate that it can be used in an experimental setting to estimate moments of species that cannot be measured directly from time course measurements of the moments of other species.
Table-like magnetocaloric effect and enhanced refrigerant capacity in Eu8Ga16Ge30-EuO composite materials
Authors: Chaturvedi Anurag , Stefanoski Stevce , Phan Manh-Huong , Nolas George S. , Srikanth Hariharan
Published: October 2011

A large reversible magnetocaloric effect (MCE) and enhanced refrigerant capacity (RC) were observed in multiphase composite materials composed of type-I clathrate Eu8Ga16Ge30 and EuO. Eu8Ga16Ge30 undergoes two successive ferromagnetic transitions at 10 K and 35 K, and EuO exhibits a ferromagnetic transition at 75 K. A large RC of 794 J/kg for a field change of 5 T over a temperature interval of 70 K was achieved in the Eu8Ga16Ge30–EuO composite with a 40%-60% weight ratio. This is the largest value ever achieved among existing magnetocaloric materials for magnetic refrigeration in the temperature range 10 K-100 K. Adjusting the Eu8Ga16Ge30 to EuO ratio is shown to produce composites with table-like MCE, desirable for ideal Ericsson-cycle magnetic refrigeration. The excellent magnetocaloric properties of these Eu8Ga16Ge30–EuO composites make them attractive for active magnetic refrigeration in the liquid nitrogen temperature range.
The role of a diffusion barrier in plasma display panel with the high gamma cathode layer
Authors: Lee Tae-Ho , Cheong Hee-Woon , Kwon Ohyung , Whang Ki-Woong , Ole Steinmüller Sven , Janek Jürgen
Published: October 2011

Plasma display panel (PDP) with MgO-SrO double cathode layer and SiO2 diffusion barrier is proposed to make the SrO layer free of contaminations. Time of flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) analysis shows the diffusion of impurities, like Na and K, can be effectively blocked while a new SrO layer is formed on top of the MgO layer. This structure shows that high Xe gases can be used to improve the luminous efficacy 2.3 times and decrease the voltage margin more than 10 V compared to the conventional PDP using Ne-Xe 15%. The aging time was also significantly decreased to 3–4 h.
Optical metasurfaces with robust angular response on flexible substrates
Authors: Di Falco Andrea , Zhao Yang , Alú Andrea
Published: October 2011

We have fabricated optical metasurfaces on flexible substrates that show an optical response independent on the polarization and angles of incidence of light. The realized devices operate as ultrathin selective filters at visible frequencies, with a bandwidth of ∼200 nm, and their response is robust to membrane bending for possible integration in conformal optical devices.
Charge-transfer excitations in molecular donor-acceptor complexes within the many-body Bethe-Salpeter approach
Authors: Blase X. , Attaccalite C.
Published: October 2011

We study within the perturbative many-body GW (Green’s function G and the screened Coulomb interaction W) and Bethe-Salpeter approach the low lying singlet charge-transfer excitations in molecular donor-acceptor complexes associating benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene derivatives with the tetracyanoethylene acceptor. Our calculations demonstrate that such techniques can reproduce the experimental data with a mean average error of 0.1-0.15 eV for the present set of dimers, in excellent agreement with the best time-dependent density functional studies with optimized range-separated functionals. The present results pave the way to the study of photoinduced charge transfer processes in photovoltaic devices with a parameter-free ab initio approach showing equivalent accuracy for finite and extended systems.