Analysis of First-Encounter Conversations of Right-Hemisphere-Damaged Adults

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Calculation and Validation of Thermomechanical Stresses in Flip Chip BGA Using the ATC4.2 Test Vehicle

We report the first in situ measurements of thermomechanical stresses in a 1000 I/O 250 {micro}m pitch piezoresistive flip chip test chip assembled to a 755 I/O 1.0 mm pitch 35 mm Ball Grid Array (BGA). The BGA substrates employed build-up dielectric layers containing micro-vias over conventional fiberglass laminate cores. Experimental data, which include in situ stress and die bending measurements, were correlated to closed form and Finite Element Method (FEM) calculations. Cracking and delamination were observed in some of the experimental groups undergoing temperature cycling. Through use of bounding conditions in the FEM simulations, these failures were associated with debonding of the underfill fillet from the die edge that caused stresses to shift to weaker areas of the package

Playfulness over the lifespan and its relation to happiness : Results from an online survey

BACKGROUND: Playfulness is an understudied topic in adults and particularly among the elderly. There is no large study to date on age-related changes in playfulness across the lifespan, nor have relations with different indicators of well-being been investigated in much detail as yet. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: In total, 4100 adults completed online self-ratings on their playfulness, happiness and Seligman’s three orientations to happiness (a pleasurable, engaged and meaningfully fulfilled life). RESULTS: In a cross-sectional design, playfulness was stable across the lifespan; variations in the mean scores were relatively small (half a standard deviation). Yet participants < 40 years yielded the comparatively lowest scores. There were no gender differences. Playfulness was best predicted by the scale assessing a pleasurable life and was positively related to happiness. CONCLUSION: Playfulness seems to be of relevance in all age groups and displays robust relations with different indicators of well-being. HINTERGRUND: Verspieltheit im Erwachsenenalter und besonders im höheren Alter ist ein wenig erforschtes Merkmal. Es gibt bislang keine große Studie zu altersspezifischen Veränderungen. Beziehungen zu Indikatoren des Wohlbefindens wurden ebenfalls noch nicht ausführlich untersucht. MATERIAL UND METHODEN: In einer Online-Studie bearbeiteten 4100 Erwachsene Maße zu Verspieltheit, Wohlbefinden und Seligmans Orientierungen zum Wohlbefinden (das vergnügliche, engagierte und sinnerfüllte Leben). ERGEBNISSE: In einem Querschnittdesign war die Verspieltheit über die Lebensspanne hinweg stabil verteilt; die Mittelwerte wiesen nur geringe Variation auf (eine halbe Standardabweichung). Personen < 40 Jahre wiesen aber die vergleichsweise niedrigsten Werte auf. Es gab keine Geschlechtsunterschiede. Die Skala zum vergnüglichen Leben hat sich als bester Prädiktor für Verspieltheit erwiesen; es fanden sich positive Beziehungen zum Wohlbefinden. SCHLUSSFOLGERUNG: Verspieltheit scheint in allen Altersgruppen von Bedeutung zu sein und weist robuste Beziehungen zum Wohlbefinden auf

Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?

Given the increasingly global stresses on forests, many ecologists argue that managers must maintain ecological resilience: the capacity of ecosystems to absorb disturbances without undergoing fundamental change. In this review we ask: Can the emerging paradigm of natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM) maintain ecological resilience in managed forests? Applying resilience theory requires careful articulation of the ecosystem state under consideration, the disturbances and stresses that affect the persistence of possible alternative states, and the spatial and temporal scales of management relevance. Implementing NDBM while maintaining resilience means recognizing that (i) biodiversity is important for long-term ecosystem persistence, (ii) natural disturbances play a critical role as a generator of structural and compositional heterogeneity at multiple scales, and (iii) traditional management tends to produce forests more homogeneous than those disturbed naturally and increases the likelihood of unexpected catastrophic change by constraining variation of key environmental processes. NDBM may maintain resilience if silvicultural strategies retain the structures and processes that perpetuate desired states while reducing those that enhance resilience of undesirable states. Such strategies require an understanding of harvesting impacts on slow ecosystem processes, such as seed-bank or nutrient dynamics, which in the long term can lead to ecological surprises by altering the forest's capacity to reorganize after disturbance

A Small Molecule that Induces Intrinsic Pathway Apoptosis with Unparalleled Speed

Apoptosis is generally believed to be a process thatrequires several hours, in contrast to non-programmed forms of cell death that can occur in minutes. Our findings challenge the time-consuming nature of apoptosis as we describe the discovery and characterization of a small molecule, named Raptinal, which initiates intrinsic pathway caspase-dependent apoptosis within minutes in multiple cell lines. Comparison to a mechanistically diverse panel of apoptotic stimuli reveals that Raptinal-induced apoptosis proceeds with unparalleled speed. The rapid phenotype enabled identification of the criticalroles of mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel function, mitochondrial membrane potential/coupled respiration, and mitochondrial complex I, III, and IV function for apoptosis induction. Use of Raptinal in whole organisms demonstrates its utility for studying apoptosis invivo for a variety of applications. Overall, rapid inducers of apoptosis are powerful tools that will be used in a variety of settings to generate further insight into the apoptotic machinery. Palchaudhuri etal. describe the discovery of a small molecule called "Raptinal" that induces unusually rapid apoptotic cell death via the intrinsic pathway. Their work describes the utility of Raptinal as a tool for apoptosis induction relative to other available small molecules

Effects of coastal urbanization on salt-marsh faunal assemblages in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Author Posting. © American Fisheries Society, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Fisheries Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 6 (2014): 89-107, doi:10.1080/19425120.2014.893467.Coastal landscapes in the northern Gulf of Mexico, specifically the Mississippi coast, have undergone rapid urbanization that may impact the suitability of salt-marsh ecosystems for maintaining and regulating estuarine faunal communities. We used a landscape ecology approach to quantify the composition and configuration of salt-marsh habitats and developed surfaces at multiple spatial scales surrounding three small, first-order salt-marsh tidal creeks arrayed along a gradient of urbanization in two river-dominated estuaries. From May 3 to June 4, 2010, nekton and macroinfauna were collected weekly at all six sites. Due to the greater abundance of grass shrimp Palaemonetes spp., brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus, blue crab Callinectes sapidus, Gulf Menhaden Brevoortia patronus, and Spot Leiostomus xanthurus, tidal creeks in intact natural (IN) salt-marsh landscapes supported a nekton assemblage that was significantly different from those in partially urbanized (PU) or completely urbanized (CU) salt-marsh landscapes. However, PU landscapes still supported an abundant nekton assemblage. In addition, the results illustrated a linkage between life history traits and landscape characteristics. Resident and transient nekton species that have specific habitat requirements are more likely to be impacted in urbanized landscapes than more mobile species that are able to exploit multiple habitats. Patterns were less clear for macroinfaunal assemblages, although they were comparatively less abundant in CU salt-marsh landscapes than in either IN or PU landscapes. The low abundance or absence of several macroinfaunal taxa in CU landscapes may be viewed as an additional indicator of poor habitat quality for nekton. The observed patterns also suggested that benthic sediments in the CU salt-marsh landscapes were altered in comparison with IN or PU landscapes. The amount of developed shoreline and various metrics related to salt marsh fragmentation were important drivers of observed patterns in nekton and macroinfaunal assemblages

Turnover of passerine birds on islands in the Aegean Sea (Greece)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73442/1/j.1365-2699.2007.01695.x.pd

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Astroparticle Physics with a Customized Low-Background Broad Energy Germanium Detector

The MAJORANA Collaboration is building the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, a 60 kg array of high purity germanium detectors housed in an ultra-low background shield at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge while demonstrating the feasibility of a tonne-scale experiment. It may also carry out a dark matter search in the 1-10 GeV/c^2 mass range. We have found that customized Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detectors produced by Canberra have several desirable features for a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment, including low electronic noise, excellent pulse shape analysis capabilities, and simple fabrication. We have deployed a customized BEGe, the MAJORANA Low-Background BEGe at Kimballton (MALBEK), in a low-background cryostat and shield at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility in Virginia. This paper will focus on the detector characteristics and measurements that can be performed with such a radiation detector in a low-background environment.Comment: Submitted to NIMA Proceedings, SORMA XII. 9 pages, 4 figure

The Fueling and Evolution of AGN: Internal and External Triggers

In this chapter, I review the fueling and evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) under the influence of internal and external triggers, namely intrinsic properties of host galaxies (morphological or Hubble type, color, presence of bars and other non-axisymmetric features, etc) and external factors such as environment and interactions. The most daunting challenge in fueling AGN is arguably the angular momentum problem as even matter located at a radius of a few hundred pc must lose more than 99.99 % of its specific angular momentum before it is fit for consumption by a BH. I review mass accretion rates, angular momentum requirements, the effectiveness of different fueling mechanisms, and the growth and mass density of black BHs at different epochs. I discuss connections between the nuclear and larger-scale properties of AGN, both locally and at intermediate redshifts, outlining some recent results from the GEMS and GOODS HST surveys.Comment: Invited Review Chapter to appear in LNP Volume on "AGN Physics on All Scales", Chapter 6, in press. 40 pages, 12 figures. Typo in Eq 5 correcte