The use of an aircraft test stand for VTOL handling qualities studies

The VTOL flight tests stand for testing control concepts on the X-14B VSS aircraft in hover, is described. This stand permits realistic and safe piloted evaluation and checkout of various control systems and of parameter variations within each system to determine acceptability to the pilot. Pilots can use it as a practical training tool to practice procedures and flying techniques and become familiar with the aircraft characteristics. Some examples of test experience are given. The test stand allows the X14B to maneuver in hover from centered position + or - 9.7 deg in roll and + or - 9.3 deg in pitch, about + or - 6 deg in yaw, and + or - 15 cm in vertical translation. The unique vertical free flight freedom enables study of liftoffs and landings with power conditions duplicated. The response on the stand agrees well with that measured in free hovering flight, and pilot comments confirm this

Inability of immunohistochemistry to predict clinical outcomes of endometrial cancer patients

Gossett DR, Alo P, Bristow RE, Galati M, Kyshtoobayeva A, Fruehauf J, Montz FJ. Inability of immunohistochemistry to predict clinical outcomes of endometrial cancer patients. Introduction: Despite optimal surgery, some patients with early endometrial carcinoma develop recurrence and die of disease. A number of immunohistochemical (IHC)-identified cell products (markers) have been proposed as predictors of recurrence. This study characterizes a large series of endometrial carcinomas with previously described markers as well as markers that have not been investigated in endometrial carcinoma. Patients and methods: Women who had undergone surgery for endometrial carcinoma were identified and specimens accessed. Tissue blocks were evaluated for ten IHC markers. Results were correlated with last known clinical status. Results: Mean follow-up was 43 months; complete data were available on 117 patients. Two women died of other causes; of the remaining 115, eight died of disease and six were alive with recurrence at last follow-up (12%). Vascular endothelial growth factor staining independently predicted recurrence and death. However, in multivariate analyses, only FIGO stage predicted outcome. Discussion: Our goal was to identify markers to predict which women with endometrial carcinoma were likely to have disease recurrence. We evaluated cell-cycle regulatory proteins, growth factors, hormone receptors, and angiogenic factors, but did not identify any marker that independently predicted outcome in multivariate analysis. This may reflect the few negative outcomes in our population.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72601/1/j.1048-891x.2004.014028.x.pd

Hybrid dispersion laser scanner.

Laser scanning technology is one of the most integral parts of today's scientific research, manufacturing, defense, and biomedicine. In many applications, high-speed scanning capability is essential for scanning a large area in a short time and multi-dimensional sensing of moving objects and dynamical processes with fine temporal resolution. Unfortunately, conventional laser scanners are often too slow, resulting in limited precision and utility. Here we present a new type of laser scanner that offers ∼1,000 times higher scan rates than conventional state-of-the-art scanners. This method employs spatial dispersion of temporally stretched broadband optical pulses onto the target, enabling inertia-free laser scans at unprecedented scan rates of nearly 100 MHz at 800 nm. To show our scanner's broad utility, we use it to demonstrate unique and previously difficult-to-achieve capabilities in imaging, surface vibrometry, and flow cytometry at a record 2D raster scan rate of more than 100 kHz with 27,000 resolvable points

AFLOW-SYM: platform for the complete, automatic and self-consistent symmetry analysis of crystals

Determination of the symmetry profile of structures is a persistent challenge in materials science. Results often vary amongst standard packages, hindering autonomous materials development by requiring continuous user attention and educated guesses. This article presents a robust procedure for evaluating the complete suite of symmetry properties, featuring various representations for the point, factor and space groups, site symmetries and Wyckoff positions. The protocol determines a system-specific mapping tolerance that yields symmetry operations entirely commensurate with fundamental crystallographic principles. The self-consistent tolerance characterizes the effective spatial resolution of the reported atomic positions. The approach is compared with the most used programs and is successfully validated against the space-group information provided for over 54 000 entries in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD). Subsequently, a complete symmetry analysis is applied to all 1.7+ million entries of the AFLOW data repository. The AFLOW-SYM package has been implemented in, and made available for, public use through the automated ab initio framework AFLOW

Droplet Lasers:A Review of Current Progress

© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd. It is perhaps surprising that something as fragile as a microscopic droplet could possibly form a laser. In this article we will review some of the underpinning physics as to how this might be possible, and then examine the state of the art in the field. The technology to create and manipulate droplets will be examined, as will the different classes of droplet lasers. We discuss the rapidly developing fields of droplet biolasers, liquid crystal laser droplets and explore how droplet lasers could give rise to new bio and chemical sensing and analysis. The challenges that droplet lasers face in becoming robust devices, either as sensors or as photonic components in the lab on chip devices, is assessed

High Nucleosome Occupancy Is Encoded at Human Regulatory Sequences

Active eukaryotic regulatory sites are characterized by open chromatin, and yeast promoters and transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) typically have low intrinsic nucleosome occupancy. Here, we show that in contrast to yeast, DNA at human promoters, enhancers, and TFBSs generally encodes high intrinsic nucleosome occupancy. In most cases we examined, these elements also have high experimentally measured nucleosome occupancy in vivo. These regions typically have high G+C content, which correlates positively with intrinsic nucleosome occupancy, and are depleted for nucleosome-excluding poly-A sequences. We propose that high nucleosome preference is directly encoded at regulatory sequences in the human genome to restrict access to regulatory information that will ultimately be utilized in only a subset of differentiated cells

Noninvasive options for ‘wearing-off’ in Parkinson's disease: a clinical consensus from a panel of UK Parkinson's disease specialists

In the past 4 years, two adjunctive treatment options to levodopa have been licensed for use in the UK in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and motor fluctuations: opicapone, a third-generation catechol-O-methyl transferase inhibitor, and safinamide, a monoamine oxidase B inhibitor. This clinical consensus outlines the practical considerations relating to motor fluctuations and managing wearing-off in patients with PD, and provides a clinical insight to adjunctive treatment options, including opicapone and safinamide. Practice-based opinion was provided from a multidisciplinary steering Group of eight UK-based movement disorder and PD specialists, including neurologists, geriatricians and a nurse specialist, from England, Scotland and Wales

Scaling Properties of the Giant Dipole Resonance Width in Hot Rotating nuclei

We study the systematics of the giant dipole resonance width $\Gamma$ in hot rotating nuclei as a function of temperature $T$, spin $J$ and mass $A$. We compare available experimental results with theoretical calculations that include thermal shape fluctuations in nuclei ranging from A=45 to A=208. Using the appropriate scaled variables, we find a simple phenomenological function $\Gamma(A,T,J)$ which approximates the global behavior of the giant dipole resonance width in the liquid drop model. We reanalyze recent experimental and theoretical results for the resonance width in Sn isotopes and $^{208}$Pb.Comment: LaTeX, 4 pages with 4 figures (to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.

Radial Flow in Au+Au Collisions at E=0.25-1.15 A GeV

A systematic study of energy spectra for light particles emitted at midrapidity from Au+Au collisions at E=0.25-1.15 A GeV reveals a significant non-thermal component consistent with a collective radial flow. This component is evaluated as a function of bombarding energy and event centrality. Comparisons to Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) and Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) models are made for different equations of state.Comment: 10 pages of text and 4 figures (all ps files in a uuencoded package)