An Ejection Mechanism Design Method for AIM Tools

One of the key advantages of AIM tooling is time savings when producing small batch production quality parts. However, designing suitable ejection mechanisms is becoming a bottleneck. There are two goals of this paper. First, a model is presented that effectively characterizes the stresses on the mold core and part during injection molding. Second, a method is described for ejection system design. Our approach consists of a combination of analytical, computational, and physical experiments. The ejection system design method will first determine the feasibility of ejection for a particular part geometry, then will determine the number, sizes, and locations of ejector pins. Each phase of the method will be formulated into a Compromise Decision Support Problem, a multi-objective optimization problem formulation. An example will be presented to provide an idea of the robustness and the limitations of the method. Preliminary results indicate that this methodology is sound for a simple geometry.Mechanical Engineerin

Breast cancer relatives' physical activity intervention needs and preferences: qualitative results.

BackgroundWhile many risk factors for breast cancer, such as family history, are not modifiable, some, however, can be modified. The study used formative qualitative research to learn about the physical activity intervention preferences and needs of first-degree female relatives (FDFRs) of breast cancer patients; that information was then used to develop a targeted physical activity intervention.MethodsTwenty FDFRs first completed a 12-week physical activity intervention and then attended two sequential focus groups (7 groups total). In the first set of focus groups participants provided feedback on the intervention. In the follow-up focus groups, proposed changes based on collected responses from the first groups were presented and participants provided feedback to further refine the intervention.ResultsOverall, we found strong interest for an intervention using breast cancer-related health concerns to promote positive behavior change. A theme underlying all of the feedback was the desire for a personalized intervention that was directly relevant to their lives. Participants wanted this personalization achieved through individually tailored content and incorporation of stories from other FDFRs. In order to successfully use concerns about breast cancer to motivate behavior change, participants also wanted a discussion about their individual risk factors for breast cancer including, but not limited to, lack of physical activity.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates women's interest in receiving personalized information and highlights specific ways to individualize an intervention that increases motivation and engagement. Using a sequential qualitative approach was effective for formative intervention development.Trial registration numberNCT03115658 (Retrospectively registered 4/13/17)

Energy and Momentum of a Class of Rotating Gravitational Waves

We calculate energy and momentum for a class of cylindrical rotating gravitational waves using Einstein and Papapetrou's prescriptions. It is shown that the results obtained are reduced to the special case of the cylindrical gravitational waves already available in the literature.Comment: 11 pages, no figure, Late

Energy and momentum of cylindrical gravitational waves. II

Recently Nathan Rosen and the present author obtained the energy and momentum densities of cylindrical gravitational waves in Einstein's prescription and found them to be finite and reasonable. In the present paper we calculate the same in prescriptions of Tolman as well as Landau and Lifshitz and discuss the results.Comment: 8 pages, LaTex, To appear in Pramana- J. Physic

How the credit channel works: differentiating the bank lending channel and the balance sheet channel

The credit channel of monetary policy transmission operates through changes in lending. To examine this channel, we explore how movements in the real federal funds rate affect bank lending. Using data on individual loans from the Survey of Terms of Bank Lending, we are able to differentiate two ways the credit channel can work: by affecting overall bank lending (the bank lending channel) and by affecting the allocation of loans (the balance sheet channel). We find evidence consistent with the operation of both internal credit channels. During periods of tight monetary policy, banks adjust their stock of loans by reducing the maturity of loan originations and they reallocate their short-term loan supply from small firms to large firms. These results are stronger for large banks than for small banks.Monetary policy ; Bank loans

Phosphorylation of nephrin induces phase separated domains that move through actomyosin contraction

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Kim, S., Kalappurakkal, J. M., Mayor, S., & Rosen, M. K. Phosphorylation of nephrin induces phase separated domains that move through actomyosin contraction. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 30(24), (2019): 2996–3012, doi:10.1091/mbc.E18-12-0823.The plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells is organized into lipid and protein microdomains, whose assembly mechanisms and functions are incompletely understood. We demonstrate that proteins in the nephrin/Nck/N-WASP actin-regulatory pathway cluster into micron-scale domains at the basal plasma membrane upon triggered phosphorylation of transmembrane protein nephrin. The domains are persistent but readily exchange components with their surroundings, and their formation is dependent on the number of Nck SH3 domains, suggesting they are phase separated polymers assembled through multivalent interactions among the three proteins. The domains form independent of the actin cytoskeleton, but acto-myosin contractility induces their rapid lateral movement. Nephrin phosphorylation induces larger clusters at the cell periphery, which are associated with extensive actin assembly and dense filopodia. Our studies illustrate how multivalent interactions between proteins at the plasma membrane can produce micron-scale organization of signaling molecules, and how the resulting clusters can both respond to and control the actin cytoskeleton.We thank Hongtao Yu (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center [UTSW]) for providing the HeLa cell line used in this work; Dan Billadeau and Timothy Gomez (Mayo Clinic) for providing antibodies; Nico Stuurman (University of California, San Francisco) for assistance with STORM imaging; Kate Luby-Phelps and Abhijit Bugde (UTSW Live Cell Imaging Core Facility) for their assistance in epifluorescence and spinning disk confocal experiments; Sudeep Banjade for advice on designing the S3, S2, S1 constructs; Khuloud Jaqaman (UTSW) for advice on cluster motility analysis; Salman Banani and Jonathan Ditlev (UTSW) for critical reading of the manuscript; and members of the Rosen lab and participants in the MBL/HHMI Summer Institutes for advice and helpful discussions. This work was supported by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Collaborative Innovation Award; the Welch Foundation (I-1544 to M.K.R.); a J.C. Bose Fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, government of India (to S.M.); a Margadarshi Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust—Department of Biotechnology, India Alliance (IA/M/15/1/502018 to S.M.). Research in the Rosen lab is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Automated biowaste sampling system urine subsystem operating model, part 1

The urine subsystem automatically provides for the collection, volume sensing, and sampling of urine from six subjects during space flight. Verification of the subsystem design was a primary objective of the current effort which was accomplished thru the detail design, fabrication, and verification testing of an operating model of the subsystem

Pathway of human AS3MT arsenic methylation

A synthetic gene encoding human As(III) S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) methyltransferase (hAS3MT) was expressed, and the purified enzyme was characterized. The synthetic enzyme is considerably more active than a cDNA-expressed enzyme using endogenous reductants thioredoxin (Trx), thioredoxin reductase (TR), NADPH, and reduced glutathione (GSH). Each of the seven cysteines (the four conserved residues, Cys32, Cys61, Cys156, and Cys206, and nonconserved, Cys72, Cys85, and Cys250) was individually changed to serine. The nonconserved cysteine derivates were still active. None of the individual C32S, C61S, C156S, and C206S derivates were able to methylate As(III). However, the C32S and C61S enzymes retained the ability to methylate MAs(III). These observations suggest that Cys156 and Cys206 play a different role in catalysis than that of Cys32 and Cys61. A homology model built on the structure of a thermophilic orthologue indicates that Cys156 and Cys206 form the As(III) binding site, whereas Cys32 and Cys61 form a disulfide bond. Two observations shed light on the pathway of methylation. First, binding assays using the fluorescence of a single-tryptophan derivative indicate that As(GS)3 binds to the enzyme much faster than inorganic As(III). Second, the major product of the first round of methylation is MAs(III), not MAs(V), and remains enzyme-bound until it is methylated a second time. We propose a new pathway for hAS3MT catalysis that reconciles the hypothesis of Challenger ((1947) Sci. Prog., 35, 396-416) with the pathway proposed by Hayakawa et al. ((2005) Arch. Toxicol., 79, 183-191). The products are the more toxic and more carcinogenic trivalent methylarsenicals, but arsenic undergoes oxidation and reduction as enzyme-bound intermediates