cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Large Eddy Simulation of Film Cooling Flows Using Octree Hexahedral Meshes

Today, high temperatures are needed for the inlet gas of turbines to increase the efficiency of gas turbines. The vanes and blades of a turbine that are exposed to hot gas must be cooled, and film cooling is now being widely applied to gas turbines because of its high cooling effectiveness. Recently, numerous researchers have conducted numerical simulations of film cooling flows using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulation, detached eddy simulation (DES), and large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence models, along with structured and/or unstructured meshes. In fact, for cooling designers, both the prediction accuracy and turnaround time (TAT) of their mesh generations are important to speedily and repeatedly optimize the locations of film cooling holes and shapes. Several researchers have examined the prediction accuracy and effectiveness of film cooling flows in case of RANS in order to minimize the TAT of mesh generation such as for unstructured meshes. However, few papers have considered LES.In this paper, the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) toolkit OpenFOAM [17] is used as the solver, and LES is used to numerically simulate the film cooling flow into the zero-pressure gradient cross-flow on a flat plate from cylindrical holes, which is one of the most typical and basic test cases. LES is used because of its ability to capture the flow unsteadiness and non-uniformity observed in film cooling flows. In addition, surface-adjusted octree hexahedral meshes, which are relatively easy to generate automatically are used. The mesh generation tool used in this study is snappyHexMesh, which is included in OpenFOAM. The experimental data presented by Sinha et al. [15] are used. Because the film cooling effectiveness strongly depends on certain parameters and conditions, those of the simulated film cooling flow are set to the experimental parameters and conditions as closely as possible. In this study, the density ratio DR is set to 2.0, and the blowing ratio BR is set to 0.5 and 1.0 with the steady cross-flow inlet. In addition, a case is considered where BR = 0.5 (DR = 2.0), with an unsteady turbulent cross-flow inlet.In the case of LES, the results obtained using the octree hexahedral meshes are compared with those of the experiment and my previous film cooling study (Fujimoto [32]), which was conducted using multiblock structured meshes. The results show that the prediction accuracy using the octree hexahedral meshes is equivalent to that using the multiblock structured meshes, even though the mesh generation TAT is significantly smaller.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Disintegration of flagella by acid.

Abstract During the disintegration of flagella from cells of Proteus vulgaris, hydrogen ions are taken up; thus one can determine the rate of this disintegration by measuring the number of hydrogen ions consumed at a constant pH. The rate of disintegration was studied in this manner over the pH range 2.5–3.4. In all cases the time course of the process within experimental error obeyed simple pseudo first-order kinetics. The pH dependence of the pseudo first-order rate constant corresponded to an uptake ( q ∗ ) of 2.4 hydrogen ions at 12 °C. Upon disintegration the total uptake of hydrogen ions per monomer unit (q) is about 4. The similarity of q ∗ and q suggests that the activation process may involve the modification or liberation of perhaps only a single or no more than a few subunits, or both. The pseudo first-order character of the process, together with the failure to find evidence by ultracentrifugation for the existence of intermediates having particle weights between those of flagella and flagellin monomers or dimers, represent evidence in favor of a fully cooperative breakdown of flagella.
Immuno-electrophoretic and chemical analyses of human parotid saliva

Abstract Dialyzed and lyophilized parotid saliva, collected from a single donor, was characterized with respect to its chemical composition and number of components. The number of components was determined by immuno-electrophoretic analysis, and these results compared with those obtained by zone electrophoresis in polyacrylamide. The carbohydrate content of parotid saliva consisted of 3.5 per cent fucose, 3.4 per cent N-acetylglucosamine, 3.1 per cent mannose, 2.6 per cent galactose, and 0.43 per cent sialic acid. Protein comprised 61.4–63.5 per cent of the total composition. Proline, glycine, and glutamic acid accounted for 65 per cent of the amino acid residues. Flatbed polyacrylamide electrophoresis revealed 17–18 bands. Immunoelectrophoresis using anti-parotid saliva sera revealed at least 12 antigens. Six of these were reactive with an anti-submaxillary saliva serum, while three were reactive with an anti-human serum. Fractionation of parotid saliva by DEAE-cellulose chromatography, separated the parotid antigens into reaction mixtures, which gave less complex patterns when examined by immunoelectrophoresis. Only one additional antigen was revealed that was not detected in the unfractionated secretion. The precipitin arcs of amylase, IgA, albumin, and a parotid glycoprotein were identified. Three other uncharacterized antigens were shown to share antigenic determinants with the parotid glycoprotein. The major advantage of immuno-electrophoresis was its ability to differentiate antigenically related components in complex mixtures.
Experiments in unsteady transonic flow

The static and dynamic response of a 0.5-m-chord airfoil were measured in the NASA-Ames 11- by 11-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel. The effects of mean angle of attack, Reynolds number, oscillation mode, and frequency were investigated over a range of subsonic and transonic Mach numbers. Unsteady pressure distributions and loads on an oscillating NACA 64A010 airfoil are discussed. The unsteady pressure distributions are compared with classical subsonic theory and with newer unsteady aerodynamic codes. The experimental data are also used to assess the validity of linearity and modal superposition in the transonic-flow regime.
On a fast integer square root algorithm

The long-hand square root algorithm, when implemented in binary arithmetic, produces immediately the analytic result (as opposed to the successive approximations generated by the Newton-Raphson method). It also uses only addition, subtraction, and bits shifts; it is related to the binary integer division algorithm, but is in fact a simpler procedure.
The residual market factor, the APT, and mean-variance efficiency

The rapidly increasing volume of both published and unpublished work on the arbitrage pricing theory (APT) of Ross (1976) has given rise to a number of misunderstandings at the interface of theoretical and econometric work. In this article we extend the theoretical structure of our previous work (McElroy and Burmeister, 1985, 1988; Burmeister and McElroy, 1987, 1988) to provide a broad yet rigorous framework both for econometric estimation and for better economic interpretation of new empirical results.
Lattice relaxation effects on the interface electron states in the perovskite oxide heterostructures: LaTiO 3 monolayer embedded in SrTiO 3

We have studied the effect of the lattice relaxation on the interface electronic structure of ${\text{LaTiO}}_{3}/{\text{SrTiO}}_{3}$, focusing in particular on the wedge-shaped potential, the interface sub-bands, and the orbital ordering, from density-functional calculations using the linearized augmented plane-wave and the linear muffin-tin orbital methods. We find that the extra screening due to the lattice relaxation is about as strong as the screening due to the electronic polarization alone, approximately doubling the value of the short-range dielectric constant as compared to the unrelaxed case. The additional screening reduces the interface electric field and spreads the two-dimensional electron gas further away from the interface, to about four to five layers into the ${\text{SrTiO}}_{3}$ bulk on either side of the interface. The electronic band structure indicates distinct interface sub-bands, derived from the individual interface layers. The orbital-ordered state is quite interesting. While it consists of mainly the $\text{Ti}(xy)$ orbitals oriented parallel to the interface for the first layer Ti, with or without the lattice relaxation, it switches to $\text{Ti}(xz/yz)$ character as one goes beyond the first layer into the bulk.
Breast cancer screening in older women. Synopsis of a forum

There have been no consistent breast cancer screening guidelines for women 65 years of age and older. Given that 15% of the population will soon be 65 years of age or older and given that breast cancer incidence rises dramatically with age, clear recommendations are needed. The most important issues are the following: is mammography effective in finding breast cancer in older women; is there direct evidence that mammography with or without clinical breast examination (CBE) decrease(s) mortality for breast cancer in older women; should there be an age cutoff for screening; and what are the appropriate intervals for screening mammography and CBE. This article summarizes the report of a specially convened forum to address these issues and provide directions for screening.
Nd isotopic constraints on sediment sources of the Ouachita-Marathon fold belt

Nd isotopes for the overthrust deep-marine Ouachita-Marathon sedimentary assemblage of Arkansas-Oklahoma and west Texas, and associated Paleozoic shelf and foreland deposits, resolve into three distinct populations: (1) Lower to Middle Ordovician, ϵ Nd = −13 to −16 (average T DM = 2.0 Ga); (2) Upper Ordovician to Pennsylvanian, ϵ Nd = −6 to −10 (average T DM = 1.6 Ga); and (3) Mississippian tuffs, ϵ Nd = −1 to −3 (average T DM = 1.1 Ga). A rapid shift in ϵ Nd from −15 (passive margin shales) to −7 (orogenic turbidites) in the Ouachita assemblage at ca. 450 Ma implies termination of craton-dominated sources and the emergence of the Appalachian orogen as the primary source of sediment for sea floor lying south of North America. This connection is reinforced by Nd isotopes in Ordovician-Silurian turbidites from both the Ouachita assemblage and the southern Appalachian Sevier-Martinsburg (Taconic) foredeep, which are identical (ϵ Nd = −7 to −9). The post–450 Ma Ouachita assemblage falls along a single Nd isotopic trend that, significantly, is not deflected by onset of Carboniferous flysch (ϵ Nd = −7 to −10) sedimentation nor by associated regional volcanism. The less negative ϵ Nd (−2) of Mississippian ash-flow tuffs that erupted from arc(s) to the south probably resulted from isotopic mixing of old (Precambrian) crust with young, mantle-derived components within a continental margin arc. There is little isotopic, trace element, or petrographic evidence for any significant volcaniclastic detritus in the Carboniferous turbidites, indicating that volcanic arc sources were minimal. Nd isotopes in fluvio-deltaic strata of the Ouachita-Appalachian foreland and continental interior, that is, Arkoma, Illinois, and Black Warrior basins (ϵ Nd = −7 to −10), imply that continental margin pathways and interior basins received the same detritus as the Ouachita trough by Pennsylvanian time. These data are consistent with a composite Carboniferous Ouachita submarine fan complex built down the axis of a remnant ocean basin from varied mature/immature delivery systems tapping dominantly Appalachian fold-thrust belt sources to the east (Graham et al., 1975). Carboniferous turbidites from the Marathon fold belt (west Texas), which are isotopically similar (ϵ Nd = −8 to −11) to Ouachita turbidites, may have been ultimately derived from similar sources; however, they probably do not represent merely distal turbidites of a Ouachita fan complex. It is suggested that dominantly Appalachian-derived detritus, augmented by uplifted plutonic and fold-thrust belt sources south of the Marathon basin, was swept up into subduction complexes on the north side of the approaching arc and recycled along the collision zone.
Work in progress — A hardware platform for a continuous-time signals and systems course

This paper describes a hardware platform that can provide hands-on learning experiences for introductory continuous-time signals and system courses. The signal inputs on the platform consist of a microphone, an instrumentation amplifier input with a right-leg drive for measuring ECGs, and a general voltage input, which enable the students to work with a wide variety of realistic signals. Other analog circuits perform multiplication, addition, filtering, and sampling of those input signals. The underlying hypothesis of this work is that students can improve their understanding of and interest in frequency domain concepts via manipulation of realistic continuous-time systems and observation of signals simultaneously in the time and frequency domains.
Are we formal yet? The evolving role of informal lending mechanisms to support entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation in central Kenya

Entrepreneurship has substantially contributed to the economic growth of Kenya. However, multitudes of the country’s poor have yet to experience the benefits of this growth due to limited access to capital. Microfinance institutions exist in central Kenya but serve the needs of only a handful of entrepreneurs that want to engage in small businesses. Consequently, many Kenyans turn to various informal lending mechanisms to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams and bolster their livelihoods. This paper examines how adults in and around the town of Nyeri, Kenya access capital from a wide variety of formal and informal sources. Several modes of borrowing are identified and reasons for choosing lenders are analysed. Collectively, this data suggests the gradual expansion and formalisation of informal lending mechanisms. This paper provides insights to entrepreneurs, lending institutions and development agencies to help develop effective business and partnership strategies that can empower enterprising individuals...
On neutralized currents in the solar corona

Using Ampere's integral law applied to vector magnetograph transverse field data, the current pattern in an active region associated with flaring activity is analyzed. The greater sensitivity of this integral formalism of Ampere's law may allow one to identify regions of weak return current around the actual positive current region. The effects of Faraday rotation on the inferred magnetic field measurements, and hence on the deduced current pattern, are discussed. It is concluded that the current patterns in the region consist either of a neutralized current system, well modeled by a coaxial cable, or of a potential field, with the apparent currents in the core an artifact induced by magneto-optical effects. In either case, the data do not convincingly show an unneutralized current system.
ORAL RIFAMPIN/TOPICAL BACITRACIN THERAPY AS AN ADJUNCTIVE MEASURE TO CONTROL EPIDEMIC METHICILLIN-RESISTANT S. AUREUS IN A NEONATAL UNIT

Several months after institution of intensive infection control measures in a neonatal intensive care unit with a high infection rate due to methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRS), patients and personnel colonized with the organism were treated with rifampin (R), bacitracin (B) and hexachloraphene (H) in an attempt to reduce the reservoir of MRS. Infection rates in the 6 months prior to the treatment (Rx) period were 11-22% and colonization rates ranged from 26-49%. 16 patients colonized with MRS in nose, cord or trachea and 5 personnel colonized intranasally were included in the study. Patient sites of MRS colonizations included nose-4, cord-2, nose and cord-6, nose and trachea-4. Rx regimen included R 20 mg/kg/day x5 days, B ointment to nose, cord, tracheostomy site x6 daily and H bath with rinse daily x2 days. Personnel received R 600 mg/day x5 days and B ointment intranasally 6x daily. Repeat cultures showed no MRS colonization in 9/16 (56%) patients and 5/5 personnel 2-8 weeks after Rx. Failure of Rx was not statistically associated with any particular site(s) of colonization. Adverse reactions to Rx included vomiting (3/16) and transient hypertransaminasemia (2/16). In the 4 months following the study period, the MRS monthly infection rate was 2-4% and the colonization rate was 6-20%. RBH Rx may offer an additional method of controlling epidemic MRS colonization when standard measures prove inadequate.
Oxygen-carrying blood substitutes: a microvascular perspective.

Development of a viable blood substitute began by focusing on recreating the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood, leading to the recognition that haemoglobin (Hb) is presently unequalled for this fun...
Percutaneous balloon cryoplasty: A new therapy for rapidly recurrent anastomotic venous stenoses of hemodialysis grafts?

Vascular access dysfunction is a major source of morbidity for end-stage renal disease patients on hemodialysis. The arteriovenous graft is a common access type for many of these patients. Frequent stenosis formation and thrombosis complicate this form of access. Patients may have a rapidly forming and recurrent venous stenosis at the graft-vein anastomosis that has been seen in both animal models and end-stage renal disease patients to be the result of neointimal hyperplasia. This venous lesion is particularly resistant and sometimes intractable to conventional angioplasty. As a result, new therapies have been developed to reduce the formation and/or recurrence of neointimal hyperplasia. These include special cutting balloons, drug-eluting stents, and endovascular brachytherapy. The authors present the cases of 5 patients with rapidly recurrent venous lesions at the graft-vein anastomosis that derived benefit from angioplasty with the cryoballoon. The time to stenosis or thrombosis in the arteriovenous grafts was increased from a mean of 3 weeks to more than 16 weeks with this technology. Cryotherapy with the cryoballoon (cryoplasty) may represent a useful therapy for patients with intractable stenoses at or near the venous anastomosis of arteriovenous grafts.
DIRSMIN: a fault-tolerant switch for B-ISDN applications using dilated Reduced-Stage MIN

Develops and analyzes a dilated high performance fault tolerant fast packet multistage interconnection network (MIN). In this new design, the links at the input and the output stages of a dilated banyan-based MIN are rearranged to create multiple routes for each source-destination pair in the network after removing one stage in the network. These multiple paths are link- and node-disjoint. Fault tolerance at low latency is achieved by sending multiple copies of each input packet simultaneously using different routes and different priorities. This guarantees that high throughput is maintained even in the presence of fault. Throughput is analyzed using simulation and analysis and the authors show that the new design has considerably higher performance in the presence of a faulty switching element (SE) or link in comparison to dilated networks.
Hormonal prevention of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is disease in which the mortality rate is highly variable among populations. An increasing risk with migratory changes suggests that some environmental factor or factors influence prostate cancer risk. It is well established that the prostate is hormonally influenced. Carcinogenesis is a process of malignant transformation evolving over time, involving cellular growth and division. There is evidence suggesting that androgenic influences over a period time encourages the process of prostate carcinogenesis. Studies of prostate biology support the concept that dihydrotestosterone is the principal androgen responsible for both normal and hyperplastic growth of the prostate gland. It may be that androgen causes prostate carcinogenesis. Suppression of dihydrotestosterone synthesis may inhibit carcinogenic transformation. Some preclinical and clinical observations support this hypothesis. A placebo controlled randomized trial using finasteride, an inhibitor of 5-α-reductase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, is ongoing. The endpoint of this trial is reduction of prostate cancer incidence.
Differentiation of HL-60 cells to granulocytes involves regulation of select diacylglycerol kinases (DGKs).

Diacylglycerol Kinases (DGKs) are a family of enzymes that regulate the levels of different pools of diacylglycerol (DAG), affecting DAG-mediated signal transduction. Since DAG is known to play several important regulatory roles in granulocyte physiology, we investigated the expression pattern of DGK isoforms throughout differentiation of HL-60 cells to granulocytes. HL-60 cells were incubated with 1.25% dimethyl-sulfoxide (DMSO) to initiate differentiation and total RNA isolated at different time points. DGK expression was assessed through Northern blot, end-point PCR, and real-time PCR. The non-selective inhibitors R59022 and R59949 were used to block DGK at different time points throughout differentiation. CD11b and GPI-80, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, changes in the cell cycle, and apoptosis were used as markers of differentiation. Of the nine isoforms of DGK evaluated (α, δ, e, γ, ζ, β, θ, ι, η), only five (α, δ, e, γ, and ζ) were expressed in HL-60 cells. DGKα was virtually absent in non-differentiated cells, but was markedly upregulated throughout differentiation. The other isoforms (δ, e, γ, and ζ) were expressed in undifferentiated HL-60 cells but were substantially decreased throughout differentiation. Non-selective blocking of DGK with R59022 and R59949 led to acceleration of differentiation, reducing the time necessary to observe upregulation of CD11b, GPI-80 and generation of ROS by 50%. Likewise, the cell cycle was disrupted when DGK isoforms were inhibited. These results provide evidence that DGK levels are dynamically regulated throughout differentiation and that expression of DGKs play an important regulatory function during the differentiation of neutrophils. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Oocyte Generation in Adult Mammalian Ovaries by Putative Germ Cells in Bone Marrow and Peripheral Blood

It has been suggested that germline stem cells maintain oogenesis in postnatal mouse ovaries. Here we show that adult mouse ovaries rapidly generate hundreds of oocytes, despite a small premeiotic germ cell pool. In considering the possibility of an extragonadal source of germ cells, we show expression of germline markers in bone marrow (BM). Further, BM transplantation restores oocyte production in wild-type mice sterilized by chemotherapy, as well as in ataxia telangiectasia-mutated gene-deficient mice, which are otherwise incapable of making oocytes. Donor-derived oocytes are also observed in female mice following peripheral blood transplantation. Although the fertilizability and developmental competency of the BM and peripheral blood-derived oocytes remain to be established, their morphology, enclosure within follicles, and expression of germ-cell- and oocyte-specific markers collectively support that these cells are bona fide oocytes. These results identify BM as a potential source of germ cells that could sustain oocyte production in adulthood.
Segregated and overlapping neural circuits exist for the production of static and dynamic precision grip force

A central topic in sensorimotor neuroscience is the static-dynamic dichotomy that exists throughout the nervous system. Previous work examining motor unit synchronization reports that the activation strategy and timing of motor units differ for static and dynamic tasks. However, it remains unclear whether segregated or overlapping blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity exists in the brain for static and dynamic motor control. This study compared the neural circuits associated with the production of static force to those associated with the production of dynamic force pulses. To that end, healthy young adults (n = 17) completed static and dynamic precision grip force tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both tasks activated core regions within the visuomotor network, including primary and sensory motor cortices, premotor cortices, multiple visual areas, putamen, and cerebellum. Static force was associated with unique activity in a right-lateralized cortical network including inferior parietal lobe, ventral premotor cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, dynamic force was associated with unique activity in left-lateralized and midline cortical regions, including supplementary motor area, superior parietal lobe, fusiform gyrus, and visual area V3. These findings provide the first neuroimaging evidence supporting a lateralized pattern of brain activity for the production of static and dynamic precision grip force.
Hyperfine Structure of Hg 197 . An Application of the Level-Crossing Technique*

Measurements in the 6 3P1 state of Hg197 yield a hyperfine structure splitting of 23 083.4±6.7 Mc. Such accuracy is possible in a strictly optical experiment because the change in intensity of scattered light observed at a Zeeman-level crossing is unaffected by Doppler broadening.
Characterizations of continuous univariate distributions based on the truncated moments of functions of order statistics

Most of the well-known continuous univariate distributions are characterized based on a truncated moment of a function of the 1st order statistic or of the nth order statistic.
Macrophage-enhanced germination of Bacillus anthracis endospores requires gerS.

Germination of Bacillus anthracis Sterne and plasmidless Δ-Sterne endospores was dramatically enhanced in RAW264.7 macrophage-like cells, while germination of nonpathogenic Bacillus endospores was not. Elimination of gerS, a germinant receptor locus, caused a complete loss of cell-enhanced germination, implicating gerS in the breaking of endospore dormancy in vivo.
Viral Immune Evasion Due to Persistence of Activated T Cells Without Effector Function

We examined the regulation of virus-specific CD8 T cell responses during chronic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection of mice. Our study shows that within the same persistently infected host, different mechanisms can operate to silence antiviral T cell responses; CD8 T cells specific to one dominant viral epitope were deleted, whereas CD8 T cells responding to another dominant epitope persisted indefinitely. These virus-specific CD8 T cells expressed activation markers (CD69hi, CD44hi, CD62Llo) and proliferated in vivo but were unable to elaborate any antiviral effector functions. This unresponsive phenotype was more pronounced under conditions of CD4 T cell deficiency, highlighting the importance of CD8– CD4 T cell collaboration in controlling persistent infections. Importantly, in the presence of CD4 T cell help, adequate CD8 effector activity was maintained and the chronic viral infection eventually resolved. The persistence of activated virus-specific CD8 T cells without effector function reveals a novel mechanism for silencing antiviral immune responses and also offers new possibilities for enhancing CD8 T cell immunity in chronically infected hosts.
Insulin Signaling Diverges into Akt-dependent and -independent Signals to Regulate the Recruitment/Docking and the Fusion of GLUT4 Vesicles to the Plasma Membrane

Insulin modulates glucose disposal in muscle and adipose tissue by regulating the cellular redistribution of the GLUT4 glucose transporter. Protein kinase Akt/PKB is a central mediator of insulin-regulated translocation of GLUT4; however, the GLUT4 trafficking step(s) regulated by Akt is not known. Here, we use acute pharmacological Akt inhibition to show that Akt is required for insulin-stimulated exocytosis of GLUT4 to the plasma membrane. Our data also suggest that the AS160 Rab GAP is not the only Akt target required for insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation. Using a total internal reflection microscopy assay, we show that Akt activity is specifically required for an insulin-mediated prefusion step involving the recruitment and/or docking of GLUT4 vesicles to within 250 nm of the plasma membrane. Moreover, the insulin-stimulated fusion of GLUT4 vesicles with the plasma membrane can occur independently of Akt activity, although based on inhibition by wortmannin, it is dependent on phosphatidylinositol 3' kinase activity. Hence, to achieve full redistribution of GLUT4 into the plasma membrane, insulin signaling bifurcates to independently regulate both fusion and a prefusion step(s).
A Copula-Based Approach for Model Bias Characterization

Available methodologies for model bias identification are mainly regression-based approaches, such as Gaussian process, Bayesian inference-based models and so on. Accuracy and efficiency of these methodologies may degrade for characterizing the model bias when more system inputs are considered in the prediction model due to the curse of dimensionality for regression-based approaches. This paper proposes a copula-based approach for model bias identification without suffering the curse of dimensionality. The main idea is to build general statistical relationships between the model bias and the model prediction including all system inputs using copulas so that possible model bias distributions can be effectively identified at any new design configurations of the system. Two engineering case studies whose dimensionalities range from medium to high will be employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the copula-based approach.
Reconfigurable interdependent infrastructure systems: Advances in distributed sensing, modeling, and control

Secure and reliable operation of complex interactive power networks poses significant theoretical and practical challenges in analysis, modeling, simulation, prediction, control, and optimization. In addition, mathematical models of such interactive systems are typically vague (or may not even exist); moreover, existing and classical methods of solution are either unavailable, or are not sufficiently powerful. In this paper, we briefly address this problem, and discuss recent advances in distributed sensing, modeling, and control, particularly at the consumer level. Such advances contribute toward the development of an effective, intelligent, distributed control of power system networks to achieve the overall objectives of efficiency, robustness, security, and reliability.
Orthodontic movement using pulsating force-induced piezoelectricity☆☆☆

In this study, tooth movement is evaluated as pulsating (intermittent) forces are applied to maxillary molars with the ultimate objective of achieving physiologic tooth movement. Background Yasuda and associates’ exerted pressure on a femur and observed callus formation in the periosteum and endosteum. Potentials were negative for bone under compression and positive for bone under tension, thus demonstrating that mechanical forces can induce a polarized electric surface charge. Further investigations of Fukada and Yasuda* attributed the generation of piezoelectricity to the deformation of the crystalline structure of collagen. In a study of bone bending, Grimm4 found that bone may actually be under tension on the classic “pressure” side and compression on the classic “tension” side. The advancing tooth may “bend” the septal bone creating tension, thus producing the positive piezoelectric charges associated with osteoclastic activity. The trailing wall is pulled by the periodontal fibers causing alveolar bending, compression, negative piezoelectric charges, and osteoblastic activity. In his investigation, Grimm speculated that orthodontic tooth movement in response to a given force is related to the magnitude of alveolar deflection and to root surface area. Grimm hypothesized that a strain-induced electrical or chemical phenomenon may be the link between mechanotherapy and alveolar bone response.
Research, Managed Care, and Patient Privacy: Challenges to Successful Collaboration

• Objective: To illustrate the impact of increased patient privacy concerns on the conduct of research on managed care patients and to suggest mechanisms for successful collaboration between managed care organizations and academic research organizations. • Patients and setting: Government-funded collaborative research project involving an academic research organization and several managed care organizations. The context is a large coronary artery disease study in which patients were identified using managed care electronic files and then surveyed at 2 different times about their posthospital care. • Data collection/extraction methods: Data for the study included patient surveys as well as electronic claims files. The data relevant to this report are summaries of tracking files that were created for administrative purposes. • Results: The principal observations from this evaluation are: (1) fear of negative publicity for managed care organizations and, more importantly, increased patient privacy concerns create barriers to patient contact; (2) these challenges can have a dramatic effect on duration of a study and the ultimate response rate; (3) response rate can also depend on the mechanism by which the study is introduced to patients. • Conclusions: Managed care research is critical, but managed care organizations perceive significant risks to participation. The process of obtaining funding and executing a successful study would benefit from specific safeguards and sufficient incentives to offset the risks to managed care organizations.
Androgen Receptor Signaling Interactions Control Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in Prostate Cancer Progression

The role of the androgen receptor (AR) signaling axis in the progression of prostate cancer is a cornerstone to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind this important disease. Understanding the innate signaling axis of the AR and the aberrations of this axis in progression of prostate cancer has facilitated the development of emerging therapeutic interventions. Furthermore, the crosstalk of AR with other critical signaling pathways may explain the advancement of prostate cancer to metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Of particular interest to such crosstalk are the pathways associated with epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). The reactivation of EMT is a hallmark of metastatic cancer spread, and recent evidence suggests the involvement of AR in the signaling pathways regulating EMT. Cadherin switching, EMT inducing transcription factors, Wnt, TGF-β, and Notch signaling can all be modulated by crosstalk with the AR. Overexpression and localization of the AR to the nucleus has been associated with reactivation of the androgenic signaling axis and progression to metastatic CRPC in patients. In this chapter we consider the current understanding of the functional exchanges between the androgen signaling championed by AR activity and key growth factor signaling pathways that impact EMT towards prostate cancer progression to metastatic CRPC and we discuss the clinical relevance of these insights in the effective targeting of advanced disease.
MorphDroid: Fine-grained Privacy Verification

Mobile devices are rich in sensors, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker, microphone and camera, and have access to numerous sources of personal information, including the device ID, contacts and social data. This richness increases the functionality of mobile apps, but also creates privacy threats. As a result, different solutions have been proposed to verify or enforce privacy policies. A key limitation of existing approaches is that they reason about privacy at a coarse level, without accounting for declassification rules, such that the location for instance is treated as a single unit of information without reference to its many fields. As a result, legitimate app behaviors --- such as releasing the user's city rather than exact address --- are perceived as privacy violations, rendering existing analyses overly conservative and thus of limited usability. In this paper, we present MorphDroid, a novel static analysis algorithm that verifies mobile applications against fine-grained privacy policies. Such policies define constraints over combinations of fine-grained units of private data. Specifically, through a novel design, MorphDroid tracks flows of fine-grained privacy units while addressing important challenges, including (i) detection of correlations between different units (e.g. longitude and latitude) and (ii) modeling of semantic transformations over private data (e.g. conversion of the location into an address). We have implemented MorphDroid, and present a thorough experimental evaluation atop a comprehensive benchmark suite for Android static and dynamic analyses (DroidBench), as well as the 500 top-popular Google Play applications in 2014. Our experiments involve a spectrum of 5 security policies, ranging from a strict coarse-grained policy to a more realistic fine-grained policy that accounts for declassification rules. The experiment on DroidBench shows that MorphDroid achieves precision and recall scores of over 90%. The experiments on popular apps show that the gap between policies is dramatic, the most conservative policy yielding warnings on 171 of the applications (34%), and the more realistic policy flagging only 4 of the applications as misbehaved (
Brachydactyly and pseudo-pseudohypoparathyroidism.

Shortened fifth middle phalanges, defined as being less than half the length of the fourth middle phalanx, were found in 12 of 96 Philadelphia Chinese and none of 200 Philadelphia Negro children. At least nine of these can be characterized as having stunted cratered diaphyses, with precocious cone epiphyses, which underwent very early epiphyseal union. The possible extension of a current vascular hypothesis for cone epiphyses, to include inherited osseous variation in this region of the little finger, is discussed. A classification of metacarpal brachydactyly is presented, with the intention of investigating the syndrome of pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. Reports of cases which have been held to negate the theory that Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy is sex linked were found to have the pattern of phalangeal shortening exhibited by one of the forms of metacarpal brachydactyly. This finding lends support to the contention of others that these reported cases are not pseudo-pseudohypoparathyroidism.
Varicella Zoster Virus Optic Neuritis

A 13-year-old male presented with a corticosteroid-sensitive, varicella zoster virus (VZV)-related rapid loss of vision and bilateral disc edema after a febrile illness, and the case is reported from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA.
Some Reflections on Soviet-American Relations *

As World War II drew to a close, the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition—Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill—assembled at Yalta to ponder the future. Already, sharp clashes at the conference table over the future fate of Poland and Eastern Europe cast a sombre spell over the proceedings. But the necessities of the alliance still served to suppress differences and to emphasize a search for consensus. At a tripartite dinner meeting on 8 February 1945, President Roosevelt, ever hopeful, described the relations of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States “as that of a family” and spoke of a future in which their common objectives would be “to give to every man, woman, and child on this earth the possibility of security and well-being.” Marshal Stalin, perhaps more realistic, “remarked that it was not so difficult to keep unity in time of war since there was a joint aim to defeat the common enemy which was clear to everyone. … the difficult task came after the war when diverse interests tended to divide the allies.” Nevertheless, he expressed himself as “confident that the present alliance would meet this test also and that it was our duty to see that it would, and that our relations in peacetime should be as strong as they had been in war.” Prime Minister Churchill somewhat grandiloquently spoke of “standing on the crest of a hill with the glories of future possibilities stretching before us.
Characterization of pulsating spray droplets and their interaction with vortical structures

To develop active combustion control using liquid fuel injection, pulsating liquid-fuel sprays from automotive fuel injectors were characterized and analyzed in nonreacting experiments. Customized waveforms were used for the electronic control unit input, making pulsating injection at fairly high frequencies possible. Using ethanol pressurized to 40 psig, pulsating injection with 100% flux modulation was achieved at frequencies as high as 1 kHz. The droplet size and distribution were measured from instantaneous Mie scattering images of pulsating sprays. The results showed that the pulsating sprays contained a high number of relatively large droplets, that would be unfavorable for direct combustion control applications. To reduce droplet size, a new injection set-up was designed by combining a fuel injector with a fog atomizer. In the new set-up, the fuel injector functions only as a solenoid valve with high-frequency response while a fog atomizer is used to reduce droplet size. A substantial reduction in droplet size, which amounted to an order of magnitude shift in the droplet-size upper limit, was obtained while maintaining similar frequency response. Using the improved injection set-up, pulsating fuel was sprayed periodically into nonreacting flowfield of a dump combustor. Also, periodically appearing vortex structures in the combustor during reaction were simulated with controlled forcing of the inlet air flow. The pulsating fuel sprays were synchronized at different stages of vortex development, and the interaction between spray droplets and large-scale flow features was investigated at various injection phase and angles. The results showed that the synchronized injection yielded an effective way of controlling spatial distribution of fuel droplets in the dump combustor flowfield. Gaining control authority over the spatial distribution of fuel droplets is very important for active control to be effective.
Diffraction Velocity Analysis By Path-integral Seismic Imaging

We propose a framework for diffraction imaging and velocity analysis that combines the methods of velocity continuation and path-integral imaging. Zero-offset diffractions are separated from reflection data and efficiently imaged with a suite of constant-velocity models using a spectral implementation of velocity continuation. An unweighted path-integral image is constructed by summing all of these constant-velocity images, which amplifies events that are stationary between images and attenuates those that change position. Diffraction apexes remain stationary and are thus amplified relative to diffraction flanks and migration artifacts, yielding an estimate of the migrated image. The path-integral image is spatially blurred relative to the ideal result, and the amount of spatial blurring is related to the range of velocities used to construct it. Therefore, we use the path-integral image as an intermediate result—with which we compare each of the velocity continuation test images using local similarity. At each t-x location, the test image with the highest similarity to the path-integral indicates a likely effective migration velocity. The local velocity estimates are combined to yield a heterogeneous effective-medium migration velocity model, and its corresponding diffraction image.
Study on the Intermetallics( Mg,Zn)_(12)Ce and( Mg,Zn)_(11)Ce

Phase composition,crystal structure and the relationship the phase equilibria in Mg-rich corner of Mg-Zn-Ce system at 300 ℃ were studied. The results showed that a substitution binary solid solution of Mg12 Ce identified as( Mg,Zn)12Ce and a linear ternary compound identified as( Mg,Zn)11Ce( τphase) were confirmed in Mg-rich corner of Mg-Zn-Ce system. The solid solubility of Zn in( Mg,Zn)12Ce is about 0 ~ 7. 3%( atomic fraction),and the crystal structure of which is a body-centered tetragonal lattice structure. The Zn content of the linear ternaty compound τ phase is from 8. 5% to 43. 5%( atomic fraction),and the crystal structure of it is a C-centered orthorhombic lattice. Both( Mg,Zn)12Ce and τ phase were identified to be in two-phase equilibrim with α( Mg). A three-phase equilibrium of Mg +( Mg,Zn)12Ce + τ in Mg-rich corner of Mg-Zn-Ce system was also identified.
A statistical analysis of the dynamics of household hurricane-evacuation decisions

With the increasing number of hurricanes in the last decade, efficient and timely evacuation remains a significant concern. Households’ decisions to evacuate/stay and selection of departure time are complex phenomena. This study identifies the different factors that influence the decision making process, and if a household decides to evacuate, what affects the timing of the execution of that decision. While developing a random parameters binary logit model of the evacuate/stay decision, several factors, such as, socio-economic characteristics, actions by authority, and geographic location, have been considered along with the dynamic nature of the hurricane itself. In addition, taking the landfall as a base, how the evacuation timing varies, considering both the time-of-day and hours before landfall, has been analyzed rigorously. Influential factors in the joint model include the relative time until the hurricane’s landfall, height of the coastal flooding, and approaching speed of the hurricane; household’s geographic location (state); having more than one child in the household, vehicle ownership, and level of education; and type of evacuation notice received (voluntary or mandatory). Two time intervals from 30 to 42 h and 42 to 66 h before landfall resulted in random parameters, reflecting mixed effects on the likelihood to evacuate/stay. Possible sources of the unobserved heterogeneity captured by the random parameters include the respondents’ risk perception or other unobserved physiological and psychological factors associated with how respondents comprehend a hurricane threat. Thus, the model serves the purpose of estimating evacuation decision and timing simultaneously using the data of Hurricane Ivan.
Effect of prolactin on alpha-aminoisobutyric acid uptake in mouse mammary gland explants.

Studies were carried out to characterize the effect of prolactin (PRL) on amino acid uptake into mammary gland explants derived from 12- to 14-day pregnant mice. PRL approximately doubles the rate of uptake of alpha-aminoisobutyrate (AIB), arginine, and hydroxyproline but has no effect on the intracellular accumulation of unincorporated leucine. PRL increases the apparent maximum velocity of AIB uptake from 0.16 to 0.43 nmol.l intracellular water-1.min-1. No effect of PRL, however, on the apparent Michaelis constant (0.75 mM) of AIB uptake was observed. The onset of the PRL stimulation of AIB uptake occurs 4-5 h after PRL addition to the cultured mammary tissues. The lowest stimulatory concentration of PRL on AIB uptake is 5-10 ng/ml, and a maximum response is achieved with 75 ng/ml. The action of PRL on AIB uptake requires both ongoing RNA and protein synthesis, since puromycin (50 micrograms/ml), cycloheximide (5 micrograms/ml), and actinomycin D (1 microgram/ml) abolished the PRL response.