Influence of /\u27 lattice misfit on hydrogen embrittlement mechanism of single-crystal nickel-based superalloy CMSX-4

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The mosaic genome of indigenous African cattle as a unique genetic resource for African pastoralism

© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc. Cattle pastoralism plays a central role in human livelihood in Africa. However, the genetic history of its success remains unknown. Here, through whole-genome sequence analysis of 172 indigenous African cattle from 16 breeds representative of the main cattle groups, we identify a major taurine × indicine cattle admixture event dated to circa 750–1,050 yr ago, which has shaped the genome of today’s cattle in the Horn of Africa. We identify 16 loci linked to African environmental adaptations across crossbred animals showing an excess of taurine or indicine ancestry. These include immune-, heat-tolerance- and reproduction-related genes. Moreover, we identify one highly divergent locus in African taurine cattle, which is putatively linked to trypanotolerance and present in crossbred cattle living in trypanosomosis-infested areas. Our findings indicate that a combination of past taurine and recent indicine admixture-derived genetic resources is at the root of the present success of African pastoralism

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Efficiency and Productivity of Local Educational Administration in Korea Using the Malmquist Productivity Index

As local governments around the world struggle to finance and deliver quality education under fiscal constraints, pressures mount to increase efficiency and productivity in order to obtain more output from the same or fewer resources. Focusing on the case of Korea, this study investigates the productivity of outputs in local offices of education (OEs) through the analysis of personnel and financial factors by year (2012–2016). Overall, the results indicate the efficient operation of the OEs in Korea. The Malmquist productivity index (MPI) mean decreased from 2012 to 2014, increased from 2014 to 2015, and decreased from 2015 to 2016. The rate of chronological change in each OE’s MPI showed the same pattern of change in the distribution ratio of school expenditures. Finally, the MPI had the same pattern as the Technical Change Index. Policy implications are provided

Efficiency and Productivity of Local Educational Administration in Korea Using the Malmquist Productivity Index

As local governments around the world struggle to finance and deliver quality education under fiscal constraints, pressures mount to increase efficiency and productivity in order to obtain more output from the same or fewer resources. Focusing on the case of Korea, this study investigates the productivity of outputs in local offices of education (OEs) through the analysis of personnel and financial factors by year (2012–2016). Overall, the results indicate the efficient operation of the OEs in Korea. The Malmquist productivity index (MPI) mean decreased from 2012 to 2014, increased from 2014 to 2015, and decreased from 2015 to 2016. The rate of chronological change in each OE’s MPI showed the same pattern of change in the distribution ratio of school expenditures. Finally, the MPI had the same pattern as the Technical Change Index. Policy implications are provided

Using Game Theory to Understand Screening for Domestic Violence Under the TANF Family Violence Option

Universal screening for domestic violence in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is required by most states, but its implementation is questionable. This paper employs game theory to conceptualize interactions between TANF applicants and frontline eligibility caseworkers. The intended outcomes of universal screening for intimate partner violence (IPV) – granting of a good cause waiver to IPV victims – are valid only by the assumption that caseworkers perform their roles. To grant a good cause waiver, TANF applicants and caseworkers should exchange two types of information: 1) disclosure of abuse by IPV victims and 2) notification of the availability of good cause waivers by caseworkers. This paper illuminates that intended outcomes of universal screening for IPV are difficult to achieve and discusses the applicability and limitations of game theory for policy evaluation

Achievement of high yield strength and strain hardening rate by forming fine ferrite and dislocation substructures in duplex lightweight steel

Lightweight steels containing a considerable content of Al show high specific strength and ductility, but there are some drawbacks such as low yield strength and stringer-type bands formed along the rolling direction. Here we design new duplex lightweight steel in order to complement the drawbacks, and achieve ultra-high yield strength (865 MPa), good ductility (41%). Submicron ferrite mainly affects high yield-to-tensile ratio, and high strain hardening is attributed to Lomer-Cottrell lock and planar slip, and cell structure by further deformation in austenite. These results are expected to provide a desirable possibility for applications to reinforcement components requiring high yield-to-tensile ratio.112sciescopu

Effects of Nb or (Nb plus Mo) alloying on Charpy impact, bending, and delayed fracture properties in 1.9-GPa-grade press hardening steels

In this study, effects of Nb or (Nb + Mo) alloying into a 1.9-GPa-grade 32MnB5 press hardening steel on Charpy impact, bending, and delayed fracture properties were investigated. All the properties were enhanced in the Nbor (Nb + Mo)-alloyed steels, especially in the (Nb + Mo)-alloyed steel. The Nb alloying worked for the precipitation of nano-sized complex carbides, thereby leading to the refinement of prior austenite grains by a Zener pinning effect. Mo also contributed to the grain refinement, while Mo affected it mostly in a solid-solution state by a solute drag effect. This grain refinement resulted in the more deviated crack propagation path and consequently in the more improved Charpy impact energy. The size reduction of Ti(C,N) inclusion due to the attachment of a small amount of Nb and Mo also improved the impact toughness. As well as microstructural effects, the lower residual stress due to the lower peak bending load by the Nb or (Nb + Mo) alloying contributed to the increase in H-induced delayed cracking time. Therefore, this study suggests that synergic interactions of Nb and Mo alloying would provide promising solutions for improving various properties, which should be more importantly considered under actually using environments such as mechanically forming and crashing for press hardening components, while satisfying the 1.9-GPa-strength 32MnB5 specification.11Nsciescopu

Pyramid Inter-Attention for High Dynamic Range Imaging

This paper proposes a novel approach to high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging of dynamic scenes to eliminate ghosting artifacts in HDR images when in the presence of severe misalignment (large object or camera motion) in input low-dynamic-range (LDR) images. Recent non-flow-based methods suffer from ghosting artifacts in the presence of large object motion. Flow-based methods face the same issue since their optical flow algorithms yield huge alignment errors. To eliminate ghosting artifacts, we propose a simple yet effective alignment network for solving the misalignment. The proposed pyramid inter-attention module (PIAM) performs alignment of LDR features by leveraging inter-attention maps. Additionally, to boost the representation of aligned features in the merging process, we propose a dual excitation block (DEB) that recalibrates each feature both spatially and channel-wise. Exhaustive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed PIAM and DEB, achieving state-of-the-art performance in terms of producing ghost-free HDR images