New eutectic alloys and their heats of transformation

Eutectic compositions and congruently melting intermetallic compounds in binary and multi-component systems among common elements such as AI, Ca, Cu, Mg, P, Si, and Zn may be useful for high temperature heat storage. In this work, heats of fusion of new multicomponent eutectics and intermetallic phases are reported, some of which are competitive with molten salts in heat storage density at high temperatures. The method used to determine unknown eutectic compositions combined results of differential thermal analysis, metallography, and microprobe analysis. The method allows determination of eutectic compositions in no more than three steps. The heats of fusion of the alloys were measured using commercial calorimeters, a differential thermal analyzer, and a differential scanning calorimeter. Formerly a Graduate Student, University of Dela     

Astrocyte Ca2+ Waves and Subsequent Non-Synchronized Ca2+ Oscillations Coincide with Arteriole Diameter Changes in Response to Spreading Depolarization

Spreading depolarization (SD) is a wave of mass depolarization that causes profound perfusion changes in acute cerebrovascular diseases. Although the astrocyte response is secondary to the neuronal depolarization with SD, it remains to be explored how glial activity is altered after the passage of SD. Here, we describe post-SD high frequency astrocyte Ca²⁺ oscillations in the mouse somatosensory cortex. The intracellular Ca²⁺ changes of SR101 labeled astrocytes and the SD-related arteriole diameter variations were simultaneously visualized by multiphoton microscopy in anesthetized mice. Post-SD astrocyte Ca²⁺ oscillations were identified as Ca²⁺ events non-synchronized among astrocytes in the field of view. Ca²⁺ oscillations occurred minutes after the Ca²⁺ wave of SD. Furthermore, fewer astrocytes were involved in Ca²⁺ oscillations at a given time, compared to Ca²⁺ waves, engaging all astrocytes in the field of view simultaneously. Finally, our data confirm that astrocyte Ca²⁺ waves coincide with arteriolar constriction, while post-SD Ca²⁺ oscillations occur with the peak of the SD-related vasodilation. This is the first in vivo study to present the post-SD astrocyte Ca²⁺ oscillations. Our results provide novel insight into the spatio-temporal correlation between glial reactivity and cerebral arteriole diameter changes behind the SD wavefront.     

Determination the efficiency of open mixing screws

Our goal is the determination of the material flow processes around the mixing screws and introducing a new mixing index which can characterize the perform     

Deformation response of grain boundary networks at high temperature

The deformation response of random grain boundary networks as a function of temperature and strain rate is explored using molecular dynamics atomistic simulations and an embedded atom method interatomic potential. We find that deformation at higher temperatures promotes both dislocation emission and grain boundary accommodation processes. The results allow estimating the activation energies and volumes for the deformation process. We find activation energy values for the deformation process similar to those for grain boundary diffusion and activation volumes consistent with an atomic shuffling mechanism. Our results suggest a picture of the deformation process as governed by the combination of the applied stress and thermally activated processes.     

A randomized controlled trial of filgrastim as an adjunct to antibiotics for treatment of hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia. CAP Study Group

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were to follow prospectively the intrasubject progression of idiopathic PD in a cohort of patients using levodopa kinetic-dynamic modeling and to assess the relation between the rate of progression of the disease and patients' different clinical characteristics. METHODS: Thirty-four patients (Hoehn and Yahr stages 1 to 3) enrolled in the longitudinal follow-up. Each patient was examined at 1-year intervals over a median 4 years by a standardized oral levodopa test. The primary measure outcome was the computed half-life of levodopa in the "effect compartment" (t1/2eq), a proposed indicator of nigrostriatal dopaminergic functionality and integrity. RESULTS: Values of levodopa t1/2eq correlated negatively with severity of symptoms (r = -0.652, p < 0.0001) and decreased over the years together with a worsening of patients' clinical stage (p < 0.001). The rate of reduction in drug t1/2eq was more rapid in patients at the earlier stages of the disease compared with the more advanced ones, falling from a median annual reduction of 37 minutes in patients at initial Hoehn and Yahr stage 1 to 6.5 minutes in stage 3 patients (p < 0.001). Patients without tremor at onset, otherwise comparable to patients with tremor for baseline values of levodopa t1/2eq, disease severity, duration, and daily dose of levodopa, tended to show a higher rate of reduction in levodopa t1/2eq than patients with tremor. Overall, patients' annual reduction in levodopa t1/2eq over baseline values averaged 17+/-9%. CONCLUSIONS: These results are in keeping with PET findings on the objective assessment of idiopathic parkinsonism evolution, and they support the suggestion that levodopa pharmacodynamic modeling may offer a practical clinical tool to assess indirectly the functional integrity of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system over time in parkinsonian patients.     

Characterization of electronic displays using CMOS single‐photon avalanche diode image sensors

Advanced complementary metal‐oxide semiconductor‐compatible single‐photon avalanche diode array technology is progressing rapidly and is being deployed in a wide range of applications. We report for the first time the use of a complementary metal‐oxide semiconductor‐compatible single‐photon avalanche diode array to perform detailed optical measurements on pixels of an organic light‐emitting diode microdisplay at very high sampling rate, very low light level, and over a very wide dynamic range of luminance. This offers a clear demonstration of the huge potential of this single‐photon avalanche diode technology to reveal hitherto obscure details of the optical characteristics of individual and groups of organic light‐emitting diode pixels.     

A comparative empirical study on social media sentiment analysis over various genres and languages

People express their opinions about things like products, celebrities and services using social media channels. The analysis of these textual contents for sentiments is a gold mine for marketing experts as well as for research in humanities, thus automatic sentiment analysis is a popular area of applied artificial intelligence. The chief objective of this paper is to investigate automatic sentiment analysis on social media contents over various text sources and languages. The comparative findings of the investigation may give useful insights to artificial intelligence researchers who develop sentiment analyzers for a new textual source. To achieve this, we describe supervised machine learning based systems which perform sentiment analysis and we comparatively evaluate them on seven publicly available English and Hungarian databases, which contain text documents taken from Twitter and product review sites. We discuss the differences among these text genres and languages in terms of document- and target-level sentiment analysis.     

Incorporation of [1-14C] acetate into fatty acids of the crustaceansDaphnia magna andCyclops strenus in relation to temperature

Daphnia magna andCyclops strenus were maintained in aquaria containing sodium [1-¹⁴C] acetate and the effect of temperature on labeling of their lipids was investigated. Incorporation of radioactivity in total lipids was slowed by a factor of 4 in cold-exposed (5C) specimens compared to those incubated at 25 C. There was no significant difference in the distribution of label in the lipid classes of animals incubated at the two extreme temperatures. Decrease of the temperature from 25 to 5 C brought about a considerable reduction in the formation of palmitic and stearic acids and an increase in labeling of monounsaturated (18∶1) fatty acids inD. magna. Docosapolyenoic acids were absent from lipids of this crustacean.C. strenus directed a higher proportion of radioactivity into both oleic and docosahexaenoic acids upon cold exposure. In response to decrease of the temperature,D. magna formed a less unsaturated fatty acid population, as judged from dpm ratios of total saturated to total unsaturated fatty acids, thanC. strenus. Inability to form and accumulate docosapolyenoic fatty acids byD. magna might be related to their poor survival at reduced temperatures.