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Airborne environmental injuries and human health.
The concept that the environment in which we live can have detrimental effects on our health has existed for centuries. Obvious examples of substances that can cause human diseases include infectious agents, poisons, chemicals and other noxious agents, drugs, and physical stimuli such as bright lights and loud sounds. Some less obvious agents can include allergens, nontangible agents such as colorless, odorless gases and aerosolized toxins. In recent decades, humans have developed various new materials and compounds. Additionally, we are now producing known compounds, and even naturally occurring substances, in vastly increased amounts. Many of these substances are generally believed to threaten the health of our environment. However, there is also a considerable amount of hype and exaggeration regarding some of these agents (e.g., mold) that is unsubstantiated. This article extensively reviews the data on a large number of airborne-related illnesses and attempted to place scientific reality in the context of clinical medicine
Introducing New Methodologies for Identifying Design Patterns for Internationalization and Localization
This paper describes a new methodology for deriving interaction design patterns from an analysis of ethnographic data. It suggests using inductive and deductive analysis processes to identify and articulate patterns that address the needs of culturally diverse users of interactive, collaborative systems. This might inform the internationalization and localization process of computer supported collaboration systems
Magnetic Properties of Epitaxial and Polycrystalline Fe/Si Multilayers
Fe/Si multilayers with antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling have been grown
via ion-beam sputtering on both glass and single-crystal substrates. High-angle
x-ray diffraction measurements show that both sets of films have narrow Fe
peaks, implying a large crystallite size and crystalline iron silicide spacer
layers. Low-angle x-ray diffraction measurements show that films grown on glass
have rougher interfaces than those grown on single-crystal substrates. The
multilayers grown on glass have a larger remanent magnetization than the
multilayers grown on single-crystal substrates. The observation of
magnetocrystalline anisotropy in hysteresis loops and peaks in x-ray
diffraction demonstrates that the films grown on MgO and Ge are epitaxial. The
smaller remanent magnetization in Fe/Si multilayers with better layering
suggests that the remanence is not an intrinsic property.Comment: 9 pages, RevTex, 4 figures available by fax. Send email to
[email protected] for more info. Submitted to '95 MMM proceeding
Minimum Hamiltonian ascent trajectory evaluation (MASTRE) program (update to automatic flight trajectory design, performance prediction, and vehicle sizing for support of shuttle and shuttle derived vehicles) users manual
Documentation for the User Interface Program for the Minimum Hamiltonian Ascent Trajectory Evaluation (MASTRE) is provided. The User Interface Program is a separate software package designed to ease the user input requirements when using the MASTRE Trajectory Program. This document supplements documentation on the MASTRE Program that consists of the MASTRE Engineering Manual and the MASTRE Programmers Guide. The User Interface Program provides a series of menus and tables using the VAX Screen Management Guideline (SMG) software. These menus and tables allow the user to modify the MASTRE Program input without the need for learning the various program dependent mnemonics. In addition, the User Interface Program allows the user to modify and/or review additional input Namelist and data files, to build and review command files, to formulate and calculate mass properties related data, and to have a plotting capability
Percolation of satisfiability in finite dimensions
The satisfiability and optimization of finite-dimensional Boolean formulas
are studied using percolation theory, rare region arguments, and boundary
effects. In contrast with mean-field results, there is no satisfiability
transition, though there is a logical connectivity transition. In part of the
disconnected phase, rare regions lead to a divergent running time for
optimization algorithms. The thermodynamic ground state for the NP-hard
two-dimensional maximum-satisfiability problem is typically unique. These
results have implications for the computational study of disordered materials.Comment: 4 pages, 4 fig
Local Quantum Observables in the Anti-deSitter - Conformal QFT Correspondence
Quantum field theory on d+1-dimensional anti-deSitter space-time admits a
re-interpretation as a quantum field theory with conformal symmetry on
d-dimensional Minkowski space-time. This conjecture originally emerged from
string theory considerations. Here, it is proven in a general framework by an
explicit identification between the local observables of the two corresponding
theories.Comment: Letter based on hep-th/9905179, 4 pages, 1 figur
Wildlife population assessment : changing priorities driven by technological advances
TAM’s time for this review was covered under the ACCURATE project, funded by the US Navy Living Marine Resources program (contract no. N3943019C2176), and he also thanks partial support by CEAUL (funded by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the project UIDB/00006/2020).Advances in technology are having a large effect on the priorities for innovation in statistical ecology. Collaborations between statisticians and ecologists have always been important in driving methodological development, but increasingly, expertise from computer scientists and engineers is also needed. We discuss changes that are occurring and that may occur in the future in surveys for estimating animal abundance. As technology advances, we expect classical distance sampling and capture-recapture to decrease in importance, as camera (still and video) survey, acoustic survey, spatial capture-recapture and genetic methods continue to develop and find new applications. We explore how these changes are impacting the work of the statistical ecologist.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Effects of Capping on the (Ga,Mn)As Magnetic Depth Profile
Annealing can increase the Curie temperature and net magnetization in
uncapped (Ga,Mn)As films, effects that are suppressed when the films are capped
with GaAs. Previous polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) studies of uncapped
(Ga,Mn)As revealed a pronounced magnetization gradient that was reduced after
annealing. We have extended this study to (Ga,Mn)As capped with GaAs. We
observe no increase in Curie temperature or net magnetization upon annealing.
Furthermore, PNR measurements indicate that annealing produces minimal
differences in the depth-dependent magnetization, as both as-grown and annealed
films feature a significant magnetization gradient. These results suggest that
the GaAs cap inhibits redistribution of interstitial Mn impurities during
annealing.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letter
Identification of an alternative G{alpha}q-dependent chemokine receptor signal transduction pathway in dendritic cells and granulocytes
CD38 controls the chemotaxis of leukocytes to some, but not all, chemokines, suggesting that chemokine receptor signaling in leukocytes is more diverse than previously appreciated. To determine the basis for this signaling heterogeneity, we examined the chemokine receptors that signal in a CD38-dependent manner and identified a novel "alternative" chemokine receptor signaling pathway. Similar to the "classical" signaling pathway, the alternative chemokine receptor pathway is activated by G{alpha}i2-containing Gi proteins. However, unlike the classical pathway, the alternative pathway is also dependent on the Gq class of G proteins. We show that G{alpha}q-deficient neutrophils and dendritic cells (DCs) make defective calcium and chemotactic responses upon stimulation with N-formyl methionyl leucyl phenylalanine and CC chemokine ligand (CCL) 3 (neutrophils), or upon stimulation with CCL2, CCL19, CCL21, and CXC chemokine ligand (CXCL) 12 (DCs). In contrast, G{alpha}q-deficient T cell responses to CXCL12 and CCL19 remain intact. Thus, the alternative chemokine receptor pathway controls the migration of only a subset of cells. Regardless, the novel alternative chemokine receptor signaling pathway appears to be critically important for the initiation of inflammatory responses, as G{alpha}q is required for the migration of DCs from the skin to draining lymph nodes after fluorescein isothiocyanate sensitization and the emigration of monocytes from the bone marrow into inflamed skin after contact sensitization
The second law of thermodynamics, TCP, and Einstein causality in anti-de Sitter space-time
If the vacuum is passive for uniformly accelerated observers in anti-de
Sitter space-time (i.e. cannot be used by them to operate a "perpetuum
mobile"), they will (a) register a universal value of the Hawking-Unruh
temperature, (b) discover a TCP symmetry, and (c) find that observables in
complementary wedge-shaped regions are commensurable (local) in the vacuum
state. These results are model independent and hold in any theory which is
compatible with some weak notion of space-time localization.Comment: 8 pages, slightly improved results, minor changes in the expository
part, new title; to appear in "Classical and Quantum Gravity
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