Real structured singular value synthesis using the scaled Popov criterion

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77238/1/AIAA-21537-608.pd

Observations and Performance of a Soil Nail Shoring Wall in Seattle Silts and Clays

The Seattle Central Library project, which replaced the existing downtown library, consists of a twelve-story building with several below-grade levels. The excavation encompassed an entire city block and had plan dimensions of approximately 250 feet by 240 feet. The original excavation depth was up to 53 feet in height. The excavation was made in highly overconsolidated Seattle silts and clays (Lawton Clay). The Lawton Clay has been documented to exhibit expansive behavior along planes of weakness associated with stress relief upon excavation. The original excavation was designed to be supported using a tieback soldier pile wall, typical of shoring systems retaining the Lawton Clay. A soil nail shoring wall design was submitted, and subsequently installed, as part of a design-build alternative. The soil nail shoring wall system consisted of temporary, top-down soil nail walls that utilized portions of the concrete basement walls of the existing library. Vertical elements and shotcrete facing were constructed in areas where the excavation extended beyond or below the existing basement walls. Soil nails were installed using self-boring grout-injected anchors consisting of hollow bars with sacrificial drill bits. Displacement of the soil nail shoring walls was predicted to be less than 1 inch by the designer. The actual wall movements for three sides of the excavation were as predicted. However, the east wall on the uphill side of the excavation experienced 4 inches of lateral movement and over 2.5 inches of vertical movement, causing damage to the adjacent street and necessitating extensive design modifications during construction. In addition, the excavation depth was reduced to 47 feet because of significant movement occurring below the excavation. This paper describes the construction and observed behavior of the east wall and the applicability of soil nail walls in the Lawton Clay deposit

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma staging may influence management in users: A survey study.

PURPOSE: This study aims to determine whether there is consensus regarding staging and management of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) across the various specialties that manage this disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A survey regarding CSCC high-risk features, staging, and management was created and emailed to cutaneous oncology experts including dermatology, head and neck surgery/surgical oncology, radiation oncology, and medical oncology. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-six (46%) of 357 invited physicians completed the survey. Depth of invasion (92%), perineural invasion (99%), histologic differentiation (85%), and patient immunosuppression (90%) achieved consensus (\u3e80%) as high-risk features of CSCC. Dermatologists were more likely to also choose clinical tumor diameter (79% vs. 54%) and histology (99% vs. 66%) as a high-risk feature. Dermatologists were also more likely to utilize the Brigham and Women\u27s Hospital (BWH) staging system alone or in conjunction with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) (71%), whereas other cancer specialists (OCS) tend to use only AJCC (71%). Respondents considered AJCC T3 and higher (90%) and BWH T2b and higher (100%) to be high risk and when they consider radiologic imaging, sentinel lymph node biopsy, post-operative radiation therapy, and increased follow-up. Notably, a large number of respondents do not use staging systems or tumor stage to determine treatment options beyond surgery in high-risk CSCC. CONCLUSION: This survey study highlights areas of consensus and differences regarding the definition of high-risk features of CSCC, staging approaches, and management patterns between dermatologists and OCS. High-risk CSCC is defined as, but not limited to, BWH T2b and higher and AJCC T3 and higher, and these thresholds can be used to identify cases for which treatment beyond surgery may be considered. Dermatologists are more likely to utilize BWH staging, likely because BWH validation studies showing advantages over AJCC were published in dermatology journals and discussed at dermatology meetings. Additional data are necessary to develop a comprehensive risk-based management approach for CSCC

Modeling, Identification, and Feedback Control of Noise in an Acoustic Duct

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57830/1/AcousticDuctTCST1996.pd

Generalized Cross-Validation as a Method of Hyperparameter Search for MTGV Regularization

The concept of generalized cross-validation (GCV) is applied to modified total generalized variation (MTGV) regularization. Current implementations of the MTGV regularization rely on manual (or semi-manual) hyperparameter optimization, which is both time-consuming and subject to bias. The combination of MTGV-regularization and GCV allows for a straightforward hyperparameter search during regularization. This significantly increases the efficiency of the MTGV-method, because it limits the number of hyperparameters, which have to be tested and, improves the practicality of MTGV regularization as a standard technique for inversion of NMR signals. The combined method is applied to simulated and experimental NMR data and the resulting reconstructed distributions are presented. It is shown that for all data sets studied the proposed combination of MTGV and GCV minimizes the GCV score allowing an optimal hyperparameter choice

Increased SBPase activity improves photosynthesis and grain yield in wheat grown in greenhouse conditions

To meet the growing demand for food, substantial improvements in yields are needed. This is particularly the case for wheat, where global yield has stagnated in recent years. Increasing photosynthesis has been identified as a primary target to achieve yield improvements. To increase leaf photosynthesis in wheat, the level of the Calvin-Benson cycle enzyme sedoheptulose-1,7-biphosphatase (SBPase) has been increased through transformation and expression of a Brachypodium dystachion SBPase gene construct. Transgenic lines with increased SBPase protein levels and activity were grown under greenhouse conditions and showed enhanced leaf photosynthesis and increased total biomass and dry seed yield. This showed the potential of improving yield potential by increasing leaf photosynthesis in a crop species such as wheat. The results are discussed with regards to future strategies for further improvement of photosynthesis in wheat.publishersversionPeer reviewe

E-cadherin can limit the transforming properties of activating β-catenin mutations

Wnt pathway deregulation is a common characteristic of many cancers. But only Colorectal Cancer predominantly harbours mutations in APC, whereas other cancer types (hepatocellular carcinoma, solid pseudopapillary tumours of pancreas) have activating mutations in β-catenin (CTNNB1). We have compared the dynamics and the potency of β-catenin mutations in vivo. Within the murine small intestine (SI), an activating mutation of β-catenin took much longer to achieve a Wnt deregulation and acquire a crypt-progenitor-cell (CPC) phenotype than Apc or Gsk3 loss. Within the colon, a single activating mutation of β-catenin was unable to drive Wnt deregulation or induce the CPC phenotype. This ability of β-catenin mutation to differentially transform the SI versus the colon correlated with significantly higher expression of the β-catenin binding partner E-cadherin. This increased expression is associated with a higher number of E-cadherin:β-catenin complexes at the membrane. Reduction of E-cadherin synergised with an activating mutation of β-catenin so there was now a rapid CPC phenotype within the colon and SI. Thus there is a threshold of β-catenin that is required to drive transformation and E-cadherin can act as a buffer to prevent β-catenin accumulation

The Fading Optical Counterpart of GRB~970228, Six Months and One Year Later

We report on observations of the fading optical counterpart of the gamma-ray burst GRB 970228, made with the Hubble Space Telescope STIS CCD approximately six months after outburst and with the HST/NICMOS and Keck/NIRC approximately one year after outburst. The unresolved counterpart is detected by STIS at V=28.0 +/- 0.25, consistent with a continued power-law decline with exponent -1.14 +/- 0.05. The counterpart is located within, but near the edge of, a faint extended source with diameter ~0."8 and integrated magnitude V=25.8 +/- 0.25. A reanalysis of HST and NTT observations performed shortly after the burst shows no evidence of proper motion of the point source or fading of the extended emission. Only the extended source is visible in the NICMOS images with a magnitude of H=23.3 +/- 0.1. The Keck observations find K = 22.8 +/- 0.3. Several distinct and independent means of deriving the foreground extinction in the direction of GRB 970228 all agree with A_V = 0.75 +/- 0.2. After adjusting for Galactic extinction, we find that the size of the observed extended emission is consistent with that of galaxies of comparable magnitude found in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and other deep HST images. Only 2% of the sky is covered by galaxies of similar or greater surface brightness; therefore the extended source is almost certainly the host galaxy. Additionally, we find that the extinction-corrected V - H and V - K colors of the host are as blue as any galaxy of comparable or brighter magnitude in the HDF. Taken in concert with recent observations of GRB 970508, GRB 971214, and GRB 980703 our work suggests that all four GRBs with spectroscopic identification or deep multicolor broad-band imaging of the host lie in rapidly star-forming galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, 4 PostScript figures, to appear in the May 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal (Note: displayed abstract is abridged

Feedback and Brightest Cluster Galaxy Formation: ACS Observations of the Radio Galaxy TN J1338--1942 at z=4.1

We present deep optical imaging of the z=4.1 radio galaxy TN J1338--1942 obtained using the ACS on-board HST. The radio galaxy is known to reside within a large galaxy overdensity (both in physical extent and density contrast). There is good evidence that this `protocluster' region is the progenitor of a present-day rich galaxy cluster. TN J1338 is the dominant galaxy in the protocluster, in terms of size and luminosity and therefore seems destined to evolve into the brightest cluster galaxy. The high spatial-resolution ACS images reveal several kpc-scale features within and around the radio galaxy. The continuum light is aligned with the radio axis and is resolved into two clumps in the i-band and z-band bands. These components have luminosities ~10^9 L_sun and sizes of a few kpc. The estimated star-formation rate for the whole radio galaxy is ~200 M_sun/yr. A simple model in which the jet has triggered star-formation in these continuum knots is consistent with the available data. An unusual feature is seen in Lyman-alpha emission. A wedge-shaped extension emanates from the radio galaxy perpendicularly to the radio axis. This `wedge' naturally connects to the surrounding, asymmetric, large-scale (~100 kpc) Lyman-alpha halo. We posit that the wedge is a starburst-driven superwind, associated with the first major epoch of formation of the brightest cluster galaxy. The shock and wedge are examples of feedback processes due to both AGN and star-formation in the earliest stages of massive galaxy formation.Comment: 41 pages, 12 figures. Accepted to Ap

An fMRI Investigation of Preparatory Set in the Human Cerebral Cortex and Superior Colliculus for Pro- and Anti-Saccades

Previous studies have identified several cortical regions that show larger BOLD responses during preparation and execution of anti-saccades than pro-saccades. We confirmed this finding with a greater BOLD response for anti-saccades than pro-saccades during the preparation phase in the FEF, IPS and DLPFC and in the FEF and IPS in the execution phase. We then applied multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to establish whether different neural populations are involved in the two types of saccade. Pro-saccades and anti-saccades were reliably decoded during saccade execution in all three cortical regions (FEF, DLPFC and IPS) and in IPS during saccade preparation. This indicates neural specialization, for programming the desired response depending on the task rule, in these regions. In a further study tailored for imaging the superior colliculus in the midbrain a similar magnitude BOLD response was observed for pro-saccades and anti-saccades and the two saccade types could not be decoded with MVPA. This was the case both for activity related to the preparation phase and also for that elicited during the execution phase. We conclude that separate cortical neural populations are involved in the task-specific programming of a saccade while in contrast, the SC has a role in response preparation but may be less involved in high-level, task-specific aspects of the control of saccades