cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Distinct functional roles of amphibian (Xenopus laevis) colony-stimulating factor-1- and interleukin-34-derived macrophages

Although Mϕ represent the most primordial immune cell subsets, the mechanisms governing their functional heterogeneity remain poorly defined. However, it is well established that the CSF-1 cytokine contributes to monopoiesis and to this heterogeneity, whereas the unrelated IL-34 also binds the CSF-1R toward poorly understood immunologic roles. To delineate the molecular and evolutionary basis behind vertebrate Mϕ functional heterogeneity, we performed comprehensive transcriptional and functional studies of amphibian (Xenopus laevis) BM (in vitro) and PER (in vivo) Mϕ derived by rXlCSF-1 and rXlIL-34. Our findings indicate that these amphibian cytokines promote morphologically and functionally distinct Mϕ populations. Mϕ induced by rXlCSF-1 possess more robust iNOS gene expression, are substantially more phagocytic, display greater NO responses, and exhibit enhanced bactericidal capacities. By contrast, rXlIL-34-derived Mϕ express greater levels of Arg-1 and NADPH oxidase components and possess greater respiratory burst responses. Most notably, whereas CSF-1 Mϕ are highly susceptible to the emerging FV3 ranavirus, rXlIL-34 Mϕ exhibit potent antiviral activity against this pathogen, which is dependent on reactive oxygen production. This work marks an advance in our understanding of the possible mechanisms governing vertebrate Mϕ functional heterogeneity.
Could Exposure to Everyday Green Spaces Help Treat ADHD? Evidence from Children's Play Settings

Background: An estimated 4.4 million children in the United States suffer from Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and most would benefit from a low-cost, side-effect-free way of managing their symptoms. Previous research suggests that after isolated exposures to greenspace, children’s ADHD symptoms are reduced. This study examined whether routine exposures to greenspace, experienced through children’s everyday play settings, might yield ongoing reductions in ADHD symptoms. Methods: Data on 421 children’s ADHD symptoms and usual play settings were collected using a national Internet-based survey of parents. Results: Findings suggest that everyday play settings make a difference in overall symptom severity in children with ADHD. Specifically, children with ADHD who play regularly in green play settings have milder symptoms than children who play in built outdoor and indoor settings. This is true for all income groups and for both boys and girls. Interestingly, for hyperactive children, the apparent advantage of green spaces is true only for relatively open green settings. Conclusions: These and previous findings collectively suggest that it is time for randomised clinical trials testing the impacts of regular exposure to greenspace as a treatment for ADHD.
SEPARATION OF ERYTHROCYTES OF DIFFERENT AGES.

Several methods have been evaluated for the separation of red cells of different ages on the basis of density differences. Simple sedimentation and flotation technics have been found to be unsatisfactory. Centrifugation, followed by a modified sampling procedure, has been demonstrated to provide excellent separation of erythrocyte populations of different ages. Standardization of centrifuge conditions and special precautions against redistribution of red-cell layers have contributed toward an improved and reproducible method for the separation of erythrocytes for subsequent study.
Iron uptake from transferrin and lactoferrin by rat intestinal brush-border membrane vesicles.

Interaction of 59Fe-labeled rat transferrin, human lactoferrin, and bovine lactoferrin with rat small intestinal brush-border membrane vesicles was investigated with the use of a rapid filtration t...
Sites of monomeric actin incorporation in living PTK2 and REF‐52 cells

The purpose of this study was to analyze where monomeric actin first becomes incorporated into the sarcomeric units of the stress fibers. We microinjected fluorescently labeled actin monomers into two cell lines that differ in the sarcomeric spacings of a-actinin and nonmuscle myosin II along their stress fibers: REF-52, a fibroblast cell line, and PtK2, an epithelial cell line. The cells were fixed at selected times after microinjection (30 s and longer) and then stained with an a-actinin antibody. Localization of the labeled actin and a-actinin antibody were recorded with low level light cameras. In both cell types, the initial sites of incorporation were in focal contacts, lamellipodia and in punctate regions of the stress fibers that corresponded to the a-actinin rich dense bodies. The adherent junctions between the epithelial PtK2 cells were also initial sites of incorporation. At longer times of incorporation, the actin fluorescence extended along the stress fibers and became almost uniform. We saw no difference in the pattern of incorporation in peripheral and perinuclear regions of the stress fibers. We propose that rapid incorporation of monomeric actin occurs at the cellular sites where the barbed ends of actin filaments are concentrated: at the edges of lamellipodia, the adherens junctions, the attachment plaques and in the dense bodies that mark out the sarcomeric subunits of the stress fibers. Cell Motil. Cytoskeleton 40:59‐70, 1998. r 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Life events, chronic stressors, and depressive symptoms in low-income urban mothers with asthmatic children

OBJECTIVE: This secondary data analysis study examines the relationship between maternal sociodemographic variables, life events, chronic stressors, including asthma control and management and environmental stressors, and maternal depression. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive design study consisting of baseline data from participants enrolled in a randomized asthma communication educational intervention trial. SAMPLE: 201 mothers of children with asthma (ages 6-12), recruited from community pediatric practices and emergency departments of 2 urban university hospitals. MEASUREMENT: Life events were measured using standardized items. Chronic stressors were measured using items from the International Asthma and Allergies in Childhood study and maternal and child exposure to violence. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. RESULTS: Close to 25% of the mothers had high depressive symptoms. In separate multiple logistic regression models, education (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=2.62; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.07, 6.39) or unemployment (AOR=2.38; 95% CI=1.16, 4.90) and the use of quick relief medications (AOR=2.74; 95% CI=1.33, 5.66) for asthma were positively associated with depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Implications include the need to assess maternal depressive symptoms of mothers of children with asthma, in order to improve asthma management for low-income urban children. Language: en
Looking Good, Teaching Well? Linking Liking, Looks, and Learning

Does the appearance of an instructor and the format of the class influence student grades and learning? We tested this question with 861 undergraduate students who completed an online questionnaire rating their instructors. Students were equally spread across class year and were from different majors. We used multiple regression analyses and found that likable, good-looking, well-dressed, and approachable teachers had students who said they learned more, had higher grades, and liked the class better.
Strain and opportunity: a theory of repeat victimization

General strain theory is often applied to explain the origin of deviant behavior, while the risky lifestyles and opportunities perspective is often used to examine the ongoing risk for victimization. However, given evidence that the delinquent coping mechanisms operationalized by the general strain tests and the risky behaviors measured in the risky lifestyles models are often the same behaviors, the current study argues that these two models can be constructed as a uniform framework to explain the onset and continuity of victimization, including involvement in delinquency, from childhood through adolescence. Experiences of child maltreatment are posited to trigger feelings of negative emotions more likely managed with forms of coping that can foster opportunities for suffering further victimization. Using data from the first three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the results show that youth who adopt maladaptive forms of coping with childhood abuse and neglect, ...
Differences in foraging activity of deep sea diving odontocetes in the Ligurian Sea as determined by passive acoustic recorders

Abstract Characterizing the trophic roles of deep-diving odontocete species and how they vary in space and time is challenged by our ability to observe foraging behavior. Though sampling methods are limited, foraging activity of deep-diving odontocetes can be monitored by recording their biosonar emissions. Daily occurrence of echolocation clicks was monitored acoustically for five months (July–December 2011) in the Ligurian Sea (Mediterranean Sea) using five passive acoustic recorders. Detected odontocetes included Cuvier's beaked whales ( Zipuhius cavirostris ), sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ), Risso's dolphins ( Grampus griseus ), and long-finned pilot whales ( Globicephala melas ). The results indicated that the foraging strategies varied significantly over time, with sperm whales switching to nocturnal foraging in late September whereas Risso's dolphins and pilot whales foraged mainly at night throughout the sampling period. In the study area, winter nights are about five hours longer than summer nights and an analysis showed that pilot whales and Risso's dolphins adjusted their foraging activity with the length of the night, foraging longer during the longer winter nights. This is the first study to show that marine mammals exhibit diurnal foraging patterns closely correlated to sunrise and sunset.
Amorphization of Nanolaminates during Severe Plastic Deformation: Molecular Simulations in the Cu-Zr System

Mechanical alloying techniques, which use plastic deformation to effect structural changes, are commonly used to prepare nanostructured metals with exemplary mechanical properties. When these nanostructured metals are subjected to further straining fully amorphous alloys can result, but there is little understanding of the atomic-scale mechanisms behind this amorphization. In the present work, we explore the final stages of such a mechanical alloying process via molecular simulations. Initial Cu-Zr nanolaminates are sequentially strained and consolidated, and the amorphization process is followed explicitly. The results are in qualitative agreement with existing experimental data, and provide insight into experimentally inaccessible features of the structural evolution.
Uncertain and negative evidence in continuous time Bayesian networks

The continuous time Bayesian network (CTBN) enables reasoning about complex systems by representing the system as a factored, finite-state, continuous-time Markov process. Inference over the model incorporates evidence, given as state observations through time. The time dimension introduces several new types of evidence that are not found with static models. In this work, we present a comprehensive look at the types of evidence in CTBNs. Moreover, we define and extend inference to reason under uncertainty in the presence of uncertain evidence, as well as negative evidence, concepts extended to static models but not yet introduced into the CTBN model. Created a taxonomy of discrete-state, continuous-time evidence types.Showed generalization and combination relationships between evidence types.Demonstrated the effects of evidence types on a real-world network.Extended exact and approximate inference for CTBNs to handle new evidence types.Demonstrated convergence and scaling of CTBN approximate inference algorithm.
Solving Inverse Problem of Diffuse Optical Tomography with Global Optimization

A new imaging reconstruction based on a global optimization approach is presented. Simulation and phantom results have demonstrated superior performance in accurately mapping absorption distribution compared with that of conjugate-gradient method.
ASSORTATIVE MATING AND NATURAL SELECTION IN AN IRIS HYBRID ZONE.

The phenology of different genotypes and the distribution of genetic variation among flowering plants and their progeny were examined to assess the levels of assortative mating and selection in a hybrid population of Iris. This study and a previous survey of RAPD nuclear markers and chloroplast markers indicate that the population consists of parental genotypes and recombinant hybrid genotypes that are similar to the parental species (I. fulva and I. brevicaulis), although lacking intermediate genotypes. Early in the season only I. fulva genotypes produced flowers, but as flowering in these plants decreased, the hybrid genotypes and I. brevicaulis genotypes began flowering, resulting in a 24-d period of coincidental flowering. The genotypic distribution of seeds produced during the period of flowering overlap contained a high frequency of intermediate genotypes that were not present in the adult generation. The degree of effective assortative mating was examined by comparing the observed progeny genotypic distributions with expected distributions from a mixed-mating model. The model included selfing and random outcrossing to the nearest plants that had pollen-bearing flowers on the day the recipient flower was receptive. The observed genotypic distribution of progeny from plants with I. brevicaulis chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) was not significantly different from the expected distribution. For I. fulva genotypes, however, there were higher than expected frequencies in the extreme genotypic classes, although intermediate genotypes were absent, indicating that these plants were preferentially mating with similar genotypes. Compared with the extreme genotypes, a larger proportion of the intermediate seed progeny produced were aborted, indicating that intermediate genotypes have lower viability. On the basis of the observed progeny genotypes and genetic disequilibria estimates for the adults and the progeny, there appears to be a pattern of effective asymmetrical mating in this population. This asymmetry is most likely due to pollen-style interactions that reduce the fertilization ability of genetically dissimilar pollen, or preferential abortion of genetically intermediate zygotes by I. fulva-like genotypes. The lack of any apparent discrimination by I. brevicaulis-like genotypes creates a directional exchange of nuclear genetic elements that will have implications for introgression and the evolution of hybrid genotypes.
The Near-Field Effects of Microjet Injection

Presented herein are the results of an investigation into the effects of gaseous microjet injection on the near-field noise of a high-speed jet. The nitrogen-based microjets were generated through the use of six equally spaced 800-μm converging micro-nozzles, for which the operating pressure was varied from 100 to 400 psig. The experiments focused on both ideally and overexpanded main jets that were generated using a converging-diverging nozzle that was designed for Mach 1.8. The exit diameter of this nozzle was 40.0 mm and both of the resulting jets had a fully expanded velocity, Uj, of 880 m/s. An increase in the frequencies associated with Mach wave radiation was observed in the first few microphone locations for both cases. This was followed by a decrease in these same frequencies in the microphone location indicative of the far-field peak radiation direction. This suggests that the microjets are in fact breaking down the large scale structures associated with Mach wave radiation in the peak direction. In both cases, the reductions in the peak radiation direction were found to be similar but a stark contrast was observed at the shallower angles. While the shock noise in the overexpanded jet was only slightly increased, the microjet injection on the ideally expanded jet resulted in the generation of overexpanded-like shock noise. It was also observed that the noise reductions, as well as the increases, propagate from the near-field into the corresponding direction in the acoustic far-field.
Myasthenia Gravis in the Elderly: Differential Diagnosis and Management

Late-life disorders presenting with weakness often have a delay in diagnosis leading to decreased quality of life and impairment of mobility. Myasthenia gravis is an immune disorder affecting the neuromuscular junction resulting in varying levels of weakness in the orbital, bulbar, and limb muscles. The evaluation of weakness in the elderly should be geared toward treatable and reversible causes such as myasthenia gravis. The major treatment options include symptomatic, immunosuppressive, and immunomodulating therapies.
Comparative Studies of Gonadotropic Hormones. 5. Growth Response of Rat Mammary Glands in Chronic Experiments

ConclusionsThe long-continued injection of acid anterior pituitary extracts and acid extracts of human pregnancy blood produced markedly different growth effects in the female albino rat breast. The acid pituitary extract response was characterized by growth and proliferation of the duct system with increasing periductile fibrosis and the appearance of fibroadenomatous areas, but without alveolar or lobule growth proliferation. In response to extracts of human pregnancy blood there was an unfolding, growth and hyperplasia of the alveolar mammary tree with secretion changes, milk production, and after long continued injections, regressive changes, often accompanied by the appearance of adenomatous tumors of the breast.
Inhibin Is Not an Immunohistochemical Marker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Example of the Potential Pitfall in Diagnostic Immunohistochemistry Caused by Endogenous Biotin

Inhibin is a heterodimeric glycoprotein originally detected in gonadal tissues. One report described inhibin immunopositivity in 17 of 19 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and the hepatocytes of the surrounding nonneoplastic parenchyma. The reported immunohistochemical method, which used avidin-biotin complex, did not describe blocking endogenous biotin. Since liver tissue may contain high levels of biotin, endogenous biotin may result in false-positive immunostaining. We wondered whether this reported immunopositivity represented a false-positive result due to unblocked endogenous biotin. By using a similar antigen retrieval technique and the same specificity, titer, and clonal source of primary antibody as the aforementioned study, we performed immunostaining for inhibin with and without an endogenous biotin blocking step on 23 cases of HCC and the surrounding cirrhotic liver. In all cases, the HCC and the hepatocytes in the cirrhotic nodules were negative for inhibin when the endogenous biotin blocking step was used. When the blocking step was omitted, apparent immunostaining was noted in 20 of 23 HCCs and in the hepatocytes in all cases. Accordingly, HCC and the hepatocytes of the surrounding cirrhotic liver are immunohistochemically negative for inhibin. The previously reported immunopositivity of HCC and nontumoral hepatocytes for inhibin represents a false-positive result due to endogenous biotin.
Persuasion and Pragmatics: An Empirical Test of the Guru Effect Model

Decades of research have investigated the complex role of source credibility in attitude persuasion. Current theories of persuasion predict that when messages are thoughtfully scrutinized, argument strength will tend to have a greater effect on attitudes than source credibility. Source credibility can affect highly elaborated attitudes, however, when individuals evaluate material that elicits low attitude extremity. A recently proposed model called the guru effect predicts that source credibility can also cause attitudinal change by biasing the interpretation of pragmatically ambiguous material. The present studies integrate models of explanatory pragmatics and persuasion in order to empirically assess these hypotheses. Experiment 1 found that text difficulty and attitude neutrality reflect independent persuasion variables. Experiment 2 found that higher source credibility causes more favorable attitudes toward messages eliciting low attitude extremity. Text difficulty was not found to have a significant effect on attitudes. These results confirm the predictions of prior social cognition research but no do not support the guru effect model. The implications of these studies for pragmatics and persuasion research as well as the value of interdisciplinary research between these fields are discussed.
Variational projection methods for gradient crystal plasticity using Lie algebras

Summary A computational method is developed for evaluating the plastic strain gradient hardening term within a crystal plasticity formulation. While such gradient terms reproduce the size effects exhibited in experiments, incorporating derivatives of the plastic strain yields a nonlocal constitutive model. Rather than applying mixed methods, we propose an alternative method whereby the plastic deformation gradient is variationally projected from the elemental integration points onto a smoothed nodal field. Crucially, the projection utilizes the mapping between Lie groups and algebras in order to preserve essential physical properties, such as orthogonality of the plastic rotation tensor. Following the projection, the plastic strain field is directly differentiated to yield the Nye tensor. Additionally, an augmentation scheme is introduced within the global Newton iteration loop such that the computed Nye tensor field is fed back into the stress update procedure. Effectively, this method results in a fully-implicit evolution of the constitutive model within a traditional displacement-based formulation. An elemental projection method with explicit time integration of the plastic rotation tensor is compared as a reference. A series of numerical tests are performed for several element types in order to assess the robustness of the method, with emphasis placed upon polycrystalline domains and multi-axis loading. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Does It Matter How One Assesses Moral Reasoning? Differences (Biases) in the Recognition Versus Formulation Tasks:

Most business ethics scholars interested in understanding individual moral cognition or reasoning rely on the Defining Issues Test (DIT). They typically report that managers and business students e...
Identification of cellular-activity dynamics across large tissue volumes in the mammalian brain

Tracking the coordinated activity of cellular events through volumes of intact tissue is a major challenge in biology that has inspired significant technological innovation. Yet scanless measurement of the high-speed activity of individual neurons across three dimensions in scattering mammalian tissue remains an open problem. Here we develop and validate a computational imaging approach (SWIFT) that integrates high-dimensional, structured statistics with light field microscopy to allow the synchronous acquisition of single-neuron resolution activity throughout intact tissue volumes as fast as a camera can capture images (currently up to 100 Hz at full camera resolution), attaining rates needed to keep pace with emerging fast calcium and voltage sensors. We demonstrate that this large field-of-view, single-snapshot volume acquisition method — which requires only a simple and inexpensive modification to a standard fluorescence microscope — enables scanless capture of coordinated activity patterns throughout mammalian neural volumes. Further, the volumetric nature of SWIFT also allows fast in vivo imaging, motion correction, and cell identification throughout curved subcortical structures like the dorsal hippocampus, where cellular-resolution dynamics spanning hippocampal subfields can be simultaneously observed during a virtual context learning task in a behaving animal. SWIFT's ability to rapidly and easily record from volumes of many cells across layers opens the door to widespread identification of dynamical motifs and timing dependencies among coordinated cell assemblies during adaptive, modulated, or maladaptive physiological processes in neural systems.
Building Links Between Ecology and Paleontology Using Taphonomic Studies of Recent Vertebrate Communities

Ecologists and paleontologists share a common interest in the natural cycles of life and death, but their viewpoints on living organisms and the processes that recycle or preserve their remains are different. The goal of this chapter is to explore the common ground between these fields through taphonomy, the sub-field of paleontology that examines how organisms are preserved as fossils. From studies of recent bone assemblages, taphonomists have assembled information about diversity and abundance, animal behaviour, predator–prey interactions, habitat utilization, mortality (how and where animals die), and nutrient recycling. These studies were initiated to strengthen paleontological understanding of the information content and biases in the fossil record, but the methods and discoveries of taphonomic research in modern ecosystems are also of potential value to ecologists. Both paleontology and ecology would benefit from increased exchange of ideas and perspectives, and this chapter provides examples showing why such exchange is worth pursuing and offers suggestions to encourage future dialogue and collaboration.
Skin tumor formation from hair follicle bulge keratinocytes in Krt1-15CrePR1;R26R mice

LB-89 Benign and malignant cutaneous neoplasms can be induced in mice by a subthreshold carcinogen application (initiation) and chronic regenerative epidermal hyperplasia (promotion). Although any proliferative epidermal cell conceivably could be a target, converging lines of evidence suggest that the carcinogenesis target cells have properties of stem cells. Although available data support this hypothesis, direct visualization implicating stem cells as target cells has been lacking. We report here that we have followed the lineage of stem cells from the hair follicle bulge into papillomas and some carcinomas using Krt1-15CrePR1;R26R transgenic mice. Mice were initiated with a single topical application of 400 nmol of DMBA followed by induction of the recombinase, and promoted twice weekly thereafter with 17 nmol of TPA. Control mice were treated similarly except for vehicle rather than than the inducer, or acetone rather than TPA. Additional controls involved induction of the recombinase one week prior to DMBA. At intervals as early as 4 weeks of tumor promotion, blue exophytic squamous hyperplastic foci were observed to involve multiple blue hair follicles. At later intervals, papillomas and carcinomas were observed to involve both blue and non-blue keratinocytes. Morphometric analysis disclosed from 10% to 65% blue cells in median saggital sections of papillomas. To determine the presence of the initiating codon 61 A to T transversion in the Ha-ras gene, we used laser capture microdissection followed by codon 61 sequencing of captured DNA after PCR amplification. Analysis of 32 blue and 33 non-blue tumor samples from 24 papillomas disclosed 31.3% of the blue regions and 72.7% of the non-blue regions expressed the Ha-ras signature mutation. We also observed that multiple blue samples within the same tumor differed with respect to Ras signature. We conclude from these findings that stem cells from the hair follicle bulge are targets in skin tumor promotion. Nevertheless, we suggest that the dynamics of skin tumor development may be more complex that originally thought. This work was supported by CA097957 to RJM and GC.
Differentiating the impact of nitrogen chemical states on optical properties of nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots

The optical properties of top-down synthesized oxidized graphene quantum dots (ox-GQDs) and nitrogen-incorporating graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) along a range of hydrothermal treatment temperatures were observed. By controlling the hydrothermal treatment temperature, different chemical states of nitrogen atoms were incorporated into GQDs. Below 150 °C, edge-terminating amines and amides dominated the nitrogen content of N-GQDs. Above 150 °C, nitrogen was primarily present in the forms of pyridinic, pyrrolic and quaternary N. In addition to the absorbance and emission profiles of ox-GQDs and N-GQDs, pH-dependent emission spectra were collected to probe chemical states of nitrogen atoms and investigate the relationship between nitrogen location and photoluminescence.
Contextual Collision: The Social Consequences of Touch and Collision in Human Robot Interaction

The use of touch in human to human relationships is an important one, as both an emotive and communicative gesture. For a simple rolling robot, touch is accomplished via collision. This work proposes a combination of soft robotics and social robotics to explore the social consequences of intentional collision. It introduces a blowfish-inspired soft robot, which can use retractable silicone spikes for both actuation and social expression.
DNA Methylation and Histone Modifications in Autoimmunity

Abstract The immune system is a complex network that is designed to optimally communicate between its components while constantly monitoring potential external and internal insults. The regulation of the network involves intrinsic and extrinsic signals, which modulate gene expression in different cell types. These processes require selective mechanisms to control the expression of cell type-specific genes. Among them, epigenetic modifiers are key components in both normal and pathophysiological immune-system conditions. This chapter provides an overview of epigenetic mechanisms as modulators of the immune system in the context of autoimmune conditions. Although several epigenetic mechanisms have been reported, this chapter will specifically focus on DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs). An introduction to epigenetics, epigenetic modifiers, and the dependence of the immune system on epigenetic regulation is initially provided. The discussion then expands to the framework of autoimmune conditions, ranging from local to systemic phenomena. Further diseases with significant clinical relevance are chosen for detailed study, and in each case the immunological component that is influenced by epigenetics, with a focus towards the use of DNMT and HDAC inhibitors is discussed. The ongoing efforts that are utilizing various epigenetic approaches, both in preclinical and clinical settings, are highlighted throughout the text.
Evolution of Near-Surface Internal and External Oxide Morphology During High-Temperature Selective Oxidation of Steels

In this work we examine some observations made using high-temperature confocal scanning laser microscopy (HT-CSLM) during selective oxidation experiments. A plain carbon steel and advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) were selectively oxidized at high temperature (850–900°C) in either low oxygen or water vapor atmospheres. Surface evolution, including thermal grooving along grain boundaries and oxide growth, was viewed in situ during heating. Experiments investigated the influence of the microstructure and oxidizing atmosphere on selective oxidation behavior. Sequences of CSLM still frames collected during the experiment were processed with ImageJ to obtain histograms that showed a general darkening trend indicative of oxidation over time with all samples. Additional ex situ scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis supported in situ observations. Distinct oxidation behavior was observed for each case. Segregation, grain orientation, and extent of internal oxidation were all found to strongly influence surface evolution.
Modeling Multidimensional Systems

The material presented in earlier chapters has focused on theoretical conservation equations, phenomenological laws, and development of various models. In this chapter, many of these components will be systematically organized into what will be called the generalized model. The numerical algorithms of each component will be outlined and the overall strategy required to obtain a solution will be discussed.
Overlooked coral predators suppress foundation species as reefs degrade.

Loss of larger consumers from stressed ecosystems can lead to trophic release of mid-level consumers that then impact foundation species, suppressing ecosystem function and resilience. For example, in coral reef ecosystems, outbreaks of coral predators like crown-of-thorns sea stars have been associated with fishing pressure and can dramatically impact the composition and persistence of corals. However, the ecological impacts, and consequences for management, of smaller, less obvious corallivores remain inadequately understood. We investigated whether reef state (coral vs. seaweed domination) influenced densities and size frequencies of the corallivorous gastropod Coralliophila violacea on its common host, the coral Porites cylindrica, within three pairs of small Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and adjacent fished areas in Fiji. C. violacea densities were 5-35 times greater, and their size frequencies more broadly distributed, within seaweed-dominated fished areas than in adjacent MPAs dominated by corals. Tethering snails (4-9 mm in shell height) in place on their coral hosts indicated that suppression of snails in MPAs was due to predation, apparently by fishes. When tethered on the benthos (where they rarely occur), rather than on their host, mortality of larger snails (15.0-25.0 mm in shell height) was high in all areas, primarily due to hermit crabs killing them and occupying their shells. Because C. violacea is a sessile gastropod that feeds affixed to the base of corals and produces minimal visible damage, it has been considered a "prudent feeder" that minimally impacts its host coral. We assessed this over a 24-d feeding period in the field. Feeding by individual C. violacea reduced P. cylindrica growth by ~18-43% depending on snail size. Our findings highlight the considerable, but underappreciated, negative impacts of this common corallivore on degraded reefs. As reefs degrade and corals are lost, remaining corals (often species of Porites) may gain the full attention of elevated densities of coral consumers. This will further damage the remaining foundation species, suppressing the resilience of corals and enhancing the resilience of degraded, seaweed-dominated reefs.
Heat capacities, entropies, and Gibbs free energies of formation of low-k amorphous Si(O)CH dielectric films and implications for stability during processing

Abstract Low-temperature heat capacities of a series of low dielectric constant amorphous films with different compositions were measured from 1.8 to 300 K using a Quantum Design Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS). By using piece wise functions to fit the heat capacities, the characteristic Debye temperatures Θ D and the standard molar entropies are determined. The standard molar entropies of these materials range from 8.8 J·K -1 ·mol -1 to 17.5 J·K -1 ·mol -1 . Together with the formation enthalpies obtained by high temperature oxidative solution calorimetry in molten sodium molybdate solvent, the corresponding Gibbs free energies from elements and crystalline constituents (and gaseous products as required) are obtained. The Gibbs free energy terms of these materials are dominated by the enthalpy term rather than the entropy. These samples are thermodynamically stable at room temperature with respect to elements and the samples with oxygen incorporated are generally thermodynamically more stable than the others. However, compared to crystalline binary counterparts and gases, some of these materials possess either positive or close-to-zero Gibbs free energies of formation, indicating that they are thermodynamically metastable; while, for the rest, which are stable at ambient conditions, elevation of temperature will eventually lead to decomposition.
Fast and Systematic Design Optimization of Surface-Mounted PM Machines Using Advanced Analytical Models and Subharmonic Elimination Methods

This paper presents a fast design optimization method in surface-mounted permanent magnet (PM) machines using an efficient analytical model. To predict the open-circuit magnetic field, an analytical model named Schwarz–Christoffel subdomain (SCSD) is proposed by applying the virtual rotor magnets and combining two elegant models, i.e., subdomain model and complex permeance model derived from Schwarz–Christoffel conformal mapping. Based on the developed SCSD model, electromagnetic (EM) performances such as cogging torque, back-electromotive force, EM torque, unbalanced magnetic force, and machine losses can be quickly obtained by reducing the computational complexity. Subsequently, the heuristic optimization is applied for selecting the best compromise between the conflicting objectives. Since the systematic optimization methodology is proposed by isolating the optimal shape and coil design procedures, the proposed optimization model combined with SCSD is significantly fast, robust, and efficient compared with existing models. The finite-element analysis is carried out to verify analytical results, and several Pareto fronts are provided along with the comparison of the time required by each model.
Nonalternant Aromaticity and Partial Double Bond in Petroleum Molecules Revealed: Theoretical Understanding of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Obtained by Noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy

Systemic studies are lacking to derive an understanding from the limited number of individually imaged diverse structures from noncontact atomic force microscopy and relate them to the chemistry of...
First-order approximation to the Boltzmann–Curtiss equation for flows with local spin

The first-order approximation to the solution of the Boltzmann–Curtiss transport equation is derived. The resulting distribution function treats the rotation or gyration of spherical particles as an independent classical variable, deviating from the quantum mechanical treatment of molecular rotation found in the Wang Chang–Uhlenbeck equation. The Boltzmann–Curtiss equation, therefore, does not treat different rotational motions as separate molecular species. The first-order distribution function yields momentum equations for the translational velocity and gyration, which match the form of the governing equations of morphing continuum theory (MCT), a theory derived from the approach of rational continuum thermomechanics. The contributions of the local rotation to the Cauchy stress and the viscous diffusion are found to be proportional to an identical expression based on the relaxation time, number density, and equilibrium temperature of the fluid. When gyration is equated to the macroscopic angular velocity, the kinetic description reduces to the first-order approximation for a classical monatomic gas, and the governing equations match the form of the Navier–Stokes equations. The relaxation time used for this approximation is shown to be more complex due to the additional variable of local rotation. The approach of De Groot and Mazur is invoked to give an initial approximation for the relaxation of the gyration. The incorporation of this relaxation time, and other physical parameters, into the coefficients of the governing equations provides a more in-depth physical treatment of the new terms in the MCT equations, allowing for experimenters to test these expressions and get a better understanding of new coefficients in MCT.
A new multiparameter model for the prediction of fatigue crack growth in structural metallic materials

A multiparameter model is proposed for the characterization of fatigue crack growth in structural metallic materials. The model assesses the combined effects of identifiable multiple variables that can contribute to fatigue crack growth. Mathematical expressions are presented for the determination of fatigue crack growth rates, da/dN, as functions of multiple variables, such as: stress intensity factor range, ΔK; stress ratio, R; closure stress intensity factor, K c l , and the maximum stress intensity factor, K m a x . A generalized empirical methodology is proposed for the estimation of fatigue crack growth rates as functions of these variables. The validity of the new methodology is then verified by making appropriate comparisons between predicted and measured fatigue crack growth data obtained from experiments on selected structural metallic materials. The multiparameter predictions are shown to be in close agreement with experimental data.
A Markov Decision Process approach for balancing intelligence and interdiction operations in city-level drug trafficking enforcement

Abstract We study a resource allocation problem in which law enforcement aims to balance intelligence and interdiction decisions to fight against illegal city-level drug trafficking. We propose a Markov Decision Process framework, apply a column generation technique, and develop a heuristic to solve this problem. Our approaches provide insights into how law enforcement should prioritize its actions when there are multiple criminals of different types known to them. We prove that when only one action can be implemented, law enforcement will take action (either target or arrest) on the highest known criminal type to them. Our results demonstrate that: (i) it may be valuable to diversify the action taken on the same criminal type when more than one action can be implemented; (ii) the marginal improvement in terms of the value of the criminals interdicted per unit time by increasing available resources decreases as resource level increases; and (iii) there are losses that arise from not holistically planning the actions of all available resources across distinct operations against drug trafficking networks.
Nonlinear stability and buckling analysis of composite functionally graded arches subjected to external pressure and temperature loading

Abstract This paper investigates the nonlinear stability and buckling behavior of the composite functionally graded material (FGM) arches subjected to pressure and temperature loadings. By introducing an admissible displacement function, the total potential energy is expressed explicitly following the thin-walled shell theory. The nonlinear equilibrium equations are calculated by the variation of the potential energy function, and the critical buckling pressure is predicted analytically. The verification is taken by the numerical simulation that traces the pre- and post-buckling equilibrium paths, indicating that the numerical results are in good accordance with the analytical predictions. It is found the temperature rise increases the thermal upward displacement, which is beneficial to the buckling pressure, and reduces Young’s modulus, which is unbeneficial to the buckling pressure. Therefore, the buckling pressure is nonlinear to the temperature rise. Finally, a series of parametric evaluations are mainly focused on the effects of volume fraction exponent and temperature rise on the distributions of hoop strain, stress, force and bending moment.
Spinal programs for locomotion

Publisher Summary Oculomotor research is characterized by accurate quantitative methods, well-defined performance criteria, mathematical models of control and feedback regulation, and a highly evolved theoretical basis in engineering control systems. Skeletomotor research has been and continues to be plagued by phenomenological description, intractable, unstable and inappropriate models, and an allied field of robotic engineering whose greatest contribution continues to be proofs of the impossibility of trajectory planning in real time. Oculomotor system represents an almost singular exception to the more general function and control of striate muscles. However, the primary process within the muscle that is modulated by changes in the neurally controlled state of activation is not length or even tendon strain. Rather, it is a complex, statistically distributed set of forces in the cross-bridges, which are highly dependent on the direction and magnitude of cross-bridge motion. In studying the function of any single muscle in such a dynamic system, the muscle should not be considered directly as a cause of the observed motion; rather, it is better considered as a generator of an “impulse” added to the system. A comparison of the control problems inherent in the biomechanics of the oculomotor versus skeletomotor systems reveals that the skeletal musculature must generally cope with much more diverse kinematic problems, including inertia, elasticity, and external loads. Because of the highly nonlinear properties of muscle, such factors can be expected to require very different and highly specialized structural and functional architectures in both the muscles and their neuronal control circuits.
A Brief Overview of Interdiction and Robust Optimization

Two-player optimization problems span an impressive array of possible situations, including cases in which both players optimize their own objective with no regard for the other’s goals, or in which one agent seeks to impede the other’s objective. The agents may commit their decisions simultaneously, using either deterministic or random (mixed) strategies. Alternatively, they can play them in sequence, where one agent has complete or partial knowledge of the other’s decisions. This overview provides the reader insights and entry points into learning about two-stage zero-sum games (e.g., minimax or maximin) in which one agent has complete knowledge of the other’s actions. The difference between interdiction and robust optimization models is described, with a focus on steering the reader to relevant and contemporary research in the field.
Use of Sublingual Tacrolimus in Adults Undergoing Hematopoietic Cell Transplant: A Pilot Study

The national shortage of oral (PO) and intravenous (IV) tacrolimus, as well as the undesirable sequelae of IV administration, call for innovative solutions to conserve existing supply and optimize safety and efficacy of medication delivery. Sublingual (SL) administration of tacrolimus is widely used as an alternative to the IV route in the solid organ transplant population and similar benefits may be appreciated by patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). The most widely accepted SL:PO dose conversion ratio has been 0.5 based on available evidence. We sought to demonstrate feasibility of SL tacrolimus use and estimate a SL:PO conversion ratio in the HCT setting. Ten adults (median age 60.5 years) undergoing allogeneic HCT received tacrolimus 0.04 mg/kg/dose, based on ideal body weight, twice daily beginning 3 days prior to transplant. Initial doses were given via SL route and a steady state trough level was collected after 4 consecutive doses. Participants were then switched to tacrolimus PO, the dose was adjusted for a goal trough 8-12 ng/mL, and another steady state trough was drawn (Figure 1). Trough concentration was divided by total daily dose for each route to determine the dosing ratio of SL:PO (Table 1). Median trough level following SL administration was 11.3 ng/mL. Three of these were within goal, 3 were low (4.7-6.4 ng/mL) and 4 were elevated (15.9-18.6 ng/mL). Median SL:PO ratio was 0.99. In 5 patients the SL:PO ratio was Results demonstrate reliable absorption with SL tacrolimus use in patients undergoing HCT. This represents an alternative drug delivery method in patients with barriers to PO administration or in the setting of limited availability of the IV product. This preliminary experience identified an SL:PO ratio of 0.99 with some degree of variability. Fluctuating clinical status and changes in interacting medications are important to consider when adjusting doses or converting between routes and may influence this ratio. Further study is needed to better elucidate the a more precise SL:PO dose conversion ratio and understand the impact of various drug-drug interactions.