cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Processing options for CdTe thin film solar cells

Abstract Processing options for addressing critical issues associated with the fabrication of thin film CdTe solar cells are presented, including window and buffer layer processing, post-deposition treatment, and formation of stable low resistance contacts. The paper contains fundamental data, engineering relationships and device results. Chemical surface deposited CdS and Cd 1− x Zn x S films are employed as the n-type heteropartner window layers. Maintaining junction quality with ultra-thin window layers is facilitated by use of a high resistance oxide buffer layer, such as SnO 2 , In 2 O 3 or Ga 2 O 3 , between the heteropartner and the transparent conductive oxide. Thermal annealing of the CdTe/CdS heterostructure in the presence of CdCl 2 and O 2 shifts the chemical equilibrium on the surface of the absorber layer, which influences the bulk electrical properties. Aspects of back contacting CdTe/CdS devices, including etching, Cu application, contact annealing, back contact chemistry and secondary contacts, are discussed. Two commonly employed etches used to produce a Te-rich layer, nitric acid/phosphoric acid mixtures and Br 2 /methanol are compared, including the nature and stability of the final treated CdTe surface. The diagnostic abilities of the surface sensitive VASE and GIXRD techniques are highlighted. Various methods of Cu delivery are discussed with consideration to; reaction with Te, processing simplicity, processing time and possible industrial scale-up. Some aspects of back contact stability are presented, including discussion of apparent robust back contacts, which contain a thick Te component.
Context for Peace and Community Tourism: A Worldview Framework

Abstract Past and current world events remind use of ongoing need to establish peace. Tourism not only flourishes in peaceful environments but may also contribute to the achievement of peace and transformation in the life of the individual, the community, the nation, and international relations. However, to be develop tourism as a means for promoting understanding and peace, there is a need to define how individual and community perceptions influence the “worldview” of peace through tourism. This paper discusses relationships of tourism development to the peace process. A conceptual model for understanding community tourism and peace is presented for consideration. Suggestions are made for the use of the model in tertiary education for tourism professionals.
NATURAL RATES OF TEACHER APPROVAL AND DISAPPROVAL IN THE CLASSROOM

Sixteen classroom observational studies were conducted to determine natural rates of teacher verbal approval and disapproval in the classroom. Rates of teacher verbal approval and disapproval were measured by the Teacher Approval and Disapproval Observation Record (TAD) over Grades 1 through 12. Teacher verbal approval rates dropped over grade, with a marked drop after second grade. In every grade after second, the rate of teacher verbal disapproval exceeded the rate of teacher verbal approval. These rates are interpreted in terms of reinforcement theory.
On the limits of facilitated diffusion

Abstract Facilitated diffusion normally involves mobile carriers, reactive groups which react with specific solutes and diffuse with them across a liquid membrane. Facilitated diffusion can also occur via carriers which are covalently bound to a solid membrane if the carriers still have some limited mobility. The solute flux across such chained carrier membranes varies with solute concentration just like the flux across mobile carrier membranes. The solute flux across chained carrier membranes shows different behavior vs. carrier concentration, including a percolation threshold.
Factors associated with practice decisions of Nebraska veterinarians regarding type of practice and community size.

ABSTRACT Nebraska veterinary practitioners were surveyed to collect data about background characteristics and other factors related to veterinarians’ decision to include or not include food animals in their practices and to practice in rural versus urban communities. Background characteristics that were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) associated with choosing food-animal practice included growing up on a working farm or ranch; having parents who owned livestock; growing up in a town with a population of less than 10,000; majoring in animal science at university; being male; and having a primary interest, at the time of entering veterinary college, in food animal–exclusive or mixed-animal veterinary practice. The primary factor for choosing the community in which to practice was rural/urban lifestyle for rural veterinarians, while this factor was second for urban veterinarians. For all groups of veterinarians, the primary consideration in selecting their current practice was the species orientation of the practic...
From the Editor: Present Realities and Future Directions

At the Fall 2009 Annual Conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) I gave a plenary session entitled ‘‘Providing News of Difference: Family Therapy Through the Years.’’ In addition to looking at the history of the field as well as providing a consideration of present realities I was asked to focus particularly on future directions for family therapy. Indeed, being the editor of a journal enables me to have a perspective on trends of which I might otherwise not be aware. One of the first focal issues I named relative to the future was that of spirituality and religion. Noting the landmark article by Prest and Keller (1993), in which attention was called to the need for greater awareness of spirituality and religion in the context of therapy, I shared my perception that this was an area that is growing and will continue to do so as more and more researchers and practitioners engage in explorations related to this topic. Consistent with my assessment, the first half of this issue includes four unsolicited articles that are devoted to topics with a spiritual and/or religious orientation. What is more, several others are currently in the pipeline. In the first article, ‘‘Bowen Family Systems Theory and Spirituality: Exploring the Relationship Between Triangulation and Religious Questing,’’ Katie Heiden Roots, Peter Jankowski, and Steven Sandage focus on spirituality and seek integration relative to the concepts of differentiation and triangulation. In the second article, also utilizing a Bowenian perspective, Yeo Jin Ahn and Marianne Miller ask, and respond in the affirmative, to the question, ‘‘Can MFTs Address Spirituality with Clients in Publically Funded Agencies?’’ Next, focusing on the clergy and the larger religious context, Maureen Davey, Argie Allen, and Adam Davey have contributed an article entitled, ‘‘Being Examples to the Flock: The Role of Church Leaders and African American Families Seeking Mental Health Care Services.’’ The section on Spirituality/Religion then concludes with an exploration of a particular spiritual practice, which is described in the article, ‘‘Voices of Experienced Meditators: The Impact of Meditation Practice on Intimate Relationships,’’ authored by Eric McCollum and Irene Paz Pruitt.
Solidification interface shape control in a continuous Czochralski silicon growth system

In a continuous Czochralski (CCZ) growth system with a shallow and replenished melt proposed earlier, large-diameter crystals may be grown at a high pull rate and reduced melt convection. The proposed system consists of two heaters. In this paper, the relationship between the solidification interface and the power levels is established. An interface control algorithm is developed to achieve the desired interface shape by adjusting the power level of the bottom heater. The control algorithm is incorporated into an existing process model, and the efficiency of the control algorithm is tested.
Implied Threat and the Territorial Factor in Personal Space

Body territory may be a useful concept when personal space is studied under conditions of threat. It is predicted that, under conditions implying physical threat, defense of body territory will be greatest in the condition of male-to-male movement, that the male object-person will be a greater source of threat than the female object-person, and that anxiety will be associated with greater intervening distances for both sexes. Each S (male or female) approached and was approached by his respective object-person (male or female), providing measures of invading and being invaded behaviors. The major findings were: Ss tended to stay farther from the male than the female object-person; males showed the strongest sex-of-object effect, with approach toward the female object being more influential than avoidance of the male object; female Ss were more influenced by anxiety; and male Ss were most influenced by degree of heterosexuality. It was concluded that partial support was evidenced for what could be called a...
The effects of cholesterol on lateral diffusion and vertical fluctuations in lipid bilayers. An electron-electron double resonance (ELDOR) study

Electron-electron double resonance (ELDOR) and saturation-recovery spectroscopy employing 14N:15N stearic acid spin-label pairs have been used to study the effects of cholesterol on lateral diffusion and vertical fluctuations in lipid bilayers. The 14N:15N continuous wave electron-electron double resonance (CW ELDOR) theory has been developed using rate equations based on the relaxation model. The collision frequency between 14N-16 doxyl stearate and 15N-16 doxyl stearate, WHex (16:16), is indicative of lateral diffusion of the spin probes, while the collision frequency between 14N-16 doxyl stearate and 15N-5 doxyl stearate, WHex (16:5), provides information on vertical fluctuations of the 14N-16 doxyl stearate spin probe toward the membrane surface. Our results show that: (a) cholesterol decreases the electron spin-lattice relaxation time Tle of 14N-16 doxyl stearate spin label in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and egg yolk phosphatidylcholine (egg PC). (b) Cholesterol increases the biomolecular collision frequency WHex (16:16) and decreases WHex (16:5), suggesting that incorporation of cholesterol significantly orders the part of the bilayer that it occupies and disorders the interior region of the bilayer. (c) Alkyl chain unsaturation of the host lipid moderates the effect of cholesterol on both vertical fluctuations and lateral diffusion of 14N-16 doxyl stearate. And (d), there are marked differences in the effects of cholesterol on lateral diffusion and vertical fluctuations between 0–30 mol% and 30–50 mol% of cholesterol that suggest an inhomogeneous distribution of cholesterol in the membrane.
The Paradox of Technology: Learning to Share Control With the Patient

In Reply. —Mr Davidson describes the crowding out of human factors by technological concerns. We understand this phenomenon as the predictable result of an underlying clinical philosophy that gives highest priority to achieving and maintaining control. We have proposed an alternative clinical philosophy based instead on relation—a balance between control and receptivity—that keeps the lived experience of the patient in the foreground, and it also ameliorates some problems of overly aggressive treatment and physician satisfaction. 1 Dr Reyes-Ortiz points to the clinician's capacity for perception, moral reasoning, and relationship as the foundations of empathic communication. We enthusiastically agree. The descriptive model we proposed addresses only 1 aspect of perception: recognizing the presentation of emotion. Support groups to enhance self-awareness, video review of office visits to improve communication skills, and personal spiritual practice are but 3 of the many other types of activities that clinicians might pursue to enhance their capacity for empathy.
Effects of Temperature Regime Through Premetamorphic Ontogeny on Shape of the Chondrocranium in the American Toad, Anaxyrus americanus

If one considers the substantial amount of information that exists about phenotypic plasticity in amphibians, it is surprising that few studies have examined abiotic factors that influence phenotype through ontogeny. Phenotypic change and stability of morphology are artifacts of organisms that bear significant relevance to evolution within and among taxonomic groups. Here, we examine development as a phenotypically plastic aspect of larval anurans. Fertilized eggs of the American Toad, Anaxyrus (= Bufo) americanus (Holbrook, 1836), were obtained from two pairs of adults, and larvae were reared in four temperature treatments (constant Mean, constant High, constant Low, and Fluctuating regime [Low night-High day]); developmental series were collected from each treatment, representing larvae of this species from Gosner Stages 28-40. Cleared and stained larvae were analyzed with landmark-based geometric morphometric methods to facilitate examination of differences in overall shape change of the larval chondrocranium through ontogeny, as a result of developmental temperature or temperature regime. Changes in shape of the chondrocranium and in amount and direction of phenotypic change through ontogeny were found in response to temperature treatment and temperature regime. Mean chondrocranial shape of the Fluctuating regime was more similar to the consensus shape of the overall data set than were those of all other treatments. Given that differences in amount and direction of shape change were observed among these treatments and throughout ontogeny, one should consider the affects of abiotic factors (such as temperature) when rearing larval anurans for studies of developmental morphology.
Parameter study and design of W-band micromachined tapered slot antenna

A parameter study of a W-band micromachined tapered slot antenna shows how key structural features affect the VSWR and gain of these antennas. By properly choosing the type of taper, exponential growth rate and corrugation length, a VSWR 8 dBi over W-band can be achieved.
Short-term effectiveness of nifedipine in secondary pulmonary hypertension

Abstract Vasodilators have been used as an effective treatment in patients with pulmonary hypertension. In some patients with primary pulmonary hypertension, dramatic successes have occurred resulting in marked reductions in pulmonary artery pressure and vascular resistance. 1,2 In these patients, long-term sustained effects of calcium antagonists have been associated with regression of right ventricular hypertrophy and improved survival. 2,3 Therefore, physicians have attempted to use vasodilators in patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension, although their effectiveness in these patients is not well documented. The present report analyzes our experience in 24 patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension who were tested with high doses of nifedipine according to a protocol developed for primary pulmonary hypertension. 1
Specific cleavage of tRNA by nuclease S1.

Abstract Nuclease S1 specifically hydrolizes tRNAs in their anticodon loops, forming new 5' phosphate and 3' OH ends. Some single-stranded regions are not cut by nuclease S1. The strong preference of nuclease S1 for the anticodon region can be used for rapid identification of an anticodon-containing oligonucleotide and subsequent identification of the probable amino acid specificity of tRNA.
Becker muscular dystrophy recombinant DNA studies in identical twins

Two identical twins with Becker Muscular Dystrophy are reported. Both twins had the same red cell types for ABO, Rh, CDE, MNSs, Kelly, Lewis, Duffy, and Kidd. HLA typing detected the same antigens in both twins: A1, A26, B8, B17, DR3, DR7. Family history was negative. The twin patients showed identical haplotypes that were different from the haplotypes of the normal male members of the family. The sister of the twins showed a recombinant X chromosome. The informative haplotype with respect to the gene of BMD, present in the twins, was ascertained in their mother as well. Our findings strongly suggest that a mutation has occurred either in the mother or in the twins.
New Tools in Experimental Cellular Therapy for the Treatment of Liver Diseases

The current standard of care for end stage liver disease is orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Through improvement in surgical techniques, immunosuppression, and general medical care, liver transplantation has become an effective treatment over the course of the last half-century. Unfortunately, due to the limited availability of donor organs, there is a finite limit to the number of patients who will benefit from this therapy. This review will discuss current research in experimental cellular therapies for acute, chronic, and metabolic liver failure that may be appropriate when liver transplantation is not an immediate option.
Optimal demand response capacity of automatic lighting control

Demand response programs seek to adjust the normal consumption patterns of electric power consumers in response to incentive payments that are offered by utility companies to induce lower consumption at peak hours or when the power system reliability is at risk. While prior studies have extensively studied the capacity of offering demand response in buildings by controlling the load at air conditioners, water heaters, and various home appliances, they lack to offer methods to also utilize the full demand response capacity of automatic lighting control systems. Since lighting systems consume a large amount of the total energy used in buildings, addressing this shortcoming is an important research problem. Therefore, in this paper, we propose to take a systematic optimization-based approach to assess demand response capacity of automatic lighting control systems in commercial and office buildings.
Real-time feature-based synthesis for live musical performance

A crucial set of decisions in digital musical instrument design deals with choosing mappings between parameters controlled by the performer and the synthesis algorithms that actually generate sound. Feature-based synthesis offers a way to parameterize audio synthesis in terms of the quantifiable perceptual characteristics, or features, the performer wishes the sound to take on. Techniques for accomplishing such mappings and enabling feature-based synthesis to be performed in real time are discussed. An example is given of how a real-time performance system might be designed to take advantage of feature-based synthesis's ability to provide perceptually meaningful control over a large number of synthesis parameters.
Aggression, assertion, and openness to experience: A comparison of men and women

Relationships between measures of social constriction, self-expression or assertion, aggression/hostility, and openness to experience were investigated in 25 males and 24 females. While a number of significant correlations were noted between these measures for all Ss, marked sex differences were found. Social constriction and assertion were related negatively for females, but unrelated for males. Similarly, social constriction was related to suspicion in females, but not males. With respect to factors of openness to experience, assertion was related positively to receptiveness to unconventional views of reality, openness to hypothetical or theoretical ideas, aesthetic sensitivity, and general openness for females only. For males, negativism and irritability were related positively to loosely defined ego boundaries and related negatively to deliberate systematic thought, while suspicion and guilt were related positively to systematic thought. For females, resentment, indirect hostility, and total hostility correlated with access to unconscious processes. Physical assault was associated with assertion, access to unconscious processes, openness to unconventional views of reality, and general openness for females, but not for males.
The Visual Aspects of Outreach and Marketing to Art +Design Students

Special Libraries, Special Challenges is a column dedicated to exploring the unique public services challenges that arise in libraries that specialize in a particular subject, such as law, medicine, business, and so forth. In each column, the author will discuss public service dilemmas and solutions that arise specifically in given subject libraries while drawing links to how such issues affect librarianship in general. Special or subject-matter librarians interested in authoring a piece for this column are invited to contact Melissa K. Aho at aho@umn.edu. Sarah Carter is Instruction and Research Services Librarian at Verman Kimbrough Memorial Library at Ringling College of Art +Design (www.ringling.edu). She holds dual master's degrees in Art History and Library Science from Indiana University. She can be reached at scarter2@ringling.edu or Verman Kimbrough Memorial Library, Ringling College of Art and Design, 2700 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234.
Upper-Level Atmospheric Circulation Patterns and Ground-Level Ozone in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area

The purpose of this paper is to identify middle-troposphere circulation patterns associated with high ozone concentrations during June‐August of 2000‐07 in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which is located in the southeastern United States. The methods involved classifying daily 500-hPa geopotential height fields into synoptic types, determining the mean atmospheric conditions (i.e., daytime temperature, daytime relative humidity, daytime cloud cover, morning mixing height, and afternoon mixing height) for the types, determining the mean daily maximum 8-h average ozone concentrations for the types, and performing back-trajectory analyses for high-ozone types. There were a total of 12 synoptic types, and significantly high ozone concentrations across the MSA coincided with the three following types: Atlanta under a continental anticyclone, Atlanta to the east of a continental anticyclone and west of a trough, and Atlanta under the western side of a trough. The continental-anticyclone type was much more prevalent than the other two types. When the MSA was under or just to the east of a continental anticyclone, atmospheric conditions were conducive to increased in situ ozone production and pollutant carryover from the previous day. Between 45% and 60% of the days with those circulation patterns had ozone concentrations exceeding the federal standard. When the Atlanta MSA was under the western side of a trough, not only did the potential forin situ ozone productionandpollutantcarryover contribute to high ozoneconcentrations, but there also was a high potential for pollutant transport from the Ohio River valley into the Atlanta MSA.
Aerodynamic Design and Performance of Aspirated Airfoils

The impact of boundary layer aspiration, or suction, on the aerodynamic design and performance of turbomachinery airfoils is discussed in this paper. Aspiration is studied first in the context of a controlled diffusion cascade, where the effect of discrete aspiration on loading levels and profile loss is computationally investigated. Blade design features which are essential in achieving high loading and minimizing the aspiration requirement are described. Design studies of two aspirated compressor stages and an aspirated turbine exit guide vane using three dimensional Navier-Stokes calculations are presented. The calculations show that high loading can be achieved over most of the blade span with a relatively small amount of aspiration. Three dimensional effects close to the endwalls are shown to degrade the performance to varying degrees depending on the loading level.Copyright © 2002 by ASME
IL-21 preferentially enhances IL-15-mediated homeostatic proliferation of human CD28+ CD8 memory T cells throughout the adult age span

An age-related decline in human immune response is marked by the accumulation of CD28(-) CD8 T cells, which is attributed to repeated antigenic stimulation and to homeostatic proliferation mediated by cytokines such as IL-15. However, the identity of the cytokines that are responsible for the maintenance of CD28 expression is less known. Here, we report the role of IL-21 in the regulation of IL-15-mediated growth and CD28 expression of CD8 memory T cells of young and old donors. We showed that IL-21 drives more IL-15-stimulated cells to enter cell division and to undergo apoptosis. Furthermore, IL-21 preferentially enhanced IL-15-induced proliferation of CD28(+) CD8 memory T cells over their CD28(-) counterparts, as CD28(+) cells expressed higher levels of IL-15R and IL-21R and greater pSTAT5 upon IL-15 and IL-21 stimulation. In addition, IL-21 reduced IL-15-induced CD28 down-regulation in CD8 memory T cells. Finally, the ability of proliferation and survival in response to homeostatic cytokines IL-15 and IL-21 of CD28(+) CD8 memory T cells was well-maintained with age. Together, these findings suggest that IL-21 enhances IL-15-mediated proliferation of CD8 memory T cells, particularly CD28(+) memory T cells, and also serves as an antagonist to the IL-15-induced increase of CD28(-) CD8 T cells.
Continuum solutions for long-wave extensional buckling of regular frames

Abstract Using approximation by a micropolar continuum, the extensional buckling of a multi-story, multibay rectangular frame with rectangular boundary is solved by formulating the problem in terms of a system of six linear ordinary differential equations. The buckling loads must be computed by a trial-and-error procedure because all coefficients of the 6 × 6 determinant to vanish depend on explicitly inexpressible complex roots and eigenvectors of another 6 × 6 determinant which in turn depends nonlinearly on the initial stress. It is shown that for tall frames consideration of long-wave buckling loads is important. Also, the continuum approximation is found to give very accurate results, as compared with the exact solutions of large frames.
Co2 Laser Thomson Scattering from a Pulsed Hydrogen Arc

Thermal level Thomson scattering of a pulsed 70 MW C02 laser from a hydrogen arc plasma (?e = 1015 - 1016 cm-3, Te ? Ti ? 5 eV) has been observed using video detection. Spectral resolution of the ion feature has been achieved thus demonstrating the feasibility of this method for determining ion temperatures in a wide variety of laboratory and fusion plasmas.
6H-1 Reflector Design for Orthogonal Frequency (OFC) Coded Devices

This paper will describe design considerations for orthogonal frequency coded (OFC) devices using reflector structures. The OFC device uses inline reflector banks composed of chips having differing local carrier frequencies and a time length corresponding to a chip. In order to optimize device performance, it is necessary to understand and predict reflector performance. Several parameters which need to be understood include reflector length, reflectivity per electrode, number of electrodes, intra- and inter- electrode interactions, chip orthogonality, fractional bandwidth and reflector loss. This paper will present predictive results based on phenomenological approaches and then verified using coupling of mode (COM) simulations. Experimental results for a 250 MHz OFC device show good correlation with predictions
Identifying and tracking online financial services through web mining and latent semantic indexing

As Internet usage has heavily increased within recent years, money launderers have started to take advantage of Online Financial Transaction (OFT) services to facilitate their money laundering activities. However, law enforcement has struggled to understand and detect OFT services that criminals use for money laundering. To assist law enforcement in its efforts to identify and monitor OFT services, we have designed the Online Financial Transaction Services Identification Tool (OFTSIT), which crawls the Internet and determines the probability that they are OFT services. OFTSIT analyzes a website's content and extracts textual features using latent semantic indexing (LSI). LSI is a text mining approach that can extract a small number (< 10) of features from more than 40,000 possible words on a website. OFTSIT inputs the LSI discovered features into a generalized linear model to produce the probability that a website is an OFT service. Testing showed that OFTSIT outperforms current method of manual searching. This paper describes the system architecture, algorithms employed to classify OFT services from other websites, and performance testing to demonstrate OFTSIT's operational relevance.
e-PLAS Analysis of Short Pulse Laser-Matter Interaction Experiments

The transport of relativistic electrons1 generated in wire and foil targets by short-pulse lasers is examined with the new e-PLAS simulation code based on implicit-moment/hybrid2 techniques. In a 50 μm diameter Cu wire (Z eff = 15) as recently illuminated on the TITAN LLNL laser, for example, a 1.7×1020 W/cm2 simulated laser beam delivering a flat 30 μm spot from the left (with 40 % absorption) generates the hot electron density profile depicted below at 940 fs. The peak hot density in the laser spot is ∼3×1021 electrons/cm3. This density drops to 3x1019 electrons/cm3 200 microns into the wire. A peak temperature of 2 keV is achieved through Joule heating of the background electrons in the wire “head” near the deposition surface; a significantly lower ∼0.4 keV is achieved in the wire body. Here, 300 MG thermoelectric B-fields are also calculated. Parameter studies relate the hot electron stopping to the surface B-field, modest drag slowing, and the background cold electron resisitvity, which is bleached by background heating to low values at late times.
Heart valve culture and sequencing to identify the infective endocarditis pathogen in surgically treated patients.

Background Testing excised valves in surgically treated infective endocarditis (IE) patients provides an opportunity to identify the microbial etiology of IE. Microbial sequencing (universal bacterial, mycobacterial, or fungal polymerase chain reaction followed by DNA sequencing) of valves can identify microorganisms accurately, but the value it adds beyond information provided by blood and valve cultures has not been adequately explored. Methods Three hundred fifty-six patients who underwent surgery for active IE from January 1, 2010, to January 1, 2013, were identified from our cardiovascular information registry and outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy registry. Their records were reviewed to identify 174 patients whose valves were sent for sequencing. The microbial etiology of IE was defined using comprehensive clinical, pathologic, and microbiological criteria. Blood culture, valve culture, and valve sequencing were examined to determine how frequently they identified the definitive cause of IE. Results Of the 174 patients, 162 (93%) had acute inflammation on histopathologic examination of their valves. Valve sequencing was significantly more sensitive than valve culture in identifying the causative pathogen (90% versus 31%, p Conclusions Valve sequencing, not valve culture, should be considered the primary test for identifying bacteria in excised cardiac valves.
Energy consumption of paraplegics gait using five different walking orthoses

The objectives of this study are to determine the energy consumption associated with paraplegics ambulating with: the LLB (long leg brace), the HGO (hip guidance orthosis), the RGO (reciprocating gait orthosis), the muscle-stimulation-powered RGO, and electrical muscle stimulation along. The criterion for determining the best orthotic system is energy cost in (kcal/kg-min) and heart rate (beats/min), measured for a group of paraplegics using each orthosis separately over a fixed distance. It is concluded that mechanical orthosis giving passive antigravity support to the hip joint in addition to the knee and ankle and powered by electrical stimulation of the paralyzed muscles provides the most efficient walking aid to quadraplegic patients. Attempts to restore locomotion with muscle stimulation along require unacceptable energy expenditures from the patient and cause undue, dangerous levels of stress to the heart. >
Physical efficiency limits of inch-sized helical MFCG's

Helical magnetic flux compression generators (MFCG) are attractive energy sources with respect to their specific energy output. A variety of one-time use applications would benefit from small inch-sized helical generators with high specific energy output. However, it is widely accepted that the generator performance deteriorates with decreasing size. Previous experimental data have shown that the increase of the ohmic resistance of the MFCG with a reduction in size is the primary cause for the observed behavior when the initial generator inductance is held constant. We will analyze the situation in more depth and quantify how much the efficiency is determined by ohmic losses and intrinsic flux losses (flux that is left behind in the conductors and lost for compression) for different generator sizes and geometries. Our simple constant diameter MFCGs exhibit more intrinsic than ohmic losses (69% compared to 16%), while our MFCGs with tapered armatures display less intrinsic and more ohmic flux losses (13% compared to 66%), however, at increased overall efficiency. We will show experimental and calculated data and discuss the physical efficiency limits and scaling of generator performance at small sizes.
Interfacing a Force-Feedback Joystick with a Hydraulic Robot Arm

The interfacing of haptic and hydraulic systems produce great benefits and the application of these systems will increase over time. This research presents one approach to successfully interfacing a force-feedback joystick with a hydraulic robot arm. In order to complete this task, two mild-stones have to be achieved. First, an expression representing the value of the displayed force needs to be determined. Secondly, a real-time interface has to exist between the force-feedback joystick and the hydraulic arm. The method chosen to determine the displayed force is based on Lagrange-Euler recursive equations for generalized linkages. These equations represent the system dynamics and can be used to determine the desired drive efforts. The calculated drive effort combined with an experimentally modeled frictional effect is then used to compute the necessary display force. The force-feedback joystick chosen was an impulse engine 2000. From this research, it can be observed that modeling the effect of friction definitely improves the accuracy of the display force. It also can be inferred that using Lagrange-Euler to determine the display force is not a desirable method for mass production of hydraulic force-feedback systems.
The effects on biological materials of freezing and drying by vacuum sublimation. II. Effect on influenza virus.

The infectivity titre of influenza virus-infected allantoic fluid was determined after a variety of procedures involving cyclic slow freezing and thawing, freezing at various rates with subsequent storage at different temperatures freezing at various rates with subsequent dehydration at various temperatures, and different degrees of dehydration. All these factors were found to influence the survival rate of the virus particles. Five freeze-thaw cycles resulted in a fall in titre from 10–8.6 to 10–0.8 cycles 2, 3, and 4 causing much greater losses than cycles 1 and 5. Rapid cooling to –40°C. or slow cooling to –80 or 190°C. did not cause significant titre loss, but rapid cooling to temperatures above –40° or slow cooling to temperatures above –80°C. caused definite titre loss. Loss of titre on storage occurred only at temperatures above –40deg;C. The effect of lyophilization depends both on the preliminary treatment and on the dehydration temperature. Better conservation of titre was obtained after preliminary cooling to –190 or –80°C. than after preliminary cooling to higher temperatures. The most effective sublimation temperatures were 0 and –80°.; the least effective was +20°C. Titre losses in suspensions sublimated at –10, –30, and –60°C. were in general intermediate. No loss in titre occurred after preliminary cooling to –80 or –190°C. and subsequent dehydration at –80 or 0°C. The degree of dehydration definitely affects the survival of virus on storage at 0°C., but sublimation for 4 hours at 0°C. gave complete protection against titre loss on storage at this temperature. Possible explanations of the observations made are suggested, based on known physiochemical phenomena such as supercooling, vitrification, variations in size and shape of ice crystals with different freezing speeds, differential enzyme inactivation, changes in salt concentration, and changes in energy levels.
Stimulation of Insulin Fibrillation by Urea-induced Intermediates

Abstract Fibrillar deposits of insulin cause serious problems in implantable insulin pumps, commercial production of insulin, and for some diabetics. We performed a systematic investigation of the effect of urea-induced structural perturbations on the mechanism of fibrillation of insulin. The addition of as little as 0.5 m urea to zinc-bound hexameric insulin led to dissociation into dimers. Moderate concentrations of urea led to accumulation of a partially unfolded dimer state, which dissociates into an expanded, partially folded monomeric state. Very high concentrations of urea resulted in an unfolded monomer with some residual structure. The addition of even very low concentrations of urea resulted in increased fibrillation. Accelerated fibrillation correlated with population of the partially folded intermediates, which existed at up to 8 m urea, accounting for the formation of substantial amounts of fibrils under such conditions. Under monomeric conditions the addition of low concentrations of urea slowed down the rate of fibrillation, e.g. 5-fold at 0.75 m urea. The decreased fibrillation of the monomer was due to an induced non-native conformation with significantly increased α-helical content compared with the native conformation. The data indicate a close-knit relationship between insulin conformation and propensity to fibrillate. The correlation between fibrillation and the partially unfolded monomer indicates that the latter is a critical amyloidogenic intermediate in insulin fibrillation.
US navy seaweb development

This talk traces the development of Seaweb through-water networking from 1995 to the present day. Encompassing the physical, link, network, transport, and session layers of the open-systems interconnect (ISO/OSI) stack, Seaweb technology enables undersea sensor networks, autonomous/unmanned underwater vehicle (AUV/UUV) communication & navigation, and submarine communications at speed & depth (CSD). Given the severely constrained physical layer, we examine the benefits of hierarchical network topologies and the need for adaptation to prevailing environmental conditions and mission requirements. With results derived from an aggressive experimental program, we consider the quality of service (QoS) trade-offs of underwater networks in terms of reliability, availability, throughput, area coverage, security, and latency.
The connection cubes: symmetric, low diameter interconnection networks with low node degree

The enhanced connection cube or ECC and the minimal connection cube or MCC, proposed in this paper, are regular and symmetric static interconnection networks for large-scale, loosely coupled systems. The ECC connects 2/sup 2n+1/ processing nodes with only n+2 links per node, almost half the number used in a comparable hypercube. Yet its diameter is only n+2, almost half that of the hypercube. The MCC connects 2/sup 2n+1/ nodes using only n+1 links per node, has about the same diameter as a hypercube and is scalable like the hypercube. The MCC can be converted into the ECC by adding one more link per node. Both networks can emulate all the connections present in a hypercube of the same size, with no increase in routing complexity, so that typical parallel applications run on both types of CCs with the same time complexity as on a hypercube. >
E-cadherin gene re-expression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells by HDAC inhibitors

Background: The tumor suppressor gene E-cadherin gene is frequently silenced in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells and results in wnt-pathway activation. We analyzed the role of histone epigenetic modifications in E-cadherin gene silencing. Methods: CLL specimens were treated with histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) MS-275 and analyzed for E-cadherin expression with western blot and RT-PCR analysis. The downstream effects of HDACi treated leukemic cells were studied by analyzing the effect on wnt-pathway signaling. HDACi induced alterations in E-cadherin splicing were investigated by transcript specific real time PCR analysis. Results: Treatment of CLL specimens with histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) treatment resulted in an increase of the E-cadherin RNA transcript (5 to 119 fold increase, n=10) in eight out of ten CLL specimens indicating that this gene is down regulated by histone hypoacetylation in a majority of CLL specimens. The E-cadherin re-expression in CLL specimens was noted by western blot analysis as well. Besides epigenetic silencing another mechanism of E-cadherin inactivation is aberrant exon 11 splicing resulting in an alternatively spliced transcript that lacks exon 11 and is degraded by the non-sense mediated decay (NMD) pathway. Our chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments show that HDACi increased the acetylation of histones H3 and H4 in the E-cadherin promoter region. This also affected the E-cadherin exon 11 splicing pattern as HDACi treated CLL specimens preferentially expressed the correctly spliced transcript and not the exon 11 skipped aberrant transcript. The re-expressed E- cadherin binds to β-catenin with inhibition of the active wnt-beta-catenin pathway in these cells. This resulted in a down regulation of two wnt target genes, LEF and cyclinD1 and the wnt pathway reporter. Conclusion: The E-cadherin gene is epigenetically modified and hypoacetylated in CLL leukemic cells. Treatment of CLL specimens with HDACi MS-275 activates transcription from this silent gene with expression of more correctly spliced E-cadherin transcripts as compared to the aberrant exon11 skipped transcripts that in turn inhibits the wnt signaling pathway. The data highlights the role of epigenetic modifications in altering gene splicing patterns.
PIK3CA and AKT1 Mutations Have Distinct Effects on Sensitivity to Targeted Pathway Inhibitors in an Isogenic Luminal Breast Cancer Model System

Purpose: Activating mutations in the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR pathway are present in the majority of breast cancers and therefore are a major focus of drug development and clinical trials. Pathway mutations have been proposed as predictive biomarkers for efficacy of PI3K-targeted therapies. However, the precise contribution of distinct PI3K pathway mutations to drug sensitivity is unknown. Experimental Design: We describe the creation of a physiologic human luminal breast cancer cell line model to study the phenotype of these mutations using the MCF-7 cell line. We used somatic cell gene targeting to “correct” PIK3CA E545K-mutant alleles in MCF-7 cells to wild-type sequence. The AKT1 E17K hotspot mutation was knocked in on this wild-type background. Results: Loss of mutant PIK3CA dramatically reduced phosphorylation of AKT proteins and several known AKT targets, but other AKT target proteins and downstream effectors of mTOR were not affected. PIK3CA wild-type cells exhibited reduced proliferation in vitro and in vivo . Knockin of the AKT1 E17K hotspot mutation on this PIK3CA wild-type background restored pathway signaling, proliferation, and tumor growth in vivo . PIK3CA , but not AKT1 mutation, increased sensitivity to the PI3K inhibitor GDC-0941 and the allosteric AKT inhibitor MK-2206. Conclusions: AKT1 E17K is a bona fide oncogene in a human luminal breast cancer context. Distinct PI3K pathway mutations confer differential sensitivity to drugs targeting the pathway at different points and by distinct mechanisms. These findings have implications for the use of tumor genome sequencing to assign patients to targeted therapies. Clin Cancer Res; 19(19); 5413–22. ©2013 AACR .
Characterization of Vapor Escape Restriction in Biporous Wicks With Monolayers for Thermal Ground Plane Optimization

Developing better heat pipes requires advancement of technology in all aspects of construction. In this paper I am investigating the effect of vapor pathways on the performance of biporous wicks in heat pipes. Biporous evaporator wicks, generated by sintering copper particles into semi-uniform clusters, were demonstrated to achieve high flux, heat transfer performance for use in heat pipes by Semenic (2007). The effective thermal conductivity of thick biporous wicks at high heat fluxes was found to be reduced because the region next to the wall dried out prematurely, allowing the wall interface temperature to rise well above the saturation temperature. One possible way to reduce the size of the wall-wick interface dry-out region is to sinter a thin layer of uniform size particles on the wall as suggested by Seminic. The boiling curve for this “double layer” wick diverges from a standard “single layer” biporous wick at the point of nucleation by reducing the wall temperature, and concurrently the overall temperature drop across the wick needed to drive a given heat flux. The temperature drop across the wick is reduced because the thin layer of particles between the biporous wick and the wall reduces the wall-wick interface resistance and also provides additional capillary channels underneath the biporous wick. Experimental data supports this hypothesis by showing a clear divergence between measured wall temperatures for the double layer wick from its single layer counterpart with an indication that smaller cluster sizes in the biporous wicks perform better at lowering the superheat required to obtain high fluxes. In this work, we are looking to compare the performance of these wicks to similarly sized blocks of copper in order to investigate the performance increase offered by the wicks. In order to investigate this phenomenon we ran experiments in a similar manner to previous experiments done by Reilly (2009), but a plate was inserted into the chamber above the wick to restrict the vapor flow. To determine the behavior in the copper we ran several simulations in COMSOL (a finite element software used for doing conduction analysis) of copper disks at different representative thicknesses. We ran experiments with the plate at several heights above the wick, going so far as to place the plate flush with the upper surface of the wick to force vapor back through the wick laterally. By comparing the results between these two sets of experiments we were able to deduce that even in the case where there was no open space above the wick for vapor to escape, we were still able to double the performance with respect to a system of solid copper.© 2009 ASME
Prophylactic and Responsive Components of an Integrated Pest Management Program

Pest management decisions can be divided into prophylactic and responsive components. We define prophylactic decisions as those made without evaluating whether or not control will result in economic gain for the particular crop in a particular year. Responsive decisions are those made after evaluating the potential economic gain of control based on information obtained in a particular year. This conceptual division permits comparison of efficacy with different control tactics. We present criteria for determining minimal total cost of pest control, and for determining when a pure prophylactic, pure responsive, or mixed control strategy is preferred. All three strategies are theoretically possible.
Irrelevant stimuli present all or half of the time as subsequent discriminanda

Irrelevant stimuli each associated with a 50% reinforcement schedule were either present on all or on half of initial discrimination training trials. For different groups in test problem training a previously irrelevant stimulus was either the positive or the negative discriminandum, with a novel stimulus as the other discriminandum, or both discriminanda were novel stimuli. No effect due to novelty was demonstrable. Ss were retarded in test learning if their test negative discriminandum had been present on half of the initial acquisition trials; no other groups differed from controls.