The Telemetry Agile Manufacturing Effort

The Telemetry Agile Manufacturing Effort (TAME) is an agile enterprising demonstration sponsored by the US Department of Energy (DOE). The project experimented with new approaches to product realization and assessed their impacts on performance, cost, flow time, and agility. The purpose of the project was to design the electrical and mechanical features of an integrated telemetry processor, establish the manufacturing processes, and produce an initial production lot of two to six units. This paper outlines the major methodologies utilized by the TAME, describes the accomplishments that can be attributed to each methodology, and finally, examines the lessons learned and explores the opportunities for improvement associated with the overall effort. The areas for improvement are discussed relative to an ideal vision of the future for agile enterprises. By the end of the experiment, the TAME reduced production flow time by approximately 50% and life cycle cost by more than 30%. Product performance was improved compared with conventional DOE production approaches

Gauge Invariant Variational Approach with Fermions: the Schwinger Model

We extend the gauge invariant variational approach of Phys. Rev. D52 (1995) 3719, hep-th/9408081, to theories with fermions. As the simplest example we consider the massless Schwinger model in 1+1 dimensions. We show that in this solvable model the simple variational calculation gives exact results.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

QCD Phase Transition with Strange Quark in Wilson Formalism for Fermions

The nature of QCD phase transition is studied with massless up and down quarks and a light strange quark, using the Wilson formalism for quarks on a lattice with the temporal direction extension $N_t=4$. We find that the phase transition is first order in the cases of both about 150 MeV and 400 MeV for the strange quark mass. These results together with those for three degenerate quarks suggest that QCD phase transition in nature is first order.Comment: uuencoded compressed tar file, LaTeX, 13 pages, 9 figures, Minor errors for quoting references are corrected and a reference is adde

Nature of singularity formed by the gravitational collapse in Husain space-time with electromagnetic field and scalar field

In this work, we have investigated the outcome of gravitational collapse in Husain space-time in the presence of electro-magnetic and a scalar field with potential. In order to study the nature of the singularity, global behavior of radial null geodesics have been taken into account. The nature of singularities formed has been thoroughly studied for all possible variations of the parameters. These choices of parameters has been presented in tabular form in various dimensions. It is seen that irrespective of whatever values of the parameters chosen, the collapse always results in a naked singularity in all dimensions. There is less possibility of formation of a black hole. Hence this work is a significant counterexample of the cosmic censorship hypothesis.Comment: 9 pages, 19 figure

Rapid modification of the bone microenvironment following short-term treatment with Cabozantinib in vivo

Introduction: Bone metastasis remains incurable with treatment restricted to palliative care. Cabozantinib (CBZ) is targeted against multiple receptor tyrosine kinases involved in tumour pathobiology, including hepatocyte growth factor receptor (MET) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). CBZ has demonstrated clinical activity in advanced prostate cancer with resolution of lesions visible on bone scans, implicating a potential role of the bone microenvironment as a mediator of CBZ effects. We characterised the effects of short-term administration of CBZ on bone in a range of in vivo models to determine how CBZ affects bone in the absence of tumour. Methods: Studies were performed in a variety of in vivo models including male and female BALB/c nude mice (age 6– 17-weeks). Animals received CBZ (30 mg/kg, 5× weekly) or sterile H2O control for 5 or 10 days. Effects on bone integrity (μCT), bone cell activity (PINP, TRAP ELISA), osteoblast and osteoclast number/mm trabecular bone surface, area of epiphyseal growth plate cartilage, megakaryocyte numbers and bone marrow composition were assessed. Effects of longer-term treatment (15-day & 6-week administration) were assessed in male NOD/SCID and beige SCID mice. Results: CBZ treatment had significant effects on the bone microenvironment, including reduced osteoclast and increased osteoblast numbers compared to control. Trabecular bone structure was altered after 8 administrations. A significant elongation of the epiphyseal growth plate, in particular the hypertrophic chondrocyte zone, was observed in all CBZ treated animals irrespective of administration schedule. Both male and female BALB/c nude mice had increased megakaryocyte numbers/mm2 tissue after 10-day CBZ treatment, in addition to vascular ectasia, reduced bone marrow cellularity and extravasation of red blood cells into the extra-vascular bone marrow. All CBZinduced effects were transient and rapidly lost following cessation of treatment. Conclusion: Short-term administration of CBZ induces rapid, reversible effects on the bone microenvironmentin vivo highlighting a potential role in mediating treatment responses

Terminal n-linked galactose is the primary receptor for adeno-associated virus

Sialylated glycans serve as cell surface attachment factors for a broad range of pathogens. We report an atypical example, where desialylation increases cell surface binding and infectivity of adeno-associated virus (AAV) serotype 9, a human parvovirus isolate. Enzymatic removal of sialic acid, but not heparan sulfate or chondroitin sulfate, increased AAV9 transduction regardless of cell type. Viral binding and transduction assays on mutant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines defective in various stages of glycan chain synthesis revealed a potential role for core glycan residues under sialic acid in AAV9 transduction. Treatment with chemical inhibitors of glycosylation and competitive inhibition studies with different lectins suggest that N-linked glycans with terminal galactosyl residues facilitate cell surface binding and transduction by AAV9. In corollary, resialylation of galactosylated glycans on the sialic acid-deficient CHO Lec2 cell line with different sialyltransferases partially blocked AAV9 transduction. Quantitative analysis of AAV9 binding to parental, sialidase-treated or sialic acid-deficient mutant CHO cells revealed a 3-15-fold increase in relative binding potential of AAV9 particles upon desialylation. Finally, pretreatment of well differentiated human airway epithelial cultures and intranasal instillation of recombinant sialidase in murine airways enhanced transduction efficiency of AAV9 by > 1 order of magnitude. Taken together, the studies described herein provide a molecular basis for low infectivity of AAV9 in vitro and a biochemical strategy to enhance gene transfer by AAV9 vectors in general

Cosmic String Cusps with Small-Scale Structure: Their Forms and Gravitational Waveforms

We present a method for the introduction of small-scale structure into strings constructed from products of rotation matrices. We use this method to illustrate a range of possibilities for the shape of cusps that depends on the properties of the small-scale structure. We further argue that the presence of structure at cusps under most circumstances leads to the formation of loops at the size of the smallest scales. On the other hand we show that the gravitational waveform of a cusp remains generally unchanged; the primary effect of small-scale structure is to smooth out the sharp waveform emitted in the direction of cusp motion.Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages. Replaced with version accepted for publication by PR

Anisotropy of exchange stiffness and its effect on the properties of magnets

Using the spin-spiral formulation of the tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital method, the principal components of the exchange stiffness tensor are calculated for typical hard magnets including tetragonal CoPt-type and hexagonal YCo5 alloys. The exchange stiffness is strongly anisotropic in all studied alloys. This anisotropy makes the domain wall surface tension anisotropic. Competition between this anisotropic surface tension and magnetostatic energy controls the formation and dynamics of nanoscale domain structures in hard magnets. Anisotropic domain wall bending is described in detail from the general point of view and with application to cellular Sm-Co magnets. It is shown that the repulsive cell-boundary pinning mechanism in these magnets is feasible only due to the anisotropic exchange stiffness if suitably oriented initial pinning centers are available. In polytwinned CoPt-type magnets the exchange stiffness anisotropy controls the orientation of macrodomain wall segments. These segments may reorient both statically during microstructural coarsening and dynamically during the macrodomain wall splitting in external field. Reorientation of segments may facilitate their pinning at antiphase boundaries.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, revtex4; to be published in J. Magn. Magn Mate

Multiplicative renormalizability and quark propagator

The renormalized Dyson-Schwinger equation for the quark propagator is studied, in Landau gauge, in a novel truncation which preserves multiplicative renormalizability. The renormalization constants are formally eliminated from the integral equations, and the running coupling explicitly enters the kernels of the new equations. To construct a truncation which preserves multiplicative renormalizability, and reproduces the correct leading order perturbative behavior, non-trivial cancellations involving the full quark-gluon vertex are assumed in the quark self-energy loop. A model for the running coupling is introduced, with infrared fixed point in agreement with previous Dyson-Schwinger studies of the gauge sector, and with correct logarithmic tail. Dynamical chiral symmetry breaking is investigated, and the generated quark mass is of the order of the extension of the infrared plateau of the coupling, and about three times larger than in the Abelian approximation, which violates multiplicative renormalizability. The generated scale is of the right size for hadronic phenomenology, without requiring an infrared enhancement of the running coupling.Comment: 17 pages; minor corrections, comparison to lattice results added; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Earthworm records and habitat associations in the British Isles

The National Earthworm Recording Scheme (NERS) is the most comprehensive national database of earthworm species occurrence records for the British Isles, and possibly for any individual country in the world. Utilising the NERS database, we sought to update the current knowledge of earthworm species occurrences in the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands; identify species-specific habitat and microhabitat associations; reveal any biases and complementarities between amateur naturalist and research-related earthworm record collection; and inform how future earthworm sampling can be better focussed to improve our knowledge of earthworm ecology. We found that the most commonly occurring earthworm species were present in farmland and woodland, and recovered via soil pit sampling, the most common habitat-sampling protocol combinations. However, several earthworm species showed specificity to alternative habitats (such as trees, wetlands, and compost), and association with microhabitat (non-soil) sampling. There were clear disparities between scientific researchers and amateur naturalist recorders in terms of habitat types visited and sampling protocols/microhabitats used in the collection of earthworm records. Most importantly, we found that earthworm species currently considered to be nationally ‘rare’ in the British Isles are significantly associated with the most under-represented habitat-protocol/microhabitat combinations (forest deadwood and other microhabitats, in addition to scrubland, wetland and heathland habitats), and thus may not be rare, only under-sampled. We therefore encourage earthworm researchers and recorders to give greater attention to these situations, to gain new insights into these earthworm species' ecologies and distributions. Finally, we would like to promote the establishment of earthworm recording schemes in other countries, to enable national and global collaborative monitoring of earthworm responses to environmental change