Two Dimensional Bistable Vibration Energy Harvester

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Magnetically-Coupled Cantilevers with Antiphase Bistable Behavior for Kinetic Energy Harvesting

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Resonance Damping in Ferromagnets and Ferroelectrics

The phenomenological equations of motion for the relaxation of ordered phases of magnetized and polarized crystal phases can be developed in close analogy with one another. For the case of magnetized systems, the driving magnetic field intensity toward relaxation was developed by Gilbert. For the case of polarized systems, the driving electric field intensity toward relaxation was developed by Khalatnikov. The transport times for relaxation into thermal equilibrium can be attributed to viscous sound wave damping via magnetostriction for the magnetic case and electrostriction for the polarization case.Comment: 5 pages no figures ReVTeX

The Euphrates-Tigris-Karun river system: Provenance, recycling and dispersal of quartz-poor foreland-basin sediments in arid climate

We present a detailed sediment-provenance study on the modern Euphrates-Tigris-Karun fluvial system and Mesopotamian foreland basin, one of the cradles of humanity. Our rich petrographic and heavy-mineral dataset, integrated by sand geochemistry and U–Pb age spectra of detrital zircons, highlights the several peculiarities of this large source-to-sink sediment-routing system and widens the spectrum of compositions generally assumed as paradigmatic for orogenic settings. Comparison of classical static versus upgraded dynamic petrologic models enhances the power of provenance analysis, and allows us to derive a more refined conceptual model of reference and to verify the limitations of the approach. Sand derived from the Anatolia-Zagros orogen contains abundant lithic grains eroded from carbonates, cherts, mudrocks, arc volcanics, obducted ophiolites and ophiolitic mélanges representing the exposed shallow structural level of the orogen, with relative scarcity of quartz, K-feldspar and mica. This quartz-poor petrographic signature, characterizing the undissected composite tectonic domain of the entire Anatolia-Iranian plateau, is markedly distinct from that of sand shed by more elevated and faster-eroding collision orogens such as the Himalaya. Arid climate in the region allows preservation of chemically unstable grains including carbonate rock fragments and locally even gypsum, and reduces transport capacity of fluvial systems, which dump most of their load in Mesopotamian marshlands upstream of the Arabian/Persian Gulf allochemical carbonate factory. Quartz-poor sediment from the Anatolia-Zagros orogen mixes with quartz-rich recycled sands from Arabia along the western side of the foreland basin, and is traced all along the Gulf shores as far as the Rub' al-Khali sand sea up to 4000 km from Euphrates headwaters

t2prhd: a tool to study the patterns of repeat evolution

BACKGROUND: The models developed to characterize the evolution of multigene families (such as the birth-and-death and the concerted models) have also been applied on the level of sequence repeats inside a gene/protein. Phylogenetic reconstruction is the method of choice to study the evolution of gene families and also sequence repeats in the light of these models. The characterization of the gene family evolution in view of the evolutionary models is done by the evaluation of the clustering of the sequences with the originating loci in mind. As the locus represents positional information, it is straightforward that in the case of the repeats the exact position in the sequence should be used, as the simple numbering according to repeat order can be misleading. RESULTS: We have developed a novel rapid visual approach to study repeat evolution, that takes into account the exact repeat position in a sequence. The "pairwise repeat homology diagram" visualizes sequence repeats detected by a profile HMM in a pair of sequences and highlights their homology relations inferred by a phylogenetic tree. The method is implemented in a Perl script (t2prhd) available for downloading at http://t2prhd.sourceforge.net and is also accessible as an online tool at http://t2prhd.brc.hu. The power of the method is demonstrated on the EGF-like and fibronectin-III-like (Fn-III) domain repeats of three selected mammalian Tenascin sequences. CONCLUSION: Although pairwise repeat homology diagrams do not carry all the information provided by the phylogenetic tree, they allow a rapid and intuitive assessment of repeat evolution. We believe, that t2prhd is a helpful tool with which to study the pattern of repeat evolution. This method can be particularly useful in cases of large datasets (such as large gene families), as the command line interface makes it possible to automate the generation of pairwise repeat homology diagrams with the aid of script

Anti-estrogen Resistance in Human Breast Tumors Is Driven by JAG1-NOTCH4-Dependent Cancer Stem Cell Activity

Breast cancers (BCs) typically express estrogen receptors (ERs) but frequently exhibit de novo or acquired resistance to hormonal therapies. Here, we show that short-term treatment with the anti-estrogens tamoxifen or fulvestrant decrease cell proliferation but increase BC stem cell (BCSC) activity through JAG1-NOTCH4 receptor activation both in patient-derived samples and xenograft (PDX) tumors. In support of this mechanism, we demonstrate that high ALDH1 predicts resistance in women treated with tamoxifen and that a NOTCH4/HES/HEY gene signature predicts for a poor response/prognosis in 2 ER+ patient cohorts. Targeting of NOTCH4 reverses the increase in Notch and BCSC activity induced by anti-estrogens. Importantly, in PDX tumors with acquired tamoxifen resistance, NOTCH4 inhibition reduced BCSC activity. Thus, we establish that BCSC and NOTCH4 activities predict both de novo and acquired tamoxifen resistance and that combining endocrine therapy with targeting JAG1-NOTCH4 overcomes resistance in human breast cancers

Tantalowodginite, (Mn0.5 0.5)TaTa2O8, a new mineral species from the emmons pegmatite, uncle tom mountain, Maine, U.S.A.

Tantalowodginite is a new mineral found in the Emmons granite pegmatite dike in Oxford County, Maine, U.S.A. It occurs as anhedral masses (0.5-12 cm) in the pegmatite core composed of K-feldspar, quartz, almandine, and schorl. Rarely, it occurs as crystals (0.2-1 cm) in miarolitic cavities associated with muscovite and fluorapatite. Tantalowodginite is rimmed with either black wodginite or columbite-(Mn). It is orange-red to deep red in color, semitransparent with a vitreous to sub-Adamantine luster, has a yellowish-Tan streak, is brittle with a conchoidal fracture, and shows a distinct {100} cleavage. The Mohs hardness is 5.5. Calculated density is 7.87 g/cm3 and the measured density is 7.61(1) g/cm3. Tantalowodginite is biaxial positive (+) and has a 2V angle of @ 708 with strong dispersion. It exhibits weak to moderate pleochroism: orangish-yellow parallel to cleavage and greenish-yellow perpendicular to cleavage on (010). The measured Zc is 5-128. The birefringence is strong to extreme; interference colors are very high-order tints in golden yellow. The refractive index (RI) is greater than 2.00 and the calculated mean RI is 2.24. Tantalowodginite is non-fluorescent under 254 nm (short wave) and 366 nm (long wave) ultraviolet light. The average chemical analysis of six electron microprobe analyses is Li2O 0.54, MnO 6.23, FeO 0.23, TiO2 0.01, SnO2 8.14, Nb2O5 3.97, Ta2O5 80.75, total 99.88. The simplified formula is (Mn0.5A0.5)TaTa2O8. X-ray diffraction data show that tantalowodginite is monoclinic, space group C2/c. The refined unit-cell parameters are a 9.542(1) A° , b 11.488(2) A° , c 5.128(1) A° , and b 91.13(1)8, with Z=4. In the wodginite structure there are three octahedrally coordinated sites. The A-And Bsites form zig-zag chains along z via edge sharing. Within these chains, the A-And B-sites alternate within the same plane. The C-sites form chains via edge sharing that lie in a different plane and connect the A-B chains by sharing apexes alternately with the A and B polyhedra. The strongest measured X-ray powder diffraction lines are [d in A° , (I/I0), (hkl)]: 7.332 (20) (110), 4.741 (20) (200), 3.838 (30) (021), 3.667 (100) (220), 3.000 (100) 221+, 2.957 (100) (221), 2.883 (30) (040), and 1.778 (30) (260). The type specimen is deposited in the mineralogical collection of the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum, 99 Main Street, Bethel, Maine, U.S.A. © 2018 Mineralogical Association of Canada. All rights reserved