ADVANCED SHADOW MOIRE WITH NON-CONVENTIONAL IMAGING ANGLES

With the increasingly smaller electronic package size, warpage of electronic packages becomes an important measurement related to the reliability of the products. Higher sensitivity out-of-plane deformation techniques are required to capture the smaller deformations of tiny packages for enhanced design analysis and model verification. The higher sensitivity is realized using non-zero viewing angles with the conventional shadow moiré technique. Advanced configurations to accommodate the non-zero viewing angles are developed to cope with direct reflection encountered on the conventional setup. An expanded governing equation for the configuration is derived and verified experimentally. Then the proposed configuration was implemented in the testing of an actual package to demonstrate the advantages that accrue from the higher sensitivity

Poly-dimethyl-siloxane based responsive structures

This thesis focuses on the design, fabrication and characterization of polymeric smart structures that are able to alter their geometry and thus their properties upon the application of external stimuli in a reversible and controllable manner. Two different responsive structures are studied that both contain poly dimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) and differ in the design, geometry, and actuation mechanism. The first structure is a surface decorated by a square array of posts (cilia) made of PDMS reinforced with magnetic particles and is actuated magnetically. The structures are meant to mimic cilia, a hair-like structure found in nature. The physical parameters necessary for the magnetic response of the cilia including physical dimensions and filler concentration are investigated. In addition, the elastic modulus of the composites is measured and the microstructure is examined in order to determine the dispersion and homogeneity of the composites. The second structure is a planar hetero-structure consisting of a PDMS substrate and a nanoporous (NP) metal foam film which is actuated thermally or chemically by tuning the generation and release of residual stresses at the NP metal foam/PDMS interface. The effect of strain, applied to the PDMS substrate prior to the deposition of the NP metal foam and the effect of the PDMS and NP metal foam thicknesses on the shape/size of the planer hetero-structure after the actuation is investigated.M.S

Master of Science

thesisP-wave observations from seismic stations in Europe and Japan were used to track the short-period energy release of the April 11, 2012 Mw 8.7 mainshock and Mw 8.2 aftershock that occurred in the Indian Ocean. Both were intraplate strike-slip events that ruptured in the region of a diffuse plate boundary within the Indo-Australian plate. We performed back-projection analyses using 85 vertical component broadband stations in Europe and 72 F-net stations and ~760 Hi-net stations in Japan. The high-passed back-projection images from the different arrays show similar trends in the short-period energy release. The locations of short-period rupture coincided with the complex aftershock distribution which suggests rupture on multiple conjugate fault planes. Back-projection results for the Mw 8.2 aftershock suggest bilateral rupture on an NNE-SSW fault plane with dominant energy located to the NNE. Seven large aftershocks were used to retrieve travel-time correction values to be interpolated over the grid region. The new back-projection results of the European array using the empirical aftershock corrections aligned the mainshock subevents and projected into linear fault trace features. We further investigate the mainshock fault geometry and rupture properties by back-projecting synthetic seismograms modeled from four finite fault slip models. The geometry of the fault models differ between the primary fault being conjugate or orthogonal or sub-parallel to the secondary fault. One of the fault models included a super-shear rupture parameter. Out of the four synthetic derived images, the orthogonal fault model, is the most similar to the data-derived back-projection images. We conclude that the mainshock ruptured four conjugate faults; two WNW-ESE subparallel faults, one fault orthogonal to the main fault, and a possible WNW-ESE fault to the far west

Elevation of methylated DNA in KILLIN/PTEN in the plasma of patients with thyroid and/or breast cancer

© 2014 Ng et al. Around 80% of mutations in the PTEN gene have been reported to be associated with diseases such as Cowden syndrome, which is an autosomal dominant disorder associated with an increased risk of developing breast, thyroid, and endometrial neoplasms. Recent studies have also demonstrated that KILLIN, which is located proximally to PTEN, shares the same transcription start site, and is assumed to be regulated by the same promoter, but is transcribed in the opposite direction. In this regard, we postulate that there may be a connection between KILLIN/PTEN genes and breast and thyroid cancers. Using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), we found that expression of KILLIN, but not PTEN, was significantly decreased in 23 Chinese women with a personal history of breast and thyroid cancer or a personal history of breast cancer and a family history of thyroid cancer, or vice versa, and at least two persons in the family with thyroid cancer or at a young age ,40 years, when compared with healthy controls (P<0.0001). No PTEN mutations were found in these 23 patients. We then developed a simple methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme digestion followed by real-time quantitative assay to quantify plasma methylated KILLIN/PTEN DNA in these patients. Plasma levels of methylated KILLIN/PTEN DNA were significantly increased in these patients when compared with healthy controls (P<0.05). This study shows that plasma methylated KILLIN/PTEN DNA was significantly elevated, suggesting hypermethylation of the KILLIN/PTEN promoter in breast and thyroid cancer patients.published_or_final_versio

Integrated barcode chips for rapid, multiplexed analysis of proteins in microliter quantities of blood

As the tissue that contains the largest representation of the human proteome [1], blood is the most important fluid for clinical diagnostics [2, 3, 4]. However, although changes of plasma protein profiles reflect physiological or pathological conditions associated with many human diseases, only a handful of plasma proteins are routinely used in clinical tests. Reasons for this include the intrinsic complexity of the plasma proteome [1], the heterogeneity of human diseases and the rapid degradation of proteins in sampled blood [5]. We report an integrated microfluidic system, the integrated blood barcode chip that can sensitively sample a large panel of protein biomarkers over broad concentration ranges and within 10 min of sample collection. It enables on-chip blood separation and rapid measurement of a panel of plasma proteins from quantities of whole blood as small as those obtained by a finger prick. Our device holds potential for inexpensive, noninvasive and informative clinical diagnoses, particularly in point-of-care settings

Genetic analysis of native and introduced populations of the aquatic weed Sagittaria platyphylla – implications for biological control in Australia and South Africa

Sagittaria platyphylla (Engelm.) J.G. Sm. (Alismataceae) is an emergent aquatic plant native to southern USA. Imported into Australia and South Africa as an ornamental and aquarium plant, the species is now a serious invader of shallow freshwater wetlands, slow-flowing rivers, irrigation channels, drains and along the margins of lakes and reservoirs. As a first step towards initiating a classical biological control program, a population genetic study was conducted to determine the prospects of finding compatible biological control agents and to refine the search for natural enemies to source populations with closest genetic match to Australian and South African genotypes. Using AFLP markers we surveyed genetic diversity and population genetic structure in 26 populations from the USA, 19 from Australia and 7 from South Africa. Interestingly, we have established that populations introduced into South Africa and to a lesser extent Australia have maintained substantial molecular genetic diversity comparable with that in the native range. Results from principal coordinates analysis, population graph theory and Bayesian-based clustering analysis all support the notion that introduced populations in Australia and South Africa were founded by multiple sources from the USA. Furthermore, the divergence of some Australian populations from the USA suggests that intraspecific hybridization between genetically distinct lineages from the native range may have occurred. The implications of these findings in relation to biological control are discussed

Transcriptomic Changes Due to Cytoplasmic TDP-43 Expression Revel Dysregulation of Histone Transcripts and Nuclear Chromatin

AR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) is normally a nuclear RNA-binding protein that exhibits a range of functions including regulation of alternative splicing, RNA trafficking, and RNA stability. However, in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 inclusions (FTLD-TDP), TDP-43 is abnormally phosphorylated, ubiquitinated, and cleaved, and is mislocalized to the cytoplasm where it forms distinctive aggregates. We previously developed a mouse model expressing human TDP-43 with a mutation in its nuclear localization signal (ΔNLS-hTDP-43) so that the protein preferentially localizes to the cytoplasm. These mice did not exhibit a significant number of cytoplasmic aggregates, but did display dramatic changes in gene expression as measured by microarray, suggesting that cytoplasmic TDP-43 may be associated with a toxic gain-of-function. Here, we analyze new RNA-sequencing data from the ΔNLS-hTDP-43 mouse model, together with published RNA-sequencing data obtained previously from TDP-43 antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) knockdown mice to investigate further the dysregulation of gene expression in the ΔNLS model. This analysis reveals that the transcriptomic effects of the overexpression of the ΔNLS-hTDP-43 transgene are likely due to a gain of cytoplasmic function. Moreover, cytoplasmic TDP-43 expression alters transcripts that regulate chromatin assembly, the nucleolus, lysosomal function, and histone 3’ untranslated region (UTR) processing. These transcriptomic alterations correlate with observed histologic abnormalities in heterochromatin structure and nuclear size in transgenic mouse and human brains

Organic over-the-horizon targeting for the 2025 surface fleet

Please note that this activity was not conducted in accordance with Federal, DOD, and Navy Human Research Protection RegulationsAdversarial advances in the proliferation of anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) techniques requires an innovative approach to the design of a maritime system of systems capable of detecting, classifying, and engaging targets in support of organic over-the-horizon (OTH) tactical offensive operations in the 2025–2030 timeframe. Using a systems engineering approach, this study considers manned and unmanned systems in an effort to develop an organic OTH targeting capability for U.S. Navy surface force structures of the future. Key attributes of this study include overall system requirements, limitations, operating area considerations, and issues of interoperability and compatibility. Multiple alternative system architectures are considered and analyzed for feasibility. The candidate architectures include such systems as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as prepositioned undersea and low-observable surface sensor and communication networks. These unmanned systems are expected to operate with high levels of autonomy and should be designed to provide or enhance surface warfare OTH targeting capabilities using emerging extended-range surface-to-surface weapons. This report presents the progress and results of the SEA-21A capstone project with the recommendation that the U.S. Navy explore the use of modestly-sized, network-centric UAVs to enhance the U.S. Navy’s ability to conduct surface-based OTH tactical offensive operations by 2025.http://archive.org/details/organicovertheho1094545933Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited