cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multiwalled carbon nanotube film for strain sensing.

We have studied the possibility of using multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) films as strain sensors. The MWCNT films were prepared by a solution/filtration method and were bonded directly onto specimens by a nonconductive adhesive. For comparison, conventional foil strain gages were also bonded to the structure on the opposite side. The specimens then underwent a uniaxial tensile load–unload cycle to evaluate them as strain sensors. To ensure good electrical contact between carbon nanotube film and the wires, a thin layer of copper was thermally deposited on both ends of the film as electrodes, and the wires were connected to the electrodes by silver ink. Wheatstone bridges were used to convert the resistance changes of the MWCNTs to voltage output. Results indicated that the output voltages were proportional to the strain readings from the stain indicator. The effect of temperature on the resistance was measured and the MWCNT film resistance was found to be independent of temperature over the range 273–363 K. The optimal film dimension for strain sensing was evaluated as well. Dynamic tests suggest that the MWCNTs were able to extract the structural signature. Our results indicate that MWCNT film is potentially useful for structural health monitoring and vibration control applications.
Statistical analysis and modeling of analog optical processors

A generic three-plane optical processor is investigated from a statistical viewpoint. The means and the mutual coherence functions of the output field amplitude and intensity are derived. The photodetection process is then studied, and the mean and the autocorrelation function of the output current are found, thus establishing the functional form of the signal dependence of noise at the processor output. An integral equation and a series expression are also presented for the probability density function of the output signal. A special case is then analyzed, and the use of these expressions is demonstrated. Finally, device models to be used within this framework are summarized.
On competitive online read-many parallel disks scheduling

We consider the natural extension of the single disk caching problem to parallel disk I/O model. We close the existing gap between lower and upper bounds and achieve optimal competitive ratio of O(√D) when lookahead is more than the memory size M. When lookahead is smaller, we derive various upper bounds and lower bounds on the competitive ratio under various adversarial models.
Jean Rhys, Race and Caribbean/English criticism

(1998). Jean Rhys, Race and Caribbean/English criticism. Wasafiri: Vol. 14, No. 28, pp. 33-34.
Depression in a Primary Care Clinic: the Prevalence and Impact of an Unrecognized Disorder

Background: This study assesses depression among primary care patients, the relationship between depression and functioning, and how frequently depressed individuals receive mental health treatment. Methods: Two hundred and thirteen participants completed a diagnostic interview and measures of functional impairment and service utilization. Results: Sixty-two clinic patients were depressed, and depressed individuals experienced significant functional impairment even after controlling for comorbid anxiety disorders and medical problems. However, less than 40% of depressed individuals were receiving treatment for depression. Severity of impairment was related to likelihood of receiving mental health services. Limitations: Several factors to consider when evaluating this study are the cross-sectional design, use of self-report data, and lack of random sampling. Conclusions: These results show that depression has a unique and significant impact on the functioning of primary care patients, and emphasize the need for identification of depressive disorders in primary care.
Dynamic Thermal Line Ratings Part II Conductor Temperature Sensor and Laboratory Field test Evaluation

An outdoor laboratory test facility was utilized to evaluate the performance of the dynamic ampacity rating algorithm, developed in Part I, and a prototype conductor sensor module for measuring conductor surface temperature, conductor current and ambient air temperature. The test facility consisted of a fully instrumented outdoor mock conductor test loop and a real time data acquisition system. Both steady state and transient load tests were performed and analyzed under a wide variety of meteorological conditions. The ampacity predictions observed were consistent with laboratory test measurements. Cor- relations obtained between sensor module measurements and calibrated sensors was excellent over the intend- ed range of application of the sensor module.
Mapping the human amylase gene cluster on the proximal short arm of chromosome 1 using a highly informative (CA)n repeat.

The human amylaae gene cluster includes a (CA),, repeat sequence immediately upstream of the y-actin pseudogene associated with the AMYPB gene. Analysis of this (CA), repeat by PCR amplification of genomic DNA from the 40 families of the Centre d’Etude du Polymorphisme I&main (CEPH) reference panel revealed extensive polymorphism. A total of six alleles with (CA), lengths of 16-2 1 repeats were found. The average heterozygosity for this polymorphism was 0.70. Multipoint linkage analysis showed that the amylase gene cluster is located distal to the nerve growth factor B-subunit gene (NGFB) and is within 1 CM of the anonymous locus DlSlO. The amylase (CA), repeat provides a convenient marker for both the physical and the genetic maps of human chromosome lp. o
The packing problem for projective geometries over GF(3) with dimension greater than five

Abstract An (n, d) set in the projective geometry PG(r, q) is a set of n points, no d of which are dependent. The packing problem is that of finding n(r, q, d), the largest size of an (n, d) set in PG(r, q). The packing problem for PG(r, 3) is considered. All of the values of n(r, 3, d) for r ⩽ 5 are known. New results for r = 6 are n(6, 3, 5) = 14 and 20 ⩽ n(6, 3, 4) ⩽ 31. In general, upper bounds on n(r, q, d) are determined using a slightly improved sphere-packing bound, the linear programming approach of coding theory, and an orthogonal (n, d) set with the known extremal values of n(r, q, d)—values when r and d are close to each other. The BCH constructions and computer searches are used to give lower bounds. The current situation for the packing problem for PG(r, 3) with r ⩽ 15 is summarized in a final table.
“I never thought I'd make it quite this far”: A personal journey in international understanding

The author provides a brief account of her travel and experiences in several “developing” countries and explores some of the resulting personal transformations in her attitudes, assumptions and understandings. Persons working with children and youth can learn much from those countries which are economically “under-developed,” but which retain a simplicity in daily life and a commitment to the central importance of family and community.
Activity-dependent gene expression in honey bee mushroom bodies in response to orientation flight

The natural history of adult worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) provides an opportunity to study the molecular basis of learning in an ecological context. Foragers must learn to navigate between the hive and floral locations that may be up to miles away. Young pre-foragers prepare for this task by performing orientation flights near the hive, during which they begin to learn navigational cues such as the appearance of the hive, the position of landmarks, and the movement of the sun. Despite well-described spatial learning and navigation behavior, there is currently limited information on the neural basis of insect spatial learning. We found that Egr, an insect homolog of Egr-1, is rapidly and transiently upregulated in the mushroom bodies in response to orientation. This result is the first example of an Egr-1 homolog acting as a learning-related immediate-early gene in an insect and also demonstrates that honey bee orientation uses a molecular mechanism that is known to be involved in many other forms of learning. This transcriptional response occurred both in naive bees and in foragers induced to re-orient. Further experiments suggest that visual environmental novelty, rather than exercise or memorization of specific visual cues, acts as the stimulus for Egr upregulation. Our results implicate the mushroom bodies in spatial learning and emphasize the deep conservation of Egr-related pathways in experience-dependent plasticity.
Surface-enhanced raman spectroscopy using nonaqueous colloidal silver

Silver colloids have been prepared by the direct borohydride reduction of silver nitrate in a variety of nonaqueous solvents: acrylonitrile, tetrahydrofuran, dimethyl sulfoxide, acetonitrile, and N,N′dimethylformamide (DMF). The dispersions were stable without the addition of ionic or polymeric stabilizing agents. Colloidal silver is formed spontaneously in DMF upon the addition of AgNO3. UV—visible absorption spectrophotometry has been used to characterize sol particle size and sol stability. Colloids prepared in DMF and CH3CN are suitable for use in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The first SERS spectrum of a neutral species adsorbed at a nonaqueous-metal interface has been obtained: that of tert-butylamine in an acetonitrile silver sol. This is also the first SER spectrum obtained from an anhydrous colloidal dispersion. The adsorbate-surface interactions and adsorbate orientation are discussed.
Signal sensing and modulation classification using pervasive sensor networks

This paper discusses the use of asynchronous low-cost sensors in distributed locations for sensing and classifying weak wireless signals. This weak signal may not be identified by using a single sensor alone, but can be detected and classified by fusing multiple weak signals collected by sensor networks. The asynchronous signal copies have unwanted offsets in time, frequency, and phase due to the diversities in local oscillators and unknown communication channels. This work proposes a post-synchronization method to estimate and compensate for offsets in the fusion process without adjusting the sensor parameters. The properly combined signal from the distributed sensors achieves a higher processing gain for reliable signal exploitation.
Variationally consistent state determination algorithms for nonlinear mixed beam finite elements

Abstract This paper presents and evaluates several variationally consistent state determination algorithms for geometric and material nonlinear beam finite elements based on the Hellinger–Reissner (HR) assumed stress variational principle. The specifically targeted element type is derived from the two-field (displacement and generalized stress) form of this principle. Momentum balance and strain compatibility are expressed in a weak-form, and the constitutive equations are satisfied directly at each integration point (i.e., section) along the element length. A specific formulation of one element of this type is presented in a companion paper. Interelement compatibility is not enforced in the dual (stress resultant) variables for this element, and thus various state determination algorithms can be formulated at the local (i.e., element and section) levels. Four state determination algorithms, referred to as the L–L, L–N, N–L and N–N procedures, are considered. The first symbol in these names indicates the element level and the second denotes the section level. Furthermore, the symbol N indicates that local nonlinear iteration is performed prior to returning to the higher level, whereas the symbol L indicates that only the linearized equations are satisfied at the corresponding local level. The L–L algorithm corresponds to conventional Newton iteration on both the element and section levels, whereas the N–N algorithm entails the iterative satisfaction of the nonlinear element compatibility and section constitutive equations for each global iteration. The performance of these algorithms is evaluated and compared. It is found that the algorithms in which the local nonlinear strain–displacement compatibility conditions are solved iteratively at the element level for every global iteration lead to fewer global iterations at the expense of iterations at the element level. In particular, the N–N algorithm, is overall the most efficient of the four algorithms for the problems tested. Also, the N–N algorithm has substantially smaller element storage requirements. The N–N algorithm is expected to be particularly advantageous for cases in which a large number of elements remain elastic and inelasticity is concentrated in a few elements.
Equations of explicitly-correlated coupled-cluster methods

The tensor contraction expressions defining a variety of high-rank coupled-cluster energies and wave functions that include the interelectronic distances (r(12)) explicitly (CC-R12) have been derived with the aid of a newly-developed computerized symbolic algebra smith. Efficient computational sequences to perform these tensor contractions have also been suggested, defining intermediate tensors-some reusable-as a sum of binary tensor contractions. smith can elucidate the index permutation symmetry of intermediate tensors that arise from a Slater-determinant expectation value of any number of excitation, deexcitation and other general second-quantized operators. smith also automates additional algebraic transformation steps specific to R12 methods, i.e. the identification and isolation of the special intermediates that need to be evaluated analytically and the resolution-of-the-identity insertion to facilitate high-dimensional molecular integral computation. The tensor contraction expressions defining the CC-R12 methods including through the connected quadruple excitation operator (CCSDTQ-R12) have been documented and efficient computational sequences have been suggested not just for the ground state but also for excited states via the equation-of-motion formalism (EOM-CC-R12) and for the so-called Lambda equation (Lambda-CC-R12) of the CC analytical gradient theory. Additional equations (the geminal amplitude equation) arise in CC-R12 that need to be solved to determine the coefficients multiplying the r(12)-dependent factors. The operation cost of solving the geminal amplitude equations of rank-k CC-R12 and EOM-CC-R12 (right-hand side) scales as O(n(6)) (k = 2) or O(n(7)) (k > or = 3) with the number of orbitals n and is surpassed by the cost of solving the usual amplitude equations O(n(2k+2)). While the complexity of the geminal amplitude equations of Lambda- and EOM-CC-R12 (left-hand side) nominally scales as O(n(2k+2)), it is less than that of the other O(n(2k+2)) terms in the usual amplitude equations. This suggests that the unabridged equations should be solved in high-rank CC-R12 for benchmark accuracy.
Effects of Temperature, Humidity, and Soybean Maturity on Longevity and Fecundity of the Adult Mexican Bean Beetle, Epilachna varivestis

The effects of temperature, humidity, and plant stage independently, as well as their interactions, on longevity and fecundity of adult Mexican bean beetles were studied. Longevity was not affected by plant stage, but was affected by temperature and humidity, independently, as well as by their interaction. Longevity increased with increasing humidity and decreasing temperature. Fecundity, as measured by 4 parameters (total egg masses, total eggs, egg masses per female per day, eggs per female per day), was affected by temperature, humidity and plant stage. Eggs per mass was affected by plant stage and humidity, but not by temperature (independently). In general, fecundity was highest for beetles reared under intermediate temperatures, high humidity and feeding on mature soybean plants. No eggs were laid at 32°C, regardless of soybean plant stage and humidity.
Pyruvate, citrate, alphaketoglutarate and glucose in the CSF and blood of neurologic patients

CSF and blood levels of pyruvate, citrate, alphaketoglutarate and glucose were obtained from some 250 neurologic patients with various diagnoses. Statistical comparisons were made between these metabolites from each patient group and normal volunteers. Significantly increased CSF pyruvates occurred in cerebrovascular disease, and they were decreased in pseudotumor cerebri. CSF citrates were elevated in a number of conditions but blood citrates did not accompany this rise. CSF alphaketoglutarates did not change, but blood levels were elevated in cerebrovascular disorders. CSF citrate levels were significantly related to CSF total protein levels. CSF citrate changes seem to have diagnostic value in patients with neurological disorders apart from changes in pyruvates or lactates.
The homeobox gene Mohawk represses transcription by recruiting the sin3A/HDAC co-repressor complex

Mohawk is an atypical homeobox gene expressed in embryonic progenitor cells of skeletal muscle, tendon, and cartilage. We demonstrate that Mohawk functions as a transcriptional repressor capable of blocking the myogenic conversion of 10T1/2 fibroblasts. The repressor activity is located in three small, evolutionarily conserved domains (MRD1–3) in the carboxy-terminal half of the protein. Point mutation analysis revealed six residues in MRD1 are sufficient for repressor function. The carboxy-terminal half of Mohawk is able to recruit components of the Sin3A/HDAC co-repressor complex (Sin3A, Hdac1, and Sap18) and a subset of Polymerase II general transcription factors (Tbp, TFIIA1 and TFIIB). Furthermore, Sap18, a protein that bridges the Sin3A/HDAC complex to DNA-bound transcription factors, is co-immunoprecipitated by MRD1. These data predict that Mohawk can repress transcription through recruitment of the Sin3A/HDAC co-repressor complex, and as a result, repress target genes required for the differentiation of cells to the myogenic lineage. Developmental Dynamics 238:572–580, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Professional Program Criteria for Civil Engineering Curriculums

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has adopted a revised set of accreditation criteria that is designed to ensure that graduates of accredited programs are prepared to enter the practice of engineering. The proposal also specifies that engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have an understanding of professional practice issues in addition to proficiency in specific subject areas that are tabulated in the civil engineering program criteria. The findings of this study indicate that engineering undergraduate and graduate students as well as practitioners perceive that four subject areas are of great importance for civil engineers: structural engineering, hydraulics/hydrology/water resources, engineering design, and mathematics through calculus and differential equations. In contrast, one area, chemistry, received lower ratings. Data suggest that the majority of subjects included in the civil engineering program criteria are considered by students and practitioners to have generally the same level of importance and should be included in the curriculum at an above average level. In particular, 81% of the subject areas included in the ABET civil engineering program criteria are rated by both students and practitioners with a composite score 3.1. This may be interpreted as strong support for the Engineering Criteria 2000 program requirements.
A note on WISC-WISC-R differences with mentally retarded and borderline functioning adolescents

Records of 94 randomly selected students from the Department for the Mentally Retarded in the Special School District of St. Louis County (mean age 14.8 years) were reviewed. Forty-nine subjects had been given the WISC (25 males and 24 females), and 45 subjects had been given the WISC-R (31 males and 14 females). Although no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups, the WISC tested lower than the WISC-R by an average of 1.8 points in Verbal IQ, 2.6 points in Performance IQ, and 2 points in Full Scale IQ. This finding was consistent with other studies that have indicated WISC-WISC-R differences of about 2 points for children over I I years of age.
Our most explosive sex education issue: birth control.

In order to visualize the role of the school in population and birth control education information is needed regarding the major policies currently being debated and advocated and the pro and con arguments being advanced. The traditional policy has been to exclude birth control education. Some of the reasons advanced for excluding birth control education are the following: 1) including birth control information gives tacit approval for high school students to engage in premarital sexual intercourse; 2) teaching contraceptive methods alone would not solve the problem of premarital pregnancy because unwed adolescent pregnancy is sometimes because of human factors other than ignorance and lack of contraceptives; and 3) birth control is a public health and medical rather than an educational problem. An emerging new policy emphasizes teaching about population and birth control. Reasons in support of this policy include: 1) provide accurate knowledge regarding birth control from reliable sources to counteract misconceptions gained from poorly informed friends and other sources; and 2) the assumption that giving birth control information to adolescents would lead to sexual immorality and promiscuity is unproven. There is a need to develop an ecologic-ethical approach to family life and sex education in the United States. A need exists for being concerned with all the major dimensions of human sexuality and sexual behavior in sex education -- the biologic psychologic social ethical and religious. The concept approach can help to focus the teaching-learning process and experiences on basic principles and generalization.
Analyzing K-12 Education as a Complex System☆

Abstract Schools and school districts are complex, dynamic systems affected by numerous factors, from individuals’ attributes to federal policies. In this paper, a modeling framework is presented for modeling a school as a complex system. An agent-based modeling strategy is developed such that users may better understand the attributes and relationships that may cause an intervention to succeed or fail. The system state change, including agents’ attributes and their relationships, is modeled as a Discrete Time Markov Chain (DTMC). The modeling framework is demonstrated through a case study of a high school where an ‘Engineers Without Borders’ chapter is founded.
Feature, design intention and constraint preservation for direct modeling of 3D freeform surfaces

Direct modeling has recently emerged as a suitable approach for 3D free-form shape modeling in industrial design. It has several advantages over the conventional, parametric modeling techniques, including natural user interactions, as well as the underlying, automatic feature-preserving shape deformation algorithms. However, current direct modeling packages still lack several capabilities critical for product design, such as managing aesthetic design intentions, and enforcing dimensional, geometric constraints. In this paper, we describe a novel 3D surface editing system capable of jointly accommodating aesthetic design intentions expressed in the form of surface painting and color-coded annotations, as well as engineering constraints expressed as dimensions. The proposed system is built upon differential coordinates and constrained least squares, and is intended for conceptual design that involves frequent shape tuning and explorations. We also provide an extensive review of the state-of-the-art direct modeling approaches for 3D mesh-based, freeform surfaces, with an emphasis on the two broad categories of shape deformation algorithms developed in the relevant field of geometric modeling.
Calculation of the effects of pressure on the band structure, drift, and Hall mobilities of an excess electron and an excess hole in anthracene

Intermolecular resonance integrals for an excess electron and an excess hole in an anthracene crystal are calculated as functions of pressure, using the recently measured linear compressibilities. These integrals are then used to calculate the pressure dependence of the band structure, the drift-mobility components, and the Hall mobility. The results show an improvement of the agreement between the calculated and the experimental anisotropies of the drift mobility at atmospheric pressure but only a qualitative agreement between theory and experiment for the dependence of the drift mobility on pressure. Comparison between the calculated and observed effects of pressure on the drift mobility shows that the constant-relaxation-time approximation is superior to the constant-free-path approximation.
New applications of high-temperature solution calorimetry 1. Enthalpy of the diamond-to-graphite transformation and enthalpy of formation of Mn5C2 at 1320 K☆

Abstract The enthalpies of solution in the liquid alloy Mn 0.6 Ni 0.4 of pure graphite, diamond, and manganese, and of the carbide Mn 5 C 2 have been measured at 1320 K. From these results we have calculated the enthalpy of the diamond-to-graphite transformation at this temperature to be −(0.32 ± 0.22) kcal th mol −1 . The enthalpy of formation of Mn 5 C 2 was found to be −(16.71 ± 0.91) kcal th mol −1 .
Transitivity of social choice: Developmental considerations

Eighty-two female rats, ranging in age from 15 to 120 days, were each given a spatial preference test among the three possible pairings of the following three stimuli: an agemate, a model of an agemate, and her own mirror image. An examination of the proportion of choices directed toward each alternative revealed that (1) as age increases, so does the preference for an agemate, and (2) all age groups demonstrated a serial ordering of stimulus preferences with a rather good fit to Prediction 1 derived from Dawkins’s (1969a, b) threshold model of choice behavior.
Hap1 and GABA: thinking about food intake

GABA stimulation of hypothalamic GABAA receptors increases food intake and body weight. Huntingtin-associated protein-1 (Hap1), is highly expressed in the hypothalamus and increases activity at GABAA receptors; mice lacking Hap1 are hypophagic. A recent paper (Sheng et al., 2006) further explores the role of Hap1 in the control of food intake.
Can a reductionist be a pluralist

Pluralism is often put forth as a counter-position to reductionism. In this essay, I argue that reductionism and pluralism are in fact consistent. I propose that there are several potential goals for reductions and that the proper form of a reduction should be considered in tandem with the goal that it aims to achieve. This insight provides a basis for clarifying what version(s) of reductionism are currently defended, for explicating the notion of a “fundamental” level of explanation, and for showing how one can be both a reductionist and a pluralist.
Varieties of Patriarchy and Violence Against Women: Resurrecting "Patriarchy" as a Theoretical Tool

Feminist scholars have produced abundant writings on violence against women, yet theory development has stagnated. The effort to construct a theory of patriarchy to explain violence against women was derailed by criticism. In this article, the author addresses some of these criticisms, uncovers the explanatory strengths of this concept, and lays some foundations for a more fully developed theory of violence against women. The concept of patriarchy holds promise for theorizing violence against women because it keeps the theoretical focus on dominance, gender, and power. It also anchors the problem of violence against women in social conditions, rather than individual attributes.
Initially Forced Long Planetary Waves in the Presence of Nonzonal Mean Flow

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to understand how long planetary waves evolve when propagating in a subtropical gyre. The steady flow of a wind-driven vertically sheared model subtropical gyre is perturbed by Ekman pumping that is localized within a region of finite lateral extent and oscillates periodically at about the annual frequency after sudden initiation. Both the background flow and the infinitesimal perturbations are solutions of a 2½-layer model. The region of forcing is located in the eastern part of the gyre where the steady flow is confined to the uppermost layer (shadow zone). The lateral scales of the forcing and of the response are supposed to be small enough with respect to the overall gyre scale that the background flow may be idealized as horizontally uniform, yet large enough (greater than the baroclinic Rossby radii) that the long-wave approximation may be made. The latter approximation limits the length of time over which the solutions remain valid. The solutions consist of (i)...
The Importance of Organizational Justice in Ensuring Research Integrity

The professional behavior of scientists, for good or ill, is likely associated with their perceptions of whether they are treated fairly in their work environments, including their academic department and university and by relevant regulatory bodies. These relationships may also be influenced by their own personal characteristics, such as being overcommitted to their work, and by the interactions between these factors. Theory also suggests that such associations may be mediated by negative or positive affect. We examined these issues using data from a national, mail-based survey administered in 2006 and 2007 to 5,000 randomly selected faculty from biomedical and social science departments at 50 top-tier research universities in the United States. We found that perceptions of justice in one's workplace (organizational justice) are positively associated with self-report of "ideal" behaviors and negatively associated with self-report of misbehavior and misconduct. By contrast, researchers who perceive that they are being unfairly treated are less likely to report engaging in "ideal" behaviors and more likely to report misbehavior and misconduct. Overcommitment to one's work is also associated with negative affect and interacts with perceptions of unfair treatment in ways that are associated with higher self-report of misbehavior. Thus, perceptions of fair treatment in the work environment appear to play important roles in fostering-or undermining-research integrity.
207-nm UV Light—A Promising Tool for Safe Low-Cost Reduction of Surgical Site Infections. II: In-Vivo Safety Studies

Background: 0.5% to 10% of clean surgeries result in surgical-site infections, and attempts to reduce this rate have had limited success. Germicidal UV lamps, with a broad wavelength spectrum from 200 to 400 nm are an effective bactericidal option against drug-resistant and drug-sensitive bacteria, but represent a health hazard to patient and staff. By contrast, because of its limited penetration, ,200 nm far-UVC light is predicted to be effective in killing bacteria, but without the human health hazards to skin and eyes associated with conventional germicidal UV exposure. Aims: The aim of this work was to test the biophysically-based hypothesis that ,200 nm UV light is significantly cytotoxic to bacteria, but minimally cytotoxic or mutagenic to human cells either isolated or within tissues. Methods: A Kr-Br excimer lamp was used, which produces 207-nm UV light, with a filter to remove higher-wavelength components. Comparisons were made with results from a conventional broad spectrum 254-nm UV germicidal lamp. First, cell inactivation vs. UV fluence data were generated for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) bacteria and also for normal human fibroblasts. Second, yields of the main UV-associated pre-mutagenic DNA lesions (cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and 6-4 photoproducts) were measured, for both UV radiations incident on 3-D human skin tissue. Results: We found that 207-nm UV light kills MRSA efficiently but, unlike conventional germicidal UV lamps, produces little cell killing in human cells. In a 3-D human skin model, 207-nm UV light produced almost no pre-mutagenic UV-associated DNA lesions, in contrast to significant yields induced by a conventional germicidal UV lamp. Conclusions: As predicted based on biophysical considerations, 207-nm light kills bacteria efficiently but does not appear to be significantly cytotoxic or mutagenic to human cells. Used appropriately, 207-nm light may have the potential for safely and inexpensively reducing surgical-site infection rates, including those of drug-resistant origin.
All-fiber optofluidic biosensor

Optical fiber provides a unique and versatile platform for developing point-of-care optical sensing systems. Here we first propose a Fabry-Perot (FP) based flow-through optofluidic biosensor, and then construct an all-fiber system which fully utilizes optical fibers to achieve rapid, sensitive, label-free biomolecular detection. This sensor consists of two single mode fibers (SMFs) with reflecting surfaces and a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) vertically sandwiched by them. Firstly, the SMFs act as waveguides for delivering light into and out of an optofluidic device (like PCF); secondly, instead of using the optical properties of the PCF, we take advantage of its inherent multiple fluidic channels and large sensing surface; thirdly, the two reflective surfaces and the PCF form a Fabry-Perot microresonator and its resonance mode is sensitive to the change in the fluidic channels, which can be used to detect the substances flowing through the fluidic channels or adsorbing on the channel surface. In this paper, we explore the operating principle of the FP-based optofluidic biosensor, theoretically and experimentally investigate its feasibility and capability. The results show that the all-fiber optofluidic sensor is a promising technology platform for rapid, sensitive and high-throughput biological and chemical sensing.
Thermodynamic modeling of binary and ternary adsorption on silica gel

Qualitative and quantitative characterization and prediction of multicomponent adsorption equilibria are essential for design of environmental remediation processes such as soil vapor extraction, bioventing, and thermal desorption. Single component, binary- and ternary-mixture isotherms on silica gel were measured by the frontal analysis chromatography technique. Binary organic mixtures were composed of environmentally relevant VOCs, hexane/benzene (nonpolar/nonpolar), and hexane/trichloroethylene (nonpolar/slightly-polar). Water binaries were water with hexane, benzene, or trichloethylene. Organic mixtures exhibited enhanced adsorption, where the adsorbed amount for each component was increased due to the second component. Water/hexane and water/benzene mixtures showed noncompetitive adsorption, where water adsorbed onto polar sites and n-hexane or benzene adsorbed onto nonpolar sites. Competition for polar adsorption sites was observed for the trichloroethylene adsorption in water. Adsorption data of n-hexane/benzene/water showed that n-hexane and water were independently adsorbing onto different adsorption sites. Furthermore, n-hexane and benzene with water showed the same adsorption behavior as without water. For the mixture of n-hexane/trichloroethylene/water, only the amount of water adsorbed was reduced compared to the pure species adsorption of water. The adsorption equilibria of n-hexane and trichloroethylene were not influenced in comparison to their pure species isotherms. Mixture isotherms were modeled with IAST, MSAM, and RAST. The nonideal adsorbed phase was characterized using activity coefficients.
Exponential Lower Bounds on the Lengths of Some Classes of Branch-and-Cut Proofs

We examine the complexity of branch-and-cut proofs in the context of 0-1 integer programs. We establish an exponential lower bound on the length of branch-and-cut proofs that use 0-1 branching and lift-and-project cuts (called simple disjunctive cuts by some authors), Gomory-Chvatal cuts, and cuts arising from the N0 matrix-cut operator of Lovasz and Schrijver. A consequence of the lower-bound result in this paper is that branch-and-cut methods of the type described above have exponential running time in the worst case.
Huntington's disease and the striatal medium spiny neuron: cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous mechanisms of disease.

Huntington’s disease is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by a mutation in the gene encoding the protein huntingtin on chromosome 4. The mutation is an expanded CAG repeat in the first exon, encoding a polyglutamine tract. If the polyglutamine tract is >40, penetrance is 100% and death is inevitable. Despite the widespread expression of huntingtin, HD has long been considered primarily as a disease of the striatum. It is characterized by selective vulnerability with dysfunction followed by death of the medium size spiny neuron. Considerable effort is being expended to determine whether striatal damage is cell-autonomous, non-cell-autonomous, requiring cell-cell and region to region communication, or both. We review data supporting both mechanisms. We also attempt to organize the data into common mechanisms that may arise outside the medium, spiny neuron, but ultimately have their greatest impact in the striatum.
Optimal windowing in MIMO OFDM for network interference suppression

The combined use of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) links is becoming common. For many applications, such as ad hoc wireless networks, interference is a significant issue. MIMO links allow for the spatial mitigation of interference; however, spatial interference mitigation when using OFDM modulation performs somewhat poorly because of the relatively limited interference spectral confinement of the Discrete Fourier Transform. Traditional windowing approaches that minimize leakage of the interference into neighboring carriers induce intercarrier interference. In this paper, a technique is developed for determining optimal windows that trade off interference suppression with intercarrier and interframe interference. This technique assumes channel statistics are known. Optimized windows for various levels of interference, delay spreads, frame length, and cyclic prefix lengths can be produced.
IL-17RA signaling amplifies antibody-induced arthritis.

Objective To investigate the role of IL-17RA signaling in the effector phase of inflammatory arthritis using the K/BxN serum-transfer model. Methods Wild-type and Il17ra−/− mice were injected with serum isolated from arthritic K/BxN mice and their clinical score was recorded daily. Mice were also harvested on days 12 and 21 and ankles were analyzed for cytokine and chemokine mRNA expression by qPCR on day 12 and for bone and cartilage erosions by histology on day 21, respectively. The induction of cytokine and chemokine expression levels by IL-17A in synovial-like fibroblasts was also analyzed using qPCR. Results Il17ra−/− mice were partially protected from clinical signs of arthritis and had markedly fewer cartilage and bone erosions. The expression of several pro-inflammatory mediators, including the chemokines KC/CXCL1, MIP-2/CXCL2, LIX/CXCL5 MIP-1γ/CCL9, MCP-3/CCL7, MIP-3α/CCL20, the cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, RANKL and the matrix metalloproteinases MMP2, MMP3, and MMP13 were decreased in the ankles of Il17ra−/− mice compared to wild-type mice. Many of these proinflammatory genes attenuated in the ankles of Il17ra−/− mice were shown to be directly induced by IL-17A in synovial fibroblasts in vitro. Conclusions IL-17RA signaling plays a role as an amplifier of the effector phase of inflammatory arthritis. This effect is likely mediated by direct activation of synovial fibroblasts by IL-17RA to produce multiple inflammatory mediators, including chemokines active on neutrophils. Therefore, interrupting IL-17RA signaling maybe a promising pharmacological target for the treatment of inflammatory arthritis.
Self-diffusion of particles in shear flow of a suspension

Self-diffusion coefficients were determined experimentally for lateral dispersion of spherical and disk-like particles in linear shear flow of a slurry at very low Reynolds number. Using a concentric-cylinder Couette apparatus, recurrent observations were made of the lateral position of a particular radioactively labelled particle. The self-diffusion coefficient D was calculated by means of random-walk theory, using the ergodic hypothesis. Owing to great experimental difficulties, the calculated values of D are not of high accuracy, but are correct to within a factor of two. In the range 0 < ϕ < 0·2, D/a2ω increases from zero linearly with ϕ up to D/a2ω ≅ 0·02 (where ϕ = volumetric concentration of particles, a = particle radius, ω = mean shear rate of suspending fluid). In the range 0·2 < 0·5, the trend of D/a2ω is not clear because of experimental scatter, but in this range D/a2ω ≅ 0·025 to within a factor of two. Within the experimental accuracy, spheres and disks have the same value of D/a2ω.
Spontaneous fluctuations in cerebral blood flow: Insights from extended- duration recordings in humans

To determine the dependence of cerebral blood flow (CBF) on arterial pressure over prolonged time periods, we measured beat-to-beat changes in mean CBF velocity in the middle cerebral artery (transcranial Doppler) and mean arterial pressure (Finapres) continuously for 2 h in six healthy subjects (5 men and 1 woman, 18-40 yr old) during supine rest. Fluctuations in velocity and pressure were quantified by the range [(peak - trough)/mean] and coefficients of variation (SD/mean) in the time domain and by spectral analysis in the frequency domain. Mean velocity and pressure over the 2-h recordings were 60 +/- 7 cm/s and 83 +/- 8 mmHg, associated with ranges of 77 +/- 8 and 89 +/- 10% and coefficients of variation of 9.3 +/- 2.2 and 7.9 +/- 2.3%, respectively. Spectral power of the velocity and pressure was predominantly distributed in the frequency range of 0.00014-0.1 Hz and increased inversely with frequency, indicating characteristics of an inverse power law (1/f(alpha)). However, linear regression on a log-log scale revealed that the slope of spectral power of pressure and velocity was steeper in the high-frequency (0.02-0.5 Hz) than in the low-frequency range (0.002-0.02 Hz), suggesting different regulatory mechanisms in these two frequency ranges. Furthermore, the spectral slope of pressure was significantly steeper than that of velocity in the low-frequency range, consistent with the low transfer function gain and low coherence estimated at these frequencies. We conclude that 1) long-term fluctuations in CBF velocity are prominent and similar to those observed in arterial pressure, 2) spectral power of CBF velocity reveals characteristics of 1/f(alpha), and 3) cerebral attenuation of oscillations in CBF velocity in response to changes in pressure may be more effective at low than that at high frequencies, emphasizing the frequency dependence of cerebral autoregulation.
Pyramidal Image Processing Using Morphology

Linear pyramidal image processing (LPIP) is a form of multiresolution analysis in which a primary image is decomposed into a set of different resolution copies. LPIP aims to extract and interpret significant features of an image appearing at different resolutions. Morphological filtering, a nonlinear image processing technique, because of its simplicity of operation and its direct relation to the shapes in an image, has been widely studied. In this paper, the use of morphological filtering technique for a nonlinear pyramidal image processing (NPIP) is proposed. By using a set of desirably structured masks as the 'Structuring Elements" (SEs), a primary image is decomposed into a sequence of pyramidal image copies. For each Gaussian image pyramid, objects smaller than a predetermined image threshold size are filtered, while for each Laplacian pyramid, objects other than a predetermined size are blocked. For NPIP operation, pipelined and parallel software implementation algorithms are suggested. In order to reconstruct the original image, an inverse morphologic transform with some special Structuring Elements is considered.
Top-Down Fatigue Cracking in High-Temperature Environments

Top-down fatigue cracking (TDFC) is now recognized as a common type of distress occurring in all types of environments on heavy-duty hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavements, but TDFC modeling is still limited in current state-of-the-practice tools. Despite significant recent advances in TDFC modeling, for regions with high-temperature seasons an extreme high-temperature profile with depth is a potentially important factor that deserves further consideration. This paper explores the potential of temperature gradients caused by high pavement surface temperatures to induce TDFC. Although, for the Hawaii environment, the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) always predicts that the HMA modulus decreases with depth after some aging of the pavement, the study results indicate that for some plausible high-temperature profiles the HMA modulus increases with depth even when frequencies are computed with the MEPDG procedure. This increase results in the greatest tensile strains, maximum shear strains, and es...
The Biography of Vahshi Bāfqi (d. 991/1583) and the Tazkera Tradition

This paper focuses on Vahshi Bāfqi (d. 991/1583), especially on the sources for the study of his biography and works. The various editions of his collected poems are assessed. Next, all of the known early sources on Vahshi’s biography are presented, including a very important one that has not been published or cited before. Laying out all of these sources allows us to construct a more authoritative biography of the poet than has appeared to date. On a broader level, we learn that the careers and works of poets of Vahshi’s era are best understood in connection to one another. The tremendous growth of the tazkera genre in the Safavid-Mughal period makes possible this kind of research, focused on interconnectivity and cosmopolitanism in literary culture. In fact, the sources not only permit such an approach; they demand it. The paper ends with a series of recommendations for future research on Vahshi, his contemporaries, and the tazkera s themselves.
Excimer laser lift-off for packaging and integration of GaN-based light-emitting devices

The delamination of a thin film heterostructure by selective absorption of pulsed laser energy at a buried interface enables the transfer of the thin film heterostructure from its growth substrate to virtually any receptor substrate without significant heating of material outside the interaction zone. By combining this "laser lift-off" process with low-temperature bonding methods, disparate classes of materials can be intimately integrated without exceeding the thermal budget of the least robust of the materials to be integrated. Furthermore, heterostructures that can be grown by epitaxy on one substrate can be transferred intact, without significant deterioration in crystal quality, to a receptor substrate that enhances the performance or functionality of the heterostructure in a device or microsystem. In this paper, applications of laser lift-off in the packaging and integration of light-emitting GaN devices are highlighted. Transfer of these devices from their sapphire growth substrates to thermally and electrically conductive receptor substrates is shown to result in improved device performance through the reduction of thermal and electrical series resistances, and by the improvement in optical design enabled by access to both sides of the heterostructure. Continued development of laser lift-off packaging has the potential to reduce manufacturing costs and complexity as well through the elimination of the sapphire dicing step. Finally, the application of the LLO technique to the assembly of functionally-enhanced microsystems is illustrated with the example of an integrated fluorescence detection microsystem.