Properties of aluminum alloys: tensile, creep, and fatigue data at high and low temperatures

This book compiles more than 300 tables listing typical average properties of a wide range of aluminum alloys. The individual test results were compiled, plotted in various ways, and analyzed. The average values from the tensile and creep tests were then normalized to the published typical room-temperature tensile properties of the respective alloys for easy comparison. This extensive project was done by Alcoa Laboratories over a period of several years. The types of data presented include: Typical Mechanical Properties of Wrought and Cast Aluminum Alloys at Various Temperatures, including tensile properties at subzero temperatures, at temperature after various holding times at the test temperature, and at room temperature after exposure at various temperatures for various holding times; creep rupture strengths for various times at various temperatures; stresses required to generate various amounts of creep in various lengths of time; rotating-beam fatigue strengths; modulus of elasticity as a function of temperature. Fatigue Data, including fatigue strength of wrought aluminum alloys (approximate average values as determined in tests of smooth and notched rotating-beam fatigue machines), axial stress fatigue strength of wrought aluminum alloys (at various stress ratios, smooth and notched specimens), average fatigue strength for aluminum and aluminum alloy flat sheet specimens (under complete reversed flexure), cantilever-beam fatigue test results of aluminum alloys at elevated temperatures, and cantilever-beam fatigue test results of aluminum alloys at elevated temperatures following stabilization at the test temperature

The mutation Ser2117Leu, in the second hydrophobic spike of the factor V C2 domain, increases phospholipid affinity and specific activity

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106082/1/jth05227.pd

Lighted Schoolhouse at Daniel E. Morgan Elementary School: Pilot Program Evaluation

The Lighted Schoolhouse pilot project (LSH) at Daniel E. Morgan Elementary School (DEM) in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland began operation in February 2005. It is a collaborative effort among a number of community organizations, led by the Urban League of Greater Cleveland (ULGC). The pilot LSH was initiated by then-Mayor Jane Campbell as a response to Cleveland’s designation as the poorest large city in the U.S., and was meant to address three community priorities: after-school programming, fuller use of schools, and pathways out of poverty. In June 2005, a team of evaluators from the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University was selected to evaluate the pilot project. The purpose of this evaluation is to: 1) assess the start-up and implementation process and the lessons learned; 2) track program activities and accomplishments; and 3) develop recommendations regarding the sustainability and replication of the pilot program. The Levin College Evaluation Team (LCET) also developed a

Success of organ donation after out-of-hospital cardiac death and the barriers to its acceptance

It is well documented that transplants save lives and improve quality of life for patients suffering from kidney, liver, and heart failure. Uncontrolled donation after cardiac death (UDCD) is an effective and ethical alternative to existing efforts towards increasing the available pool of organs. However, people who die from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are currently being denied the opportunity to be organ donors except in those few locations where out-of-hospital UDCD programs are active, such as in Paris, Madrid, and Barcelona. Societies have the medical and moral obligation to develop UDCD programs

Urinary neopterin concentrations vs total neopterins for clinical utility

Fuchs D, Milstien S, Krämer A, et al. Urinary neopterin concentrations vs total neopterins for clinical utility. Clinical Chemistry. 1989;35(12):2305-2307.Neopterin measurements are especially useful as an early marker in (e.g.) allograft rejections and in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). An increased concentration of total neopterins (neopterin + dihydroneopterin) is also a significant marker in patients with HIV-1 infection. In this study we compared concentrations of neopterin and total neopterins in urine samples from 77 homosexual men with and 73 without established HIV-1 infection. HIV- 1-seropositive homosexual men had higher concentrations of neopterin and total neopterins (and 7,8-dihydroneopterin) in their urine than did those who were HIV-1-seronegative, and there was a close correlation between neopterin and total neopterins. Both neopterin variables correlated inversely with CD4 + T-cell counts and CD4 +/CD8 + T-cell ratios but not with CD8+ T-cell counts in the HIV-1-seropositive men. Our data indicate that measurements of neopterin and total neopterins are of almost equal potential for clinical diagnosis. However, when measuring total neopterins, which includes oxidation of 7,8- dihydroneopterin to neopterin, more strict requirements of sample collection and handling are necessary to avoid degradation of the 7,8- dihydro derivative

Memories of shame experiences with others and depression symptoms: the mediating role of experiential avoidance

Background: Shame experiences have been suggested to be related with psychopathological symptoms and with self-relevant beliefs. Recent studies also suggest that avoidant-focused strategies (e.g., rumination, thought suppression and dissociation) mediate the impact of shame memories and depression symptoms. However, experiential avoidance has been found to mediate the relation between early experience of abuse and psychopathological symptoms. Our goal was to test the mediating effect of experiential avoidance in the relation between both the nature of shame experiences at the hands of caregivers and the centrality of shame memories with others, and depression symptoms. Method: Using structural equation modelling, we assessed the frequency and nature of recalled shame experiences at the hands of caregivers, the centrality of shame experiences with others throughout childhood and adolescence, experiential avoidance and depression symptomatology in 161 participants from general population. Results: Experiential avoidance mediates the impact of shame experiences with caregivers and depression symptoms. Experiential avoidance also mediated the association between the centrality of shame experiences with others and depression symptoms. Conclusion: Our results suggest that shame memories with others do not per se impact on depression symptoms, but rather the unwillingness to experience them and the attempts to control them. Hence, our results emphasize the importance of addressing affect regulation processes such as avoidance when dealing with shame memories, particularly with patients who experience depression symptoms

Similar self-organizing scale-invariant properties characterize early cancer invasion and long range species spread

Occupancy of new habitats through dispersion is a central process in nature. In particular, long range dispersal is involved in the spread of species and epidemics, although it has not been previously related with cancer invasion, a process that involves spread to new tissues. We show that the early spread of cancer cells is similar to the species individuals spread and that both processes are represented by a common spatio-temporal signature, characterized by a particular fractal geometry of the boundaries of patches generated, and a power law-scaled, disrupted patch size distribution. We show that both properties are a direct result of long-distance dispersal, and that they reflect homologous ecological processes of population self-organization. Our results are significant for processes involving long-range dispersal like biological invasions, epidemics and cancer metastasis.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Bayesian Nonstationary Spatial Modeling for Very Large Datasets

With the proliferation of modern high-resolution measuring instruments mounted on satellites, planes, ground-based vehicles and monitoring stations, a need has arisen for statistical methods suitable for the analysis of large spatial datasets observed on large spatial domains. Statistical analyses of such datasets provide two main challenges: First, traditional spatial-statistical techniques are often unable to handle large numbers of observations in a computationally feasible way. Second, for large and heterogeneous spatial domains, it is often not appropriate to assume that a process of interest is stationary over the entire domain. We address the first challenge by using a model combining a low-rank component, which allows for flexible modeling of medium-to-long-range dependence via a set of spatial basis functions, with a tapered remainder component, which allows for modeling of local dependence using a compactly supported covariance function. Addressing the second challenge, we propose two extensions to this model that result in increased flexibility: First, the model is parameterized based on a nonstationary Matern covariance, where the parameters vary smoothly across space. Second, in our fully Bayesian model, all components and parameters are considered random, including the number, locations, and shapes of the basis functions used in the low-rank component. Using simulated data and a real-world dataset of high-resolution soil measurements, we show that both extensions can result in substantial improvements over the current state-of-the-art.Comment: 16 pages, 2 color figure

CAF-1 Is Essential for Heterochromatin Organization in Pluripotent Embryonic Cells

During mammalian development, chromatin dynamics and epigenetic marking are important for genome reprogramming. Recent data suggest an important role for the chromatin assembly machinery in this process. To analyze the role of chromatin assembly factor 1 (CAF-1) during pre-implantation development, we generated a mouse line carrying a targeted mutation in the gene encoding its large subunit, p150CAF-1. Loss of p150CAF-1 in homozygous mutants leads to developmental arrest at the 16-cell stage. Absence of p150CAF-1 in these embryos results in severe alterations in the nuclear organization of constitutive heterochromatin. We provide evidence that in wild-type embryos, heterochromatin domains are extensively reorganized between the two-cell and blastocyst stages. In p150CAF-1 mutant 16-cell stage embryos, the altered organization of heterochromatin displays similarities to the structure of heterochromatin in two- to four-cell stage wild-type embryos, suggesting that CAF-1 is required for the maturation of heterochromatin during preimplantation development. In embryonic stem cells, depletion of p150CAF-1 using RNA interference results in the mislocalization, loss of clustering, and decondensation of pericentric heterochromatin domains. Furthermore, loss of CAF-1 in these cells results in the alteration of epigenetic histone methylation marks at the level of pericentric heterochromatin. These alterations of heterochromatin are not found in p150CAF-1-depleted mouse embryonic fibroblasts, which are cells that are already lineage committed, suggesting that CAF-1 is specifically required for heterochromatin organization in pluripotent embryonic cells. Our findings underline the role of the chromatin assembly machinery in controlling the spatial organization and epigenetic marking of the genome in early embryos and embryonic stem cells

Quantification of floating macroalgae blooms using the Scaled Algae Index

Quantifying the spatial coverage of floating macroalgae from satellite imagery, using methods such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the floating algae index (FAI), requires the use of a scene-wide threshold to isolate and then compute the number of floating macroalgae pixels. The problem faced is the sensitivity of the NDVI and, to a lesser extent, the FAI to radiance contributions from atmospheric aerosols and turbid water. Both these factors can vary significantly across a satellites' field-of-view generating irregular apparent reflectance of ocean and floating macroalgae pixels across an NDVI/FAI scene, leading to inaccuracies in spatial coverage estimates. We present a simple image processing algorithm, termed the scaled algae index (SAI) that removes any variability present in ocean and floating macroalgae pixels in NDVI or FAI imagery. The SAI does this by subtracting a given pixel's index by that of a local ocean pixel, effectively scaling ocean pixels to values near zero, and macroalgae pixels to positive values. The SAI algorithm has been tested on NDVI and FAI scenes of the 2008/2009 floating macroalgae blooms that occurred in the Yellow Sea, China. These SAI images show a major reduction in variability with scene-wide histograms being unimodal. Histogram analysis also indicates that sufficient contrast exists between ocean and floating macroalgae pixels to enable segmentation by a scene-wide threshold. A semiautomated threshold determination procedure is also presented, which together with the SAI algorithm can be used to compute accurate estimates of the spatial coverage of floating macroalgae