bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Surface smoothing of single‐crystal diamond by high‐speed cluster impacts with and without reactive erosion
Authors: Krämer Ralf , Yamaguchi Yasutaka , Gspann Jürgen 
Published: March 2004

AbstractThe smoothness of cluster‐eroded surfaces of natural and synthetic diamond (Monodite) is compared after erosion with high‐speed CO2 as well as Ar cluster beams. The reactive accelerated cluster erosion (RACE) of the single‐crystal diamond substrates using CO2 clusters leads to a fourfold larger root‐mean‐square roughness than the erosion with non‐reactive Ar clusters. On the other hand, the erosion rate observed with the accelerated Ar clusters is lower by about the same factor than that observed with the accelerated CO2 clusters. Molecular dynamics calculations reveal corresponding differences already in the simulations of single cluster impacts. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Magnetic clusters and cluster agglomerations analysed by scanning force microscopy
Authors: von Blanckenhagen P. , Chao M. , Gröger R. , Koch Th. , Schimmel Th. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractMagnetic and non‐magnetic clusters were studied with a scanning force microscope (SFM) equipped with a magnetic tip and a small electromagnet installed at the sample position. The clusters were deposited on freshly cleaved mica surfaces. Heights and diameters of the clusters were determined by analysis of SFM height images. The mean diameter/height ratios show strong differences for the three kind of clusters investigated, however the results are mainly determined by the precisely measured cluster heights. The tip‐sample interaction was analysed by application of the force‐volume mode of operation of the SFM. The comparison of the interaction measured at room temprature on top of different sized cluster agglomerations at different magnetic fields and on the bare substrate surface yielded information on the magnetic state of the cluster systems. Results for magnetic Fe‐ and γ‐Fe2O3 clusters were compared with results for non‐magnetic ZrO2 clusters. The direct influence of the magnetic field at the sample position on the position of the magnetized tip and of the sample temperature increase due to the magnet current on the SFM results are analyzed and separated experimentally by adjusting appropriate parameters and by subtracting data taken with different parameters.Agglomerations of Fe clusters behaved like systems of soft magnets at temperatures below the blocking temperatures of the systems, whereas those of γ‐Fe2O3 clusters showed superparamagnetic behaviour.The results of this studies indicate that by enable a controlled variation of the sample temprature magnetic phase transitions of cluster systems could be explored in situ as a function of the size of agglomerations by application of scanning probe microscopy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mesoscopic phase transition of nanostructured materials: construction of computer experimental systems and synthesis and control of functional properties
Authors: Yamazaki Yoshitake , Gleiter Herbert , Lu Kunquan , Ou‐Yang Zhong‐can , Zhu Xing 
Published: March 2004

AbstractMesoscopic phase transitions and critical behaviour of nanostructured materials are discussed, together with the design of computer experimental systems and the synthesis and control of functional properties. The systems considered here have either two or three‐dimensional structural, magnetic or fractured character with nanometre‐sized grains and interfaces. The interactions are taken into account up to the third nearest neighbour by means of Lennard–Jones‐like potentials. The following problems are studied; how to investigate nanostructured materials, how to compute the metastable mesoscopic behaviour, and how to construct suitable computer experimental systems by Monte‐Carlo methods. The data obtained are reported in the form of fundamental theoretical and computational results of non‐equilibrium, local nanostructural properties. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Controlled structuring of mica surfaces with the tip of an atomic force microscope by mechanically induced local etching
Authors: Müller Matthias , Fiedler Thomas , Gröger Roland , Koch Thomas , Walheim Stefan , Obermair Christian , Schimmel Thomas 
Published: March 2004

AbstractWe demonstrate the controlled and reproducible structuring of surfaces of muscovite mica with the tip of an atomic force microscope operated in contact mode under ambient conditions. By repeated scanning of the tip along a predefined pattern on a cleaved mica surface at forces between 100 nN and 4 µN, mechanically induced etching was observed on the atomic scale. Using silicon nitride tips, no tip wear was observed during structuring. No debris was found on the surface as a result of the structuring process, indicating the atomic‐scale nature of the wear process. Line widths down to 3 nm were achieved, while at the same time patterns on a wide range of length scales between 5 nm and 100 µ m were generated reproducibly. The results can be explained by abrasive wear on the atomic scale due to sliding friction. The experiments allow the study of tribochemistry and abrasive wear on the atomic and molecular scale. At the same time, they represent an approach for high‐precision structuring of surfaces within a wide range of length scales. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Experiences implementing efficient Java thread serialization, mobility and persistence
Authors: Bouchenak S. , Hagimont D. , Krakowiak S. , De Palma N. , Boyer F. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractToday, mobility and persistence are important aspects of distributed computing. They have many fields of use such as load balancing, fault tolerance and dynamic reconfiguration of applications. In this context, Java provides many useful mechanisms for the mobility of code via dynamic class loading, and the mobility or persistence of data via object serialization. However, Java does not provide any mechanism for the mobility/persistence of computation (i.e. threads).We designed and implemented a new mechanism, calledJava thread serialization, that is used to build thread mobility or thread persistence. Therefore, a running Java thread can, at an arbitrary state of its execution, migrate to a remote machine where it resumes its execution, or be checkpointed on disk for possible subsequent recovery. With our services, migrating a thread is simply performed by the call of ourgoprimitive, and checkpointing/recovering a thread is performed by the call of ourstoreandloadprimitives.Several projects have recently addressed the issue of Java thread serialization, e.g. Sumatra, Wasp, JavaGo, Brakes, JavaGoX, Merpati. Some of them have attempted to minimize the overhead incurred by the thread serialization mechanism on thread performance, but none of them has been able to completely avoid this overhead.We propose a generic Java thread serialization mechanism that does not impose any performance overhead on serialized threads. This is achieved thanks to the use of type inference and dynamic de‐optimization techniques. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation details of our thread serialization prototype in Sun Microsystems' JDK. We report on experiments conducted with our prototype, present a comparative performance evaluation of the main thread serialization techniques, and confirm the elimination of the performance overhead with our thread serialization mechanism. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluation and optimization of method calls in Java
Authors: Bellotti Francesco , Berta Riccardo , De Gloria Alessandro 
Published: March 2004

AbstractRecent advances in Virtual Machine's technology have led to the diffusion of Java execution environments which provide performance levels comparable to those of traditional languages such as C/C++ and Fortran. This paper's focus is on method calls, a well researched area of compilers' optimization. In particular, we evaluate the impact on the performance of the Java virtual call mechanism and the advantages which can be obtained through the inlining optimization. Moreover, we propose a new heuristic methodology which allows us to consider whole sequences of methods for the inlining decision and not only simple couples of caller–callee methods.The proposed methodology operates at bytecode level and is applicable only to the calls that can be resolved at compile time. Thus, we execute a devirtualization algorithm before the inlining decision, in order to enlarge the basis for the optimization.We made empirical measures on three major platforms (Unix, Windows and Linux) by using the SPEC JVM98 benchmark suite. Results reveal an average performance improvement of 1.9% with devirtualization and 5.5% with inlining. We discuss the different behaviour of single benchmarks and virtual machines, arguing that dynamic compilers are not yet able to fully exploit the wider scope for intra‐procedural optimization offered by eliminating the calls. Finally, we show that taking into consideration whole sequences of calls—instead of single calls—is effective only on a few benchmarks where hotspots of execution involve cycles of nested methods. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Phenology and growth response to irrigation and sowing date of Kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in a cool-temperate subhumid climate
Authors: ANWAR M. RAJIN , McKENZIE B. A. , HILL G. D. 
Published: March 2004

The photothermal response of three Kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars, at different growth stages, to eight irrigation treatments in 1998/99 and four irrigation treatments in 1999/2000 was studied on a Wakanui silt loam soil in Canterbury, New Zealand (43°38S, 172°30E). The rate of development from emergence to flowering (e-f) and sowing to harvest maturity were strongly and positively associated (R2=0·87, P<0·001) with mean temperature during those periods. All phenological stages considered (sowing to emergence, e-f, flowering to podding, podding to physiological maturity and physiological maturity to harvest maturity) depended upon accumulated thermal time (Tt) above a base temperature (Tb) of 1 °C.An accurate prediction of time of flowering was made based on an accumulated mean Tt requirement of 629 °Cdays from e-f (R2=0·91, P<0·001). Fully irrigated crops had higher maximum dry matter accumulation (maxDM; 1093 g/m2), duration of exponential growth (DUR; 99 days), weighted mean absolute growth rate (WMAGR; 12·2 g/m2 per day) and maximum crop growth rate (MGR; 17·1 g/m2 per day). In 1998/99 the positive response of maxDM and MGR depended on a significant (P<0·01) interaction between irrigation and sowing date. The maxDM during the season was highly correlated with DUR and MGR (R2=0·79 and 0·65). It is concluded that to maximize chickpea biological yield in the dry season of the cool-temperate subhumid climate of Canterbury, irrigation should extend across all phenological stages.
Water-use efficiency and the effect of water deficits on crop growth and yield of Kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in a cool-temperate subhumid climate
Authors: ANWAR M. RAJIN , McKENZIE B. A. , HILL G. D. 
Published: March 2004

The present study was conducted from 1998 to 2000, to evaluate seasonal water use and soil-water extraction by Kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The response of three cultivars to eight irrigation treatments in 1998/99 and four irrigation treatments in 1999/2000 at different growth stages was studied on a Wakanui silt loam soil in Canterbury, New Zealand. Evapotranspiration was measured with a neutron moisture meter and water use efficiency (WUE) was examined at crop maturity. Water use was about 426 mm for the fully irrigated treatment and at least 175 mm for the non-irrigated plants. There was a significant correlation (P<0·001) between water use and biomass yield (R2=0·80) and water use and seed yield (R2=0·75). There were also highly significant (P<0·001) interacting effects of irrigation, sowing date and cultivar on WUE and the trend was similar to that for seed yield. The estimated WUE ranged from 22–29 kg DM/ha per mm and 10–13 kg seed yield/ha per mm water use.The three chickpea cultivars were capable of drawing water from depths greater than 60 cm. However, most of the water use (0·49–0·93 mm/10 cm soil layer per day) came from the top 0–30 cm, where most of the active roots were concentrated. The study has shown that using actual evapotranspiration and water-use efficiency, the biomass yield and seed yield of Kabuli chickpeas can be accurately predicted in Canterbury. Soil water shortage has been identified as a major constraint to increasing chickpea production. Drought was quantified using the concept of maximum potential soil moisture deficit (Dpmax) calculated from climate data. Drought responses of yield, phenology, radiation use efficiency and yield components were determined, and were highly correlated with Dpmax. The maximum potential soil moisture deficit increased from about 62 mm (irrigated throughout) to about 358 mm (dryland plots). Chickpea yield, intercepted radiation and the number of pods per plant decreased linearly as the Dpmax increased. Penman's irrigation model accurately described the response of yield to drought. The limiting deficit for this type of soil was c. 165 and 84 mm for the November and December sowings in 1998/99 and 170 mm in 1999/2000. Beyond these limiting deficits, yield declined linearly with maximum potential soil moisture deficits of up to 358 mm. There was little evidence to support the idea of a moisture sensitive period in these Kabuli chickpea cultivars. Yield was increased by irrigating at any stage of crop development, provided that the water was needed as determined by the potential soil moisture deficit and sowing early in the season.
Fiscal Federalism in Australia
Authors: McLean Iain 
Published: March 2004

Australia displays high vertical fiscal imbalance (VFI) for historical and constitutional reasons. It also attempts to achieve the highest degree of horizontal fiscal equalization (HFE) to be found in any democratic federation. The Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC), a non‐partisan body at arm's length from politicians, oversees the regime. A recent report claims that equity, efficiency and transparency would all improve if the regime were abolished. Such a change is politically unachievable, but it raises interesting issues in public finance and public administration, which carry over to other federations and union states.An economically efficient system would: minimize perverse incentives, especially incentives to seek rent; encourage states to grow; discourage suboptimal location decisions; minimize transaction costs. An equitable system would maximize equity between relevantly similar individuals. Aspects of the Australian system that should be copied include the non‐partisan agency and the target of HFE between component parts of the country. Aspects that should be discussed and perhaps copied include the very extensive equalization, including the feature of equalizing away the effects of grants for special purposes. Aspects that should probably not be copied include the cumbersome formulae and some of the perverse methods of calculating for ‘needs’. All abbreviations and acronyms are spelt out in the Appendix on page 37.
The Effects of ‘High Commitment’ HRM Practices on Employee Attitude: The Views of Public Sector Workers
Authors: Gould‐Williams Julian 
Published: March 2004

Although there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating positive effects of ‘high commitment’ HRM practices on organizational performance, there is less evidence evaluating their effects on individual workers, especially within the public sector. Therefore the implications of applying ‘high commitment’ practices in the public sector needs to be considered. This paper seeks to address this gap by reporting the results of a staff survey and follow‐up interviews conducted on a cross‐section of local government employees. The results showed that eight of the ten ‘high commitment’ practices had significant effects on worker attitudes. The results are discussed in light of HRM theory together with the implications for public sector managers.
The influence of alcohol oral intake on the effects of 35% CO2challenge. A study in healthy volunteers
Authors: Cosci Fiammetta , Schruers Koen , Faravelli Carlo , Griez Eric 
Published: March 2004

Objective:Alcohol use disorders and panic disorder co-occur at a rate that exceeds chance significantly. The underlying mechanism of alcoholism associated with anxiety has rarely been examined using experimental methodologies. The present study in healthy volunteers tested whether alcohol consumption reduces anxiety associated with a panic-challenge procedure (35% CO2challenge).Methods:The study design was placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized. Eight healthy volunteers were enrolled; all subjects had an alcohol and a placebo oral intake according to a crossover design. After each consumption the subjects underwent the 35% CO2challenge and a series of anxiety symptom assessments.Results:After the alcohol intake, the subjects presented a significant reduction in the anxiety state associated with the challenge procedure. The Panic Symptom List score is significantly lower after alcohol intake (P =0.032), as compared with the placebo, and the Visual Analogue Anxiety Scale shows a trend to be lower after alcohol intake (P =0.111).Conclusions:Moderate doses of alcohol acutely decrease the response to a 35% CO2challenge in healthy volunteers. These results lend support to the pharmacological anxiolytic effect of alcohol and suggest that this property may reinforce the drinking behaviour among those with high levels of anxiety.
Amplified expression of dominant‐negative transforming growth factor‐beta type II receptor inhibits collagen type I production via reduced Smad‐3 activity
Authors: HERNANDEZ‐CAÑAVERAL IVAN , GONZÁLEZ JAIME , LÓPEZ‐CASILLAS FERNANDO , ARMENDARIZ‐BORUNDA JUAN 
Published: March 2004

AbstractBackground and Aim:  As a pleiotropic protein, transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β induces its effects by binding to its Ser/Thr kinase receptor type II and then recruiting and activating receptor type I, which is phosphorylated and activates Smads that transduce the signal to the nucleus.Methods:  In this work, the authors blocked TGF‐β1 signal transduction pathway via delivery of a dominant‐negative receptor‐II (ΔCyTbRII)‐cDNA lacking Ser/Thr kinase intracytoplasmic domain activity. Thus, Cos‐1 and hepatic stellate cells were cotransfected with pCMV5‐ΔCyTbRII and pAdTrack‐green fluorescent protein using lipofectamine.Results:  Fluorescence microscopy demonstrated an average 10% transfection efficiency. Radiolabeled 125I‐TGF‐β was bound mostly by cell membrane‐expressed truncated receptor‐II rather than wild‐type receptor type II. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays were performed using consensus Smad‐2 and ‐3 sequences rendering a three‐fold decrease in DNA‐binding activity, reflecting a down‐activation in Smad complexes in pCMV5‐ΔCyTbRII‐transfected cells, but not in mock‐transfected cells. The identity of these transcriptional factors was confirmed using irrelevant double‐stranded oligonucleotides and specific antibodies to compete for DNA binding. Also, collagen I mRNA expression showed a five‐fold decrease, which was reflected at the protein level as a diminished collagen type I production in pCMV5‐ΔCyTbRII‐transfected Cos‐1 cells as measured by [3H]proline incorporation and sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.Conclusion:  Thus, this could be a useful strategy to downregulate or prevent exacerbated synthesis and deposition of extracellular matrix in a given fibrotic process.
Treatment of murine hepatocellular carcinoma using genetically modified cells to express interleukin‐12
Authors: PERON JEAN‐MARIE , COUDERC BETTINA , ROCHAIX PHILIPPE , DOUIN‐ECHINARD VICTORINE , ASNACIOS AMANI , SOUQUE ANNY , VOIGT JEAN‐JACQUES , BUSCAIL LOUIS , VINEL JEAN‐PIERRE , FAVRE GILLES 
Published: March 2004

AbstractBackground and Aim:  The majority of patients cannot benefit from the conventional curative treatments that are currently used for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which remains a world health problem. Interleukin (IL)‐12 is one of the most potent anti‐tumor cytokines. The aim of the present study was to examine the anti‐tumor effect and toxicity of intrahepatic delivery of IL‐12 using an ex vivo gene therapy approach in a murine model of HCC.Methods:  Syngenic fibroblasts or MM45T‐Li HCC tumor cells were genetically modified in vitro to express IL‐12 using a polycistronic TFG murine IL‐12 retroviral vector (TFGmIL‐12) coding for both p35 and p40 murine IL‐12 subunits. Hepatocellular carcinoma was generated using direct intrahepatic inoculation of the tumor cell line into the left liver lobe of BALB/c mice.Results:  Direct liver expression of IL‐12 by the injected genetically modified tumor cells induced a marked inhibition of tumor growth. This effect was associated with an early infiltration of macrophages, and lymphocytes forming numerous intralobular foci. There was no significant liver toxicity, as shown by normal biochemical liver tests. At a later time, the intralobular foci were rare and consisted mainly of CD4+ T cells, while CD8+ T cells were present in the lobule. Intrahepatic expression of IL‐12 did not modify circulating or splenic B lymphocytes or natural killer (NK) cells. The inhibition of tumor growth was maintained in nude mice even when depleted in NK cells. Importantly, in a second model, treatment of established day 7 liver tumors in BALB/c mice using direct intra‐tumor injection of syngenic fibroblasts that were genetically modified to express IL‐12 significantly reduced tumor size.Conclusion:  In conclusion, these data provide evidence that experimental HCC can be efficiently and safely treated using ex vivo IL‐12 gene therapy, which seems promising for future clinical studies.
Leptin levels in the acute stage of ulcerative colitis
Authors: TUZUN AHMET , UYGUN AHMET , YESILOVA ZEKI , OZEL A MELIH , ERDIL AHMET , YAMAN HALIL , BAGCI SAIT , GULSEN MUSTAFA , KARAEREN NECMETTIN , DAGALP KEMAL 
Published: March 2004

AbstractBackground and Aims:  Leptin, a recently discovered protein, acts as a hormonal feedback signal in regulating adipose tissue mass via hypothalamic mechanisms. Inflammatory bowel disease is often associated with anorexia and weight loss. The aim of the present study was to investigate serum leptin levels during the time course of the acute phase of ulcerative colitis (UC) and to evaluate whether leptin leads to anorexia and bodyweight loss in these patients.Methods:  Serum leptin levels of 29 male patients with acute UC and 17 healthy controls with similar age, sex and body mass index (BMI) were measured. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), BMI, serum albumin and C‐reactive protein concentrations, and white blood cell counts were determined.Results:  A significant increase in serum leptin levels was found in patients with acute UC when compared with controls (5.89 ± 2.06 ng/mL and 3.64 ± 1.69 ng/mL, respectively; p = 0.001). There was no correlation between leptin levels and BMI.Conclusions:  Our findings in the acute stage of UC suggest that increased serum leptin levels may contribute to anorexia and weight loss. However, an inappropriate increase in leptin levels is independent of body mass in acute UC, and we believe that other factors may be involved in inflammation‐induced increases in leptin levels.