cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Experimental and Finite Element Modal Analysis of a Pliant Elastic Membrane for Micro Air Vehicles Applications

This paper investigates the modal characteristics of a latex membrane for micro air vehicles applications. Finite element (FE) models are developed for characterizing the latex membrane at dynamic loading and validated by experimental results. The membrane at different pre-tension levels is attached to a circular steel ring, mounted on a shaker, and placed inside the vacuum chamber for modal characterization using a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV). The experimental modal analysis is conducted by imposing a structural excitation to the ring for investigating the membrane vibration characteristics at both atmospheric and reduced pressures in a vacuum chamber. FE models are developed for the natural frequencies of the membrane at different uniform and non-uniform pre-tension levels with the effect of the added mass of air. The Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic material model is selected for the membrane. The natural frequencies of the membrane computed by experimental and FE models are correlated well, although discrepancy is expected among experimental and FE results within reasonable limits due to the variation of the thickness of the membrane. The natural frequencies increase with the mode and pre-tension level of the membrane but decrease due to an increase in ambient pressure. The damping ratios have very minimal effect on the frequencies due to low values but help to reduce the amplitude of vibration. Natural frequencies of the membrane do not change with the uniform and non-uniform nature of the pre-tension, although they increase with the pre-tension level. It is also found that the effect of added mass on the natural frequencies increases with an increase of the size of the membrane specimen.
PARABOLIC GROWTH PATTERNS IN 96-WELL PLATE CELL GROWTH EXPERIMENTS

In preparing for the routine use of the ubiquitous in vitro cell growth inhibition assay for the study of anticancer agents, we characterized the statistical properties of the assay and found some surprising results. Parabolic well-to-well cell growth patterns were discovered, which could profoundly affect the results of routine growth inhibition studies of anticancer and other agents. Four human ovarian cell lines, A2780/WT, A2780/DX5, A2780/DX5B, and A121, and one human ileocecal adenocarcinoma cell line, HCT-8, were seeded into plastic 96-well plates with a 12-channel pipette, without drugs, and grown from 1-5 d. The wells were washed with a plate washer, cells stained with sulforhodamine B (SRB), and dye absorbance measured with a plate reader. Variance models were fit to the data from replicates to determine the nature of the heteroscedastic error structure. Exponential growth models were fit to data to estimate doubling times for each cell line. Polynomial models were fit to data from 10-plate stacks of 96-well plates to explore nonuniformity of cell growth in wells in different regions of the stacks. Each separate step in the assay was examined for precision, patterns, and underlying causes of variation. Differential evaporation of water from wells is likely a major, but not exclusive, contributor to the systematic well-to-well cell growth patterns. Because the fundamental underlying causes of the parabolic growth patterns were not conclusively found, a randomization step for the growth assay was developed.
Nanoindentation in elastoplastic materials: insights from numerical simulations

Finite element simulations of nanoindentation were performed on an elastoplastic material using Berkovich and conical indenters to investigate the effects of geometry on the load–displacement response of the material. The Berkovich indenter, widely used in nanoindentation experiments, is typically simplified to a theoretically equivalent 70.3° conical indenter for numerical simulations, which allows for a less computationally intensive two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric analysis. Previous studies into the validity of this equivalence assumption for indentations in elastoplastic materials have varying conclusions. Using 2D and 3D finite element simulations, the present study investigates the response of elastoplastic materials, obeying a combined isotropic and kinematic hardening, to indentation with conical and Berkovich indenters. Simulations show that there is a clear difference in the load–displacement response of the selected material to the two indenters. The Berkovich geometry is found to produce a m...
Dynamics of bridgman-stockbarger growth of non-dilute binary alloys

The coupling between heat and mass transfer in the Bridgman-Stockbarger growth of nondilute crystals induces growth rate transients that are longer than those caused by heat transfer alone. The dynamics of the diffusion-controlled growth for thermophysical properties representative of Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Te and Hg(1-x)Cd(x)Te are computed from a one-dimensional solidification model which includes melt-crystal phase behavior. Results show that the growth rate response to a step change in pull rate for both systems differs from the exponential decay observed for dilute alloys and that growth rates cannot be inferred from axial segregation data in nondilute systems due to the dependence of the segregation coefficient on composition.
De Novo Cryptogenic Hepatitis After Sustained Eradication of Hepatitis C Following Liver Transplantation

Patients with recurrent hepatitis C (HCV) after liver transplantation (OLT) are often treated with interferon and ribavirin in an attempt to eradicate HCV and prevent cirrhosis. We report four patients who developed de novo cryptogenic hepatitis following sustained eradication of recurrent HCV, which led to decompensated liver disease in two patients, both of whom required listing for retransplantation. Between September 2000 and October 2001, 38 consecutive patients with recurrent HCV were treated with interferon alpha 2b and ribavirin, of whom eight patients (21%) developed a sustained response to HCV eradication. Four of these patients developed cryptogenic hepatitis, which led to decompensated cirrhosis in two patients. Both patients were listed for retransplantation but died on the waiting list. No etiology for liver disease was identified despite extensive investigations in all four patients including postmortem analysis in the two patients. We hypothesize that these individuals developed an aberrant immune response leading to allograft injury whose severity may be determined by underlying haplotype, degree of immunosuppression, presence/absence of HCV, and duration of treatment. We have not found any similar reports in the literature but anticipate more cases to be reported given the universal use of antiviral therapy for recurrent HCV.
Multi-stimuli responsive macromolecules and their assemblies

In this review, we outline examples that illustrate the design criteria for achieving macromolecular assemblies that incorporate a combination of two or more chemical, physical or biological stimuli-responsive components. Progress in both fundamental investigation into the phase transformations of these polymers in response to multiple stimuli and their utilization in a variety of practical applications are highlighted. Using these examples, we aim to explain the origin of employed mechanisms of stimuli responsiveness which may serve as a guideline to inspire future design of multi-stimuli responsive materials.
Perspective from the Academic Community

Members of departments of agricultural economics are rightly concerned as to how their graduates perform as they accept diverse responsibilities in a multitude of careers. This concern about employers' opinions of our students has undoubtedly precipitated numerous, perhaps continuous review of departmental course offerings and requirements, consuming significant energies of both educators and employers. To neglect this effort would leave a department-our profession-in the stagnant waters of nonrelevancy. However, I suspect that in many of these curriculum reviews considerable time is devoted to defining the academic qualities an agricultural economist should possess and what functions he should be able to perform in various types of employment-firm, farm, or public agency. Employers have worked with these curriculum study groups to suggest profiles of training. Often the results of such studies could politely be termed excursions in frustration, as opposing visions of the "true" role of academia often find precious little upon which to agree. Those agricultural economists concerned with the functioning of our graduates tend to mentally associate themselves with two philosophical camps-the specific and the general. I suggest that the profession align itself with a different vision of its proper role in society which more accurately expresses what agricultural economists do best-systems analysis. As I will explain, employers as well as some members of our profession, are at times uneasy in the presence of systems people. If you can temporarily accept a working hypothesis that agricultural economists should neither be specialists nor generalists, I will now try to justify my heretofore implicit position: agricultural economists are illprepared to function either as technocrats or as global planners, yet are ideally suited for employment as applied systems-trained problem solvers. I believe agricultural economists are most comfortable sitting between the extreme positions of specialists and generalists. When an employer hires a technocrat, a specifically trained individual like a lawyer, accountant, civil engineer, plant or animal breeder, the individual is assumed to be able to perform his or her specialized duties with an absolute minimum of acclimatization. A remark from a
Effects of caudate or frontal cortex ablations in cats and kittens: Passive avoidance

Abstract A simple step-down passive avoidance task was used to evaluate the perceptual awareness of a fearful situation in 15 normal cats and in animals with extensive lesions of the caudate nuclei or the frontal cortices. The lesions were made both in kittens and in adults but all animals were tested as adults. On each of 2 days the animal was twice placed on a platform and the latency to step-down was measured. After trial 2 of day 2 the animal received a 10-s unescapable shock. Single step-down retention trials were carried out at 24- and 48-h and 1-week after the one-trial training. There was a significant conditioning effect for all groups. There were significant group differences only on trial 1 of day 1 where the adult acaudates stepped down significantly slower than both the intact cats and the kitten-operated acaudates and on the 1-week retention-extinction trial where the same animals stepped down faster than the other groups. For the adult acaudates there was a significant inverse correlation between lesion size and the step-down latency for both trials of the 1st preshock day and for the trial immediately preceding shock. For the kitten acaudates no significant relationships were found between any of the parameters and the lesion magnitude. These data show that (i) animals with total removal of the caudate nucleus or the frontal cortex learned one-trial passive avoidance as readily as sham-operated and intact cats; (ii) adult acaudate cats were distinguishable from the other groups only by slower step-downs on the first habituation trial prior to shock, and more rapid extinction than either kitten acaudates or other control animals. We conclude that animals with extensive lesions of the caudate nuclei or frontal cortices are capable of avoiding an electric footshock. There are subtle changes in that avoidance behavior which may be attributed to the peculiarities in reactivity and activity previously described in acaudate animals.
Being in the workspace, from a neural point of view: comments on Peter Carruthers, ‘On central cognition’

In his rich and provocative paper, Peter Carruthers announces two related theses: (a) a positive thesis that �central cognition is sensory based, depending on the activation and deployment of sensory images of various sorts� (Carruthers 2013) and (b) a negative thesis that the �central mind does not contain any workspace within which goals, decisions, intentions, or non-sensory judgments can be active� (Carruthers 2013). These are striking claims suggesting that a natural view about cognition, namely that explicit theoretical reasoning involves direct operations over beliefs, is wrong. Our beliefs, on this natural view, interact with each other to yield new beliefs. If Carruthers is right, beliefs have only an indirect or mediated influence in cognition with sensory states playing the direct role. I think it an important feature of Carruthers� discussion that he draws support from work on the neural circuits and mechanisms that subserve these processes.
LATE PLEISTOCENE DIAGENESIS AND DOLOMITIZATION, NORTH JAMAICA1

SUMMARY Diagenesis, including dolomitization, of Late Pleistocene reefs of North Jamaica is due to reaction with meteoric water. Although the reactions: Mg-calcite—calcite Aragonite—calcite Mg-calcite—dolomite retain microarchitectural information, complete chemical redistribution takes place so that incongruently dissolved Mg-calcites, aragonite inversion mosaics (neomorphosed aragonite), and dolomitized red algae have similar isotopic compositions, resembling precipitated calcite cements. The minerals all appear to have stabilized in the meteoric water environment. The dolomite is not widely distributed, and is restricted to replacement of red algae. There has been no net addition of magnesium to the red algal clasts.
Thermal Effects on Micro-Sized Tesla Valves

The Tesla valve is a no-moving-parts check valve that may be used in a variety of mini- or micro-fluidic applications for passive flow promotion and/or rectification. Its effectiveness is measured via its diodicity which depends on the Reynolds number and its unique design features. The valve may be aligned in-series to further increase its fluidic diode effect — forming a multi-staged Tesla valve (MSTV). Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and high performance computing, the current investigation assesses the effects of heat transfer on the overall MSTV diodicity and the extent to which the MSTV enhances heat transfer. For laminar, single-phase flow, thermal boundary conditions were imposed to include an isothermal MSTV wall at 20 °C and a flow inlet temperature of either: 20 °C, 50 °C or 80 °C. The flow outlet temperature and MSTV diodicity was then determined for the various inlet temperatures, Reynolds numbers, working fluids (i.e. Prandtl number, Pr) and number of Tesla valves in MSTV. Working fluids were varied between: air (Pr ∼ 0.7), water (Pr ∼ 5) and ethylene glycol (Pr ∼ 200). The MSTV channel cross-section was set to 1 mm2 and the valve-to-valve distance was held constant while varying the number of Tesla valves. Results indicate that there is a significant decrease in diodicity for water and ethylene glycol as the inlet temperature increases, suggesting higher performance of the MSTV when there is less heat transfer. For air, MSTV performance was found to actually increase with temperature. Due to mixing effects, the MSTV was demonstrated to function as an efficient heat exchanger relative to an un-valved mini-channel of similar size.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
High Frequency of Atopic Asthma in a Pulmonary Clinic Population

Seventy-two consecutive adult asthmatic patients seen in the Pulmonary Clinic at Rhode Island Hospital were tested for atopy by prick test with 14 standard aeroallergens and by in vitro total and specific IgE determinations (FAST). A total of 58.3 percent of patients were found to be atopic by these tests. There was a significant difference between the mean total serum IgE in atopic and nonatopic asthma and in atopic asthma and control subjects. The age onset was lower in atopic asthmatic patients, and they were more likely to have a history of chronic rhinitis than nonatopic subjects. Family history of rhinitis or asthma and severity of asthma was not different between the two groups. Since our outpatient facility has a large allergy clinic in proximity to the pulmonary clinic, which was the source of our patient population, this investigation has a negative bias toward allergy. Nevertheless, this study reveals that atopy is common in adult asthmatic patients, and a battery of allergy tests (skin tests or in vitro tests) together with total serum IgE is able to differentiate between atopic and nonatopic asthma.
Party Dominance and the Logic of Electoral Design in Mexico’s Transition to Democracy:

This paper discusses the role of electoral institutional design in Mexico’s transition to democracy. Our argument is that electoral rules facilitated party dominance through two mechanisms: electoral rules disproportionately rewarded existing majorities and, at the same time, discouraged potential majorities from forming. More specifically, the rules rewarded parties that could win a majority of the vote in single-member districts; but at the same time, rewarded minority parties with seats from multi-member districts, mitigating Duvergerian incentives to coordinate behind a single challenger. In the short run, seats from multi-member districts benefited opposition parties by significantly reducing entry costs; in the long run, however, these seats helped sustain party dominance, by discouraging coordination among opposition parties and voters.
The Ending of the 1855 Version of "Song of Myself"

Analyzes consistencies and inconsistencies in Whitman's use of punctuation for line endings in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass to argue against contentions by critics including Jon Bracker and Malcolm Cowley that Whitman intentionally omitted punctuation from the final line of "Song of Myself."
Mathematical models for the mean cosine of irradiance and the diffuse attenuation coefficient

Equations to be used for fitting data for the mean cosine of irradiance and the diffuse attenuation coefficient are developed from radiative transfer theory. Approximate models that have only a few parameters are developed and compared to those in the literature. A test is proposed for the validity of the model used with asymptotic closure theory for optical property estimation.
Duration of faculty training needed to ensure reliable or performance ratings

Objectives The American Board of Surgery has mandated intraoperative assessment of general surgery residents, yet the time required to train faculty to accurately and reliably complete operating room performance evaluation forms is unknown. Outside of surgical education, frame-of-reference (FOR) training has been shown to be an effective training modality to teach raters the specific performance indicators associated with each point on a rating scale. Little is known, however, about what form and duration of FOR training is needed to accomplish reliable ratings among surgical faculty. Design Two groups of surgical faculty separately underwent either an accelerated 1-hour ( n = 10) or immersive four-hour ( n = 34) FOR faculty development program. Both programs included a formal presentation and a facilitated discussion of sample behaviors for each point on the Zwisch operating room performance rating scale (see DaRosa et al. 8 ). The immersive group additionally participated in a small group exercise that included additional practice. After training, both groups were tested using 10 video clips of trainees at various levels. Responses were scored against expert consensus ratings. The 2-sided Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare between group means. Setting and Participants All trainees were faculty members in the Department of Surgery of a large midwestern private medical school. Results Faculty undergoing the 1-hour FOR training program did not have a statistically different mean correct response rate on the video test when compared with those undergoing the 4-hour training program (88% vs 80%; p=0.07). Conclusions One-hour FOR training sessions are likely sufficient to train surgical faculty to reliably use a simple evaluation instrument for the assessment of intraoperative performance. Additional research is needed to determine how these results generalize to different assessment instruments.
Dynamic Graphical Models

A graphical model consists of I a graph G = (V,E) and a V set of properties that determine a family of V probability distributions. There are many different types of graphs and properties, each determining a family. It is common to be able to develop algorithms that work for all members of the family by considering only a graph and its properties. Thus, solving difficult problems (such as deriving an approximation to an NP-complete optimization problem) might become worthwhile only because a solution can be applied many times for different problem instances.
Overview of anticoagulant drugs for the future.

Abstract More efficacious, safer, and easier to use anticoagulants are under development. Multiple agents have been shown to be effective in ex vivo or animal thrombosis models and several have progressed to clinical studies. Investigators have not yet determined if pharmaceuticals that inhibit coagulation factor activity earlier in the cascade (for example, inhibitors of tissue factor/factor VIIa, factor IXa, or Xa) are superior to those that block the cascade at a later point. Orally bioavailable drugs for the long-term treatment of thrombotic disorders, particularly those that do not require monitoring, are needed and are under development. Local delivery of anticoagulants or genes modulating anticoagulant control at sites of increased thrombogenicity, such as in diseased arteries, is a promising treatment modality that may decrease systemic bleeding problems. Much about the initiating pathophysiologic events leading to venous thrombotic disease needs to be elucidated before such local therapy can be tested in the venous vasculature. While awaiting better anticoagulants to become routinely available, we need to improve patient management with existing drugs by instituting anticoagulation clinics, promoting patient self-monitoring, and improving efforts to educate patients and health care providers about the use of anticoagulant drugs. Semin Hematol 39:145-157. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.
TH‐C‐141‐01: Differentiation of Air From Bone Using MRI for Radiation Therapy and PET‐MRI Reconstruction

Purpose: Differentiating air from bone is challenging with conventional MR images. While ultrashort TE (UTE) techniques have shown some promise, factors including noise, partial volume averaging, and imaging artifacts all may limit the discriminatory power of this technique. Methods: A biological phantom containing bone, bone marrow, solid tissue (with an air cavity), and fat was scanned with an 18‐channel surface coil on a 3T MR scanner (Siemens SKYRA). MRI volumes acquired included T1‐weighted gradient echo (TE 2.5 ms), T2‐weighted fast spin echo (TE 88 ms), and two echoes from a UTE acquisition (UTE1 TE 0.06 and UTE2 TE 4.46 ms). CT images for the phantom were acquired to define “true” air and bone regions using thresholds of −600 and 145, respectively. A range of intensity thresholds was used to test sensitivity in defining air regions in T1, T2, UTE1, UTE2 and difference of the UTE1 and UTE2 images. The number of voxels labeled as air in MR images and within air and bone regions defined in CT images were counted to calculate sensitivity and specificity. ROC curves were generated to evaluate bone and air discrimination in different MR image types. Results: ROC curves did not cross for the individual image types tested. UTE1 had the greatest discriminatory power (AUC 0.944), followed by UTE1–UTE2 (0.906), UTE2 (0.869), T1 (0.750), and T2 (0.651). UTE1 could not completely separate air from bone, generating false positive locations of air within the CT‐defined bone region of interest at sensitivities of 0.756 and higher for labeling air within the cavity defined on CT. Conclusion: While UTE1 reasonably separates air from bone, the persistence of false labeling of bone as air warrants further investigation. Subtraction of UTE1 and UTE2 did not improve sensitivity/specificity, indicating no added value of the 4.46 ms TE in separating bone from air.
Liposomal Encapsulation and Stability of Dideoxyinosine Triphosphate

AbstractDideoxyinosine triphosphate (ddITP) was encapsulated in multilamellar liposomes prepared with various lipid composition. The stability of liposomes in terms of retention of ddITP was measured at 4°, 25° and 37°C. The encapsulation of ddITP was 7.5 times greater in liposomes prepared with dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) compared to dimyristoylphosphatidyl-choline (DMPC). When equimolar cholesterol (CHOL) was added to DM PC liposomes the encapsulation of ddITP was increased by 4.5 times. The leakage of ddITP was 60% from DMPC liposomes stored at 4° and 25° C after a month and 100% leakage after 16 days when stored at 37° C. The leakage of ddITP from DMPC:CHOL liposomes was only 20% after a month at 4° C, 50% at 25° and 90% at 37° C. These results suggest that the encapsulation of hydrophilic compound such as ddITP can be increased either by increasing the fatty acid chain length (DPPC) or by inclusion of CHOL. However, the optimum encapsulation and retention of ddITP was achieved using DMPC:CH...
Observer Architecture of Program Visualization

We propose Observer architecture for program visualization. The principles of Observer architecture are modular, model-driven visualization with one-directional coupling, hierarchical delegation, message-passing and archival by visualizers. The architecture is scalable. The resulting visualization can be distributed and modified independent of the model. The Observer architecture has been implemented in online tutors for programming called problets.
A CaMKII/PDE4D negative feedback regulates cAMP signaling

cAMP production and protein kinase A (PKA) are the most widely studied steps in β-adrenergic receptor (βAR) signaling in the heart; however, the multifunctional Ca 2+ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is also activated in response to βAR stimulation and is involved in the regulation of cardiac excitation-contraction coupling. Its activity and expression are increased during cardiac hypertrophy, in heart failure, and under conditions that promote arrhythmias both in animal models and in the human heart, underscoring the clinical relevance of CaMKII in cardiac pathophysiology. Both CaMKII and PKA phosphorylate a number of protein targets critical for Ca 2+ handling and contraction with similar, but not always identical, functional consequences. How these two pathways communicate with each other remains incompletely understood, however. To maintain homeostasis, cyclic nucleotide levels are regulated by phosphodiesterases (PDEs), with PDE4s predominantly responsible for cAMP degradation in the rodent heart. Here we have reassessed the interaction between cAMP/PKA and Ca 2+ /CaMKII signaling. We demonstrate that CaMKII activity constrains basal and βAR-activated cAMP levels. Moreover, we show that these effects are mediated, at least in part, by CaMKII regulation of PDE4D. This regulation establishes a negative feedback loop necessary to maintain cAMP/CaMKII homeostasis, revealing a previously unidentified function for PDE4D as a critical integrator of cAMP/PKA and Ca 2+ /CaMKII signaling.
Comments on Evidence for Hunting of Pronghorn Herds in Prehistory

Abstract An article by Lyman (2007) in this journal provided an excellent summary of the Holocene paleozoological record of pronghorn in eastern Washington, but the discussion of hunting of herds and specifically of communal hunting prior to the written record does not capture the complexity of this issue. A bone assemblage numerically dominated by pronghorn does not alone provide adequate evidence for hunting herds of multiple animals. There needs to be a convergence of multiple lines of evidence, including indications of human-caused mortality, a single episode of bone deposition, and a single mortality event.
Regulation of neurotransmitter aspartate metabolism by glial glutamine synthetase

: Aspartate levels and release from rat striatal slices following the inhibition of glutamine synthetase (GS) by methionine sulfoximine (MSO) were studied. Striatal levels of aspartate and glutamine were decreased over time in a manner that correlated with GS inhibition. Ca2+-dependent, K+-stimulated aspartate release was diminished in striatal tissue slices from animals pretreated with MSO. The decreased release of aspartate correlated over time with the inhibition of GS. The addition of glutamine to the perfusion medium completely reversed the effects of MSO on calcium-dependent aspartate release. It is suggested that glutamine is a major precursor for transmitter aspartate.
Contour mapping of precision ball defects with laser Doppler vibrometry

Abstract Laser Doppler vibrometry is presented as an effective inspection technique for contour mapping of defects on precision roller bearing balls. Localized defects are characterized by measuring the Doppler shift of a laser beam incident on a rotating ball. Contour maps are obtained by scanning the ball at equally spaced azimuths with the laser beam as the ball rotates about a vertical axis. A technique for characterizing the repeatable runout of a ferrofluid spindle is discussed. Tests were performed on two different grades of ceramic ball bearings. With the experimental setup, a height resolution of 5.5 nm could be attained. Defects of 22 μm in width could be detected. Use of the contour mapping technique greatly enhances visualization of defects on ball bearing surfaces.
A spectral comparison of two methods of removing errors in Gauss' law in a 2-dimensional PIC plasma simulation

Summary form only given, as follows. Non-charge conserving current collection algorithms for relativistic PIC plasma simulations can cause errors in Gauss' law. These errors arise from violations of the continuity equation, /spl nabla//spl middot/J=-/spl delta/p//spl delta/t. Two techniques for removing these errors are examined and compared, the Marder correction, a method which corrects electric fields locally and primarily affects short wavelengths, and a divergence correction, which uses a Poisson solve to correct the electric fields so that Gauss' law is enforced. The effect of each method on the the spectrum of the error (short wavelengths vs. long) are examined. Computational efficiency and accuracy of the two techniques is compared. Particular cases of interest include corrections in electromagnetic relativistic beam simulations.
An NMR study of the structure of and the internal rotation in phenylsilane

Abstract The proton magnetic resonance spectrum of phenylsilane oriented in the nematic phase of N-(p-methoxybenzylidene)-p-n-butylaniline has been investigated. Values of the chemical shifts and indirect HH coupling are obtained. The shape of the proton skeleton is determined. The ring proton positions do not deviate significantly from those in benzene. The results indicate that the minimum energy conformation is the one where an SiH bond is in the ring plane. The structural and the conformational information thus derived is compared with the corresponding carbon analog, toluene. The observed conformational differences in phenylsilane and toluene are interpreted in terms of opposite polarizations of the SiH and CH bonds.
Synthesis of multiscale reinforcement fabric by electrophoretic deposition of amine-functionalized carbon nanofibers onto carbon fiber layers

Abstract Deposition of amine-functionalized carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on the surface of carbon fibers (CFs) using water as dispersive medium was achieved by a two-stage scalable electrophoretic process. The resulting hybrid CNF–CF layers showed uniform distribution and microfiber wrapping of amidized-CNFs not seen when depositing oxidized-CNFs on the same substrate. Such layers provide potential for improving the mechanical properties of advanced composites by covalent bonding between amine and epoxide groups of the CNFs and matrix, respectively.
Development of environmentally friendly nonanhydride no-flow underfills

Most no-flow underfill materials are based on epoxy/anhydride chemistry. Due to the sensitizing nature, the use of anhydride is limited and there is a need for a no-flow underfill using nonanhydride curing system. This paper presents the development of novel no-flow underfill materials-based on epoxy/phenolic resin system. Epoxy and phenolic resins of different structures are evaluated in terms of their curing behavior, thermo-mechanical properties, viscosity, adhesion toward passivation, moisture absorption and the reliability in flip-chip underfill package. The influence of chemical structure and the crosslinking density of the resin on the material properties is investigated. The assembly with nonanhydride underfill shows high reliability from the thermal shock test. Solder wetting test has confirmed the sufficient fluxing capability of phenolic resins. Results show that epoxy/phenolic system has great potential for an environmentally friendly and highly reliable no-flow underfill.
PSII-T, a New Nuclear Encoded Lumenal Protein from Photosystem II TARGETING AND PROCESSING IN ISOLATED CHLOROPLASTS

An intronless nuclear gene, psbT, isolated from cotton, encodes a putative 11-kDa protein (PSII-T) highly homologous in its C terminus to the N terminus of the partially sequenced PSII-T protein from spinach photosystem II. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence of cotton PSII-T revealed the presence of potential chloroplast stroma and thylakoid targeting domains and a putative mature PSII protein of 3.0 kDa, composed of only 28 amino acid residues. The cotton PSII-T 11-kDa precursor was synthesized in vitro in a wheat germ extract translation system, and the translation product was used in assays for protein imports into isolated pea chloroplasts. It was shown that the cotton PSII-T precursor was imported into the chloroplasts, processed to a mature form of approximately 3.0 kDa, agreeing with the predicted size from amino acid sequence analysis, and localized to the lumenal side of the thylakoid membrane, thus defining a new nuclear encoded lumenal protein and the smallest polypeptide of PSII reported to date. Processing of the PSII-T precursor occurred in two steps and involved the formation of a stromal intermediate of approximately 7.5 kDa, as predicted from primary structure analysis.
Visual Poetry/Performing Script: The Art of Wosene Worke Kosrof

Drawing on numerous interviews with the artist, the authors use a loosely biographical approach to explore the conditions and inspirations of Wosene Worke Kosrof's artistic production over his career of nearly forty years. Emphasis is placed on Wosene's ability to layer multiple "stories" by evincing a temporal, spatial, and kinetic aesthetic in his visual work; on his choice of and approach to his materials; and on the changes in his oeuvre over the years: from painting and mixed media to monumental steel sculptures of Amharic letters, constructed in collaboration with local Ethiopian welders. The authors also bring Wosene's work into conversation with some of the broader artistic movements that have used script "against itself."
How food safe is your home kitchen? A self-directed home kitchen audit.

Food mishandling in home kitchens likely causes a significant amount of foodborne disease. One of the few studies that evaluated the sanitation practices in home kitchens reported that 99% of the households failed an inspection of their kitchen—despite knowing in advance that someone would be visiting their home to observe and evaluate their kitchen! Many of the participants in that study committed major food safety violations related to temperature control of refrigerators and had insufficient food thermometer access. A similar inspection of the kitchens in nondormitory dwellings inhabited by college students found that overall, the kitchens appeared to be clean to sight and touch. However, numerous potential problems were observed. For example, refrigerator temperatures were higher than is generally considered safe (ie, 40 F), few kitchens had a food thermometer available, and kitchen appliances were dirty. Althoughmanyof the food safetyviolations noted in the kitchens of both adults and college students could be corrected easily and inexpensively, research indicates a general lack of awareness among consumers of how to improve practices in their home kitchens to reduce the risk for foodborne disease. The authors therefore developed a kitchen checkup tool that consumers could use to assess their home kitchens and evaluated its usefulness in increasing
Apparent Metabolizable Energy Needs of Broiler Chicks Subjected to Diverse Ambient Temperature Regimens

SUMMARY Early chick performance is adversely affected by inadequate ambient temperatures. Increasing AMEn may help alleviate poor performance with chicks subjected to low brooding temperatures. This study examined the effects on subsequent growth and meat yield responses in broiler chicks provided diets formulated to either 3,040 or 3,140 kcal of AMEn/kg when subjected to diverse ambient temperatures from 0 to 15 d. Two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, ambient temperature was considered optimum and was held constant, with set points of 34°C from placement (0 d) to 4 d, 32°C from 5 to 9 d, and 29°C from 10 to 15 d. In experiment 2, suboptimal ambient temperatures (held constant) were 29°C from placement to 3 d, 28°C from 4 to 6 d, 26°C from 7 to 11 d, and 25°C from 12 to 15 d. In both experiments, diet and temperature were common from 16 to 40 d. Energy consumption per unit of gain from 0 to 15 d was improved with chicks fed the moderate AMEn (3,040 kcal of AMEn/kg; 1,553 kcal of AMEn intake) diet compared with chicks fed the high AMEn (3,140 kcal of AMEn/kg; 1,614 kcal of AMEn intake) diet in experiment 1. From 0 to 15 d, feed conversion was improved with chicks provided the high AMEn diet (3,140 kcal of AMEn/kg; 1,689 kcal of AMEn intake) over that of chicks fed the moderate AMEn diet (3,040 kcal of AMEn/kg; 1,678 kcal of AMEn intake) in experiment 2. In both experiments, dietary treatments did not influence final BW gain, cumulative feed conversion, or breast meat yield. Providing chicks with a diet containing moderate AMEn (3,040 kcal of AMEn/kg) when subjected to diverse brooding temperatures was adequate to support cumulative growth responses.
Survey of Topology-based Multicast Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

This review paper presents an exhaustive survey on the different categories of topology-based multicast routing protocols that have been proposed for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Due to the inherent broadcast nature of the wireless medium, one- to-many multicast communications are characteristic of most of the MANET applications. MANET multicast routing protocols are primarily classified as tree-based and mesh-based protocols depending on the underlying topology used for communication. Tree-based protocols are further classified to source-tree based and shared-tree based depending on whether the tree is rooted at the multicast source or a common node. Further, there are several sub- categories of source-tree based and shared-tree based multicast routing protocols. The mesh-based multicast protocols are primarily categorized to source-initiated and receiver-initiated protocols depending on which entity (the source node or the receiver nodes) initiates the mesh formation. In this paper, we will explain in detail the working of eleven different multicast routing protocols, covering all of the sub-categories of tree-based and mesh-based routing protocols.
Design of a Distributed Decentralized Estimator for a Formation with Fixed Communication Topology

We propose a solution to the problem of synthesizing a distributed decentralized estimator for a formation of agents described with a discrete LTI system. In the considered estimation structure each agent of the formation carries an estimate of the entire formation state. Agents of the formation can communicate information between each other through unidirectional links specified with a fixed communication topology. The design procedure is based on a set of convex optimization problems with linear matrix inequalities.
Formaldehyde columns from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument: Urban versus background levels and evaluation using aircraft data and a global model

GEOS‐Chem, within expected uncertainty for the retrieval. Some negative bias is expected for the satellite and model, given the plume sampling of many flights and averaging over the satellite and model footprints. Major axis regression for OMI versus aircraft and model columns yields slopes (95% confidence intervals) of 0.80 (0.62–1.03) and 0.98 (0.73–1.35), respectively, with no significant intercept. Aircraft measurements indicate that the normalized vertical HCHO distribution, required by the satellite retrieval, is well captured by GEOS‐Chem, except near Mexico City. Using measured HCHO profiles in the retrieval algorithm does not improve satellite‐aircraft agreement, suggesting that use of a global model to specify shape factors does not substantially degrade retrievals over polluted areas. While the OMI measurements show that biogenic volatile organic compounds dominate intra‐annual and regional WHCHO variability across the United States, smaller anthropogenic WHCHO gradients are detectable at finer spatial scales (∼20–200 km) near many urban areas.
Stability of Materials as Candidates for Sulfur-Resistant Anodes of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Development of sulfur-resistant anode materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is critical to cost reduction of SOFC technologies. In this paper, we report the thermodynamic stability of various candidate materials for sulfur-resistant anodes of SOFCs, including metal carbides, borides, nitrides, silicides, perovskite-structured oxides, and transition metal sulfides. The most probable reaction between each candidate material and hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S)-containing fuels under SOFC operating conditions (i.e., high temperature, reducing atmosphere with significant concentration of water vapor) were predicted and compared with experimental observations. It was found that proper thermodynamic analysis provided accurate prediction of the stability for a wide range of materials and significantly reduced the number of candidate materials for further in-depth study.
Fuzzy cognitive maps for policy analysis

Fuzzy cognitive maps are introduced as a way to model state changes in a dynamic system where policy and technological components must be directly compared. To illustrate the process of developing a map and infer state changes from it, an action/reaction arms race of the Richardson type is modeled. Because fuzzy cognitive maps qualitatively capture the essential interactions of a system, numerical predictability of outputs is lost. Instead, the user is gaining a more seemless way to compare information and artifacts that have lack a common numerical measure.
Can we modify transplant outcome by improving lymphocyte recovery

In patients with hematologic malignancies, disease relapse and transplant-related mortality (TRM) are the major causes of treatment failure after stem cell transplantation (SCT). Early post-SCT, lymphocyte recovery [defi ned as the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) at 5 to 30 days post-SCT], a surrogate maker for early immune recovery, is a simple biomarker of outcome after SCT and chemotherapy (1,2). Low ALC is consistently associated with poor outcome after high-dose chemotherapy, autologous (auto-SCT), related and unrelated donor allogeneic stem cell (allo-SCT) transplantation and after cord blood transplantation (CBT) (2 – 7). ALC is a signifi cant, independent prognostic factor for survival after auto-SCT, including acute myeloid leukemia, breast cancer, Hodgkin ’ s lymphoma, non-Hodgkin ’ s lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma, suggesting the possibility of an autologous graft-versus-tumor (GvT) effect similar to the GvT seen in allo-SCT (2,6). Early lymphocyte recovery, its composition and impact on outcome, depends on a variety of factors: the amount and type of prior therapy, disease status pre-SCT, type of transplantation (autologous versus allogeneic versus CBT), T-depletion, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis, intensity of conditioning regimen (myeloablative versus reduced intensity), mobilization strategies [granulocyte – colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) versus G-CSF plus high-dose chemotherapy versus G-CSF plus plerixafor] and, most importantly, timing of ALC analysis (2,3,6,8 – 11). In this issue of Cytotherapy , Schmidmaier et al. (1) show ALC (as early as day 5) was predictive for developing neutropenic fever after auto-SCT for multiple myeloma. Day 5 lymphocytes constituted a
A global approach to identify differentially expressed genes in cDNA (two-color) microarray experiments

Motivation: Currently most of the methods for identifying differentially expressed genes fall into the category of so called single-gene-analysis, performing hypothesis testing on a gene-by-gene basis. In a single-gene-analysis approach, estimating the variability of each gene is required to determine whether a gene is differentially expressed or not. Poor accuracy of variability estimation makes it difficult to identify genes with small fold-changes unless a very large number of replicate experiments are performed. Results: We propose a method that can avoid the difficult task of estimating variability for each gene, while reliably identifying a group of differentially expressed genes with low false discovery rates, even when the fold-changes are very small. In this article, a new characterization of differentially expressed genes is established based on a theorem about the distribution of ranks of genes sorted by (log) ratios within each array. This characterization of differentially expressed genes based on rank is an example of all-gene-analysis instead of single gene analysis. We apply the method to a cDNA microarray dataset and many low fold-changed genes (as low as 1.3 fold-changes) are reliably identified without carrying out hypothesis testing on a gene-by-gene basis. The false discovery rate is estimated in two different ways reflecting the variability from all the genes without the complications related to multiple hypothesis testing. We also provide some comparisons between our approach and single-gene-analysis based methods. Contact: yyzhou@netra.wustl.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.