Fitness and Sport-Skill Outcomes of High School Students with Special Needs from a 10-Week Inclusive Intramural Basketball Program.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Design and evaluation of pick-up truck mounted boom for elevation of a multiband radiometer system

Three concepts were considered for the boom design: a one-piece boom with a trolley, a folding boom, and a telescoping boom. The telescoping boom was selected over the other two concepts because of its easy manual operation. The boom is designed to mount on the bed of a pick-up truck and elevate the radiometer system 8 meters above the ground and 4 meters away from the truck. The selection of the boom components is discussed with justification of the final choice. Results of performance tests and one season's operation of the completed boom are reported

Symmetrically coupled higher-order nonlinear Schroedinger equations: singularity analysis and integrability

The integrability of a system of two symmetrically coupled higher-order nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equations with parameter coefficients is tested by means of the singularity analysis. It is proven that the system passes the Painlev\'{e} test for integrability only in ten distinct cases, of which two are new. For one of the new cases, a Lax pair and a multi-field generalization are obtained; for the other one, the equations of the system are uncoupled by a nonlinear transformation.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX2e, IOP style, final version, to appear in J.Phys.A:Math.Ge

Complete integrability of derivative nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger-type equations

We study matrix generalizations of derivative nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger-type equations, which were shown by Olver and Sokolov to possess a higher symmetry. We prove that two of them are `C-integrable' and the rest of them are `S-integrable' in Calogero's terminology.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2e (IOP style), to appear in Inverse Problem

Space biology initiative program definition review. Trade study 1: Automation costs versus crew utilization

A significant emphasis upon automation within the Space Biology Initiative hardware appears justified in order to conserve crew labor and crew training effort. Two generic forms of automation were identified: automation of data and information handling and decision making, and the automation of material handling, transfer, and processing. The use of automatic data acquisition, expert systems, robots, and machine vision will increase the volume of experiments and quality of results. The automation described may also influence efforts to miniaturize and modularize the large array of SBI hardware identified to date. The cost and benefit model developed appears to be a useful guideline for SBI equipment specifiers and designers. Additional refinements would enhance the validity of the model. Two NASA automation pilot programs, 'The Principal Investigator in a Box' and 'Rack Mounted Robots' were investigated and found to be quite appropriate for adaptation to the SBI program. There are other in-house NASA efforts that provide technology that may be appropriate for the SBI program. Important data is believed to exist in advanced medical labs throughout the U.S., Japan, and Europe. The information and data processing in medical analysis equipment is highly automated and future trends reveal continued progress in this area. However, automation of material handling and processing has progressed in a limited manner because the medical labs are not affected by the power and space constraints that Space Station medical equipment is faced with. Therefore, NASA's major emphasis in automation will require a lead effort in the automation of material handling to achieve optimal crew utilization

Timesaving Double-Grid Method for Real-Space Electronic-Structure Calculations

We present a simple and efficient technique in ab initio electronic-structure calculation utilizing real-space double-grid with a high density of grid points in the vicinity of nuclei. This technique promises to greatly reduce the overhead for performing the integrals that involves non-local parts of pseudopotentials, with keeping a high degree of accuracy. Our procedure gives rise to no Pulay forces, unlike other real-space methods using adaptive coordinates. Moreover, we demonstrate the potential power of the method by calculating several properties of atoms and molecules.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

MUTANTS OF NONPRODUCER CELL LINES TRANSFORMED BY MURINE SARCOMA VIRUS : III. DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF RNA SPECIFIC FOR HELPER AND SARCOMA VIRUSES

BALB/3T3 cells transformed by the Kirsten sarcoma virus (nonvirus producer BALB/3T3 cells) and mutant cell lines derived therefrom by treatment with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) were analyzed for expression of virus-specific RNA using single-stranded DNA transcripts of Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV), a virus activated in one of the cell lines (58-2T), and Ki-SV-specific DNA transcript; the latter transcript after removal of all sequences cross-reactive with RLV RNA. The Rauscher virus DNA detected multiple copies of viral RNA in virus-producing cells (∼2.5 x 103/cell) whether infected with RLV or activated to produce virus with BrdU. Nonproducer (NP) cells and normal BALB cells showed small numbers of RNA genomes (70–250/cell) and only partial saturation of the transcript. The intracellular RNA sedimented at 35S (main peak) with a variable minor peak at 20S with the exception of one mutant cell, M-43-2 (main peak at 26–27S). The 58-2T transcript reacted preferentially in NP cells and their derivatives with biphasic kinetics suggesting the possibility of sequences specific for the original transforming virus. The size of Ki-SV specific sequences were 30S in mutant cells whether or not complete virus was being produced and independent of in vivo transplantability

A systematic method for constructing time discretizations of integrable lattice systems: local equations of motion

We propose a new method for discretizing the time variable in integrable lattice systems while maintaining the locality of the equations of motion. The method is based on the zero-curvature (Lax pair) representation and the lowest-order "conservation laws". In contrast to the pioneering work of Ablowitz and Ladik, our method allows the auxiliary dependent variables appearing in the stage of time discretization to be expressed locally in terms of the original dependent variables. The time-discretized lattice systems have the same set of conserved quantities and the same structures of the solutions as the continuous-time lattice systems; only the time evolution of the parameters in the solutions that correspond to the angle variables is discretized. The effectiveness of our method is illustrated using examples such as the Toda lattice, the Volterra lattice, the modified Volterra lattice, the Ablowitz-Ladik lattice (an integrable semi-discrete nonlinear Schroedinger system), and the lattice Heisenberg ferromagnet model. For the Volterra lattice and modified Volterra lattice, we also present their ultradiscrete analogues.Comment: 61 pages; (v2)(v3) many minor correction

Integrable discretizations of derivative nonlinear Schroedinger equations

We propose integrable discretizations of derivative nonlinear Schroedinger (DNLS) equations such as the Kaup-Newell equation, the Chen-Lee-Liu equation and the Gerdjikov-Ivanov equation by constructing Lax pairs. The discrete DNLS systems admit the reduction of complex conjugation between two dependent variables and possess bi-Hamiltonian structure. Through transformations of variables and reductions, we obtain novel integrable discretizations of the nonlinear Schroedinger (NLS), modified KdV (mKdV), mixed NLS, matrix NLS, matrix KdV, matrix mKdV, coupled NLS, coupled Hirota, coupled Sasa-Satsuma and Burgers equations. We also discuss integrable discretizations of the sine-Gordon equation, the massive Thirring model and their generalizations.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX2e (IOP style), final versio

Role of Smad4 on TGF-β–induced extracellular matrix stimulation in mesangial cells

Role of Smad4 on TGF-β–induced extracellular matrix stimulation in mesangial cells.BackgroundThe best characterized signaling pathway employed by transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is the Smad pathway; however, its role in matrix production in mesangial cells is unclear. We focused on Smad4, as Smad4 is essential for the activation of Smad-dependent target genes.MethodsTo investigate the function of Smad4 in extracellular matrix (ECM) production, we generated several stably transfected mesangial cell lines (MMC) that have a deletion in the linker region (Smad4ΔM4: Δ275-322) or have a deletion in MH1 of Smad4 (Smad4N4: Δ1-136). The ECM genes, α1 type I collagen (COL1A1), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and fibronectin (FN) were assessed in wild-type mesangial cells and stably transfected Smad4-DN cell lines in the absence and presence of TGF-β.ResultsAs compared to wild-type MMC that had a 10.8-fold stimulation of TGF-β–induced p3TP-Lux activity, MMC stably transfected with Smad4ΔM4 and Smad4N4 had only a 2.0-fold and 1.3-fold stimulation, respectively, indicating that they had dominant-negative effects on TGF-β signaling. Basal and TGF-β–induced COL1A1 expression in Smad4 dominant-negative cells were dramatically reduced to very low levels. The early (2 hours) TGF-β–induced PAI-1 mRNA expression was inhibited; however, the sustained (24 to 48 hours) TGF-β–induced expression was not affected in Smad4 dominant-negative cells. For FN, TGF-β–induced expression was maintained in Smad4-dominant negative cells.ConclusionThese results indicate that Smad4 is essential for basal and TGF-β–induced COL1A1 expression, and contributes to the early, but not sustained TGF-β–induced PAI-1 expression in mesangial cells. However, TGF-β–induced FN expression is independent of Smad4. In conclusion, Smad4 has a discriminate effect in mediating specific ECM molecules stimulated by TGF-β in mesangial cells