bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Paleogene and Neogene stratigraphy and paleotemperature trend of West Siberia (from palynologic data)
Authors: Volkova V.S.
Published: June 2011

The paper discusses the Paleogene and Neogene stratigraphy of Siberia and estimates the paleotemperature and precipitation trends. The paleotemperatures were estimated on the basis of climatograms (V.P. Grichuk) and the analysis of temperatures in the ranges of the main plant genera. The Paleogene and Neogene temperatures were always high (at least 0° C). The average annual temperatures varied from +20 to +10 – +5 ºC, the winter temperature being from +10 to +5 – +3 °C. The precipitation varied from 1400–1000 mm/yr in the Paleocene and Eocene to 800–500 mm/yr in the Oligocene and 250–100 mm/yr in the Late Miocene. The climate cooled in the Late Eocene–Early Oligocene, Late Oligocene–Early Miocene, and Early Pliocene. Three stages of arid climate have been distinguished: one in the Late Miocene (7–5.5 Ma) and two in the Early Pliocene (Cherlak and Bitekei time). In the Late Pliocene (2.6 Ma, Kulunda Horizon), the cooling was slight. It gave rise to vegetation zones, which were distributed similarly to the present-day ones. The arctic flora migrated to the southern West Siberian Plain at 1.65–1.8 Ma (Ubinskoe–Erestnaya time), when the climate was close to a glacial one.
The lower boundary of the Toyonian stage (Cambrian) of the Siberian Platform
Authors: Korovnikov I.V.
Published: June 2011

The paper examines trilobite assemblages found in the Botomian–Toyonian (Lower Cambrian) boundary stratotype section in the middle reaches of the Lena River, Siberian Platform. It has been found that the trilobite assemblage from the Bergeroniellus ketemensis Zone (bottom of the Toyonian) is very much the same as that from the underlying Bergeroniaspis ornata Zone (terminal Botomian zone). It has been suggested to combine these zones into one with the index species Bergeroniaspis ornata. The greatest changes in the trilobite assemblages are observed at a higher stratigraphic level, at the bottom of the Lermontovia grandis Zone (second Toyonian zone). This suggests that the lower boundary of the Toyonian should be placed at the bottom of this zone. This new boundary shows substantial changes in the trilobite abundance and diversity and is well-pronounced, not only in the stratotype sections of the Lena River, but also elsewhere in the Siberian Platform (the northeast and northwest of the region, the Anabar area, and others).
The mixture distribution models for interoccurence times of earthquakes
Authors: Erisoglu M. , Calis N. , Servi T. , Erisoglu U. , Topaksu M.
Published: June 2011

Risk analyses made in the area of seismic activity are going to be of great importance in determining the earthquake interoccurence times. Several statistical methods have been developed for this purpose. Recently, Exponential, Gamma and Weibull distributions are the frequently used methods in this regard. In this study, we investigate the interoccurence time statistics of earthquakes which occurred in the area coordinated 39º–42º N latitude and 30º–40º E longitude in the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) between the years 1960–2008, with a mixture of two different distributions of Exponential, Gamma and Weibull and a mixture of the same kind of distribution. We found that the mixture distributions are more suitable than the other examined distribution models for small magnitudes (mc ≥ 3). Also Weibull-Gamma and Weibull-Exponential distributions are agreeable for large magnitudes (mc ≥ 5).
On the Observable Transition to Living Matter
Authors: Pino Samanta , Trifonov Edward N. , Di Mauro Ernesto
Published: June 2011

In recent developments in chemistry and genetic engineering, the humble researcher dealing with the origin of life finds her(him)self in a grey area of tackling something that even does not yet have a clear definition agreed upon. A series of chemical steps is described to be considered as the life–nonlife transition, if one adheres to the minimalistic definition: life is self-reproduction with variations. The fully artificial RNA system chosen for the exploration corresponds sequence-wise to the reconstructed initial triplet repeats, presumably corresponding to the earliest protein-coding molecules. The demonstrated occurrence of the mismatches (variations) in otherwise complementary syntheses (“self-reproduction”), in this RNA system, opens an experimental and conceptual perspective to explore the origin of life (and its definition), on the apparent edge of the origin.
Role of Stable Isotopes in Life—Testing Isotopic Resonance Hypothesis
Authors: Zubarev Roman A.
Published: June 2011

Stable isotopes of most important biological elements, such as C, H, N and O, affect living organisms. In rapidly growing species, deuterium and to a lesser extent other heavy isotopes reduce the growth rate. At least for deuterium it is known that its depletion also negatively impacts the speed of biological processes. As a rule, living organisms “resist” changes in their isotopic environment, preferring natural isotopic abundances. This preference could be due to evolutionary optimization; an additional effect could be due to the presence of the “isotopic resonance”. The isotopic resonance phenomenon has been linked to the choice of earliest amino acids, and thus affected the evolution of genetic code. To test the isotopic resonance hypothesis, literature data were analyzed against quantitative and qualitative predictions of the hypothesis. Four studies provided five independent datasets, each in very good quantitative agreement with the predictions. Thus, the isotopic resonance hypothesis is no longer simply plausible; it can now be deemed likely. Additional testing is needed, however, before full acceptance of this hypothesis.
On the Organizational Dynamics of the Genetic Code
Authors: Zhang Zhang , Yu Jun
Published: June 2011

The organization of the canonical genetic code needs to be thoroughly illuminated. Here we reorder the four nucleotides—adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine—according to their emergence in evolution, and apply the organizational rules to devising an algebraic representation for the canonical genetic code. Under a framework of the devised code, we quantify codon and amino acid usages from a large collection of 917 prokaryotic genome sequences, and associate the usages with its intrinsic structure and classification schemes as well as amino acid physicochemical properties. Our results show that the algebraic representation of the code is structurally equivalent to a content-centric organization of the code and that codon and amino acid usages under different classification schemes were correlated closely with GC content, implying a set of rules governing composition dynamics across a wide variety of prokaryotic genome sequences. These results also indicate that codons and amino acids are not randomly allocated in the code, where the six-fold degenerate codons and their amino acids have important balancing roles for error minimization. Therefore, the content-centric code is of great usefulness in deciphering its hitherto unknown regularities as well as the dynamics of nucleotide, codon, and amino acid compositions.
Identification of Protein-Coding Regions in DNA Sequences Using A Time-Frequency Filtering Approach
Authors: Sahu Sitanshu Sekhar , Panda Ganapati
Published: June 2011

Accurate identification of protein-coding regions (exons) in DNA sequences has been a challenging task in bioinformatics. Particularly the coding regions have a 3-base periodicity, which forms the basis of all exon identification methods. Many signal processing tools and techniques have been applied successfully for the identification task but still improvement in this direction is needed. In this paper, we have introduced a new promising model-independent time-frequency filtering technique based on S-transform for accurate identification of the coding regions. The S-transform is a powerful linear time-frequency representation useful for filtering in time-frequency domain. The potential of the proposed technique has been assessed through simulation study and the results obtained have been compared with the existing methods using standard datasets. The comparative study demonstrates that the proposed method outperforms its counterparts in identifying the coding regions.
TAAPP: Tiling Array Analysis Pipeline for Prokaryotes
Authors: Kumar Ranjit , Burgess Shane C. , Lawrence Mark L. , Nanduri Bindu
Published: June 2011

High-density tiling arrays provide closer view of transcription than regular microarrays and can also be used for annotating functional elements in genomes. The identified transcripts usually have a complex overlapping architecture when compared to the existing genome annotation. Therefore, there is a need for customized tiling array data analysis tools. Since most of the initial tiling arrays were conducted in eukaryotes, data analysis methods are well suited for eukaryotic genomes. For using whole-genome tiling arrays to identify previously unknown transcriptional elements like small RNA and antisense RNA in prokaryotes, existing data analysis tools need to be tailored for prokaryotic genome architecture. Furthermore, automation of such custom data analysis workflow is necessary for biologists to apply this powerful platform for knowledge discovery. Here we describe TAAPP, a web-based package that consists of two modules for prokaryotic tiling array data analysis. The transcript generation module works on normalized data to generate transcriptionally active regions (TARs). The feature extraction and annotation module then maps TARs to existing genome annotation. This module further categorizes the transcription profile into potential novel non-coding RNA, antisense RNA, gene expression and operon structures. The implemented workflow is microarray platform independent and is presented as a web-based service. The web interface is freely available for acedemic use at http://lims.lsbi.mafes.msstate.edu/TAAPP-HTML/.
Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali
Authors: Al-Sayyid Marsot Afaf Lutfi
Published: June 2011

This account of Egyptian society in the reign of Muhammad Ali traces the beginnings of the nation state in Egypt. It considers Muhammad Ali as part of a social group whose economic interests led them in the direction of trade with Europe as a means of raising money for further investments. They attempted to increase agricultural exports and to use the profits to create industry; then, following the logic of imperialists, their next step was to seek to conquer the surrounding areas to find markets for their industries and sources of raw materials. These policies brought them into conflict with their suzerain, the Ottoman sultan, and with England, since England needed markets in the Middle East. England sought to destroy the new regime in Egypt as a means of exerting influence on the region. In carrying out these economic changes, the country underwent a series of internal developments that were to revolutionize the structure and shape of Egyptian society. The rules of landownership were altered and large estates were formed, Egyptian fallahin were drafted into the army, and the administration was Egyptianized, establishing the groundwork for a nation state.
Thermoluminescence of Solids
Authors: McKeever S. W. S.
Published: June 2011

McKeever gives us a comprehensive survey of thermoluminescence, an important, versatile, and widely used experimental technique. Bringing together previously isolated specialized approaches, he stresses the importance of the solid state aspects of the phenomenon. The book contains chapters on analysis and special properties, on instrumentation, and on the variety of defect reaction - using the alkali halides and SiO2 as examples - that can take place within a material to yield thermoluminescence. Three chapters concerning applications discuss the features of the solid state reactions to expain some of the properties observed in practice.
Varieties of Constructive Mathematics
Authors: Bridges Douglas , Richman Fred
Published: June 2011

This is an introduction to, and survey of, the constructive approaches to pure mathematics. The authors emphasise the viewpoint of Errett Bishop's school, but intuitionism. Russian constructivism and recursive analysis are also treated, with comparisons between the various approaches included where appropriate. Constructive mathematics is now enjoying a revival, with interest from not only logicans but also category theorists, recursive function theorists and theoretical computer scientists. This account for non-specialists in these and other disciplines.
Physics and Chemistry of the Upper Atmosphere
Authors: Rees M. H.
Published: June 2011

This textbook focuses on the physics and chemistry of the Earth's upper atmosphere, which is bounded at the bottom by a pressure level at which most of the incoming ionizing radiation has been absorbed, and bounded at the top by the level at which the escape of gas becomes important. The plan of the book is to identify the multitude of processes that operate in the upper atmosphere, and to relate them to observed phenomena by detailed mathematical and physical descriptions of the governing processes. Basic information from many disciplines such as radiation physics and chemistry, fluid dynamics, optics, and spectroscopy is skilfully marshalled to give a coherent account of the upper atmosphere. This book is outstanding as an introduction to the primary literature and current problems for students of physics or chemistry. The text is supported by numerous diagrams, bibliography and index.
The Mobility of Labor and Capital
Authors: Sassen Saskia
Published: June 2011

In this empirical study, Saskia Sassen offers a fresh understanding of the processes of international migration. Focusing on immigration into the US from 1960 to 1985 and the part played by American economic activities abroad, as well as foreign investment in the US, she examines the various ways in which the internationalization of production contributes to the formation and direction of labor migration.
The Classification of Stars
Authors: Jaschek Carlos , Jaschek Mercedes
Published: June 2011

The classification of stars into their various types is one of the fundamental areas of astronomy. This book is a comprehensive handbook on the tools, methods and results of stellar taxonomy. Although this subject is firmly rooted in classical astronomy, vast improvements in observational techniques have transformed the subject and greatly broadened the wavelength regions available for study. The first six chapters describe modern methods of spectroscopic and photometric classification. The remaining nine chapters describe particular families of stars, progressing from the hottest to the coolest. Within each category a description is given of the normal type and all the peculiar stars. Throughout the emphasis is on the phenomenology of classification, rather than the underlying astrophysics. Both authors have devoted themselves to developing the international centre for stellar data at Strasbourg, which uniquely qualifies them to write this definitive handbook for professional astronomers.
A Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German, and Sclavonic Languages
Authors: Bopp Franz
Published: June 2011

A founding text of comparative philology, Franz Bopp's Vergleichende Grammatik was originally published in parts, beginning in 1833, and by the 1870s had appeared in three editions in German, as well as in English and French translations. Bopp (1791–1867), Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Grammar at Berlin, set out to prove the relationships between Indo-European languages through detailed description of the grammatical features of Sanskrit compared to those of Zend (Avestan), Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic and German. This translation (1845–50) of Bopp's first edition gave English-speaking scholars access to his important findings. Translated by Edward Backhouse Eastwick (1814–1883), the multi-lingual diplomat and scholar, and edited by Horace Hayman Wilson (1786–1860), Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, this work testifies both to Bopp's magisterial research and to Eastwick's extraordinary skill in translation. This volume covers phonology, nominal inflection, adjectives and numerals.
The Species Problem
Authors: Richards Richard A.
Published: June 2011

There is long-standing disagreement among systematists about how to divide biodiversity into species. Over twenty different species concepts are used to group organisms, according to criteria as diverse as morphological or molecular similarity, interbreeding and genealogical relationships. This, combined with the implications of evolutionary biology, raises the worry that either there is no single kind of species, or that species are not real. This book surveys the history of thinking about species from Aristotle to modern systematics in order to understand the origin of the problem, and advocates a solution based on the idea of the division of conceptual labor, whereby species concepts function in different ways - theoretically and operationally. It also considers related topics such as individuality and the metaphysics of evolution, and how scientific terms get their meaning. This important addition to the current debate will be essential for philosophers and historians of science, and for biologists.
Court Poetry in Late Medieval England and Scotland
Authors: Hasler Antony J.
Published: June 2011

This book explores the anxious and unstable relationship between court poetry and various forms of authority, political and cultural, in England and Scotland at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Through poems by Skelton, Dunbar, Douglas, Hawes, Lyndsay and Barclay, it examines the paths by which court poetry and its narrators seek multiple forms of legitimation: from royal and institutional sources, but also in the media of script and print. The book is the first for some time to treat English and Scottish material of its period together, and responds to European literary contexts, the dialogue between vernacular and Latin matter, and current critical theory. In so doing it claims that public and occasional writing evokes a counter-discourse in the secrecies and subversions of medieval love-fictions. The result is a poetry that queries and at times cancels the very authority to speak that it so proudly promotes.
Optimal High-Throughput Screening
Authors: Zhang Xiaohua Douglas
Published: June 2011

This concise, self-contained and cohesive book focuses on commonly used and recently developed methods for designing and analyzing high-throughput screening (HTS) experiments from a statistically sound basis. Combining ideas from biology, computing and statistics, the author explains experimental designs and analytic methods that are amenable to rigorous analysis and interpretation of RNAi HTS experiments. The opening chapters are carefully presented to be accessible both to biologists with training only in basic statistics and to computational scientists and statisticians with basic biological knowledge. Biologists will see how new experiment designs and rudimentary data-handling strategies for RNAi HTS experiments can improve their results, whereas analysts will learn how to apply recently developed statistical methods to interpret HTS experiments.
Making the Law of the Sea
Authors: Harrison James
Published: June 2011

The law of the sea is an important area of international law which must be able to adapt to the changing needs of the international community. Making the Law of the Sea examines how various international organizations have contributed to the development of this law and what kinds of instruments and law-making techniques have been used. Each chapter considers a different international institution - including the International Maritime Organization and the United Nations - and analyses its functions and powers. Important questions are posed about the law-making process, including what actors are involved and what procedures are followed. Potential problems for the development of the law of the sea are considered and solutions are proposed. In particular, James Harrison explores and evaluates the current methods employed by international institutions to coordinate their law-making activities in order to overcome fragmentation of the law-making process.
Making Rights a Reality?
Authors: Vanhala Lisa
Published: June 2011

Making Rights a Reality? explores the way in which disability activists in the United Kingdom and Canada have transformed their aspirations into legal claims in their quest for equality. It unpacks shifting conceptualizations of the political identity of disability and the role of a rights discourse in these dynamics. In doing so, it delves into the diffusion of disability rights among grassroots organizations and the traditional disability charities. The book draws on a wealth of primary sources including court records and campaign documents and encompassing interviews with more than sixty activists and legal experts. While showing that the disability rights movement has had a significant impact on equality jurisprudence in two countries, the book also demonstrates that the act of mobilizing rights can have consequences, both intended and unintended, for social movements themselves.
Social Influence Network Theory
Authors: Friedkin Noah E. , Johnsen Eugene C.
Published: June 2011

Social influence network theory presents a mathematical formalization of the social process of attitude changes that unfolds in a social network of interpersonal influences. This book brings the theory to bear on lines of research in the domain of small group dynamics concerned with changes of group members' positions on an issue, including the formation of consensus and of settled disagreement, via endogenous interpersonal influences, in which group members are responding to the displayed positions of the members of the group. Social influence network theory advances a dynamic social cognition mechanism, in which individuals are weighing and combining their own and others' positions on an issue in the revision of their own positions. The influence network construct of the theory is the social structure of the endogenous interpersonal influences that are involved in this mechanism. With this theory, the authors seek to lay the foundation for a better formal integration of classical and current lines of work on small groups in psychological and sociological social psychology.
What Literature Teaches Us about Emotion
Authors: Hogan Patrick Colm
Published: June 2011

Literature provides us with otherwise unavailable insights into the ways emotions are produced, experienced and enacted in human social life. It is particularly valuable because it deepens our comprehension of the mutual relations between emotional response and ethical judgment. These are the central claims of Hogan's study, which carefully examines a range of highly esteemed literary works in the context of current neurobiological, psychological, sociological and other empirical research. In this work, he explains the value of literary study for a cognitive science of emotion and outlines the emotional organization of the human mind. He explores the emotions of romantic love, grief, mirth, guilt, shame, jealousy, attachment, compassion and pity - in each case drawing on one work by Shakespeare and one or more works by writers from different historical periods or different cultural backgrounds, such as the eleventh-century Chinese poet Li Ch'ing-Chao and the contemporary Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka.
Late Roman Towns in Britain
Authors: Rogers Adam
Published: June 2011

In this book, Adam Rogers examines the late Roman phases of towns in Britain. Critically analysing the archaeological notion of decline, he focuses on public buildings, which played an important role, administrative and symbolic, within urban complexes. Arguing against the interpretation that many of these monumental civic buildings were in decline or abandoned in the later Roman period, he demonstrates that they remained purposeful spaces and important centres of urban life. Through a detailed assessment of the archaeology of late Roman towns, this book argues that the archaeological framework of decline does not permit an adequate and comprehensive understanding of the towns during this period. Moving beyond the idea of decline, this book emphasises a longer-term perspective for understanding the importance of towns in the later Roman period.
Trade and Public Health
Authors: McGrady Benn
Published: June 2011

Non-communicable diseases, associated with risk factors such as tobacco consumption, poor diet and alcohol use, represent a growing health burden around the world. The seriousness of non-communicable diseases is reflected in the adoption of international instruments such as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health; and the WHO Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. In line with these instruments, states are beginning to use measures such as taxes, restrictions on marketing, product regulation and labeling measures for public health purposes. This book examines the extent to which the law of the World Trade Organization restricts domestic implementation of these types of measures. The relationship between international health instruments and the WTO Agreement is examined, as are the WTO covered agreements themselves.
Dissipation in rapid dynamic wetting
Authors: CARLSON A. , DO-QUANG M. , AMBERG G.
Published: June 2011

In this article, we present a modelling approach for rapid dynamic wetting based on the phase field theory. We show that in order to model this accurately, it is important to allow for a non-equilibrium wetting boundary condition. Using a condition of this type, we obtain a direct match with experimental results reported in the literature for rapid spreading of liquid droplets on dry surfaces. By extracting the dissipation of energy and the rate of change of kinetic energy in the flow simulation, we identify a new wetting regime during the rapid phase of spreading. This is characterized by the main dissipation to be due to a re-organization of molecules at the contact line, in a diffusive or active process. This regime serves as an addition to the other wetting regimes that have previously been reported in the literature.
Transitions to three-dimensional flows in a cylinder driven by oscillations of the sidewall
Authors: PANADES C. , MARQUES F. , LOPEZ J. M.
Published: June 2011

The transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional flows in a finite circular cylinder driven by an axially oscillating sidewall is explored in detail. The complete symmetry group of this flow, including a spatio-temporal symmetry related to the oscillating sidewall, is Z2 × O(2). Previous studies in flows with the same symmetries, such as symmetric bluff-body wakes and periodically forced rectangular cavities, were unable to obtain the theoretically predicted bifurcation to modulated travelling waves. In the simpler cylindrical geometry, where the azimuthal direction is physically periodic, we have found these predicted modulated travelling waves as stable fully saturated nonlinear solutions for the first time. A careful analysis of the base states and their linear stability identifies different parameter regimes where three-dimensional states are either synchronous with the forcing or quasi-periodic, corresponding to different symmetry-breaking processes. These results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions and previous results in similar flows. These different regimes are separated by three codimension-two bifurcation points that are yet to be fully analysed theoretically. Finally, the saturated nonlinear states and their properties in different parameter regimes are analysed.
Undermining the case for evidential atheism
Authors: MOSER PAUL K.
Published: June 2011

Evidential atheism, as espoused by various philosophical atheists, recommends belief that God does not exist on the basis of not just the evidence of which we are aware, but also our overall available evidence. This article identifies a widely neglected problem from potential surprise evidence that undermines an attempt to give a cogent justification of such evidential atheism. In addition, it contends that evidential agnosticism fares better than evidential atheism relative to this neglected problem, and that traditional monotheism has evidential resources, unavailable to evidential atheism, which promise to save it from the fate of evidential atheism.
Final compression beamline systems for heavy ion fusion drivers
Authors: Lau Y.Y. , Yu Simon S. , Barnard John J. , Seidl Peter A.
Published: June 2011

We have identified a general final compression section for HIF drivers, the section between accelerator and the target. The beams are given a head to tail velocity tilt at the beginning of the section for longitudinal compression, while going through bends that direct it to the target at specific angle. The aim is to get the beams compressed while maintaining a small centroid off-set after the bends. We used a specific example, 1 MJ driver with 500 MeV Rubidium + 1 ion beams. We studied the effect of minimizing dispersion using different bend strategies, and came up with a beamline point design with adiabatic bends. We also identified some factors that lead to emittance growth as well as the minimum pulse length and spot size on the target.
Self-reproduction for articulated behaviors with dual humanoid robots using on-line decision tree classification
Authors: Zurn Jane Brooks , Motai Yuichi , Vento Scott
Published: June 2011

We have proposed a new repetition framework for vision-based behavior imitation by a sequence of multiple humanoid robots, introducing an on-line method for delimiting a time-varying context. This novel approach investigates the ability of a robot “student” to observe and imitate a behavior from a “teacher” robot; the student later changes roles to become the “teacher” for a naïve robot. For the many robots that already use video acquisition systems for their real-world tasks, this method eliminates the need for additional communication capabilities and complicated interfaces. This can reduce human intervention requirements and thus enhance the robots' practical usefulness outside the laboratory. Articulated motions are modeled in a three-layer method and registered as learned behaviors using color-based landmarks. Behaviors were identified on-line after each iteration by inducing a decision tree from the visually acquired data. Error accumulated over time, creating a context drift for behavior identification. In addition, identification and transmission of behaviors can occur between robots with differing, dynamically changing configurations. ITI, an on-line decision tree inducer in the C4.5 family, performed well for data that were similar in time and configuration to the training data but the greedily chosen attributes were not optimized for resistance to accumulating error or configuration changes. Our novel algorithm, OLDEX identified context changes on-line, as well as the amount of drift that could be tolerated before compensation was required. OLDEX can thus identify time and configuration contexts for the behavior data. This improved on previous methods, which either separated contexts off-line, or could not separate the slowly time-varying context into distinct regions at all. The results demonstrated the feasibility, usefulness, and potential of our unique idea for behavioral repetition and a propagating learning scheme.
Long-term experience with 181 patients who received transperineal I-125 implants for prostate cancer: Efficacy and urinary toxicity
Authors: Gez Eliahu , Genesin Joshua , Shahar Daniel , Semenisty Valeriya , Mashiac Tanya , Deroma Rachel Bar , Kakiashvili David , Kuten Abraham , Meretyck Simon
Published: June 2011

Background: In low-risk prostate cancer, the target volume for radiotherapy is the prostate gland only and prostate brachytherapy with an I-125 implant provides the most conformal radiotherapy.

Methods: Patients underwent a pre-implant prostate volume study from which a treatment plan was developed 2 weeks prior to implant. A dosimetric study was performed 1 month following the implant. The prescription dose was 145 Gy with the 95% isodose line covering the entire target volume. The maximal dose to the urethra was less than 210 Gy. Follow-up included serum PSA and IPSS evaluation every 3 months during the first year and then every 6 months beginning in the second year.

Results: During December 2000–March 2009, 181 patients with early prostate cancer underwent I-125 implant. The median post-implant PSA value of the entire cohort was 0.7 ng/ml. No patient developed clinical failure. In the follow-up, nine patients had biochemical failure according to the RTOG-ASTRO Phoenix definition (Nadir + 2.0 ng/ml). Of these, one patient refused hormonal therapy desiring to preserve sexual potency, and eight patients received hormonal therapy with a decreased serum PSA to 0.0 ng/ml. The treatment side effects were primarily urinary disturbances.

Conclusion: An I-125 implant is an effective and well-tolerated treatment and should be recommended for patients with low-risk prostate cancer.
Scribble‐mediated membrane targeting of PHLPP1 is required for its negative regulation of Akt
Authors: Li Xin , Yang Haihua , Liu Jianyu , Schmidt Micheal D , Gao Tianyan
Published: June 2011

PHLPP1 (PH domain leucine‐rich‐repeats protein phosphatase) is a Ser/Thr protein phosphatase that acts as a tumour suppressor by negatively regulating Akt. Here, we show that PHLPP1 is recruited to the cell membrane by binding to a scaffolding protein: Scribble. Knockdown of Scribble (Scrib) results in redistribution of PHLPP1 from the membrane to the cytoplasm and an increase in Akt phosphorylation, whereas overexpression of Scrib has the opposite effect. Furthermore, PHLPP1‐dependent inhibition of cell proliferation is facilitated by the formation of a Scrib, PHLPP1 and Akt trimeric complex. Thus, our findings identify a functional interaction between PHLPP1 and Scrib in negatively regulating Akt signalling.
Optical-electrical simulation of organic solar cells: excitonic modeling parameter influence on electrical characteristics
Authors: Vervisch Wilfried , Biondo Stéphane , Rivière Guillaume , Duché David , Escoubas Ludovic , Torchio Philippe , Simon Jean-Jacques , Le Rouzo Judikaël
Published: June 2011

This paper deals with Organic Solar Cells (OSCs) simulation using finite element method. Optical modeling is performed via Finite Difference Time Domain method whereas the continuity and Poisson’s equations are solved to obtain electrical characteristics of the OSC. In this work, simulation results point out the influence of physical parameters such as the exciton diffusion coefficient or the exciton lifetime on OSC performances. The comparison of modeling results and experimental measurement allows the exciton recombination, dissociation rate and lifetime to be determinated.
Effect of gravity modulation on the onset of thermal convection in rotating fluid and porous layer
Authors: Malashetty M. S. , Swamy M. S.
Published: June 2011

The combined effect of gravity modulation and rotation on the onset of thermal convection in a horizontal fluid layer and a fluid-saturated porous layer is studied analytically using linear stability theory. The regular perturbation method based on small amplitude of modulation is employed to compute the critical value of Rayleigh number and wavenumber. We considered in the present paper only synchronous mode. The correction critical Rayleigh number is calculated as a function of Taylor number, Prandtl number, Darcy number, frequency of the modulation, normalized porosity, and viscosity ratio. It is shown that in general the gravity modulation produces a stabilizing effect in case of viscous fluid layer and both destabilizing and stabilizing effects in case of Brinkman porous layer while it produces a destabilizing effect in case of Darcy porous layer. The low frequency gravity modulation is found to have a significant effect on the stability of the system. It is shown that the onset of convection can be advanced or delayed by proper tuning of various governing parameters. The results of Darcy limit and viscous flow limit are derived as the degenerate cases of Brinkman model.
Fast electron temperature and conversion efficiency measurements in laser-irradiated foil targets using a bremsstrahlung x-ray detector
Authors: Westover B. , Chen C. D. , Patel P. K. , Key M. H. , McLean H. , Stephens R. , Beg F. N.
Published: June 2011

Measurements of fast electron temperature and conversion efficiencies using bremsstrahlung x-rays emitted from laser-produced, fast electrons are presented. Experiments were carried out using the Titan laser (150 J, 1.5 ps) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The maximum intensity was 2 × 1020 W/cm2 on 250 μm thick silver foil targets. The emission of bremsstrahlung x-rays from the fast electrons in the target was measured using a filter-stack based detector. The conversion efficiency of laser energy into fast electrons and the electron temperature were studied as a function of incident laser energy. Several models of the electron divergence angle were investigated, and the effect of the assumed divergence angle on the inferred conversion efficiency was quantified. This allows for upper and lower bounds on the conversion efficiency to be established for a range of possible divergence angles. The value for upper bound is 60% (from a 75° divergence angle model) and for the lower bound is 25% (from a 0° divergence angle model).
Photonic-crystal-fiber platform for multicolor multilabel neurophotonic studies
Authors: Doronina-Amitonova Lyubov V. , Fedotov Il’ya V. , Ivashkina Olga I. , Zots Marina A. , Fedotov Andrei B. , Anokhin Konstantin V. , Zheltikov Aleksei M.
Published: June 2011

A supercontinuum source based on a highly nonlinear photonic-crystal fiber (PCF) is combined with a hollow-core photonic-band-gap fiber (PBGF) spectral filter for a multiplex, high-repetition-rate fiber-based interrogation of fluorescent-protein neuron-activity reporters, and fluorophore conjugate antibody labels in the brain of transgenic mice. The hollow PBGF selects those parts of the supercontinuum output of the highly nonlinear PCF that can efficiently excite the fluorescence of the biomarkers but supports no guidance within the bands, where the supercontinuum light scattered by the brain tissues could hinder the detection of the fluorescence response of the biomarkers, thus allowing a high-contrast detection of well-resolved responses from each type of biomarkers.
Enhancement of injection and acceleration of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator by using an argon-doped hydrogen gas jet and optically preformed plasma waveguide
Authors: Ho Y.-C. , Hung T.-S. , Yen C.-P. , Chen S.-Y. , Chu H.-H. , Lin J.-Y. , Wang J. , Chou M.-C.
Published: June 2011

A systematic experimental study on injection of electrons in a gas-jet-based laser wakefield accelerator via ionization of dopant was conducted. The pump-pulse threshold energy for producing a quasi-monoenergetic electron beam was significantly reduced by doping the hydrogen gas jet with argon atoms, resulting in a much better spatial contrast of the electron beam. Furthermore, laser wakefield electron acceleration in an optically preformed plasma waveguide based on the axicon-ignitor-heater scheme was achieved. It was found that doping with argon atoms can also lower the pump-pulse threshold energy in this experimental configuration.
Liner-on-plasma system near stagnation: Stabilizing effect of a magnetic cushion
Authors: Ryutov D. D.
Published: June 2011

This brief communication is concerned with the adiabatic compression of a high-beta plasma by a heavy liner. Elongated cylindrical and quasi-cylindrical geometries are considered. The magnetic field in a plasma is parallel to the axis, whereas the drive field has azimuthal direction. During the liner acceleration, the most dangerous modes are axisymmetric (m  =  0) modes. Near stagnation, these modes are further amplified at the inner surface, as the liner is decelerated by the isotropic pressure of a high-beta plasma. This picture, however, is not complete: due to a heat loss from the plasma core to the relatively cold liner, a zone of a strong axial magnetic field may appear between a hot, high-beta plasma and a cold liner. This magnetic cushion is backed from inside by a very high-beta plasma. The stability of such a system with respect to m  =  0 modes is studied and the conclusion is drawn that the stabilizing effect of the magnetic cushion remains strong even for relatively thin cushions and moderate magnetic fields in them.
Break-out afterburner ion acceleration in the longer laser pulse length regime
Authors: Yin L. , Albright B. J. , Jung D. , Shah R. C. , Palaniyappan S. , Bowers K. J. , Henig A. , Fern´ndez J. C. , Hegelich B. M.
Published: June 2011

Kinetic simulations of break-out-afterburner (BOA) ion acceleration from nm-scale targets are examined in a longer pulse length regime than studied previously. It is shown that when the target becomes relativistically transparent to the laser, an epoch of dramatic acceleration of ions occurs that lasts until the electron density in the expanding target reduces to the critical density in the non-relativistic limit. For given laser parameters, the optimal target thickness yielding the highest maximum ion energy is one in which this time window for ion acceleration overlaps with the intensity peak of the laser pulse. A simple analytic model of relativistically induced transparency is presented for plasma expansion at the time-evolving sound speed, from which these times may be estimated. The maximum ion energy attainable is controlled by the finite acceleration volume and time over which the BOA acts.
Sizable electrocaloric effect in a wide temperature range tuned by tensile misfit strain in BaTiO3 thin films
Authors: Zhang X. , Wang J. B. , Li B. , Zhong X. L. , Lou X. J. , Zhou Y. C.
Published: June 2011

The effects of misfit strain on the electrocaloric (EC) properties of BaTiO3 thin films arestudied by using the Landau-Devonshire thermodynamic theory. The “misfit-strain temperature” phase diagrams for different electric fields are constructed. It was found that the EC effect of a BaTiO3 thin film is strongly dependent on misfit strain. More interestingly, we found that BaTiO3 thin films with tensile misfit strain exhibit a sizable EC effect in a wider temperature range in comparison with those with compressive misfit strain.
Investigation of thermoelectric properties of chalcogenide semiconductors from first principles
Authors: Sevik C. , Çağın T.
Published: June 2011

In recent years, thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted increasing interest due to their potential use in energy harvesting and conserving applications. A particular research effort has been focused on developing new materials with high ZT values, which are essential for TEs to be commercially applicable in refrigeration and waste heat recovery. Several promising bulk semiconductors have been reported by researchers so far. However, no satisfactorily high ZT value has been obtained. In a recent publication, [E. J. Skoug et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 181905 (2010)] reported very low lattice thermal conductivity on chalcogenide semiconductors and pointed out their potential for thermoelectricity. Following their findings, transport properties of these materials and some other promising bulk semiconductors, Bi2Te3, SrTiO3, and Cu2ZnSnSe4, were systematically analyzed using density functional and Boltzmann transport theories. In order to assess their capacity as thermoelectrics, a simple measure: ‘maximum’ thermoelectric figure of merit, ZTm, was predicted at experimentally amenable doping levels. Results with higher ZTm values were obtained when compared to the current state of bulk thermoelectric materials. However, it is also found that reaching required ZT values for commonplace device applications with either these chalcogenides or the other semiconductors reported in our study is highly unlikely.
Valence band structure and magnetic properties of Co-doped Fe3O4(100) films
Authors: Ran F. Y. , Tsunemaru Y. , Hasegawa T. , Takeichi Y. , Harasawa A. , Yaji K. , Kim S. , Kakizaki A.
Published: June 2011

Structural and magnetic properties, and the valence band structure of pure and Co-doped (up to 33%) Fe3O4(100) films were investigated. Reconstruction of the Fe3O4(100) surface is found to be blocked by Co doping. Doped Co ions in Fe3O4 are in a charge state of 2 + and substitute the Fe2+ in the B site of Fe3O4. All the films exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism. Co doping changes the coercivity and reduces saturation magnetization. The density of states near the Fermi level is reduced by Co doping due to the decrease of Fe2+ in the B site, which might responsible for the decrease in conductivity and magnetoresistance of Co-doped Fe3O4. The Verwey transition in the range of 100–120 K is observed for the pure Fe3O4 film, while no transition could be detected for Co-doped Fe3O4 films.
A semi-analytical description of protein folding that incorporates detailed geometrical information
Authors: Suzuki Yoko , Noel Jeffrey K. , Onuchic José N.
Published: June 2011

Much has been done to study the interplay between geometric and energetic effects on the protein folding energy landscape. Numerical techniques such as molecular dynamics simulations are able to maintain a precise geometrical representation of the protein. Analytical approaches, however, often focus on the energetic aspects of folding, including geometrical information only in an average way. Here, we investigate a semi-analytical expression of folding that explicitly includes geometrical effects. We consider a Hamiltonian corresponding to a Gaussian filament with structure-based interactions. The model captures local features of protein folding often averaged over by mean-field theories, for example, loop contact formation and excluded volume. We explore the thermodynamics and folding mechanisms of beta-hairpin and alpha-helical structures as functions of temperature and Q, the fraction of native contacts formed. Excluded volume is shown to be an important component of a protein Hamiltonian, since it both dominates the cooperativity of the folding transition and alters folding mechanisms. Understanding geometrical effects in analytical formulae will help illuminate the consequences of the approximations required for the study of larger proteins.
A low-dimensional model system for quasi-periodic plasma perturbations
Authors: Constantinescu D. , Dumbrajs O. , Igochine V. , Lackner K. , Meyer-Spasche R. , Zohm H. ,   ASDEX Upgrade Team
Published: June 2011

Larger scale plasma instabilities not leading to an immediate termination of a discharge often result in periodic nonlinear perturbations of the plasma. A minimal possible model is formulated for description of the system with drive and relaxation processes which have different time scales. The model is based on two equations: the first being responsible for the relaxation dynamics and the second for the drive. The model can be generalized to describe the pellet injection.