2,327 research outputs found
Osterberg Load Cell Testing of a Deep Reinforced Concrete Pile
A pedestrian bridge was constructed between two portions of a hospital in Southern California. Potentially liquefiable soils were present to a depth of about 72 feet below the ground surface. Because of the liquefiable soils, the bridge was to be supported on 30- inch-diameter cast-in-place piles drilled to a depth of approximately 90 feet below the ground surface. A test pile was constructed to confirm the soil capacities for the bridge. An Osterberg Load cell (O-cell) was placed near the middle of the test pile, and the downward load capacities of the deeper soils (below the elevation of potentially liquefiable soils) were tested using the upper portion of the pile to provide reaction. Instrumentation of the test pile consisted of four pairs of vibrating wire strain gages mounted on the pile reinforcing cage at four depths. The strain gages were connected to a data acquisition unit used to record data during the pile load test. A pair of tell-tale rods connected to electronic dial gages monitored the movement of the lower plate of the O-cell. Another pair of tell-tale rods was used to monitor the movement of the top of pile during the test while a third pair of tell-tale rods was used to monitor the compression of the upper portion of the pile. The pile load test was successful in confirming the predicted pile capacities, and the production piles were installed. The Osterberg Load cell was an economical method of testing the pile for this particular application
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Serotonergic innervation of the amygdala is increased in autism spectrum disorder and decreased in Williams syndrome.
BackgroundWilliams syndrome (WS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders that demonstrate overlapping genetic associations, dichotomous sociobehavioral phenotypes, and dichotomous pathological differences in neuronal distribution in key social brain areas, including the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. The serotonergic system is critical to many processes underlying neurodevelopment and is additionally an important neuromodulator associated with behavioral variation. The amygdala is heavily innervated by serotonergic projections, suggesting that the serotonergic system is a significant mediator of neuronal activity. Disruptions to the serotonergic system, and atypical structure and function of the amygdala, are implicated in both WS and ASD.MethodsWe quantified the serotonergic axon density in the four major subdivisions of the amygdala in the postmortem brains of individuals diagnosed with ASD and WS and neurotypical (NT) brains.ResultsWe found opposing directions of change in serotonergic innervation in the two disorders, with ASD displaying an increase in serotonergic axons compared to NT and WS displaying a decrease. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed between WS and ASD data sets across multiple amygdala nuclei.LimitationsThis study is limited by the availability of human postmortem tissue. Small sample size is an unavoidable limitation of most postmortem human brain research and particularly postmortem research in rare disorders.ConclusionsDifferential alterations to serotonergic innervation of the amygdala may contribute to differences in sociobehavioral phenotype in WS and ASD. These findings will inform future work identifying targets for future therapeutics in these and other disorders characterized by atypical social behavior
Ain\u27t You Ashamed!
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1161/thumbnail.jp
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Impact of High Wind Power Penetration on Hydroelectric Unit Operations: Preprint
This paper examines the impact of this large amount of wind penetration on hydroelectric unit operations. Changes in hydroelectric unit operating unit patterns are examined for an aggregation of all hydro generators
Severe Mycoplasma hominis Infections in Two Renal Transplant Patients
Systemic infections due to Mycoplasma hominis are rare and occur mainly in immunocompromised patients. Reported here are the cases of two renal transplant patients with peritonitis who did not respond to empirical antimicrobial treatment. Effective treatment with doxycycline was administered only after definitive identification of Mycoplasma hominis was achieved. For this identification, the new genetic amplification-sequencing method was invaluabl
Spatial mapping of band bending in semiconductor devices using in-situ quantum sensors
Band bending is a central concept in solid-state physics that arises from
local variations in charge distribution especially near semiconductor
interfaces and surfaces. Its precision measurement is vital in a variety of
contexts from the optimisation of field effect transistors to the engineering
of qubit devices with enhanced stability and coherence. Existing methods are
surface sensitive and are unable to probe band bending at depth from surface or
bulk charges related to crystal defects. Here we propose an in-situ method for
probing band bending in a semiconductor device by imaging an array of
atomic-sized quantum sensing defects to report on the local electric field. We
implement the concept using the nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond, and map the
electric field at different depths under various surface terminations. We then
fabricate a two-terminal device based on the conductive two-dimensional hole
gas formed at a hydrogen-terminated diamond surface, and observe an unexpected
spatial modulation of the electric field attributed to a complex interplay
between charge injection and photo-ionisation effects. Our method opens the way
to three-dimensional mapping of band bending in diamond and other
semiconductors hosting suitable quantum sensors, combined with simultaneous
imaging of charge transport in complex operating devices.Comment: This is a pre-print of an article published in Nature Electronics.
The final authenticated version is available online at
https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41928-018-0130-
WISP genes are members of the connective tissue growth factor family that are up-regulated in Wnt-1-transformed cells and aberrantly expressed in human colon tumors
Wnt family members are critical to many developmental processes, and components of the Wnt signaling pathway have been linked to tumorigenesis in familial and sporadic colon carcinomas. Here we report the identification of two genes, WISP-1 and WISP-2, that are up-regulated in the mouse mammary epithelial cell line C57MG transformed by Wnt-1, but not by Wnt-4. Together with a third related gene, WISP-3, these proteins define a subfamily of the connective tissue growth factor family. Two distinct systems demonstrated WISP induction to be associated with the expression of Wnt-1. These included (i) C57MG cells infected with a Wnt-1 retroviral vector or expressing Wnt-1 under the control of a tetracyline repressible promoter, and (ii) Wnt-1 transgenic mice. The WISP-1 gene was localized to human chromosome 8q24.1-8q24.3. WISP-1 genomic DNA was amplified in colon cancer cell lines and in human colon tumors and its RNA overexpressed (2- to >30-fold) in 84% of the tumors examined compared with patient-matched normal mucosa. WISP-3 mapped to chromosome 6q22-6q23 and also was overexpressed (4- to >40-fold) in 63% of the colon tumors analyzed. In contrast, WISP-2 mapped to human chromosome 20q12-20q13 and its DNA was amplified, but RNA expression was reduced (2- to >30-fold) in 79% of the tumors. These results suggest that the WISP genes may be downstream of Wnt-1 signaling and that aberrant levels of WISP expression in colon cancer may play a role in colon tumorigenesis
Baryogenesis through Collapsing String Loops in Gauged Baryon and Lepton Models
A scenario for the generation of the baryon asymmetry in the early Universe
is proposed in which cosmic string loops, predicted by theories where the
baryon and/or lepton numbers are gauged symmetries, collapse during the
friction dominated period of string evolution. This provides a mechanism for
the departure from thermal equilibrium necessary to have a nonvanishing baryon
asymmetry. Examples of models are given where this idea can be implemented. In
particular, the model with the gauge symmetry has the interesting
feature where sphaleron processes do not violate the baryon and lepton numbers
so that no wash out of any initial baryon asymmetry occurs at the electroweak
scale.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, PURD-TH-93-09, SISSA 87/93/
From Word Models to World Models: Translating from Natural Language to the Probabilistic Language of Thought
How does language inform our downstream thinking? In particular, how do
humans make meaning from language -- and how can we leverage a theory of
linguistic meaning to build machines that think in more human-like ways? In
this paper, we propose \textit{rational meaning construction}, a computational
framework for language-informed thinking that combines neural models of
language with probabilistic models for rational inference. We frame linguistic
meaning as a context-sensitive mapping from natural language into a
\textit{probabilistic language of thought} (PLoT) -- a general-purpose symbolic
substrate for probabilistic, generative world modeling. Our architecture
integrates two powerful computational tools that have not previously come
together: we model thinking with \textit{probabilistic programs}, an expressive
representation for flexible commonsense reasoning; and we model meaning
construction with \textit{large language models} (LLMs), which support
broad-coverage translation from natural language utterances to code expressions
in a probabilistic programming language. We illustrate our framework in action
through examples covering four core domains from cognitive science:
probabilistic reasoning, logical and relational reasoning, visual and physical
reasoning, and social reasoning about agents and their plans. In each, we show
that LLMs can generate context-sensitive translations that capture
pragmatically-appropriate linguistic meanings, while Bayesian inference with
the generated programs supports coherent and robust commonsense reasoning. We
extend our framework to integrate cognitively-motivated symbolic modules to
provide a unified commonsense thinking interface from language. Finally, we
explore how language can drive the construction of world models themselves
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