cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ultrasonic NDE of solid-state bonds: Inertia and friction welds

This paper discusses a number of special ultrasonic NDE problems of particular interest to inertia and friction welds, but most of the results can be readily applied to other similar or dissimilar solid-state bonds as well. One of the major problems associated with dissimilar bonds is the “blinding” effect of the strong interface reflection caused by the inherent elastic discontinuity at the otherwise flawless boundary. A novel signal-processing technique based on the symmetric part of the boundary reflections from the two opposite sides of the interface is introduced and shown to yield a quantitative measure of boundary imperfection even for very good, apparently flawless bonds. The second problem addressed in this paper is the so-called “cold-weld” effect. As a combined result of heat softening and external pressure, intimate mechanical contact can be achieved without real fusion. Frequency analysis of the reflected ultrasonic signal from such cold-welded areas is shown to be capable of measuring the degree of plastic deformation at the contacting surfaces and, indirectly, to assess interface pressure and temperature. The third problem considered in this paper is the ultrasonic evaluation of the characteristic layered distribution of the grain structure in flawless inertia and friction welds. As an example, the thickness of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) was determined by ultrasonic spectroscopy, and the results were found to be in good agreement with independent optical profile measurements. Furthermore, the HAZ thickness is shown to be strongly correlated to welding pressure, therefore it offers a sensitive indicator for bond quality assessment as well.
Some Considerations on Nanowires in Nanoelectronics

Nanowires have become of great interest in recent years, and great promise has followed their development. In this paper, we review the role of ballistic transport, the ballistic-to-diffusive crossover, and the possible impact of nanowires in integrated circuits.
Gene Action of New Mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana

For a newly arising mutation affecting a trait under selection, its degree of dominance relative to the preexisting allele(s) strongly influences its evolutionary impact. We have estimated dominance parameters for spontaneous mutations in a subset of lines derived from a highly inbred founder of Arabidopsis thaliana by at least 17 generations of mutation accumulation (MA). The labor-intensive nature of the crosses and the anticipated subtlety of effects limited the number of MA lines included in this study to 8. Each MA line was selfed and reciprocally crossed to plants representing the founder genotype, and progeny were assayed in the greenhouse. Significant mutational effects on reproductive fitness included a recessive fitness-enhancing effect in one line and fitness-reducing effects, one additive and the other slightly recessive. Mutations conferring earlier phenology or smaller leaves were significantly recessive. For effects increasing leaf number and reducing height at flowering, additive gene action accounted for the expression of the traits. The sole example of a significantly dominant mutational effect delayed phenology. Our findings of recessive action of a fitness-enhancing mutational effect and additive action of a deleterious effect counter a common expectation of (partial) dominance of alleles that increase fitness, but the frequency of occurrence of such mutations is unknown.
RRAM Motifs for Mitigating Differential Power Analysis Attacks (DPA)

Hybrid Resistive Random Access Memory(RRAM)/CMOS architectures offer several opportunities in the next generation high performance systems. These systems are vulnerable to side channel attacks(SPA), including Differential Power Analysis (DPA) attacks. An architecture with cryptoco processors integrated on a dedicated CMOS layer and the associated memory on the RRAM layer, can help mitigate the side channel attacks on these systems. In particular, we focus on the DPA attacks which can compromise the system performance, by statistically analyzing information of intermediate results in a cryptographic computation. In this paper we propose the use of RRAM to obscure the power signals that mitigate the DPA attacks. RRAM motifs are dynamically reconfigurable hardware crossbar structures that can be programmed on-the-fly in to a memory or sensing elements. We investigate a 4x64 RRAMmotif that can perform memory and sensing in tandem. Our analysis shows that we cannot easily distinguish between the memory access and sensing operations. Though the power dissipated in the best and worst case scenarios when reading from an RRAM motif varied by 9%, it does not provide any additional information on the specific access. Additionally, it was observed that the variations in the voltage and temperature of the RRAM generate noise in guessing the sub key and enhances the DPA resiliency of the system.
Soil‐pile‐structure interaction effects on the seismic response of a cooling tower

A study of the effects of soil-pile-structure interaction on the response of rotational shell structures supported by a group of vertical piles is presented. The interaction effects are included in the dynamic analysis through the development of a frequency dependent boundary system at the interface between the shell and the underlying foundation. The substructure method is used to simplify the connection problem between the shell and the pile foundation. A free vibration analysis of a cooling tower is carried out to investigate the dynamic properties of rotational shells with four different foundation stiffnesses. The effects of soil-pile-structure interaction on the response in the shell are demonstrated by a complex response analysis of a cooling tower.
Bézier representations for the multiobjective optimization of conformal array amplitude weights

For conformal phased arrays, generally the excitation amplitude of the array elements must be adjusted in order to maintain low sidelobes as the array is scanned. While the desired phase weights for maximum gain are deterministically set by the array geometry and scan angle, the representation of optimum low sidelobe amplitude weights remains an open problem. Following up on prior work using the efficiency-constrained optimization of a modified Bernstein polynomial for low sidelobe conformal array synthesis, a Bezier surface is shown to provide a good representation of the optimized amplitude weights with a reduced number of parameters, while demonstrating e-constraint multi-objective optimization of conformal aperture efficiency versus sidelobe level. These results are extended to include a Bezier volume representation for the multiobjective optimization of conformal aperture efficiency versus both sidelobe level and scan angle.
Performance comparison of thermally enhanced plastic (TEP) packages

Plastic packages have long been the mainstay of VLSI packaging due to a combination of important characteristics such as cost, reliability, and mass producibility. However standard plastic packages and higher pin-count standard plastic quad flat pack (PQFP) packages do not readily lend themselves to applications over 1-2 watts. Over the last few years several techniques have been used to enhance the thermal performance of plastic packages. These include the addition of a thin metal sheet referred to as a heat spreader or a thicker piece of metal called a heat slug internal to the package. These thermal enhancers behave differently depending on the external environment and the printed circuit board's ability to carry heat away from the package. They also have important differences in other aspects such as cost and manufacturability. This paper discusses several different types of thermally enhanced plastic (TEP) packages, their thermal performance under different ambient conditions, relative costs and manufacturability, and the effects on thermal performance depending on the test environment and how the measurements are made. Such an analysis is useful in selecting the right type of thermally enhanced packages for a given application.
On the Role of Interior Mixing and Air-Sea Fluxes in Determining the Stratification and Circulation of the Oceans

Abstract The problem of determining the (eastern boundary) basic stratification and the buoyancy-driven circulation of the oceans is addressed. A global integral constraint relating the interior stratification and the air-sea heat fluxes is derived, based on the condition that the total mass of water of given density is constant in a steady state ocean. This constraint is then applied to two simple analytic models: The first is a continuous nonlinear diffusive model of the lower mid-depth and bottom circulation below the influence of the wind-driven circulation. It shows the tendency of the vertical density profile to look like an exponential profile in the presence of mixing. The integral constraint is used to relate the stratification and circulation of the bottom and mid-depth waters to the air-sea heat fluxes at the surface, where the deep densities outcrop. The second model is a layered one of the wind-driven circulation, mid-depth, and bottom water. The eastern boundary stratification of the model i...
Recent Bering Sea warm and cold events in a 95-year context

The meteorology and oceanography of the southeastern Bering Sea shelf was recently dominated by a multi-year warm event (2000–2005) followed by a multi-year cold event (2007–2010). We put these recent events into the context of the 95-year air temperature record from St. Paul Island and with concurrent spatial meteorological fields. For March 2000–2005 the mean air temperature anomaly at St. Paul was 2.1 1C above the long-term mean, and for March 2007–2010 the mean temperature anomaly at St. Paul was 4.7 1C below the long-term mean. The only multi-year temperature deviations comparable to the first decade of the 2000s are a cold event from 1971 to 1976 followed by a warm event from 1978 to 1983. There was also a short warm event 1935–1937. The temperature transition between warm and cold events in the 1970s and 2000s took two years. While there are theoretical arguments for some physical memory processes in the North Pacific climate system, we cannot rule out that the recent warm and cold events are of a random nature: they are rare in the St. Paul temperature record, they are dominated by North Pacific-wide sea level pressure events rather than local Bering Sea processes, and they are consistent with a red noise model of climate variability. The 1970s transition
Herbivore exclusion drives the evolution of plant competitiveness via increased allelopathy

Summary The ‘Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability (EICA)’ hypothesis predicts the evolution of plant invasiveness in introduced ranges when plants escape from their natural enemies. So far, the EICA hypothesis has been tested by comparing plant vigor from native and invasive populations, but these studies are confounded by among-population differences in additional environmental factors and/or founder effects. We tested the major prediction of EICA by comparing the competitive ability (CA) of Solidago altissima plants originating from artificial selection plots in which we manipulated directly the exposure to above-ground herbivores. In a common garden experiment, we found an increase in inter-specific, but not intra-specific, CA in clones from herbivore exclusion plots relative to control plots. The evolutionary increase in inter-specific CA coincided with the increased production of polyacetylenes, whose major constituent was allelopathic against a heterospecific competitor, Poa pratensis, but not against conspecifics. Our results provide direct evidence that release from herbivory alone can lead to an evolutionary increase in inter-specific CA, which is likely to be mediated by the increased production of allelopathic compounds in S. altissima.
Massively Parallel Simulation of Light Harvesting in an Organic Molecular Triad

The solar energy is an alternative source of renewable energy. The current inorganic solar cells mostly based on amorphous Si have been able to provide an efficiency of 10 - 20% for solar energy conversion. Organic solar cells have been proposed as another alternative mostly due to the high quantum efficiency of solar power conversion seen in natural world. They offer the possibility for lighter-weight and environmentally clean renewable energy sources. We present a firstprinciples study on a bio-mimetic light harvesting organic. This 207-atom molecular triad consists of a fullerene, a porphyrin and a carotenoid. In order to simulate this energy conversion it is necessary to determine the transition rates from density functional theory and then use a Monte-Carlo approach to simulate the photon induced charge-separation process. Charge transfer excited states have been calculated using a new density-functional based method. We have used NRLMOL and honey-bee algorithms to perform the electronic structure calculations on the NRL SGI-Altix system. The Monte-Carlo simulations have used a coarse grained approach in which many different starting conditions are studied on individual processors. We find that the molecule possesses a dipole moment of 180D in the charge-separated state. We show that an electric field and incident solar radiation are necessary for excitation into a charge-separated state. The necessary electric field can be realized through a solvated ionic solution or in the crystalline phase. Such excitation of one molecule in solution can quickly trigger a dipolar-induced cascade process leading to aligned chains and possibly solarinduced current.
Judging a book by it's cover: the relationship between service and safety quality in US national and regional airlines

Abstract The general public perception is that service quality among US airlines has declined significantly since deregulation, however, there is continuing debate among experts on the effect of deregulation on safety quality. Unlike safety quality, service quality is more visible to the traveling public. It is not clear, however, whether service quality is a good indicator of safety quality. We addressed this issue by examining the service and safety quality of 20 US regional carriers for 1991–1997. Service and safety rates were calculated for each carrier. Then carriers were ranked on service and safety quality. Spearman's rho correlations were calculated on these lists. The results indicate that for four of these seven years the Spearman's rho was significant indicating that service quality is an excellent indicator of overall safety quality among US national and regional carriers.
Using partial-matching approach with Sequitur for contact-based coding

This paper presents a Sequitur, which is a powerful realization of the grammar-based text compression approach. First, it derives a context-free grammar, which generates the given input as its only language. Then it represents the grammar as a single sequence of symbols, where a symbol represents either a rule head or an alphabet, and finally it uses arithmetic coder to code the sequence. Sequitur encodes each symbol individually. A modified approach is to code a rule symbol in the context of the last alphabet of the preceding rule symbol. Thereby, the partial matching (PM) approach is followed to realize code reduction. The crux of this approach is to maintain multiple dictionaries, each containing rules that begin with the same alphabet.
Lifestyle behaviors associated with exposures to endocrine disruptors

Abstract Identifying and characterizing sources of exposure to phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) have proved challenging due to the presence of multiple co-exposures resulting from a wide variety of home environments and lifestyles. We hypothesized that the consistent lifestyle of an Old Order Mennonite (OOM) community would provide an ideal setting in which to characterize sources of exposure to BPA and phthalates. We obtained urine samples from ten mid-term pregnant OOM women (ages-21–39) to determine concentrations of 9 phthalate metabolites and BPA and collected a self-reported survey of participants’ household environment, product use, and lifestyle within a 48-h period prior to urine collection. We compared their metabolite concentrations to pregnant women included in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2007–2008). Although OOM participants reported some use of plastic and fragranced household products, concentrations of metabolites were lower and significantly less for BPA (p = 0.002) and phthalate metabolites MEHP (p = 0.0215), MiBP (p = 0.0020) and MEP (p = 0.021), when compared to NHANES pregnant women. Levels of other phthalate metabolites were also lower in this population. Our data suggest three practices that may contribute to these lower levels: (1) consuming mostly homegrown produce (ingestion), (2) no cosmetics and limited use of personal care products, and (3) transportation primarily by sources other than automobiles.
Efficient Raman laser based on a CaF 2 resonator

We report on an ultralow-threshold Raman laser based on a CaF2 whispering-gallery-mode resonator. The laser is demonstrated to have a conversion efficiency above 60%. The observed low lasing threshold is made possible by the ultrahigh optical quality factor of the cavity, which is on the order of Q=1010. The laser is fiber-compatible and is fabricated with a very simple technique. We also demonstrate a single-mode operation of the laser in a multimode cavity as well as a multimode operation of the laser in a single-mode cavity.
Macromolecular structure of coals. V. Molecular weight distribution of extracted coal chains

Seven coal samples with carbon contents ranging from 69.95% to 94.17% on a dry mineral matter-free (dmmf) basis were extracted with pyridine at reflux temperature for two weeks. The liquids obtained (coal extracts) were analyzed for molecular weight distribution by gel permeation chromatography at 35°C using a solution of 10% pyridine and 90% tetrahydrofuran as the mobile phase. Calibration was done by use of anionically-prepared monodisperse polystyrene and by a series of polynuclear low molecular weight compounds. The number average (MMn) and weight average (Mw) molecular weights of the coal extracts were found to depend on the carbon content of the initial coal samples. As the carbon content increased, Mn and Mw decreased from original values of 640 and 1120 for the lignite sample, passing through a minimum of 600 and 895 respectively and reaching a maximum of Mn = 725 and Mw = 1 445 for the anthracite sample with 94.17% C. Previously extracted coal matrices were alkylated by the Sternberg alkylation technique which causes degradation of the macromolecular chains of the coal matrix. Gel permeation chromatographic analysis of pyridine-extracted liquids of the solid alkylated coal showed average molecular weights smaller than those of the original coal extracts (Mn = 440–470, Mw = 445–590).
Temporal Response of Hepatic Threonine Dehydrogenase in Chickens to the Initial Consumption of a Threonine-Imbalanced Diet

Amino acid imbalances contribute to higher requirements of amino acids than would occur if the dietary profile of amino acids perfectly matched the requirements. The mechanisms of imbalances have not been fully elucidated. Because threonine dehydrogenase (TDH) activity in liver mitochondria increases in chicks and rats subjected to threonine imbalance, the current study was carried out to determine whether the change in TDH activity occurs rapidly enough after the consumption of an imbalanced diet to be considered a possible primary metabolic response. In a series of experiments, Leghorn chicks were allowed free access to a semipurified basal diet marginally limited in threonine or the same diet containing a mixture of indispensable amino acids (IAA) lacking threonine to cause a threonine imbalance. In the first experiment, dietary supplements of 5.5 and 11.1% IAA were used to determine a level of supplement that would cause a robust response in the specific activity of TDH. Feed intake, body weight gains and efficiency of feed utilization were lower and specific activities of TDH were higher in chicks fed 11.1% IAA than in those fed 5.5% IAA. In subsequent experiments, hepatic TDH activities and plasma amino acid profiles of the control and experimental groups were determined at 1. 5, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h after the first offering of the diet containing 11.1% IAA. The specific activities of TDH in chicks fed the IAA supplement were 40-150% higher (P < 0.05) and plasma threonine concentrations were 42-53% lower (P < 0.05) than in chicks fed the basal diet at all times except 1.5 h. These results indicate that changes in the capacity for threonine degradation via TDH may occur in the liver within a few hours after the consumption of a threonine-imbalanced diet and suggest the possibility that altered TDH activity may contribute to the increased threonine requirement associated with threonine imbalance.
A study of software product sampling

Product sampling is an important marketing strategy in the software industry. In this work, we propose a dynamic model to study consumer behaviour in software product sampling. The model shows that the demand for dynamic sample is in two equilibrium states. The result of the comparative static analysis indicates that factors such as sampling effectiveness and network externality effect can result in converting samplers into software buyers. Other factors, however, have the opposite impact. These factors include attrition (forgetting) rate, software price, and learning cost. Managerial implications of our findings are provided to the software vendors. We recommend that the software vendor should design an effective and user-friendly sampling mechanism and provide good learning tutorials, courses and demos for the samplers. The software vendor can increase the network effect of software product sampling through increasing of sampler base and knowledge sharing with social media. The vendor should carefully plan the pricing policy so that the effective sampling and maximum total revenue can be achieved.
Dealing with the prenatal diagnosis of clefting: a parent's perspective.

Abstract Objectives: Prenatal testing and information is available on an increasing basis for a variety of reasons. There are conflicting standards of care in the delivery of this type of evaluation and even more confusion around access to such services. As physicians and patients evaluate which tests will generate useful information with acceptable levels of risk, the rules of the game constantly shift. Presenting the situation from the viewpoints of both a professional and a parent, issues revolving around uncertainty and reassurance are evaluated. A description of the personal experience of the impact of the discovery of a cleft prenatally is provided. Conclusions: Finally, efforts are made to raise questions about our motivations behind conducting prenatal testing and also developing some suggestions about how to support families better in our regular clinical work. A challenge is made to providers and patients to do more work prior to examination to explore how the unexpected will be handled. The dil...
The Strategy of a Search for Viral Involvement in Human Cancer

The first suggestions that viruses could be concerned in the causation of neoplasia in birds were made over 60 years ago (Ellermann and Bang, 1908; Rous, 1911), to be followed, 20–30 years later, by compelling evidence (Bittner, 1942; Shope and Hurst, 1933; Gross, 1951) that viruses could similarly cause tumors in mammals. However, it is only recently that serious consideration has been given to the possibility that such a situation could also obtain in man. In principle, this has been because morphological, immunological, and biochemical, as well as biological, studies of animal model systems have established an association between viruses and neoplasms, particularly leukemias and sarcomas, in a whole range of mammalian species, extending from mice to primates (Dameshek and Dutcher, 1970), but similar studies have not so far led to the isolation and characterization of an authentic human cancer virus. This chapter represents an attempt to discover why this should be so, to decide what kind of evidence might be needed in the future to indicate viral involvement in the genesis of any one human tumor, and to see how current studies measure up to the criteria adopted.
Introduction to the Polyhedron Kingdom

What is a polyhedron? The question is short, the answer is long. Although you may never have heard of the Polyhedron Kingdom before, it is nearly as vast and as varied as the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms (and it overlaps all three of them). There are aristocrats and workers, families and individuals, old polyhedra with long and interesting histories and young polyhedra born yesterday or the day before. In this kingdom you can take a walking tour of polyhedral architecture, visit a nature preserve and an art gallery and an artisans’ polyhedra fair. As you stroll along you may even glimpse polyhedral ghosts from four-dimensional space.
Adjuvant methods in macular hole surgery: intraoperative plasma-thrombin mixture and postoperative fluid-gas exchange.

■ BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The optimal method for surgical management of idiopathic macular holes remains unknown. Adjuvant methods including intraoperative cytokines and postoperative fluid-gas exchange with and without laser have been described. We report on the safety and final results of routine intraoperative autologous plasma-thrombin mixture and postoperative fluid-gas exchange when necessary as an adjunct to the surgical therapy of this disease. ■ PATIENTS AND METHODS: A consecutive series of 114 patients (mean age 66.9 years) with primary idiopathic full thickness Stage II, III, and IV macular holes were primarily treated by vitrectomy, fluid/perfluorocarbon gas exchange, and application of autologous plasma-thrombin mixture to the macular hole. Visible epiretinal membranes were peeled but the normal appearing internal limiting membrane was not routinely stripped. Outcome measures included final Snellen visual acuity, rate of macular hole closure, complications, and number of supplemental procedures performed. ■ RESULTS: Closed at one month, were 110 of 121 (91%) macular holes, including two that underwent repeat fluid/gas exchange and laser within the first two weeks after surgery. At the time of final follow-up (mean: 10.9 months), 110 of 121 (91%) macular holes were closed. This included 8 of 9 eyes that had reopening of the macular hole between one and 21 months successfully treated by repeat fluid-gas exchange and 2 eyes that underwent a second successful pars plana vitrectomy, membrane peeling, and repeat fluid-gas exchange. Overall, 98 of 121 eyes overall (81%) were successfully treated by a single surgery; 94 of 121 (78%) achieved two lines or greater of visual improvement; 83 of 121 (69%) achieved 20/70 or better vision; and 47 eyes (39%) achieved 20/40 or better vision. Complications in this series included infectious endophthalmitis (1 eye), intraoperative retinal break (2 eyes), late retinal detachment (5 eyes), transient mild intraocular pressure elevation (46 eyes), inflammatory response (six eyes), epiretinal membrane (6 eyes), intraretinal hemorrhages (1 eye), and cataract (33 of 99 phakic eyes underwent cataract extraction during the follow-up). ■ CONCLUSION: A combination of intravitreal perfluorocarbon gas and autologous plasma-thrombin mixture (tissue glue) was well tolerated in most patients and did not result in any specific long-term complications. The use of supplemental fluid-gas exchange when necessary improved the final success rate. Further well-controlled and randomized studies will be required to determine the efficacy of this as an adjunct or alternative to other methods of treatment for macular holes.
Reliability-based topology optimization using a new method for sensitivity approximation - application to ground structures

This paper proposes an efficient gradient-based optimization approach for reliability-based topology optimization of structures under uncertainties. Our objective is to find the optimized topology of structures with minimum weight which also satisfy certain reliability requirements. In the literature, those problems are primarily performed with approaches that use a first-order reliability method (FORM) to estimate the gradient of the probability of failure. However, these approaches may lead to deficient or even invalid results because the gradient of probabilistic constraints, calculated by first order approximation, might not be sufficiently accurate. To overcome this issue, a newly developed segmental multi-point linearization (SML) method is employed in the optimization approach for a more accurate estimation of the gradient of failure probability. Meanwhile, this implementation also improves the approximation of the probability evaluation at no extra cost. In general, adoption of the SML method leads to a more accurate and robust approach. Numerical examples show that the new approach, based on the SML method, is numerically stable and usually provides optimized structures that have more of the desired features than conventional FORM-based approaches. The present approach typically does not lead to a fully stressed design, and thus this feature will be verified by numerical examples.
Conjoint treatment for intimate partner violence: A systematic review and implications.

Gender-specific men-only interventions for intimate partner violence (IPV) have had limited success beyond the effects of arrest alone. This review outlines current U.S. state-mandated treatments for IPV, acknowledges how conjoint treatment may better address a subtype of IPV that is not motivated by power and control, examines and reviews previously conducted couples-based treatments, and highlights policy implications and future directions. Empirical findings and theoretical support for the Duluth model, cognitive-behavioral approaches, and IPV typologies are presented, followed by a systematic review of selected quasi- and true experimental studies on couples-based approaches for IPV. U.S. state guidelines that absolutely exclude conjoint approaches are overly restrictive, considering the poor evidence of effectiveness for current gender-specific groups. Further, the theoretical foundations of most men-only groups assume unilateral, male-to-female violence, which does not fit at least one-third of court-involved cases and leaves treatment needs of couples experiencing problematic relationship dynamics unmet. For a carefully screened subset of couples that experience predominantly "situational violence," conjoint communication and relationship skills training groups may be a viable alternative to the Duluth model and cognitive-behavioral men-only groups. Language: en
Study of quercetin in inducing TRAMP-C2 cell line apoptosis in vitro

Objective:To investigate the effect and mechanism of quercetin in inducing the apoptosis in TRAMP-C2 cell line.Method:TRAMP-C2 cell line was treated with different concentration of quercetin in different time in vitro. The effect of inhibition of quercetin on the TRAMP-C2 cell line proliferation and inhibitive rate of cell line were tested with the MTT assay. The apoptosis rate was determined by flow cytometry, and the differential gene expression was detected using gene chip.Result:Quercetin can inhibit the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of TRAMP-C2 cell line in a dose and time-dependent manner; the gene expression of thrombospondin-1 was up-regulated.Conclusion:The results indicate that quercetin has the anti-tumor effect and induce the apoptosis of TRAMP-C2 cell line, the mechanism may be through up-regulate the gene expression of thrombospondin-1.
Equivalent disturbing current limit for HVDC project

On the basis of summarizing bygone research results,standard and design specification related to the influence of high voltage direct current(HVDC) lines on communication networks,the authors systematically investigate the current technical level of counter-interference capability of communication networks and lines in China and present situation of related standards being executed and by means of theoretical calculation,probability analysis and simulation tests;the interference restriction level that the communication networks can withstand is proposed;and the limitation value of DC equivalent disturbing current(EDC) suitable to counter-interference level of current communication networks is given.
Self-Distribution Licensing Requirements and Craft Brews Across States

Thirty-four states require breweries to obtain a self-distribution license to sell directly to the public (Brewer’s Association, 2013f). Self-distribution licenses raise the cost of entry by requiring new breweries to comply with industry standards, and, in most states, pay a series of fees to obtain the licenses. As a result of implied higher rent costs in states requiring licenses, more craft breweries will concentrate in states without these license requirements. Discouraging the entry of new breweries has a marked effect on quality. After controlling for states’ per capita populations and other important between-state differences, states requiring licenses have fewer numbers of craft breweries and the existing craft breweries will have lower levels of experimentation with new brews. Therefore, in the short run, states that require licenses experience a lower variation in craft brew quality and higher average craft brew quality than states that do not.
Evidence for the physiological occurrence of lysolecithin in rat plasma

An improved separation of phospholipids on activated silicic-acid columns was achieved by stepwise elution with increasing concentrations of methanol in chloroform. Chemical analyses and paper strip chromatography demonstrated that the noncholine-containing fraction was free of choline-containing phospholipids, and that the lecithin and lysolecithin were of high purity. Rat plasma was shown to contain on the average 17.5% of its lipid phosphorus in the form of lysolecithin. The following is evidence that plasma lysolecithin is not an in vitro breakdown product: (a) rapid glass-paper chromatography of lipid extracts showed the presence of a distinct spot with the Rf of lysolecithin, (b) after P32 injection the specific activity of lysolecithin was less than that of lecithin, (c) silicic-acid chromatography of C14-labeled plasma lipids failed to show a significant liberation of fatty acids, and (d) rechromatography of P32-labeled lecithin did not give rise to a lysolecithin peak.
Life in the amniotic fluid

This presentation relates to multiple facets of amniotic fluid changes associated with fetal life. The composition of amniotic fluid is contrasted with that of fetal urine and the implications with respect to the origin of amniotic fluid are discussed. Amniography, fetal radiography, and angiography are presented with respect to recent developments and the role that these modalities have in assessing the fetal status. Amniotic fluid analyses are presented with respect to (1) management of Rh sensitization, (2) fetal maturity, and (3) esterase levels. A correlation is made between the presence of meconium in amniotic fluid and the fetal outcome. Maternal urinary estriol levels appear to be more closely correlated with the fetal status than previously reported in connection with erythroblastosis fetalis.
VPS35 binds farnesylated N-Ras in the cytosol to regulate N-Ras trafficking

Ras guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) regulate signaling pathways only when associated with cellular membranes through their C-terminal prenylated regions. Ras proteins move between membrane compartments in part via diffusion-limited, fluid phase transfer through the cytosol, suggesting that chaperones sequester the polyisoprene lipid from the aqueous environment. In this study, we analyze the nature of the pool of endogenous Ras proteins found in the cytosol. The majority of the pool consists of farnesylated, but not palmitoylated, N-Ras that is associated with a high molecular weight (HMW) complex. Affinity purification and mass spectrographic identification revealed that among the proteins found in the HMW fraction is VPS35, a latent cytosolic component of the retromer coat. VPS35 bound to N-Ras in a farnesyl-dependent, but neither palmitoyl- nor guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-dependent, fashion. Silencing VPS35 increased N-Ras's association with cytoplasmic vesicles, diminished GTP loading of Ras, and inhibited mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling and growth of N-Ras-dependent melanoma cells.
A Dream Play: Shame

In Shame , civilization itself has become threatened and is at the brink of extinction. The global destruction of the biblical apocalypse is no longer a dramatic figure or the framework for a medieval morality play. What was feared by Jonas comes to pass, and what appears to be some sort of civil war or intra-European conflict brings about the end of the world. The geopolitical terror that invaded an otherwise secure national life through the newspapers in Winter Light and through television in Persona has become real and at hand. That modernity is an attack on civilization itself and not just stressful to this or that individual is marked throughout the film on three levels. Most obvious, of course, is the dominance and ubiquity of the military (and of whatever the military is fronting, which goes unanalyzed). Tanks, soldiers, personnel carriers, planes are everywhere. Persons – people living ordinary lives – are first transformed into citizens and civilians, and then into enemies or patriots. Everything is a proper target of destruction – farms and churches, refugees, children, animals, prisoners of war, unarmed boys, former friends and associates – even wives and husbands. There remain no ties that bind. When this occurs, when anyone and everyone becomes an acceptable object of violent force, social relationships and human intercourse itself become transformed into something inhuman, brutal, and equally deadly. This is the second level of ruin. ruin. Words can no longer mean what they say, and all discourse is governed by ulterior ends and meanings: All speaking is constrained, and so undermined, by ideology.
The Effect of Endothelins on Ion Transport Systems in Cultured Rat Brain Capillary Endothelial Cells

Brain capillary endothelial cells regulate the movement of ions and water across the blood-brain barrier via specific ion transport systems. Disturbances in these ion transport systems are involved in the formation of ischemic brain edema. This study describes the effects of endothelins (i.e., ET-1 and ET-3) on ion transport systems in cultured rat brain capillary endothelial cells using 86Rb+ and 22Na+ as markers for K+ and Na+, respectively. ET-1 stimulated K+ uptake and efflux with EC50 values of 0.6 nM and 0.5 nM, respectively. The potencies of ET-3 on these responses were considerably lower. Both ET-1 and ET-3 stimulated Na+ uptake through a Na+/H+ exchange system with similar potencies (i.e., EC50 = 0.80 nM and 1.89 nM, respectively). ET-stimulated K+ uptake, K+ efflux, and Na+ uptake activities were all inhibited by BQ123 (selective ETA receptor antagonist). ET-1-stimulated K+ uptake and efflux, in contrast to Na+ uptake, were also reduced by protein kinase C inhibitors and by an intracellular Ca2+ chelator. The results suggest that ETs can affect the activities of ion and water transport at the blood-brain barrier through different signal transduction mechanisms.
Scheduling tasks with precedence constraints on multiple servers

We consider the problem of scheduling jobs which are modeled by directed acyclic graphs (DAG). In such graphs, nodes represent tasks of a job and edges represent precedence constraints in processing these tasks. The DAG scheduling problem, also known as scheduling in fork-join processing networks, is motivated by examples such as job scheduling in data centers and cloud computing, patient flow scheduling in health systems and many other applications. We consider a flexible system, in which servers may process different, possibly overlapping, sets of task types. In this paper, we first discuss the difficulties in designing provably efficient policies for DAG scheduling, which arise due to interactions between the flexibility of the processing environment and the precedence constraints in the system. A major difficulty is the classical synchronization issue, which is further complicated in the presence of system flexibility. Then, we propose two queueing networks to model the scheduling problem that overcome this difficulty. These are virtual queues that enable us to design provably efficient scheduling policies. We show that the well-known Max-Weight policy for these queueing networks is throughput-optimal. Finally, to compare the delay performance of the two queueing networks, we consider a simplified model in which tasks and servers are identical. We characterize their delay performances under a simple first-come-first-serve policy, via a novel coupling argument.
Effects of 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Epigenetic Modifications within the VEGF Promoter Region on G-Quadruplex and I-Motif DNA Structure and Stability

Epigenetic modifications to DNA base sequences may regulate gene expression. CpG islands can contain methylated (5mC) or hydroxymethylated (5hmC) cytosine. Most CpG islands are found primarily in promoter regions that may also contain a high number of repeated cytosines and/or guanines. G-quadraplexes (G4) and i-motifs (iM) are two unique DNA secondary structures that can form in repeating sequences of either guanine or cytosine, respectively. Both G4 and iM sequences may contain CpG sequences that can be methylated or hydroxymethylated. The effects of CpG islands on DNA secondary structures were determined by incorporating a single 5hmC at varying positions in the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) G4 and iM sequences. An Olis DSM-20 spectropolarimeter and a Cary 100 UV-visible spectrometer were used to monitor the effect of 5hmC on G4 and iM thermal stability. Two of the three 5hmC-containing loops showed a notable decrease in stability for G4's and increased intermolecular structure formation. Contrastingly, the iM stability increased when 5hmC was incorporated into its sequence. Additionally, there was little change in the iM pka. In summary, our results suggest the 5hmC has little effect on iM structures, but can destabilize the G4's.
New information on Titanichthys (Placodermi, Arthrodira) from the Cleveland Shale (Upper Devonian) of Ohio, USA

The placoderm Titanichthys from the Late Devonian (Famennian) is based on incomplete and fragmentary specimens that have hindered understanding of its overall anatomy and phylogenetic relationships. A new, nearly complete, articulated specimen from the Upper Devonian Cleveland Shale provides new information about the previously undescribed rostral, postmarginal, postsuborbital, submarginal, posterior superognathal plates, and the nasal capsule. A revised diagnosis is provided for the genus. Three new diagnostic characters are identified, including a transversely elliptical rostral plate that does not contact adjacent plates, a reduced posterior superognathal, and a median dorsal plate that inserts into the posterior dorsal lateral plate. The first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Titanichthys indicates that the genus is a basal aspinothoracid arthrodire closely related to the enigmatic taxa Bungartius and Tafilalichthys.
Developing and Evaluating an Innovative Structural Competency Curriculum for Pre-Health Students

The inclusion of structural competency training in pre-health undergraduate programs may offer significant benefits to future healthcare professionals. This paper presents the results of a comparative study of an interdisciplinary pre-health curriculum based in structural competency with a traditional premedical curriculum. The authors describe a new evaluation tool, the Structural Foundations of Health Survey © (2016), developed to evaluate structural skills and sensibilities. The authors use the survey to evaluate two groups of graduating seniors at Vanderbilt University—majors in an interdisciplinary pre-health curriculum titled Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS), and premed science majors—with particular attention to understanding how political, cultural, economic, and social factors shape health. Results suggest that MHS majors identified and analyzed relationships between structural factors and health outcomes at higher rates and in deeper ways than did premed science majors. MHS students also demonstrated higher understanding of structural and cultural competency in their approaches to race, intersectionality, and racial health disparities. The skills that MHS students exhibited represent proficiencies increasingly emphasized by the MCAT, the AAMC, and other educational bodies that, in an era of epigenetics and social determinants, emphasize how contextual factors shape expressions of health and illness.
Innocent victims, creepy boys: discursive framings of sexuality in online news coverage of the celebrity nude photo hack

Following the hack, theft, and digital dissemination of hundreds of nude celebrity photographs—colloquially referred to as “The Fappening”—in August 2014, online news sites filled with speculation ...
CAP-italizing on the Strengths of Learners: The effect of Contract Activity Package versus traditional instruction on the achievement of regents level students in 8th grade social studies

Teachers are most effective when they match their instruction to a student’s learning style (Dunn & Dunn, 1993). It is very important for students to be engaged in activities that build on their perceptual and cognitive strengths. After all, traditional instruction, compromising of teacher-directed information intake, only works for a percentage of students. In the present quasi-experimental study, 16 students in a suburban middle school on Long Island were taught eighth grade social studies through a learning styles Contract Activity Package. The other 16 students in the control group were taught through traditional instruction. Using a contract activity package, students were assigned behavioral objectives for each lesson, activity alternatives, reporting alternatives for each behavioral objective, and team learning activities. Pre-tests and post-tests were administered to both groups of students to measure the effects of both forms of instruction. The students who learned through contract activity packages achieved proportionally similar gains from pre- and post-tests as compared with the students who learned through traditional instruction. Additionally, males and females who learned through contract activity packages achieved proportionally similar gains from pre- and post-tests. Based on the findings, the incorporation of learning styles strategies such as contract activity packages can serve as an alternative method of teaching for students that are not being fully serviced through traditional instruction.
What is the Weight Required for Substantial Health Gains

The formal title of this presentation is “What is the weight required for substantial health gains?” The original impetus for this topic was the observation that small amounts of weight loss in obese subjects tended to produce large changes in health risks (Kanders, & Blackburn, 1992). In addition to addressing this issue, I will present a more general review of the critical issues in interpreting the relations between weight loss and changes in health outcome.
Psychiatrists Diagnosing the President — Moral Imperative or Ethical Violation?

Psychiatrists Diagnosing the President A letter writer argues that psychiatrists’ use of their medical credentials to brand elected officials with neuropsychiatric diagnoses without sufficient evidence and appropriate circumstances undermines the profession’s integrity and credibility.