2,201 research outputs found

    Backstreaming from oil diffusion pumps Final report, Dec. 1, 1963 - May 30, 1966

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    Backstreaming from oil diffusion and turbomolecular pump

    Production of TGF-alpha and TGF-beta by cultured keratinocytes, skin and oral squamous cell carcinomas--potential autocrine regulation of normal and malignant epithelial cell proliferation.

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    Transforming growth factors have a wide range of biological activities related to cell proliferation and differentiation. In general TGF-alpha promotes cell proliferation while TGF-beta may stimulate or inhibit proliferation depending on the cell type and growth factor environment. Cultured human keratinocytes, skin and oral squamous cell carcinomas were analysed for the presence of transcripts and protein for the transforming growth factors alpha & beta. Both growth factors were detected in cultured keratinocytes (which have receptors for and respond to both ligands), and in medium conditioned by these cells. Additionally transcripts for TGF-alpha were found preferentially in the basal, proliferative compartment of cultured keratinocytes. Similarly both growth factors were detected in oral squamous cell carcinomas and a highly significant inverse correlation was found between the levels of TGF-alpha and the epidermal growth factor receptor in these tumours. The data for TGF-alpha are consistent with the existence of an autocrine growth control loop influencing cell proliferation in both a normal cell type and malignant epithelial tissues, a process that in keratinocytes and responsive squamous cell carcinomas could be modulated by TGF-beta

    Journal Theme: Reflections

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    Pseudo-Random Streams for Distributed and Parallel Stochastic Simulations on GP-GPU

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    International audienceRandom number generation is a key element of stochastic simulations. It has been widely studied for sequential applications purposes, enabling us to reliably use pseudo-random numbers in this case. Unfortunately, we cannot be so enthusiastic when dealing with parallel stochastic simulations. Many applications still neglect random stream parallelization, leading to potentially biased results. In particular parallel execution platforms, such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), add their constraints to those of Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs) used in parallel. This results in a situation where potential biases can be combined with performance drops when parallelization of random streams has not been carried out rigorously. Here, we propose criteria guiding the design of good GPU-enabled PRNGs. We enhance our comments with a study of the techniques aiming to parallelize random streams correctly, in the context of GPU-enabled stochastic simulations

    Assessment of the ergogenic effect of caffeine supplementation on mood, anticipation timing, and muscular strength in older adults

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    The effect of caffeine to promote improvements in mood, cognition, and exercise performance has been well established in young and athletic adults. However, little is known about whether such nutritional ergogenic aids are effective in enhancing psychological well-being, physiological or cognitive performance in older adults. This study assesses the ergogenic effect of caffeine on mood, perceptual-motor coupling, and muscular strength in an older human population. Following a familiarization session, 12 apparently healthy volunteers (nine females and three males; 69 ± 6 years) completed two laboratory visits. "Pre ingestion" trials of mood state Brunel Mood State Inventory (BRUMS) and coincidence anticipation performance (Bassin anticipation timer) at slow (3 mph) and fast (8 mph) stimulus speeds were completed on both visits. Using a randomized, double-blind, cross-over design, participants consumed either caffeine (3 mg/kg body mass) or a placebo. Sixty minutes postingestion participants repeated the trials before completing a set of 10 consecutive repetitions of maximal knee extension using isokinetic dynamometry. Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was assessed following the fifth and final repetition. Caffeine ingestion significantly improved mood state scores for vigor by 17% (P = 0.009) and reduced absolute error by 35% (P = 0.045) during coincidence anticipation assessment at 8 mph compared to placebo. There were no other significant effects. Caffeine ingestion failed to augment maximal voluntary contraction of the knee extensors and RPE did not prove to be significantly different to from placebo (P > 0.33 in each case). Acute caffeine ingestion may not be an effective ergogenic aid for improving muscular strength in older adults but could possibly be used as a nutrition supplement for enhancing mood and improving cognitive performance in daily living tasks where interceptive timing skills are required

    Towards Standardising SHPB Testing - A Round Robin Exercise

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    The Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) test, while widely utilised for high strain rate tests, has yet to be standardised. As an exploratory step towards developing a standard test method or protocol, a Round Robin test series has been conducted between four institutions: (i) Swinburne University of Technology, Australia (ii) University of São Paulo, Brazil, (iii) University of Cape Town, South African and (iv) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Each institution prepared specimens from a metallic material, and provided batches of specimens from their chosen material to the other institutions. The materials utilised in this round of testing were commercially pure copper and aluminium, magnesium alloy and stainless steel (316 grade). The intent of the first exercise is to establish the consistency of SHPB test results on nominally identical specimens at comparable elevated strain rates, conducted by different laboratories following notionally similar test procedures with some freedom in data processing. This paper presents and compares the results of the first batch of tests for copper, identifying variations between results from different laboratories. The variation between different laboratories’ results for copper is suffciently small that there is confidence in the potential to develop a draft standard in future

    Generalised Regression Hypothesis Induction for Energy Consumption Forecasting

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    This work addresses the problem of energy consumption time series forecasting. In our approach, a set of time series containing energy consumption data is used to train a single, parameterised prediction model that can be used to predict future values for all the input time series. As a result, the proposed method is able to learn the common behaviour of all time series in the set (i.e., a fingerprint) and use this knowledge to perform the prediction task, and to explain this common behaviour as an algebraic formula. To that end, we use symbolic regression methods trained with both single- and multi-objective algorithms. Experimental results validate this approach to learn and model shared properties of different time series, which can then be used to obtain a generalised regression model encapsulating the global behaviour of different energy consumption time series.This work was supported by the Spanish Government (research project TIN201564776-C3-1-R). M. Molina-Solana was funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 743623

    The experimental dramaturgy of Gio. Battista Andreini among Commedia dell’Arte, poetry and theatres for music

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    Il presente progetto di ricerca, nato inizialmente con l’obbiettivo d’individuare in che modo e in che misura, i testi teatrali del drammaturgo e comico dell’Arte Giovan Battista Andreini, detto Lelio, figlio d’Isabella e Francesco, anche loro attori e letterati d’alto livello, risentirono dell’influenza del mondo dei coevi teatri in musica, dall’intermedio al balletto, si è progressivamente evoluto, divenendo, ben presto, uno studio sulle modalità compositive sperimentali dell’Andreini, dove, in verità, la dimensione del sonoro e la manipolazione dell’elemento musicale, non furono altro che uno dei vari aspetti di suddetta poetica dell’innovazione. Analizzando dunque, minuziosamente, tutte le pièce andreiniane e contestualizzandole, di volta in volta, nel composito panorama sociale, politico e culturale, della prima metà del XVII secolo, in Italia come in Francia, giacché egli lavorò in entrambi gli stati con una certa regolarità - per questo motivo le ricerche sul campo si sono equamente ripartite tra i due paesi - si è giunti a ricostruire, nel dettaglio, quel tessuto, variegato e multiforme, di legami ed influenze, caratterizzato dalla perpetua pulsione alla sperimentazione, esistente tra l’universo performativo barocco e quello che può considerarsi uno dei più alti esponenti della commedia dell’Arte italiana dell’epoca, ridisegnando così i confini di una carriera interamente votata al Teatro e durata più di mezzo secolo.This study, at the beginning, had as principal purpose to analyze the interconnections between dramatic works of the playwright and actor, Giovan Battista Andreini, and the different types of theatres for music of baroque age. But, when the research work is started, the original objective, soon, is change. In fact, it’s appear clear that the music dimension in Andreini’s plays was, in truth, a manifestation of his great desire of innovation. So, the music prospective has become the best way to put in the right light the dramatic experimentalism of this playwright, one of the most important for the history of Commedia dell’Arte and Italian literature, and to discovered many, unknown, aspects of his poetry and personal philosophy. The Andreini’s plays was investigated to contextualize them in the Italian and French spectacular societies of Seventeenth century, because Giovan Battista had spent long periods of his career, besides his own country, also in Paris, working at the court of Maria de’ Medici and his son, Luigi XIII
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