Localization of a Breathing Crack Using Super-Harmonic Signals due to System Nonlinearity

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76712/1/AIAA-38947-457.pd

The focused ion beam as an integrated circuit restructuring tool

One of the capabilities of focused ion beam systems is ion milling. The purpose of this work is to explore this capability as a tool for integrated circuit restructuring. Methods for cutting and joining conductors are needed. Two methods for joining conductors are demonstrated. The first consists of spinning nitrocellulose (a self‐developing resist) on the circuit, ion exposing an area, say, 7×7 μm, then milling a smaller via with sloping sidewalls through the first metal layer down to the second, e‐beam evaporating metal, and then dissolving the nitrocellulose to achieve liftoff. The resistance of these links between two metal levels varied from 1 to 7 Ω. The second, simpler method consists of milling a via with vertical sidewalls down to the lower metal layer, then reducing the milling scan to a smaller area in the center of this via, thereby redepositing the metal from the lower layer on the vertical sidewall. The short circuit thus achieved varied from 0.4 to 1.5 Ω for vias of dimensions 3×3 μm to 1×1 μm, respectively. The time to mill a 1×1 μm via with a 68 keV Ga+ beam, of 220 Pa current is 60 s. In a system optimized for this application, this milling time is expected to be reduced by a factor of at least 100. In addition, cuts have been made in 1‐μm‐thick Al films covered by 0.65 μm of SiO2. These cuts have resistances in excess of 20 MΩ. This method of circuit restructuring can work at dimensions a factor of 10 smaller than laser zapping and requires no special sites to be fabricated

Channelling figurativity through narrative : the paranarrative in fiction and non-fiction

Contrary to wide-spread assumptions, metaphor in narrative is not a pre-established, extra-textual form appearing in different instances of discourse, but rather an event resulting from a strategic distribution of information in the narrative process. Hence, the appeal to conceptual cultural knowledge is to be considered as a consequence, and not as a prerequisite of metaphor interpretation. By means of the concept of the paranarrative, we highlight the rhetorical interconnectedness of metaphor with other figures of speech (such as metonymy) and we explore the narrative integration of diacritic forms of indirectness. In order to illustrate the terminology that can address these focal concerns, the paper discusses the relation between tropes and narrative, via selected examples from narrative texts (both fictional and non-fictional) written by Juli Zeh, Herta Müller, Jürgen Nieraad, and Siddhartha Mukherjee. As their common denominator, these examples channel through narrative figurative domains considered to be known intuitively to wit: personifications; iconic pars pro toto references to concentration camps; and metaphors for cancer in disease biographies

Processing of the papain precursor. Purification of the zymogen and characterization of its mechanism of processing.

The precursor of the cysteine protease papain has been expressed and secreted as propapain from insect cells infected with a recombinant baculovirus expressing a synthetic gene coding for prepropapain. This 39-kDa secreted propapain zymogen molecule is glycosylated and can be processed in vitro into an enzymatically active authentic papain molecule of 24.5 kDa (Vernet, T., Tessier, D.C., Richardson, C., Laliberte, F., Khouri, H. E., Bell, A. W., Storer, A. C., and Thomas, D. Y. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 16661-16666). Recombinant propapain was stabilized with Hg2+ and purified to homogeneity using affinity chromatography, gel filtration, and ion-exchange chromatographic procedures. The maximum rate of processing in vitro was achieved at approximately pH 4.0, at a temperature of 65 degrees C and under reducing conditions. Precursor processing is inhibited by a variety of reversible and irreversible cysteine protease inhibitors but not by specific inhibitors of serine, metallo or acid proteases. Replacement by site-directed mutagenesis of the active site cysteine with a serine at position 25 also prevents processing. The inhibitor 125I-N-(2S,3S)-3-trans-hydroxycarbonyloxiran-2-carbonyl-L-tyrosine benzyl ester covalently labeled the wild type papain precursor, but not the C25S mutant, indicating that the active site is accessible to the inhibitor and is in a native conformation within the precursor. Based on biochemical and kinetic analyses of the activation and processing of propapain we have shown that the papain precursor is capable of autoproteolytic cleavage (intramolecular). Once free papain is released processing can then occur in trans (intermolecular)

Native drivers of fish life history traits are lost during the invasion process

© 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Rapid adaptation to global change can counter vulnerability of species to population declines and extinction. Theoretically, under such circumstances both genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity can maintain population fitness, but empirical support for this is currently limited. Here, we aim to characterize the role of environmental and genetic diversity, and their prior evolutionary history (via haplogroup profiles) in shaping patterns of life history traits during biological invasion. Data were derived from both genetic and life history traits including a morphological analysis of 29 native and invasive populations of topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva coupled with climatic variables from each location. General additive models were constructed to explain distribution of somatic growth rate (SGR) data across native and invasive ranges, with model selection performed using Akaike's information criteria. Genetic and environmental drivers that structured the life history of populations in their native range were less influential in their invasive populations. For some vertebrates at least, fitness-related trait shifts do not seem to be dependent on the level of genetic diversity or haplogroup makeup of the initial introduced propagule, nor of the availability of local environmental conditions being similar to those experienced in their native range. As long as local conditions are not beyond the species physiological threshold, its local establishment and invasive potential are likely to be determined by local drivers, such as density-dependent effects linked to resource availability or to local biotic resistance

Focused Ion Beam Fabrication

Contains summary of research program and reports on four research projects.Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (Contract DL-H-225270)Hughes Research LaboratoriesInternational Business Machines, Inc. (Contract 456614)Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Inc.U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-84-K-0073)U.S. Department of Defense (Contract MDA903-85-C-0215)Hitachi Central Research Laborator

"I am NN": A Reconstruction of Anscombe's "The First Person"

This paper develops a way of understanding G.E.M. Anscombe’s essay “The First Person”, at the heart of which are the following two ideas: first, that the point of her essay is to show that it is not possible for anyone to understand what they express with “I” as an Art des Gegebenseins—a way of thinking of an object that constitutes identifying knowledge of which object is being thought of; and second, that the argument through which her essay seeks to show this is itself first personal in character. Understanding Anscombe’s essay in this light has the merit of showing much of what it says to be correct. But it sets us the task of saying what it is that we understand ourselves to express with “I” if not an Art des Gegebenseins, and in particular what it is that we understand ourselves to express with sentences with “I” as subject that might seem to express identity-judgments, such as “I am NN”, and “I am this body”

Altered intercellular communication in lung fibroblast cultures from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

RATIONALE: Gap junctions are membrane channels formed by an array of connexins which links adjacent cells realizing an electro- metabolic synapse. Connexin-mediated communication is crucial in the regulation of cell growth, differentiation, and development. The activation and proliferation of phenotypically altered fibroblasts are central events in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We sought to evaluate the role of connexin-43, the most abundant gap-junction subunit in the human lung, in the pathogenesis of this condition. METHODS: We investigated the transcription and protein expression of connexin-43 and the gap-junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) in 5 primary lung fibroblast lines derived from normal subjects (NF) and from 3 histologically proven IPF patients (FF). RESULTS: Here we show that connexin-43 mRNA was significantly reduced in FF as demonstrated by standard and quantitative RT-PCR. GJIC was functionally evaluated by means of flow-cytometry. In order to demonstrate that dye spreading was taking place through gap junctions, we used carbenoxolone as a pharmacological gap-junction blocker. Carbenoxolone specifically blocked GJIC in our system in a concentration dependent manner. FF showed a significantly reduced homologous GJIC compared to NF. Similarly, GJIC was significantly impaired in FF when a heterologous NF line was used as dye donor, suggesting a complete defect in GJIC of FF. CONCLUSION: These results suggest a novel alteration in primary lung fibroblasts from IPF patients. The reduced Cx43 expression and the associated alteration in cell-to-cell communication may justify some of the known pathological characteristic of this devastating disease that still represents a challenge to the medical practice

Focused Ion Beam Microfabrication

Contains an introduction, reports on x research projects and a list of publications.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Army Research Office Grant DAAL-03-92-G-0217National Science Foundation Grant ECS 89-21728Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Army Research Office (ASSERT Program) Grant DAAL03-92-G-0305Semiconductor Research CorporationNational Science Foundation Grant DMR 92-02633U.S. Army Research Office Grant DAAL03-90-G-0223U.S. Navy - Naval Research Laboratory/Micrion Contract M0877

Native drivers of fish life history traits are lost during the invasion process

Rapid adaptation to global change can counter vulnerability of species to population declines and extinction. Theoretically, under such circumstances both genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity can maintain population fitness, but empirical support for this is currently limited. Here, we aim to characterize the role of environmental and genetic diversity, and their prior evolutionary history (via haplogroup profiles) in shaping patterns of life history traits during biological invasion. Data were derived from both genetic and life history traits including a morphological analysis of 29 native and invasive populations of topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva coupled with climatic variables from each location. General additive models were constructed to explain distribution of somatic growth rate (SGR) data across native and invasive ranges, with model selection performed using Akaike's information criteria. Genetic and environmental drivers that structured the life history of populations in their native range were less influential in their invasive populations. For some vertebrates at least, fitness-related trait shifts do not seem to be dependent on the level of genetic diversity or haplogroup makeup of the initial introduced propagule, nor of the availability of local environmental conditions being similar to those experienced in their native range. As long as local conditions are not beyond the species physiological threshold, its local establishment and invasive potential are likely to be determined by local drivers, such as density-dependent effects linked to resource availability or to local biotic resistance