Work function determination of promising electrode materials for thermionic energy converters

The work function determinations of candidate materials for low temperature (1400 K) thermionics through vacuum emission tests are discussed. Two systems, a vacuum emission test vehicle and a thermionic emission microscope are used for emission measurements. Some nickel and cobalt based super alloys were preliminarily examined. High temperature physical properties and corrosion behavior of some super alloy candidates are presented. The corrosion behavior of sodium is of particular interest since topping cycles might use sodium heat transfer loops. A Marchuk tube was designed for plasma discharge studies with the carbide and possibly some super alloy samples. A series of metal carbides and other alloys were fabricated and tested in a special high temperature mass spectrometer. This information coupled with work function determinations was evaluated in an attempt to learn how electron bonding occurs in transition alloys

Wakeful rest alleviates interference-based forgetting

Retroactive interference (RI)—the disruptive influence of events occurring after the formation of a new memory—is one of the primary causes of forgetting. Placing individuals within an environment that postpones interference should, therefore, greatly reduce the likelihood of information being lost from memory. For example, a short period of wakeful rest should diminish interference-based forgetting. To test this hypothesis, participants took part in a foreign language learning activity and were shown English translations of 20 Icelandic words for immediate recall. Half of the participants were then given an 8-min rest before completing a similar or dissimilar interfering distractor task. The other half did not receive a rest until after the distractor task, at which point interference had already taken place. All participants were then asked to translate the Icelandic words for a second time. Results revealed that retention was significantly worse at the second recall test, but being allowed a brief rest before completing the distractor task helped reduce the amount of forgetting. Taking a short, passive break can shield new memories from RI and alleviate forgetting.ERAS Scheme, University of Wolverhampto

Pediatric supracondylar fractures of the distal humerus

Supracondylar fractures of the humerus are a common pediatric elbow injury that are historically associated with morbidity due to malunion, neurovascular complications, and compartment syndrome. True anteroposterior and lateral radiographs are essential not only for an accurate diagnosis, but also for creating a treatment plan for these injuries. A staging system (based on the lateral radiograph) for classifying the severity of the fracture helps guide definitive management. Nondisplaced fractures are treated initially with a posterior splint, followed by a long-arm casting. Closed reduction and percutaneous pinning is the preferred treatment for displaced or unstable fractures. If there is any question about fracture stability, patients should be seen within 5 days postoperatively for repeat radiographs to ensure that the reduction and pin fixation has been maintained. Understanding the anatomy, radiographic findings, management options, and complications associated with this fracture allow physicians to limit the morbidity associated with this relatively common pediatric injury

Maximal entropy inference of oncogenicity from phosphorylation signaling

Point mutations in the phosphorylation domain of the Bcr-Abl fusion oncogene give rise to drug resistance in chronic myelogenous leukemia patients. These mutations alter kinase-mediated signaling function and phenotypic outcome. An information theoretic analysis of the correlation of phosphoproteomic profiling and transformation potency of the oncogene in different mutants is presented. The theory seeks to predict the leukemic transformation potency from the observed signaling by constructing a distribution of maximal entropy of site-specific phosphorylation events. The theory is developed with special reference to systems biology where high throughput measurements are typical. We seek sets of phosphorylation events most contributory to predicting the phenotype by determining the constraints on the signaling system. The relevance of a constraint is measured by how much it reduces the value of the entropy from its global maximum, where all events are equally likely. Application to experimental phospho-proteomics data for kinase inhibitor-resistant mutants shows that there is one dominant constraint and that other constraints are not relevant to a similar extent. This single constraint accounts for much of the correlation of phosphorylation events with the oncogenic potency and thereby usefully predicts the trends in the phenotypic output. An additional constraint possibly accounts for biological fine structure

A systematic review of randomised controlled trials on the effectiveness of exercise programs on lumbo pelvic pain among postnatal women

Background: A substantial number of women tend to be affected by Lumbo Pelvic Pain (LPP) following child birth. Physical exercise is indicated as a beneficial method to relieve LPP, but individual studies appear to suggest mixed findings about its effectiveness. This systematic review aimed to synthesise evidence from randomised controlled trials on the effectiveness of exercise on LPP among postnatal women to inform policy, practice and future research. Methods: A systematic review was conducted of all randomised controlled trials published between January 1990 and July 2014, identified through a comprehensive search of following databases: PubMed, PEDro, Embase, Cinahl, Medline, SPORTDiscus, Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group’s Trials Register, and electronic libraries of authors’institutions. Randomised controlled trials were eligible for inclusion if the intervention comprised of postnatal exercise for women with LPP onset during pregnancy or within 3 months after delivery and the outcome measures included changes in LPP. Selected articles were assessed using the PEDro Scale for methodological quality and findings were synthesised narratively as meta-analysis was found to be inappropriate due to heterogeneity among included studies. Results: Four randomised controlled trials were included, involving 251 postnatal women. Three trials were rated as of ‘good’ methodological quality. All trials, except one, were at low risk of bias. The trials included physical exercise programs with varying components, differing modes of delivery, follow up times and outcome measures. Intervention in one trial, involving physical therapy with specific stabilising exercises, proved to be effective in reducing LPP intensity. An improvement in gluteal pain on the right side was reported in another trial and a significant difference in pain frequency in another. Conclusion: Our review indicates that only few randomised controlled trials have evaluated the effectiveness of exercise on LPP among postnatal women. There is also a great amount of variability across existing trials in the components of exercise programs, modes of delivery, follow up times and outcome measures. While there is some evidence to indicate the effectiveness of exercise for relieving LPP, further good quality trials are needed to ascertain the most effective elements of postnatal exercise programs suited for LPP treatment

Hippocampus Leads Ventral Striatum in Replay of Place-Reward Information

While the brain is asleep, the hippocampus plays first fiddle in the orchestra of memory; spatial information is reactivated in the hippocampus shortly in advance of emotional memory traces in the vental striatum

Safe Design Suggestions for Vegetated Roofs

Rooftop vegetation is becoming increasingly popular because of its environmental benefits and its ability to earn green-building certification credits. With the exception of one international guideline, there is little mention of worker safety and health in vegetated-roof codes and literature. Observations and field investigations of 19 vegetated roofs in the United States revealed unsafe access for workers and equipment, a lack of fall-protection measures, and other site-specific hazards. Design for safety strategies and the integration of life-cycle safety thinking with green-building credits systems are the preferred methods to reduce risk to workers on vegetated roofs. Design suggestions have been developed to add to the body of knowledge. The findings complement several National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) construction and prevention through design (PtD) goals and are congruent with NIOSH’s Safe Green Jobs initiative. Organizations that install and maintain vegetated roofs can utilize the findings to understand hazards, take precautions, and incorporate safety into their bids The published version of this article is available here: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000500Support from the the Virginia Tech Occupational Safety and Health Research Center through the Kevin P. Granata Pilot Program funded by the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences

Incorporating field wind data to improve crop evapotranspiration parameterization in heterogeneous regions

Accurate parameterization of reference evapotranspiration ( ET0) is necessary for optimizing irrigation scheduling and avoiding costs associated with over-irrigation (water expense, loss of water productivity, energy costs, and pollution) or with under-irrigation (crop stress and suboptimal yields or quality). ET0 is often estimated using the FAO-56 method with meteorological data gathered over a reference surface, usually short grass. However, the density of suitable ET0 stations is often low relative to the microclimatic variability of many arid and semi-arid regions, leading to a potentially inaccurate ET0 for irrigation scheduling. In this study, we investigated multiple ET0 products from six meteorological stations, a satellite ET0 product, and integration (merger) of two stations’ data in Southern California, USA. We evaluated ET0 against lysimetric ET observations from two lysimeter systems (weighing and volumetric) and two crops (wine grapes and Jerusalem artichoke) by calculating crop ET ( ETc) using crop coefficients for the lysimetric crops with the different ET0. ETc calculated with ET0 products that incorporated field-specific wind speed had closer agreement with lysimetric ET, with RMSE reduced by 36 and 45% for grape and Jerusalem artichoke, respectively, with on-field anemometer data compared to wind data from the nearest station. The results indicate the potential importance of on-site meteorological sensors for ET0 parameterization; particularly where microclimates are highly variable and/or irrigation water is expensive or scarce

Theta-paced flickering between place-cell maps in the hippocampus

The ability to recall discrete memories is thought to depend on the formation of attractor states in recurrent neural networks. In such networks, representations can be reactivated reliably from subsets of the cues that were present when the memory was encoded, at the same time as interference from competing representations is minimized. Theoretical studies have pointed to the recurrent CA3 system of the hippocampus as a possible attractor network. Consistent with predictions from these studies, experiments have shown that place representations in CA3 and downstream CA1 tolerate small changes in the configuration of the environment but switch to uncorrelated representations when dissimilarities become larger. The kinetics supporting such network transitions, at the subsecond time scale, is poorly understood, however. Here we show that instantaneous transformation of the spatial context (\u2018teleportation\u2019) does not change the hippocampal representation all at once but is followed by temporary bistability in the discharge activity of CA3 ensembles. Rather than sliding through a continuum of intermediate activity states, the CA3 network undergoes a short period of competitive flickering between pre-formed representations for past and present environment, before settling on the latter. Network flickers are extremely fast, often with complete replacement of the active ensemble from one theta cycle to the next. Within individual cycles, segregation is stronger towards the end, when firing starts to decline, pointing to the theta cycle as a temporal unit for expression of attractor states in the hippocampus. Repetition of pattern-completion processes across successive theta cycles may facilitate error correction and enhance discriminative power in the presence of weak and ambiguous input cues

Interferon-inducible gene 202b controls CD8+ T cell-mediated suppression in anti-DNA Ig peptide-treated (NZB × NZW) F1 lupus mice

Administration of an artificial peptide (pConsensus) based on anti-DNA IgG sequences that contain major histocompatibility complex class I and class II T-cell determinants, induces immune tolerance in NZB/NZW F1 female (BWF1) mice. To understand the molecular basis of CD8+ Ti-mediated suppression, we previously performed microarray analysis to identify genes that were differentially expressed following tolerance induction with pCons. CD8+ T cells from mice tolerized with pCons showed more than two-fold increase in Ifi202b mRNA, an interferon inducible gene, versus cells from untolerized mice. Ifi202b expression increased through weeks 1–4 after tolerization and then decreased, reapproaching baseline levels at 6 weeks. In vitro polyclonal activation of tolerized CD8+ T cells significantly increased Ifi202b mRNA expression. Importantly, silencing of Ifi202b abrogated the suppressive capacity of CD8+ Ti cells. This was associated with decreased expression of Foxp3, and decreased gene and protein expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)β and interleukin-2 (IL-2), but not of interferon (IFN)-γ, IL-10, or IL-17. Silencing of another IFN-induced gene upregulated in tolerized CD8+ T cells, IFNAR1, had no effect on the ability of CD8+ T cells to suppress autoantibody production. Our findings indicate a potential role for Ifi202b in the suppressive capacity of peptide-induced regulatory CD8+ Ti cells through effects on the expression of Foxp3 and the synthesis of TGFβ