Migration of latent fingermarks on non-porous surfaces:observation technique and nanoscale variations

Latent fingermark morphology was examined over a period of approximately two months. Variation in topography was observed with atomic force microscopy and the expansion of the fingermark occurred in the form of the development of an intermediate area surrounding the main fingermark ridge. On an example area of a fingermark on silicon, the intermediate region exists as a uniform 4nm thick deposit; on day 1 after deposition this region extends approximately 2µm from the edge of the main ridge deposit and expands to a maximum of ~ 4µm by day 23. Simultaneously the region breaks up, the integrity is compromised by day 16, and by day 61 the area resembles a series of interconnected islands, with coverage of approximately 60%. Observation of a similar immediate area and growth with time on surfaces such as Formica was possible by monitoring the mechanical characteristics of the fingermark and surfaces though phase contrast in tapping mode AFM. The presence of this area may affect fingermark development, for example affecting the gold distribution in vacuum metal deposition. Further study of time dependence and variation with donor may enable assessment of this area to be used to evaluate the age of fingermarks

Impact of Hyperinsulinemic Priming on Macrophage Activation

The impact of hyperinsulinemia on adipose tissue inflammation has been studied for decades in order to try and obtain a better understanding of the underlying effects of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. Despite the medical interest in this subject and how adipose tissue macrophages are central to the development of adipose tissue inflammation, how these cells directly respond to the pathological dosages of insulin has yet to be proved. Inside adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs), despite the expression of the molecules mediating insulin signaling in other cell types, it is relatively unknown what direct impact insulin has on these ATMs who contribute to both systemic and adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance. In this study, the direct impacts of hyperinsulinemia are addressed by subjecting bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDMs) to a state of hyperinsulinemia in order to examine the direct impact that insulin has on macrophage activation through the comparison of the expression of genes related to macrophage activation by quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Next the importance of prolonged exposure to pathological insulin dosages with regards to classical macrophage activation are examined by comparing the gene expression of BMDMs that were subjected to a 24 hour insulin priming period to that of BMDMs that were first exposed to insulin at the time of macrophage activation. Then, in order to understand how insulin enhances classical macrophage response, the expressions of Toll-Like Receptor genes are examined. Finally the results from BioPlex analysis are used to determine the cell signaling protein expression and phosphorylation through which insulin achieves this impact on the macrophage cell. The results showed that prolonged exposure to pathological insulin levels results in an increase in the expression of genes associated with classical, proinflammatory macrophage activation, and this effect does not appear to be the result of an increase in Toll-Like Receptors that respond to proinflammatory stimuli. Lastly an enhanced decrease in the phosphorylation ratio of the Protein Kinase B pathway suggests that insulin resistance applies to macrophages in a manner similar to other insulin targets in the body. This project proves how critical the understanding of insulin-regulated macrophage responses is to studying hyperinsulinemia-related metabolic disorders such as diabetes

Capital Structure, Creditor Composition, and Insolvency Law in Japan

This article identifies potential relationships between the methods by which large firms in the business sector are externally financed and creditors’ determinations to resolve business failure through private negotiation or formal insolvency proceedings. Prior to the deregulation of Japan’s capital markets in the 1980s, large firms relied heavily on bank debt as a source of external capital. Consequently, their capital structures and their creditor compositions were relatively homogenous. Japanese banks appeared to primarily resolve the failure of their borrowers through private reorganizations or liquidations rather than court proceedings, and evidence suggests that creditor homogeneity was a favorable condition for the negotiated resolution of business failure. Japan’s corporate insolvency laws were used relatively infrequently and suffered from procedural and substantive defects that likely discouraged their use. The deregulation of Japan’s capital markets in the 1980s enabled large firms to raise debt capital by issuing bonds, which over time resulted in the diversification of firm capital structures and creditor compositions. This had significant consequences for the ability of creditors to negotiate the resolution of their borrowers’ business failure. Japan’s long recession in the 1990s pushed many firms close to insolvency, yet it appears that changes in capital structure and creditor composition adversely affected the availability of negotiated resolution of business failure, and Japan’s insolvency laws remained problematic. This article suggests that Japanese banks developed unusual and seemingly irrational lending strategies for distressed borrowers, given their inability to resolve business failure through private negotiations or formal insolvency proceedings. At the turn of the century, the Japanese legal community spearheaded significant reforms of Japan’s insolvency laws, and a prolonged surge in filing rates indicates that creditors quickly seized upon legal reforms to force reorganization of distressed borrowers. While this article’s findings are preliminary, it represents an agenda for further research on this topic

A Manifesto, in 140 Characters or Fewer: Social Media as a Tool of Rebel Diplomacy

© 2017 Cambridge University Press. Can rebel organizations in a civil conflict use social media to garner international support? This article argues that the use of social media is a unique form of public diplomacy through which rebels project a favorable image to gain that support. It analyzes the Libyan civil war, during which rebels invested considerable resources in diplomatic efforts to gain US support. The study entails collecting original data, and finds that rebel public diplomacy via Twitter increases co-operation with the rebels when their message (1) clarifies the type of regime they intend to create and (2) emphasizes the atrocities perpetrated by the government. Providing rebels with an important tool of image projection, social media can affect dynamics in an ever more connected international arena

Different Words, Same Song: Advice for Substantively Interpreting Duration Models

Copyright © American Political Science Association 2019. The use of duration models in political science continues to grow, more than a decade after Box-Steffensmeier and Jones (2004). However, several common misconceptions about the models still persist. To improve scholars\u27 use and interpretation of duration models, we point out that they are a type of regression model and therefore follow the same rules as other more commonly used regression models. In this article, we present four maxims as guidelines. We survey the various duration model interpretation strategies and group them into four categories, which is an important organizational exercise that does not appear elsewhere. We then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies, noting that all are correct from a technical perspective. However, some strategies make more sense than others for nontechnical reasons, which ultimately informs best practices

Resource allocation for Lagrangian tracking

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 33 (2016): 1225-1235, doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-15-0115.1.Accurate estimation of the transport probabilities among regions in the ocean provides valuable information for understanding plankton transport, the spread of pollutants, and the movement of water masses. Individual-based particle-tracking models simulate a large ensemble of Lagrangian particles and are a common method to estimate these transport probabilities. Simulating a large ensemble of Lagrangian particles is computationally expensive, and appropriately allocating resources can reduce the cost of this method. Two universal questions in the design of studies that use Lagrangian particle tracking are how many particles to release and how to distribute particle releases. A method is presented for tailoring the number and the release location of particles to most effectively achieve the objectives of a study. The method detailed here is a sequential analysis procedure that seeks to minimize the number of particles that are required to satisfy a predefined metric of result quality. The study assesses the result quality as the precision of the estimates for the elements of a transport matrix and also describes how the method may be extended for use with other metrics. Applying this methodology to both a theoretical system and a particle transport model of the Gulf of Maine results in more precise estimates of the transport probabilities with fewer particles than from uniformly or randomly distributing particle releases. The application of this method can help reduce the cost of and increase the robustness of results from studies that use Lagrangian particles.This research was supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) program and the National Science Foundation through Grant OCE-1459133 and Grant OCE-1031256.2016-12-0

The relationship between anxiety, gaze direction and increased falls risk in walking older adults

Older adults at a high-risk of falling tend to look away from a current stepping target in order to look at obstacles ahead. This early gaze transfer impairs the accuracy of stepping. It has previously been shown that this maladaptive gaze behaviour is associated with increased anxiety. This thesis aimed to elucidate the causal relationships between anxiety, sub-optimal gaze behaviour and increased falls risk in older adults. In separate experiments we manipulated experimental conditions to: 1) increase older participants anxiety via Social Evaluative Threat 2) reduce anxiety via relaxation exercises and 3) alter the extent to which participants previewed obstacles and walking goals via a gaze training intervention. Increasing older adults’ anxiety resulted in reduced stepping performance, and a measured reduction in anxiety was accompanied by increased stepping performance. There were few effects on eye movement timing characteristics suggesting that these changes in stepping behaviour were not mediated by altered gaze strategies. Route previewing intervention resulted in significant changes to older adults’ gaze behaviour, and improved self-confidence and stepping performance. These findings highlight the possibility of using interventions aimed at reducing anxiety and/or guiding gaze behaviour to address falls-risk in older adults

Cosmic (super)string constraints from 21 cm radiation

We calculate the contribution of cosmic strings arising from a phase transition in the early universe, or cosmic superstrings arising from brane inflation, to the cosmic 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts z > 30. Future experiments can exploit this effect to constrain the cosmic string tension Gu and probe virtually the entire brane inflation model space allowed by current observations. Although current experiments with a collecting area of ~ 1 km^2 will not provide any useful constraints, future experiments with a collecting area of 10^4-10^6 km^2 covering the cleanest 10% of the sky can in principle constrain cosmic strings with tension Gu > 10^(-10) to 10^(-12) (superstring/phase transition mass scale >10^13 GeV).Comment: Accepted for publication in PR