Development of Advanced Photolytic Iodine Laser (PIL) Cutting and Joining Technologies for Manufacturing

An evaluation was made of the Photolytic Iodine Laser (PIL) being developed by Advanced Optical Equipment and Services Corporation for metalworking applications. This laser operates in the infrared region of the spectrum and was anticipated to have a very small focal spot size and very low divergence. With these properties, it would be very effective at making small welds and narrow slots in metals. The program was of limited success due to low power output from the laser as well as power and positional instability. Some narrow slots were made and evaluated. The PIL may have applications in the electronics industry, even at low power, if the instability in the beam power and position can be solved

Attitudes toward feminism : the development of a measurement scale

The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop a valid and reliable instrument designed to measure attitudes toward feminism, that is, women's rights; (b) to investigate the prevalent attitudes toward feminism; and (c) to explore the relationship between the level of education, occupational status, career plans, hopes to marry, mother's employment status, number of children, number of children desired, and the sex and birth order of siblings and the subjects' attitudes toward feminism. The subjects were 477 females, of which 215 were undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and 262 were non-college females who were members of various clubs and special interest groups which met in the Greensboro, North Carolina area. Each of these 477 subjects responded to the Feminism Attitude Scale and a biographical data sheet. The validity of the scale was established through interjudge agreement and supported by the results of a factor analysis. The corrected odd even split-half reliability for the scale was .87. A factor analysis identified 16 variables within the scale. An analysis of variance was used to explore the relationship between the mean feminism scores and the biographical data groupings. The hypothesis that a scale designed to measure attitudes toward feminism would show significant differences in the scores between feminist and non-feminist attitudes was supported

Visually evoked responses in migraine

Visually evoked responses from the central and occipital areas were compared between 50 patients with migraine (during the headache-free period) and 46 control subjects. The findings suggest that migraine might be associated with altered cerebral responses to visual stimulation. Of three occipital surface negative components studied, the second ("intermediate" cluster) tended to appear slightly earlier in the migrainous individuals whereas the third (OIII) appeared later. Average amplitude of the second major surface positive wave (OIV) was lower. These differences were significant for the total experimental population and the female subgroup. Latency of the OII component (surface positive) was longer for females with migraine, a finding not present for the total population. No significant differences emerged between male experimental and control groups. Vertex responses were similar in migrainous and normal subjects. The routine EEG was abnormal in eleven of 50 (22%) patients.Average pupil size of the patients with migraine was significantly smaller than that of the controls.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33428/1/0000830.pd

ZnZ_n elliptic Gaudin model with open boundaries

The $Z_n$ elliptic Gaudin model with integrable boundaries specified by generic non-diagonal K-matrices with $n+1$ free boundary parameters is studied. The commuting families of Gaudin operators are diagonalized by the algebraic Bethe ansatz method. The eigenvalues and the corresponding Bethe ansatz equations are obtained.Comment: 21 pages, Latex fil

The recruitment experience of a randomized clinical trial to aid young adult smokers to stop smoking without weight gain with interactive technology

AbstractMultiple recruitment strategies are often needed to recruit an adequate number of participants, especially hard to reach groups. Technology-based recruitment methods hold promise as a more robust form of reaching and enrolling historically hard to reach young adults. The TARGIT study is a randomized two-arm clinical trial in young adults using interactive technology testing an efficacious proactive telephone Quitline versus the Quitline plus a behavioral weight management intervention focusing on smoking cessation and weight change. All randomized participants in the TARGIT study were required to be a young adult smoker (18–35 years), who reported smoking at least 10 cigarettes per day, had a BMI < 40 kg/m2, and were willing to stop smoking and not gain weight. Traditional recruitment methods were compared to technology-based strategies using standard descriptive statistics based on counts and proportions to describe the recruitment process from initial pre-screening (PS) to randomization into TARGIT. Participants at PS were majority Black (59.80%), female (52.66%), normal or over weight (combined 62.42%), 29.5 years old, and smoked 18.4 cigarettes per day. There were differences in men and women with respect to reasons for ineligibility during PS (p < 0.001; ignoring gender specific pregnancy-related ineligibility). TARGIT experienced a disproportionate loss of minorities during recruitment as well as a prolonged recruitment period due to either study ineligibility or not completing screening activities. Recruitment into longer term behavioral change intervention trials can be challenging and multiple methods are often required to recruit hard to reach groups.ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01199185The NHLBI funded TARGIT as part of a U01 Cooperative Agreement and as such the study design was approved. They did not have input into the data collection, analysis, or the interpretation of the data or in the writing of this report

EEG Artifact Removal Using a Wavelet Neural Network

!n this paper we developed a wavelet neural network. (WNN) algorithm for Electroencephalogram (EEG) artifact removal without electrooculographic (EOG) recordings. The algorithm combines the universal approximation characteristics of neural network and the time/frequency property of wavelet. We. compared the WNN algorithm with .the ICA technique ,and a wavelet thresholding method, which was realized by using the Stein's unbiased risk estimate (SURE) with an adaptive gradient-based optimal threshold. Experimental results on a driving test data set show that WNN can remove EEG artifacts effectively without diminishing useful EEG information even for very noisy data

Generation and Characterization of Anti-AA Amyloid-Specific Monoclonal Antibodies

AA amyloidosis results from the pathologic deposition in the kidneys and other organs of fibrils composed of N-terminal fragments of serum amyloid A protein (SAA). Given that there are only limited means to visualize these deposits, we have developed a series of mAbs, 2A4, 7D8, and 8G9, that bind specifically with nanomolar affinity to a carboxy-terminal epitope generated following proteolysis of SAA that yields the predominant component of AA amyloid deposits. Notably, these antibodies do not recognize native SAA, they retain their immunoreactivity when radiolabeled with I-125 and, after injection into AA amyloidotic mice, localize, as evidenced by autoradiography and micro-single photon emission computed tomography imaging, to histologically confirmed areas of amyloid deposition; namely, spleen, liver, and pancreas. The results of our in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate the AA fibril-selectivity of mAbs 2A4, 7D8, and 8G9 and warrant further investigation into their role as novel diagnostic agents for patients with AA amyloidosis

Polyclonal epitope mapping reveals temporal dynamics and diversity of human antibody responses to H5N1 vaccination

Novel influenza A virus (IAV) strains elicit recall immune responses to conserved epitopes, making them favorable antigenic choices for universal influenza virus vaccines. Evaluating these immunogens requires a thorough understanding of the antigenic sites targeted by the polyclonal antibody (pAb) response, which single-particle electron microscopy (EM) can sensitively detect. In this study, we employ EM polyclonal epitope mapping (EMPEM) to extensively characterize the pAb response to hemagglutinin (HA) after H5N1 immunization in humans. Cross-reactive pAbs originating from memory B cells immediately bound the stem of HA and persisted for more than a year after vaccination. In contrast, de novo pAb responses to multiple sites on the head of HA, targeting previously determined key neutralizing sites on H5 HA, expanded after the second immunization and waned quickly. Thus, EMPEM provides a robust tool for comprehensively tracking the specificity and durability of immune responses elicited by novel universal influenza vaccine candidates

HAZMAT. VIII. A Spectroscopic Analysis of the Ultraviolet Evolution of K Stars: Additional Evidence for K Dwarf Rotational Stalling in the First Gigayear

Efforts to discover and characterize habitable zone planets have primarily focused on Sun-like stars and M dwarfs. K stars, however, provide an appealing compromise between these two alternatives that has been relatively unexplored. Understanding the ultraviolet (UV) environment around such stars is critical to our understanding of their planets, as the UV can drastically alter the photochemistry of a planet's atmosphere. Here we present near-UV and far-UV \textit{Hubble Space Telescope}'s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph observations of 39 K stars at three distinct ages: 40 Myr, 650 Myr, and $\approx$5 Gyr. We find that the K star (0.6 -- 0.8 M$_{\odot}$) UV flux remains constant beyond 650 Myr before falling off by an order of magnitude by field age. This is distinct from early M stars (0.3 -- 0.6 M$_{\odot}$), which begin to decline after only a few hundred Myr. However, the rotation-UV activity relation for K stars is nearly identical to that of early M stars. These results may be a consequence of the spin-down stalling effect recently reported for K dwarfs, in which the spin-down of K stars halts for over a Gyr when their rotation periods reach $\approx$10 d, rather than the continuous spin down that G stars experience. These results imply that exoplanets orbiting K dwarfs may experience a stronger UV environment than thought, weakening the case for K stars as hosts of potential "super-habitable" planets.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure