Opening Access: Increasing Scholarly Impact with DigitalCommons@UNO

DigitalCommons@UNO (https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/) is an Institutional Repository (IR) and an initiative implemented by the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Libraries to support our UNO scholars through providing a Green Open Access solution. DigitalCommons@UNO disseminates a wide variety of scholarship including faculty papers, electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), conferences and journals. Since its launch in 2014, the UNO Libraries have been implementing and managing DigitalCommons@UNO through outreach to the UNO community in an effort to collect scholarly works into the IR

Those Days in Muramatsu: Diary by Mrs. Yumi Goto

Introduction by Grant K. Goodman, and "Days of Ambivalence" by Elizabeth Schultz."Like other personal writings, Yumi Goto's memoir, _Those Days in Muramatsu_, is both private and public. It reflects upon an interlude not only in her personal history but also in the social history of Japan. More precisely, Mrs. Goto's memoir reflects upon those days from September to December 1945 when she served as an interpreter for the railroad company working with the American military stationed as part of the Allied Occupation in Muramatsu, a small rural town in the province of Niigata in northern Japan; as such, the memoir illuminates a significant moment in the history of Japan-American relations, during which the lives of diverse people in Muramatsu were connected with the lives of 1500 American GIs." --- Introduction by Grant K. GoodmanUniversity of Kansas, Center for East Asian Studie

The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury XI: The Spatially-Resolved Recent Star Formation History of M31

We measure the recent star formation history (SFH) across M31 using optical images taken with the \texit{Hubble Space Telescope} as part of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT). We fit the color-magnitude diagrams in ~9000 regions that are ~100 pc $\times$ 100 pc in projected size, covering a 0.5 square degree area (~380 kpc$^2$, deprojected) in the NE quadrant of M31. We show that the SFHs vary significantly on these small spatial scales but that there are also coherent galaxy-wide fluctuations in the SFH back to ~500 Myr, most notably in M31's 10-kpc star-forming ring. We find that the 10-kpc ring is at least 400 Myr old, showing ongoing star formation over the past ~500 Myr. This indicates the presence of molecular gas in the ring over at least 2 dynamical times at this radius. We also find that the ring's position is constant throughout this time, and is stationary at the level of 1 km/s, although there is evidence for broadening of the ring due to diffusion of stars into the disk. Based on existing models of M31's ring features, the lack of evolution in the ring's position makes a purely collisional ring origin highly unlikely. We find that the global SFR has been fairly constant over the last ~500 Myr, though it does show a small increase at 50 Myr that is 1.3 times the average SFR over the past 100 Myr. During the last ~500 Myr, ~60% of all SF occurs in the 10-kpc ring. Finally, we find that in the past 100 Myr, the average SFR over the PHAT survey area is $0.28\pm0.03$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ with an average deprojected intensity of $7.3 \times 10^{-4}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$, which yields a total SFR of ~0.7 M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ when extrapolated to the entire area of M31's disk. This SFR is consistent with measurements from broadband estimates. [abridged]Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Self-bound dense objects in holographic QCD

We study a self-bound dense object in the hard wall model. We consider a spherically symmetric dense object which is characterized by its radial density distribution and non-uniform but spherically symmetric chiral condensate. For this we analytically solve the partial differential equations in the hard wall model and read off the radial coordinate dependence of the density and chiral condensate according to the AdS/CFT correspondence. We then attempt to describe nucleon density profiles of a few nuclei within our framework and observe that the confinement scale changes from a free nucleon to a nucleus. We briefly discuss how to include the effect of higher dimensional operator into our study. We finally comment on possible extensions of our work.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, figures replaced, minor revision, to appear in JHE

Malignant Mesothelioma in the Thoracic Cavity of a Crj:CD(SD) Rat Characterized by Round Hyalinous Stroma

Spontaneous malignant mesothelioma was found in a 104-week-old male Crj:CD(SD) rat. The tumor was scattered on the surface of the lung, heart, mediastinal pleura and thoracic wall and metastasized to the alveolar septa. Histopathologically, small flattened or cuboidal tumor cells proliferated with stroma, formed almost normal papillary structures and reacted positively to colloidal iron stain and immunohistochemical staining for mesothelin. Round hyalinous stromata were pronounced, which is a characteristic feature, and the possible reason for this is as follows; at first, a small amount of collagen fibers was formed in the center of the clusters of several tumor cells, and then the cell clusters expanded like balloons with an increase in the collagen fibers

12-Lipoxygenase Inhibitor Improves Functions of Cytokine-Treated Human Islets and Type 2 Diabetic Islets

Context: The 12-lipoxygenase (12-LO) pathway produces proinflammatory metabolites, and its activation is implicated in islet inflammation associated with type 1 and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Objectives: We aimed to test the efficacy of ML355, a highly selective, small molecule inhibitor of 12-LO, for the preservation of islet function. Design: Human islets from nondiabetic donors were incubated with a mixture of tumor necrosis factor α , interluekin-1β, and interferon-γ to model islet inflammation. Cytokine-treated islets and human islets from T2D donors were incubated in the presence and absence of ML355. Setting: In vitro study. Participants: Human islets from organ donors aged >20 years of both sexes and any race were used. T2D status was defined from either medical history or most recent hemoglobin A1c value >6.5%. Intervention: Glucose stimulation. Main Outcome Measures: Static and dynamic insulin secretion and oxygen consumption rate (OCR). Results: ML355 prevented the reduction of insulin secretion and OCR in cytokine-treated human islets and improved both parameters in human islets from T2D donors. Conclusions: ML355 was efficacious in improving human islet function after cytokine treatment and in T2D islets in vitro. The study suggests that the blockade of the 12-LO pathway may serve as a target for both form of diabetes and provides the basis for further study of this small molecule inhibitor in vivo

Viral population estimation using pyrosequencing

The diversity of virus populations within single infected hosts presents a major difficulty for the natural immune response as well as for vaccine design and antiviral drug therapy. Recently developed pyrophosphate based sequencing technologies (pyrosequencing) can be used for quantifying this diversity by ultra-deep sequencing of virus samples. We present computational methods for the analysis of such sequence data and apply these techniques to pyrosequencing data obtained from HIV populations within patients harboring drug resistant virus strains. Our main result is the estimation of the population structure of the sample from the pyrosequencing reads. This inference is based on a statistical approach to error correction, followed by a combinatorial algorithm for constructing a minimal set of haplotypes that explain the data. Using this set of explaining haplotypes, we apply a statistical model to infer the frequencies of the haplotypes in the population via an EM algorithm. We demonstrate that pyrosequencing reads allow for effective population reconstruction by extensive simulations and by comparison to 165 sequences obtained directly from clonal sequencing of four independent, diverse HIV populations. Thus, pyrosequencing can be used for cost-effective estimation of the structure of virus populations, promising new insights into viral evolutionary dynamics and disease control strategies.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figure

Particle Moment Canting in CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles

Polarization-analyzed small-angle neutron scattering methods are used to determine the spin morphology in high crystalline anisotropy, 11 nm diameter CoFe2O4 nanoparticle assemblies with randomly oriented easy axes. In moderate to high magnetic fields, the nanoparticles adopt a uniformly canted structure, rather than forming domains, shells, or other arrangements. The observed canting angles agree quantitatively with those predicted from an energy model dominated by Zeeman and anisotropy competition, with implications for the technological use of such nanoparticles