Method for cleaning and passivating a metal surface

A cleaning solvent useful in the cleaning of metal surfaces, e.g. nickle-iron alloys, contains sulfamic acid, citric acid, a solvent for hydrocarbon residues, and a surfactant. Metal surfaces are cleaned by contacting the surface with the cleaning solvent and then passivated by contact with aqueous solutions of citric acid or sodium nitrite or a combination of the two

Changes in three-dimensional flow structure at a river confluence with changes in momentum ratio

River hydrodynamicsTurbulent open channel flow and transport phenomen

IDO1 is an Integral Mediator of Inflammatory Neovascularization.

The immune tolerogenic effects of IDO1 (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1) have been well documented and genetic studies in mice have clearly established the significance of IDO1 in tumor promotion. Dichotomously, the primary inducer of IDO1, the inflammatory cytokine IFNγ (interferon-γ), is a key mediator of immune-based tumor suppression. One means by which IFNγ can exert an anti-cancer effect is by decreasing tumor neovascularization. We speculated that IDO1 might contribute to cancer promotion by countering this anti-neovascular effect of IFNγ, possibly through IDO1-potentiated elevation of the pro-tumorigenic inflammatory cytokine IL6 (interleukin-6). In this study, we investigated how genetic loss of IDO1 affects neovascularization in mouse models of oxygen-induced retinopathy and lung metastasis. Neovascularization in both models was significantly reduced in mice lacking IDO1, was similarly reduced with loss of IL6, and was restored in both cases by concomitant loss of IFNγ. Likewise, the lack of IDO1 or IL6 resulted in reduced metastatic tumor burden and increased survival, which the concomitant loss of IFNγ abrogated. This insight into IDO1\u27s involvement in pro-tumorigenic inflammatory neovascularization may have important ramifications for IDO1 inhibitor development, not only in cancer where clinical trials are currently ongoing, but in other disease indications associated with neovascularization as well

Combinations of isoform-targeted histone deacetylase inhibitors and bryostatin analogues display remarkable potency to activate latent HIV without global T-cell activation

AbstractCurrent antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS slows disease progression by reducing viral loads and increasing CD4 counts. Yet ART is not curative due to the persistence of CD4+ T-cell proviral reservoirs that chronically resupply active virus. Elimination of these reservoirs through the administration of synergistic combinations of latency reversing agents (LRAs), such as histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and protein kinase C (PKC) modulators, provides a promising strategy to reduce if not eradicate the viral reservoir. Here, we demonstrate that largazole and its analogues are isoform-targeted histone deacetylase inhibitors and potent LRAs. Significantly, these isoform-targeted HDAC inhibitors synergize with PKC modulators, namely bryostatin-1 analogues (bryologs). Implementation of this unprecedented LRA combination induces HIV-1 reactivation to unparalleled levels and avoids global T-cell activation within resting CD4+ T-cells.</jats:p

Calibration and Multiple Reliability Assessments of a Scrum Machine Instrumented to Measure Force

Coaches need reliable methods of quantifying rugby union scrum force performance in order to make data-driven decisions. The purpose of this study is to present the reliability of a replicable instrumented scrum machine. We performed 3 phases of deadweight calibration on 8 S-type load cells; during deadweight calibration, each load cell was loaded with ~20–200 kg. Phase 1 compared power sources (wall outlet vs. portable power station). Phase 2 tested the inter-session reliability of the load cells after 15, 30, 45, 60, and 420 min of run time. Phase 3 tested between-session reliability, comparing days 0, 1, 7, and 180. We also performed a phase of inter-trial reliability when humans pushed on the fully instrumented scrum machine. Fourteen collegiate rugby players performed four warm-up trials and then five 100%-effort trials; peak and average voltage during the push were compared between the 100%-effort trials. For all phases, statistical analyses show near-perfect reliability. Therefore, we conclude that our novel instrumented scrum machine is ready for in vivo data collection; other coaches or researchers could duplicate our methods to create their own reliable instrumented scrum machine

Explosion of microbubbles generated by the alternating polarity water electrolysis

Water electrolysis with a fast change of polarity generates a high concentration of bulk nanobubbles containing H2 and O2 gases. When this concentration reaches a critical value, a microbubble pops up, which is terminated quickly in an explosion process. In this paper, we provide experimental information on the phenomenon concentrating on the dynamics of exploding microbubble observed from the top and from the side. An initial bubble with a size of 150 μm expands to a maximum size of 1200 μm for 150 μs and then shrinks in the cavitation process. The sound produced by the event is coming from two sources separated in time: exploding bubble and cavitating bubble. The observed dynamics supports expansion of the bubble with steam but not with H2 and O2 mixture. A qualitative model of this puzzling phenomenon proposed earlier is refined. It is demonstrated that the pressure and temperature in the initial bubble can be evaluated using only the energy conservation law for which the driving energy is the energy of the combusted gas. The temperature in the bubble reaches 200 °C that shows that the process cannot be ignited by standard combustion, but the surface-assisted spontaneous combustion agrees well with the observations and theoretical estimates. The pressure in the microbubble varies with the size of the merging nanobubbles and is evaluated as 10-20 bar. Large pressure difference between the bubble and liquid drives the bubble expansion, and is the source of the sound produced by the process. Exploding microbubbles are a promising principle to drive fast and strong micropumps for microfluidic and other applications

Exceptional Points of Degeneracy and Branch Points for Transmission-Line Problems - Linear Algebra and Bifurcation Theory Perspectives

We demonstrate several new aspects of exceptional points of degeneracy (EPD) pertaining to propagation in two uniform coupled transmission-line structures. We describe an EPD using two different approaches - by solving an eigenvalue problem based on the system matrix, and as a singular point from bifurcation theory, and the link between these two disparate viewpoints. Cast as an eigenvalue problem, we show that eigenvalue degeneracies are always coincident with eigenvector degeneracies, so that all eigenvalue degeneracies are implicitly EPDs in two uniform coupled transmission lines. Furthermore, we discuss in some detail the fact that EPDs define branch points (BPs) in the complex-frequency plane; we provide simple formulas for these points, and show that parity-time (PT) symmetry leads to real-valued EPDs occurring on the real-frequency axis. We discuss the connection of the linear algebra approach to previous waveguide analysis based on singular points from bifurcation theory, which provides a complementary viewpoint of EPD phenomena, showing that EPDs are singular points of the dispersion function associated with the fold bifurcation. This provides an important connection of various modal interaction phenomena known in guided-wave structures with recent interesting effects observed in quantum mechanics, photonics, and metamaterials systems described in terms of the EPD formalism

CORADD: Correlation Aware Database Designer for Materialized Views and Indexes

We describe an automatic database design tool that exploits correlations between attributes when recommending materialized views (MVs) and indexes. Although there is a substantial body of related work exploring how to select an appropriate set of MVs and indexes for a given workload, none of this work has explored the effect of correlated attributes (e.g., attributes encoding related geographic information) on designs. Our tool identifies a set of MVs and secondary indexes such that correlations between the clustered attributes of the MVs and the secondary indexes are enhanced, which can dramatically improve query performance. It uses a form of Integer Linear Programming (ILP) called ILP Feedback to pick the best set of MVs and indexes for given database size constraints. We compare our tool with a state-of-the-art commercial database designer on two workloads, APB-1 and SSB (Star Schema Benchmark---similar to TPC-H). Our results show that a correlation-aware database designer can improve query performance up to 6 times within the same space budget when compared to a commercial database designer.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant IIS-0704424)SAP Corporation (Grant