cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Context matters: female aggression and testosterone in a year-round territorial neotropical songbird (Thryothorus leucotis)

Testosterone promotes aggressive behaviour in male vertebrates during the breeding season, but the importance of testosterone in female aggression remains unclear. Testosterone has both beneficial and detrimental effects on behaviour and physiology, prompting the hypothesis that selection favours an association between aggression and testosterone only in certain contexts in which intense or persistent aggression may be beneficial. We tested this hypothesis in a year-round territorial female buff-breasted wrens (Thryothorus leucotis), by exposing free-living females to experimental intrusions in different social (either single female or male, or paired decoys) and seasonal (pre-breeding or breeding) contexts. Females responded more aggressively to intrusions by females and pairs than to males. However, female intrusions elicited stronger responses during pre-breeding, whereas responses to pair intrusions were more intense during breeding. Territorial females had elevated testosterone levels after female intrusions and intermediate levels after pair intrusions during pre-breeding, but the levels of testosterone remained low after these intrusions during breeding. These results demonstrate seasonal differences in circulating testosterone following territorial aggression in female buff-breasted wrens and are suggestive of differences according to social context as well. Context-dependent elevation of testosterone implies that selection acts directly on female vertebrates to shape patterns of testosterone secretion.
Enforcing temporal control of maternal mRNA translation during oocyte cell‐cycle progression

Meiotic cell-cycle progression in progesterone-stimulated Xenopus oocytes requires that the translation of pre-existing maternal mRNAs occur in a strict temporal order. Timing of translation is regulated through elements within the mRNA 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR), which respond to cell cycle-dependant signalling. One element that has been previously implicated in the temporal control of mRNA translation is the cytoplasmic polyadenylation element (CPE). In this study, we show that the CPE does not direct early mRNA translation. Rather, early translation is directed through specific early factors, including the Musashi-binding element (MBE) and the MBE-binding protein, Musashi. Our findings indicate that although the cyclin B5 3′ UTR contains both CPEs and an MBE, the MBE is the critical regulator of early translation. The cyclin B2 3′ UTR contains CPEs, but lacks an MBE and is translationally activated late in maturation. Finally, utilizing antisense oligonucleotides to attenuate endogenous Musashi synthesis, we show that Musashi is critical for the initiation of early class mRNA translation and for the subsequent activation of CPE-dependant mRNA translation.
Species diversity in deep-sea communities.

Recent extensive quantitative sampling of the deep-sea bottom has revealed communities much richer in species than previously thought. In situ experiments and more precise sampling using free-vehicle instruments and submersibles have provided a more accurate assessment of spatial and temporal variation on the sea floor. These studies have demonstrated the importance of small patches (millimeters to meters) of biogenic disturbance and food input separated on spatial scales of meters to kilometers. In this respect, the processes maintaining deep-sea diversity are similar to those in other species-rich environments such as rain forests.
Molecular dynamic simulation of wild type and mutants of the polymorphic amyloid NNQNTF segments of elk prion: Structural stability and thermodynamic of association

A hexapeptide with amino acid sequence NNQNTF from the elk prion protein forms amyloid fibrils. Here we use molecular dynamic simulations of the oligomers and their single point glycine mutants to study their stability. In an effort to probe the structural stability and association thermodynamic in a realistic environment, all wildtype of NNQNTF polymorphic forms with different size and their corresponding double layer 5 strands single point glycine mutants were subjected to a total of 500 ns of explicit-solvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Our results show that the structural stability of the NNQNTF oligomers increases with increasing the number of β-strands for double layers. Our results also demonstrated that hydrophobic interaction is the principle driving force to stabilize the adjacent β-strands while the steric zipper is responsible for holding the neighboring β-sheet layers together. We used MM-PBSA approach free energy calculations to determine the role of nonpolar effects, electrostatics and entropy in binding. Nonpolar effects remained consistently more favorable in wild type and mutants reinforcing the importance of hydrophobic effects in protein-protein binding. While entropy systematically opposed binding in all cases, there was no observed trend in the entropy difference between wildtype and glycine mutant. Free energy decomposition shows residues situated at the interface were found to make favorable contributions to the peptide-peptide association. The study of the wild type and mutants in an explicit solvent may provide valuable insight for amyloid aggregation inhibitor design efforts.
Teaching low-power electronic design in electrical and computer engineering

Because of the continuous scaling of feature size and the increasing demand of mobile communication devices, power dissipation has become a major concern of integrated circuit design. Students in electrical and computer engineering will find it very helpful to learn low-power circuit design techniques before they enter the workforce. This work introduces several fundamental low-power design techniques and provides some examples to help students understand design methodologies.
Estrogen in the medial preoptic area of male rats facilitates copulatory behavior.

Abstract Mating was studied in sexually experienced, gonadally intact male rats assigned to two surgical groups matched on the basis of mean mounting frequency during behavioral screening trials conducted prior to the study. Estradiol (E 2 ) was delivered bilaterally into the medial preoptic area (MPO) of experimental males by means of hormone-coated implants, and fadrozole was given sc (0.25 mg/kg/day) via osmotic minipumps to block E 2 formation from testicular testosterone throughout the brain. Control males received blank bilateral implants in the MPO and sc fadrozole. After the completion of behavioral testing, immunocytochemical comparisons of the brains from experimental and control rats were made using the H222 antiestrogen receptor (ER) antibody, whose labeling is inhibited by the presence of E 2 . The histology demonstrated that E 2 was confined exclusively to the MPO of experimental males but was absent throughout the brains of controls. In controls, mounting decreased significantly by the 7th day after surgery compared with presurgical levels and did not recover. In contrast, on all postsurgical days, the mounting frequency of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of controls. Although experimental males also showed an initial, significant postsurgical decline in mounting frequency, it recovered completely by the 28th postoperative day. Ejaculations declined significantly after surgery in both groups but, unlike in controls whose performance remained low, ejaculations in experimental males partially recovered and were significantly higher than in controls during the postoperative period. Results showed that ER-containing neurons in the MPO influence male rat copulatory behavior.
Responses of mud snails from low and high imposex sites to sex pheromones

Imposex, male secondary sexual characteristics in female snails, is a morphological indicator of sub-lethal exposure to organotin compounds. The relation between imposex and behavioral responses to sex pheromones was studied. Responses of snails to sex specific pheromones were determined in laboratory assays. Females and males from a low imposex site and females, imposex females and males from a high imposex site were tested. The snails from the low imposex site showed the expected strong behavioral dimorphism with females responding to male pheromone and males responding to female pheromone. In assays using snails from the high imposex site, female and imposex females showed no dimorphism in response to pheromones and males showed a relatively weak dimorphism. As there was no breeding or egg capsule deposition at the high imposex site, we conclude that even the morphologically normal snails were behaviorally and reproductively compromised.
QUALITY DISPERSION AND THE FEASIBILITY OF DIVIDENDS AS SIGNALS

A dividend signaling equilibrium may not be feasible if some firms must pay an unrealistically high dividend to signal their quality. Therefore, feasibility requires a relatively narrow quality dispersion among signaling firms. However, the literature does not offer a characterization of the maximum quality dispersion that is consistent with a feasible signaling schedule. In this paper explicit quality dispersion constraints leading to feasible dividend signaling equilibria are determined.
Near-IR Spectroscopic Determination of NaCl in Aqueous Solution

The concentrations of NaCl in aqueous solutions have been determined with the use of near-IR spectra between 1100 and 1900 nm. Models expressing the concentration of NaCl are developed with linear and nonlinear regression with the use of the absorbances at selected wave-lengths and with principal component regression (PCR) using entire spectra. Temperature perturbations on water bands interfere with the measurement of NaCl but can be removed by linear or nonlinear regressions using the absorbances at the wavelengths where the temperature effects are zero, or they can be accounted for by PCR. Standard errors of 5 mM and a detection limit of 15 mM are obtained for NaCl. This technique can be applied for quantitative analysis of NaCl in the laboratory or can be readily adapted for continuous monitoring in process control.
The Role of A2E in Prevention or Enhancement of Light Damage in Human Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells

The process of sight (photostasis) produces, as a by-product, a chromophore called 2-[2,6-dimethyl-8-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexen-1-yl)-1E,3E, 5E,7E-octatetraenyl]-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-[4-methyl-6-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexen-1-yl)-1E, 3E, 5E-hexatrienyl]-pyridinium (A2E), whose function in the eye has not been defined as yet. In youth and adulthood, A2E is removed from human retinal pigment epithelial (h-RPE) cells as it is made, and so it is present in very low concentrations, but with advanced age, it accumulates to concentrations reaching 20 microM. In the present study we have used photophysical techniques and in vitro cellular measurements to explore the role of A2E in h-RPE cells. We have found that A2E has both pro- and antioxidant properties. It generated singlet oxygen (phiso = 0.004) much less efficiently than its precursor trans-retinal (phiso = 0.24). It also quenched singlet oxygen at a rate (10(8) M(-1) s(-1)) equivalent to two other endogenous quenchers of reactive oxygen species in the eye: alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). The endogenous singlet oxygen quencher lutein, whose quenching rate is two orders of magnitude greater than that of A2E, completely prevented light damage in vitro, suggesting that singlet oxygen does indeed play a role in light-induced damage to aged human retinas. We have used multiphoton confocal microscopy and the comet assay to measure the toxic, phototoxic and protective capacity of A2E in h-RPE cells. At 1-5 microM, A2E protected these cells from UV-induced breaks in DNA; at 20 microM, A2E no longer exerted this protective effect. These results imply that the role of A2E is not simple and may change over the course of a lifetime. A2E itself may play a protective role in the young eye but a toxic role in older eyes.
Forskolin- but not ionomycin-evoked Cl- secretion in colonic epithelia depends on intact microtubules

Several transport proteins are known to be trafficked to the cell membrane in response to appropriate secretagogues. In several cases, the response has been shown to be dependent on the cytoskeleton. We tested the hypothesis that the forskolin- and/or ionomycin-sensitive Cl- secretory response in colonic epithelia is dependent on an intact cytoskeleton. Using 125I- efflux as an assay for Cl- transport in the colonic epithelial cell line T84, we found that preincubation of the tissue for 3 h with either of two inhibitors of microtubule polymerization, nocodazole or colchicine, disrupted the cellular tubulin architecture and also reduced the forskolin- but not the ionomycin-evoked I- efflux. In contrast, brief exposure (4 min) to nocodazole was without effect on the forskolin-sensitive efflux, suggesting that the drug is not acting to block the stimulus-response pathway. An inactive structural analogue of colchicine, beta-lumicolchicine, had no inhibitory effect on either the forskolin-sensitive efflux or on microtubular structure. In a second model of Cl- secretion, the stripped rat colon, both colchicine and nocodazole reduced the forskolin-dependent short-circuit current by an average of 30-40%, suggesting a similar mechanism for insertion of Cl- channels into the plasma membrane. These findings suggest that the Cl- secretory response is dependent on microtubules and has a physiological role in the adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate-dependent, but not the Ca(2+)-dependent, Cl- secretion in colonic epithelia.
Scripture as an Element of Social Control: Two Martyr Stories of Christian North Africa

The martyr stories, the earliest hagiographical writings, were not composed simply as memorials to the courage of those who preferred death to apostasy. Their authors recorded the stories both to preserve beliefs and to enforce norms of behavior. The authors of the martyr stories often provided explicit testimony to why they wrote. They expected the stories to proclaim the validity of the charismatic authority of the martyrs, to manifest martyrs as exemplars of virtue, and to show people how to react during interrogation by Roman authorities. Thus the readers were inscribed in the narratives as potential martyrs. They came to know the attitudes they ought to have, the phrases they should use to parry the insults of their tormentors, and the prayers they should offer for endurance. In this way those who promulgated the martyr stories achieved or attempted to achieve some control over the behavior and beliefs of readers by assigning value to community standards. In doing so the stories provided cohesion and stability for their churches.
Identity of Hypothalamic Feeding Mechanisms

Taken together, these data suggest the following conclusions. It seems clear that all authors who have decided that the ventromedial nucleus constitutes the medial or satiety system have studied animals with lesions that also destroyed other areas of the hypothalamus. Those few authors, however, whose operations were limited to the ventromedial nucleus have not observed hyperphagia or obesity in their animals. Moreover, incisions that do not directly invade these nuclei may lead to hyperphagia and obesity. Finally, hyperphagia and obesity follow lesions of the mesencephalic tegmentum. My conclusion from this survey is that the medial system runs in the neighbourhood of the ventromedial nuclei, but probably does not begin or end there, and that it is most easily destroyed by lesions lateral and ventral to these nuclei. The lesions of our original study (Brobeck, Tepperman and Long, 1943) were in the region identified by Albert and Storlien (1969), near the base of the brain and one millimeter from the midline, a plane that in the rat is at the lateral border of the ventromedial nuclei. One should therefore consider the possibility that the medial system begins in the mesencephalon, runs rostrally into the hypothalamus in a position mainly ventral and lateral to the ventromedial nuclei, and then turns laterad into the lateral hypothalamus.
Diffraction Contrast in TEM Images of Modulated Semiconductor Alloys

Composition modulation is detected in transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and diffraction patterns of several technologically important semiconductor materials, including ZnSe05Te05 alloys and (AIAs)/(InAs) short-period superlattices (SPSs) [1,2]. Here we examine calculated and experimental diffraction contrast in TEM images.
The Death Penalty and the Iraqi Transition: Observations on a Lost Opportunity

The purpose of this chapter is to reexamine the processes for imposing capital sentences in Iraq, particularly in light of the legacy of the Iraqi-led trials that were intended to mark the watershed of an era of revitalized rule of law in the wake of Saddam’s tyranny. Iraq remains in a festering state of political instability some six years following the reinstitution of capital sentences and the subsequent deaths of some dozen leaders of Saddam’s era known euphemistically to Iraqis as “the entombed regime.” The transitional period following the coalition occupation of Iraq offered the very real prospect for rebuilding a fair and just political system and a judicial system that operates with independence and integrity. Working in the context of the law of occupation, Iraqi politicians and jurists conceived and created new judicial institutions precisely as they were discovering the reality of running a nation and reestablishing order that could contain sectarian and tribal rivalries. This chapter documents the underlying state of Iraqi law regarding the imposition of capital sentences, to include the shortcomings of the reform efforts. Most notably, at the time of this writing, the sitting Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi was convicted in absentia by a compliant Central Criminal Court on charges that he masterminded the operations of sectarian death squads. Speaking from exile in Turkey, the Vice President responded that, “The death sentence is a price I have to pay due to love for my country and my loyalty to people. I will reiterate that I’m innocent, and am ready to stand trial before a fair judicial system and not a corrupt one that is under Maliki’s influence.” This chapter concludes by offering three pointed observations to guide future transitional efforts seeking to affirmatively decouple reformed judicial processes from the overarching political context. The chapter concludes with specific recommendations that in the aggregate help to ensure that international expertise supports a transition to the work of revitalized courts functioning as neutral, independent, and apolitical servants of the people’s interests in upholding the law as a constraining and constructive force in society.
Employing the Ninth Amendment to Supplement Substantive Due Process: Arguing for Explicit Recognition of Both Fundamental and Non-Fundamental Unenumerated Rights

James Madison drafted the Ninth Amendment to ensure that unenumerated rights were protected and so, its history should provide the guideposts for unenumerated rights analysis. Courts today instead use substantive due process, but its use is incomplete because it focuses solely on fundamental unenumerated rights. This provides an all-or-nothing approach toward rights and furthers the current trepidation about expanding protection of rights. The ability of courts to recognize non-fundamental rights would limit the harm of this approach. First, courts still should narrowly define the asserted liberty interest, but should look to both the legal tradition and history about that right and the traditions and history of unenumerated rights generally, through the Ninth Amendment's ratification history. If the court determines that the asserted right is fundamental or not a right at all, it should proceed under the current test. If, however, the court determines that the asserted interest is a non-fundamental right, it should require the government to show that it has a rational basis for infringing that right. After establishing a Ninth Amendment construction, there still appear to be three main reasons why the Ninth Amendment has been avoided: it originally applied only against the federal government, judges may not have the power to enforce unenumerated rights, and the Ninth Amendment seems tied to the emanations test which the majority in Griswold v. Connecticut used, but which has now been surpassed by substantive due process. These concerns can be alleviated and, accordingly, the inherent problems of employing the Ninth Amendment can subside. The history and purposes of the Bill of Rights, the reasons for specific enumerations, and the Ninth Amendment should be the guideposts that judges look to in the unenumerated rights test. Altering the current unenumerated rights test would ensure that there remains such a test generally and would reinforce all of the rights retained by the people, fundamental and non-fundamental.
Field-scale habitat complexity enhances avian conservation and avian-mediated pest-control services in an intensive agricultural crop

Abstract The relationship between on-farm avian conservation measures and the potential provisioning of pest-control services by birds is poorly understood in intensive agricultural landscapes, especially in temperate regions. We used an exclusion experiment to test the effects of field- and landscape-scale habitat complexity on avian-provisioned pest-control services and assessed avian abundance and diversity across 32 conventional alfalfa (Medicago sativa) fields in winter and early spring in California. Alfalfa is a key forage crop around the world and is grown on approximately 30 million hectares globally each year. Bird foraging reduced the abundance of the most significant insect pests of alfalfa by over 33%. The presence of complex edge habitat (presence of at least two trees >1.5 m) led to higher avian abundance within fields, which in turn led to reduced pest insect populations at sampling points close to the field edge. Fields with complex edge habitat also harbored nearly three times as many bird species as those with simple edge habitat. The distance from the nearest riparian habitat, a measure of landscape diversity, did not affect bird abundance or diversity in winter alfalfa fields, which may be related to the homogenous landscape in which our study was based. Our results show that relatively simple conservation measures in intensively managed farming landscapes, such as planting small trees along a field edge, can result in increased abundance and diversity of over-wintering birds, with direct benefits to farmers through increased avian-mediated pest-control services.
Othello: The Beast With Two Backs

Although he is almost exclusively the subject of the dialogue in the first scene of the play, Othello is not once mentioned in it by name. It is not till line 40, when Iago refers to the Moor, that one has any idea of who the third person is that Iago and Roderigo have been talking about so animatedly, and even then the idea purchased by the mind is a general one of a racial type and not of an individual.
Women and Leadership

Women have increasingly moved toward greater gender equality at home and in the workplace. Yet, women are still underrepresented in leadership roles and still considered an anomaly compared to men when in high positions of leadership especially within institutions of higher education. In examining differences between how men and women lead, it is often less what they do than in the different experience they face when they lead. Stereotypic gender role expectations can constrain their leadership behaviors. Perceived incongruity between women and leadership roles pose obstacles to leadership and result in double binds, more negative performance appraisals, and different standards compared to those applied to men. It is increasingly clear that a gender neutral view of leadership is insufficient, and that we need to consider the influence of cultural worldviews and socialization on shaping leadership style. There is much to suggest that feminist leadership styles are intentionally different-more collaborative and transformational compared to men. This becomes more complex when we include dimensions of racial and ethnic diversity. We need to transform our views of leadership to promote more robust theories and diverse models of effective leadership. While current leadership theories favor transformational and collaborative leadership styles, organizational cultures often mirror social constructions of gender and ethnicity norms in society. Within the context of higher education institutions, there is often a tension between hierarchical and collaborative forms of leadership reflected in contradictory sets of practices. While women leaders may have an advantage in such contexts, they also face obstacles in needing to change organizational cultures that mirror social biases against women as leaders.
ORIGIN OF FOSSIL ROCK GLACIERS, LA SAL MOUNTAINS, UTAH

Several lobes of blocky colluvium mantle northwest-facing slopes of the La Sal Mountains, Utah. The features are peculiar because they exist at a relatively low altitude compared to most other talus deposits of similar form, and they lack a noticeable source area. Furthermore, transverse ridge and furrow structures on their upper surfaces strongly suggest that some type of flow mechanism was involved in their genesis. A deductive approach is used to determine the most likely scenario surrounding the formation of one of these lobes. Several alternative scenarios are presented and evaluated in light of available evidence. Evidence consists of surface morphology, subsurface geology, stratigraphic relationships, present and past climatic conditions, and fabric analysis. The lobe was compared to other similar types of deposits, and we conclude that it is a fossil permafrost-derived rock glacier. There is also support for snow avalanching as an important process in its initial formation. [Key words: colluvium, ...
Electrochemical Characterization of Ultrathin Cross-Linked Metal Nanoparticle Films.

Here we report the preparation, characterization, and electrochemical study of conductive, ultrathin films of cross-linked metal nanoparticles (NPs). Nanoporous films ranging from 40 to 200 nm in thickness composed of gold and platinum NPs of ∼5 nm were fabricated via a powerful layer-by-layer spin coating process. This process allows preparation of uniform NP films as large as 2 × 2 cm2 with precise control over thickness, structure, and electrochemical and electrocatalytic properties. Gold, platinum, and bimetallic NP films were fabricated and characterized using cyclic voltammetry, scanning electron microscopy, and conductance measurements. Their electrocatalytic activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) was investigated. Our results show that the electrochemical activity of such NP films is initially hindered by the presence of dense thiolate cross-linking ligands. Both electrochemical cycling and oxygen plasma cleaning are effective means in restoring their electrochemical activity. Gold NP...
Colorimetric determination of selenium in mineral premixes

A method is described for determination of sodium selenite or sodium selenate in mineral-based premixes. It is based on the formation of intense-yellow piazselenol by Se(IV) and 3,3'-diaminobenzidine. Mineral premixes typically contain calcium carbonate as a base material and magnesium carbonate, silicon dioxide, and iron(III) oxide as minor components or additives. In this method, the premix is digested briefly in nitric acid, diluted with water, and filtered to remove any Iron(III) oxide. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and HCl are added to the filtrate, which is heated to near boiling for 1 h to convert any selenate to selenite. After heating, the solution is buffered between pH 2 and 3 with NaOH and formic acid and treated with NH2OH and EDTA; any Se present forms a complex with 3,3'-diaminobenzidine at 60 degrees C. The solution is made basic with NH4OH, and the piazselenol is extracted into toluene. The absorbance of the complex in dried toluene is measured at 420 nm. The method was validated independently by 2 laboratories. Samples analyzed included calcium carbonate fortified with 100, 200, and 300 micrograms Se in the form of sodium selenite or sodium selenate, a calcium carbonate premix containing sodium selenite, a calcium carbonate premix containing sodium selenate, and a commercial premix; 5 replicates of each sample type were analyzed by each laboratory. Average recoveries ranged from 89 to 109% with coefficients of variation from 1.2 to 13.6%.
Learning to Deter: Deterrence Failure and Success in the Israel-Hezbollah Conflict, 2006–16

What are the sources of deterrence stability and under what conditions can weak actors deter stronger adversaries? To deter a superior adversary, the weak actor must convince it that if conflict br...
Your hit parade: The top ten most fascinating formulas in Ramanujan's lost notebook

A t 7:30 on a Saturday evening in March 1956, the first author sat down in an easy chair in the living room of his parents’ farm home ten miles east of Salem, Oregon, and turned the TV channel knob to NBC’s Your Hit Parade to find out the Top Seven Songs of the week, as determined by a national “survey” and sheet music sales. Little did this teenager know that almost exactly twenty years later, he would be at Trinity College, Cambridge, to discover one of the biggest “hits” in mathematical history, Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook. Meanwhile, at that same hour on that same Saturday night in Stevensville, Michigan, but at 9:30, the second author sat down in an overstuffed chair in front of the TV in his parents’ farm home anxiously waiting to learn the identities of the Top Seven Songs, sung by Your Hit Parade singers, Russell Arms, Dorothy Collins (his favorite singer), Snooky Lanson, and Gisele MacKenzie. About twenty years later, that author’s life would begin to be consumed by Ramanujan’s mathematics, but more important than Ramanujan to him this evening was how long his parents would allow him to stay up to watch Saturday night wrestling after Your Hit Parade ended.
Decoupling of MIMO systems using cascaded control architectures with application for HVAC systems

Coupling in control systems can create many difficulties for control engineers, especially when trying to use traditional control techniques. In this paper, the potential of cascaded control architectures utilizing standard PID control loops is explored as a means for decoupling highly coupled systems. A theoretical analysis of the decoupling effect is presented and is shown to completely separate input and output pairs under certain conditions. Criteria for selecting gains is determined and compared with previous work on linearization effects of the cascaded architecture. Finally a sample system based on multi-evaporator vapor compression system dynamics is presented to demonstrate key principles of the technique resulting in reduced coupling for specific ranges of inner loop gains.
Experiments on Damping at Contacts of a Sphere with Flat Plates

An apparatus for studying slip damping at rounded contacts for three different systems of forces is described. Experimental results for the constant normal force/varying tangential force problem when a Type 316 stainless-steel sphere is driven between two flat Type 316 stainless-steel plates are presented. They are in fair agreement with theoretical predictions by R. D. Mindlin,et al.
Smart cage for 3D tracking of position and orientation of magnetically marked device

This paper presents a smart cage platform using magnetic sensors for 3D tracking of the location and orientation of a magnetically marked capsule (MMC) for targeted drug delivery. For this study, a small permanent magnet is placed inside a capsule to be tracked. A smart cage is developed using eight 3-axis magnetometers that tracks the location and orientation of the capsule using a magnetic source imaging (MSI) algorithm. The capsule location was estimated within 2–3 mm in XY and 6 mm in the Z direction. The results presented here demonstrate that this noninvasive tracking system holds great promise for monitoring the transit of any device (such as a smart pill) that is magnetically marked.
Revealing the Conversion Mechanism of Transition Metal Oxide Electrodes during Lithiation from First-Principles

Transition metal oxides such as Co3O4 and NiO are of significant interest as conversion anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), due to their remarkably high theoretical capacities and low cost. While many previous experiments have found that the charge/discharge reactions of Co3O4 and NiO can be highly reversible, detailed information about the mechanisms of these reactions, such as the origin of the voltage hysteresis (>1.0 V) between the charge/discharge cycles, is still poorly understood. In this work, we develop and utilize a new computational mechanistic approach that helps elucidate the hysteresis and nonequilibrium reaction pathways associated with these conversion materials. We apply this methodology to investigate a variety of lithiation reaction pathways of Co3O4 and NiO by systematically exploring the energetics of a large number of equilibrium and nonequilibrium LixCo3O4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 8) and LixNiO (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) structural configurations using first-principles calculations. The overall valu...
Ionic and Electrical Dimensions of Hyphal Growth

Fungal hyphae extend at the apex, by the localized deposition of new plasma membrane and cell wall. We owe this insight to Max Otto Reinhardt (1854–1935), whose classic paper on the growth of fungal hyphae was published just over a century ago (Reinhardt 1892). Ever since then, a small but select company of microbiologists has grappled with the next question: How does apical growth come about? How does a hypha arrange its anatomy and functions so that new envelope is deposited exclusively at the apex? How does the characteristic hyphal morphology, a tube with tapered tip, maintain itself through space and time? How do branches, i.e., new apices, arise? Let us be clear from the outset that this is not primarily a problem in biochemistry, let alone molecular biology. Instead, the issue falls within the purview of physiology, the study of complex systems.
Hydrodynamics-mediated trapping of micro-swimmers near drops

In this paper, we investigate the swimming characteristics and dynamics of a model micro-swimmer in the vicinity of a clean drop, and of a surfactant covered drop. We model the swimmer as a force dipole and utilize the image-singularity system to study the dynamical behavior of the swimmer. Motivated by bacterial bio-remediation of insoluble hydrocarbons (HCs) released during oil spills, we report the 'trapping characteristics' - critical trapping radius, basin of attraction and trapping time distribution - of deterministic and stochastic swimmers, as a function of viscosity ratio, and dimensionless surface viscosity. We find that addition of surfactant reduces the critical trapping radius of a drop by ∼30%. The basin of attraction though, is not affected acutely for any combination in the parameter space of viscosity ratio and surface viscosity. We also carry out a dynamical system analysis of our problem, for deterministic swimmers, to clarify the aforementioned concepts. For hydrodynamics combined with diffusion based motion, we note increments ranging from ∼5-25% in the interface-retention times of surfactant-laden drops, as compared to clean drops. These differences occur for low values of surface viscosity, and saturate rapidly as the surface viscosity increases. With potential applications in bioremediation, our results highlight the importance of considering dispersant-addition in oil spills involving insoluble hydrocarbons.
Epilepsy seizure detection using EEG signals

Epilepsy is a neurological disease that is referred to as a disorder of the central nervous system characterized by the loss of consciousness and convulsions. Epileptic patients are subject to epileptic seizures caused by abnormal electrical discharges that lead to uncountable movements, convulsions and the loss of consciousness. Approximately 50 million people around the world are diagnosed with epilepsy, children and adults in the age range of 65–70 years old are effected the most. Although the main cause of this disease is unknown, however, most of the symptoms of the epilepsy seizure can be medically treated. Epileptic patients are subject to seizures that cause uncontrollable movements and loss of consciousness which can lead to serious injuries, and sometimes death. As a result, computerized seizure detection techniques are vital solutions for epileptic patients to protect them from dangers at the time of a seizure. In this paper, we propose an epilepsy seizures detecting method that can be implemented in a hardware device to help epileptic patients. The Electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely recognized for diagnosing and assessing brain activities and disorder. Our study utilized an EEG datasets that is used in various research regarding epilepsy detection. We processed the EEG signal in both time and frequency domains and applied a Chebyschev filter for preprocessing the signal, then, by using Wavelet Analysis, we decomposed the filtered signal into five sub-bands in both time and frequency domain. However, we only used the Delta sub-band for further processing. Discrete Wavelet Transform was used for feature extraction, then thresholding was implemented in order to determine the noisy part of the signal. Moreover, we applied some widely used classifiers for epilepsy seizure detection, and compared our results with other approches.
Interdiffusion and reaction between U and Zr

Abstract The microstructural development and diffusion kinetics were examined for the binary U vs. Zr system using solid-to-solid diffusion couples, U vs. Zr, annealed at 580 °C for 960 h, 650 °C for 480 h, 680 °C for 240 h, and 710 °C for 96 h. Scanning and transmission electron microscopies with X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed for detailed microstructural and compositional analyses. Interdiffusion and reaction in U vs. Zr diffusion couples primarily produced: δ-UZr2 solid solution (hP3) and α′-U at 580 °C; and (γU,βZr) solid solution (cI2) and α′-U at 650°, 680° and 710 °C. The α′-phase was confirmed as a reduced variant of the α-U orthorhombic structure with lattice parameters, a × b × c = 2.65 × 5.40 × 4.75 (A) with a negligible solubility for Zr at room temperature. Concentration profiles were examined to determine interdiffusion coefficients, integrated interdiffusion coefficients, and intrinsic diffusion coefficients using Boltzmann-Matano, Wagner, and Heumann analyses, respectively. Composition-dependence of interdiffusion coefficients were documented for α-U, δ-UZr2 (at 580 °C) and (γU,βZr) solid solution (at 650°, 680° and 710 °C). U was determined to intrinsically diffuse faster than Zr, approximately by an order of magnitude, in the δ-UZr2 at 580 °C, and (γU,βZr) phases at 650°, 680° and 710 °C. Based on Darken's approach, thermodynamic data available in literature were coupled to estimate the tracer diffusion coefficients and atomic mobilities of U and Zr.
Molecular Engineering Approaches to Molecular and Macromolecular Nonlinear Optical Materials: Recent Theoretical and Experimental Results

As materials, polymers offer unexcelled diversity and tailorability in terms of light weight, strength, elasticity, plasticity, chemical resistance, toughness, thermal stability, friction resistance, and process ability with regard to forming films, foils, fibers, coatings, etc. Tradidionally the afflication of polymers in optics technology has been limited largely to inexpensive lenses, prisms, fiber optics, anti reflection coatings, filters etc. It is now clear, however, that this picture is rapidly changing, and recent advances in the area of polymeric/organic substances with highly nonlinear optical (NLO) properties 1-4 signal that new generations of materials for optics and electronics technology await synthesis, characterization.
Deep Brain Stimulation in Epilepsy

Epilepsy describes a variety of disorders in which the brain produces recurrent seizures—events characterized by abnormal, hypersynchronous neuronal activity. Although numerous etiologies underlie epilepsy, ranging from genetic susceptibility to acquired lesions of the brain, the net result is a paroxysmal disruption of cerebral electrical activity. It therefore seems appealing to apply electrical stimulation to combat the storms of electricity that erupt in the epileptic brain. Indeed, neurostimulation has been applied to epilepsy in a variety of ways, both in animal models and in humans with various forms of epilepsy. Approaches have included stimulation of cranial nerves, particularly the vagus nerve (the only Food and Drug Administration [FDA]-approved neurostimulation therapy for epilepsy at the present time), and direct stimulation of cortical epileptogenic regions. This chapter focuses on the application of stimulation to deep brain structures in an effort to treat epileptic disorders.
Boundary effects in discrete element method modeling of undrained cyclic triaxial and simple shear element tests

Cyclic triaxial and simple shear tests are both commonly used to study the behavior of granular assemblies subjected to dynamic loading. These two stress paths have also been simulated with the discrete element method (DEM) using varying boundary conditions. In this work, stiff boundaries and periodic boundaries were implemented in DEM simulations of constant volume cyclic triaxial and simple shear tests. The model response was analyzed at the specimen scale by comparing stress paths, decrease in mean effective stress, and number of cycles to failure across simulations. Particle scale analyses, including quantification of the contact force network, entropy of the local void ratio distribution, and spatial variability in the distribution of void ratio, contact number, and normal contact force are used to provide insight into model response. Simulation results imply that periodic boundaries are more appropriate for consolidating specimens to a homogenous state and minimizing boundary effects during cyclic loading. Significant uneven “squeezing” where particles are pinched between the horizontal and lateral plates in the corners of the specimen with stiff boundaries was observed in the cyclic simple shear test. After liquefaction initiation, increased entropy indicated a more disordered particle assembly in all cases. In addition, specimens in cyclic simple shear tests and cyclic triaxial tests behave significantly differently at the microscale. With the same level of deviatoric shear strain amplitude, the simple shear specimens liquefied in fewer cycles than the triaxial specimens. Cyclic triaxial tests are not able to produce pure shear waves, while cyclic simple shear tests do, micromechanically indicating the better suitability of cyclic simple shear tests to simulate shear wave induced liquefaction. The findings from this work will have implications for the future modeling of cyclic element tests using DEM.
5. Parental Love and Purposeful Violence

The parental discipline privilege is a robust exception to the modern rule that punishes all violence, including intrafamilial violence. Every state allows parents to physically punish their children, often going well beyond ‘spanking’ to include hair-pulling, beatings with belts or sticks, even choking. The privilege is the only remaining status exception to criminal assault and battery; other once-permissible violence, such as abuse of wives and apprentices, has long been criminalized. Yet despite its anachronistic nature, parental corporal punishment remains surprisingly understudied. Accordingly, it is an important topic for inclusion in this volume on the Politicization of Safety. Experts unanimously agree that even mild corporal punishment carries significant developmental consequences. It can evolve into serious child abuse, and renders its victims more likely to hit their partners and children as adults, perpetuating the cycle of abuse. Particularly troubling is that corporal punishment plays out in highly gendered, racialized, and heteronormative ways. I argue that the underlying mens rea of the parental discipline privilege exception to assault both perpetuates this violence and warps the criminal law’s standard approach to punishment, which ordinarily matches culpability with control. In contrast, the parental privilege forgives purposeful beatings “intended to benefit a child.” After analyzing the implications of this paradox, this Chapter concludes by advocating the privilege’s abolition, while cautioning that the primary method to address intrafamilial violence should be services and public education outside of the criminal legal system.
An expanding GSK3 network: implications for aging research

The last few decades of longevity research have been very exciting. We now know that longevity and healthspan can be manipulated across species, from unicellular eukaryotes to nonhuman primates, and that while aging itself is inevitable, how we age is malleable. Numerous dietary, genetic, and pharmacological studies now point to links between metabolism and growth regulation as a central aspect in determining longevity and, perhaps more importantly, health with advancing age. Here, we focus on a relatively new player in aging studies GSK3, glycogen synthase kinase, a key factor in growth and metabolism whose name fails to convey the extensive breadth of its role in cellular adaptation. First, we provide a brief overview of GSK3, touching on those aspects that are likely relevant to aging. Then, we outline the role of GSK3 in cellular functions including growth signaling, cell fate, and metabolism. Next, we describe evidence demonstrating a direct role for GSK3 in a range of age-related diseases, despite the fact that they differ considerably in their etiology and pathology. Finally, we discuss the role that GSK3 may play in normative aging and how GSK3 might be a suitable target to oppose age-related disease vulnerability.
Bioinformatics Structural and Phylogenetic Characterization of Entamoeba histolytica Alcohol Dehydrogenase 2 (EhADH2).

An amitochondriate parasite, Entamoeba histolytica, has a bifunctional ADHE enzyme (EhADH2) that contains separate acetaldehyde (ALDH) and alcohol (ADH) dehydrogenase activities. In a cluster of 25 bifunctional enzymes of single cell eukaryotes and bacteria, we present a phylogenetic analysis that suggests a lateral gene transfer event (prokaryotic ancestor to single-cell eukaryotic ancestor) and a complex structure that aligns with key homologs in the ADHE evolutionary history based on their similarity with bacterial alcohol dehydrogenases. We show that the ADHE in Entamoeba lineage diverged independently but shows significant similarities to the structure of ADHE in Fusobacterium, and a complex model that maps its ALDH and ADH domain well with bacteria such as Geobaccillus thermoglucosidasius. Our analyses likely support a lateral acquisition of an EhADH2-like ancestral gene from bacteria. Analysis using several evolutionary analyses software programs reveal that the enzyme structure is highly conserved, and maintains a similar function within a diverse set of pathogens, including Escherichia coli and Clostridium spp.
An immunocompetent rat model of infection with Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum.

Abstract A major obstacle to developing vaccines against cryptosporidiosis, a serious diarrheal disease of children in developing countries, is the lack of rodent models essential to identify and screen protective immunogens. Rodent models commonly used for drug discovery are unsuitable for vaccine development because they either are purposefully immunodeficient or immunosuppressed. Here, we describe the development and optimization of an immunocompetent intratracheal (IT) rat model susceptible to infections with sporozoites of Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis – the primary causes of human cryptosporidiosis. A model suitable for screening of parasite immunogens is a prerequisite for immunogen screening and vaccine development.