The new and improved NIST Dragon's LAIR (Lofting and Ignition Research) facility

Several studies suggest that the firebrands are a major cause of structural ignition of Wildland–Urban Interface fires in USA and Australia. For 40 years, past firebrand studies have focused on how far firebrands fly and do not assess the vulnerabilities of structures to ignition from firebrand showers. The development of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Dragon has allowed the quantification of structure ignition vulnerabilities of full‐scale building assemblies. Full‐scale tests are necessary to highlight vulnerabilities of structures to ignition under firebrand attack, whereas bench‐scale test methods afford the capability to test new firebrand‐resistant technologies and may serve as the basis for new standard testing methodologies. To this end, the present investigation was undertaken to construct a new and improved Dragon's Lofting and Ignition Research facility. This entailed removing the NIST Baby Dragon from the wind tunnel facility and inserting the new and improved NIST continuous feed Baby Dragon. The unique feature of the continuous feed Baby Dragon, over the current NIST Baby Dragon, is the capability to produce a constant firebrand shower in order to expose building materials to continual firebrand bombardment. The efficacy of the new experimental facility to determine ignition regime maps of building materials exposed to wind‐driven firebrand showers is presented. Specifically, ignition regime maps are presented as a function of continuous firebrand generation rate, wind tunnel speed, and cedar moisture content. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Medical image diagnosis of kidney regions by deep feedback GMDH-type neural network using principal component-regression analysis

The deep feedback Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)-type neural network is applied to the medical image recognition of kidney regions. In this algorithm, the principal component-regression analysis is used for the learning calculation of the neural network, and the accurate and stable predicted values are obtained. The neural network architecture is automatically organized so as to fit the complexity of the medical images using the prediction error criterion defined as Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) or Prediction Sum of Squares (PSS). The recognition results show that the deep feedback GMDH-type neural network algorithm is useful for the medical image recognition of kidney regions, because the optimum neural network architecture is automatically organized.     

Isolation of halotolerant Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis from intestinal tract of coastal fish

We isolated lactic acid bacteria from the intestinal tract of the pufferfish Takifugu niphobles caught in Shimoda, Shizuoka, Japan by using MRS broth prepared with 50% seawater. Additional screening was carried out using phenotypic tests such as Gram staining, cell morphology, catalase, oxidase and fermentation of glucose. Subsequently 227 isolates screened by the phenotypic tests were subjected to species-specific PCR for Lactococcus lactis, resulting in four positive isolates. The 16S rRNA gene sequences from three isolates were highly similar to that of L. lactis subsp. lactis (DNA database accession number M58837), while that of one isolate was identical to that of Leuconostoc mesenteroides (AB023246). These isolates were characterized by API 50 CH for carbohydrate fermentation and other phenotypic criteria for salt tolerance, and the characteristics were compared with those of L. lactis subsp. lactis from a cheese starter culture. The carbohydrate fermentation profiles of these isolates were characteristic of L. lactis subsp. lactis strains, whereas the tolerance of these isolates to salt was higher than that of L. lactis subsp. lactis from the cheese starter culture: the new L. lactis isolates showed high salt tolerance in MRS-agar plates containing 200% seawater or 6% sodium chloride. This is the first report of the isolation of halotolerant strains of L. lactis subsp. lactis from a marine environment.     

Gamifying collective human behavior with gameful digital rhetoric

This paper presents a design framework called Gameful Digital Rhetoric that offers a set of design frames for designing meaningful digital rhetoric that guides collective human behavior in ubiquitous social digital services, such as crowdsourcing. The framework is extracted from our experiences with building and developing crowdsourcing case studies. From a video game perspective, the paper has categorized our experiences into seven design frames to encourage collective human activity. This approach is different from traditional gamification, as it focuses more on the semiotic aspect of virtuality in the video games, not game mechanics; it helps to enhance the current meaning of the real world for changing human attitude and behavior through various socio-cultural and psychological techniques. Therefore, it is possible to discuss respective design frames for enhancing crowdsourcing by incrementally adding new digital rhetoric. The paper also presents how Gameful Digital Rhetoric allows us to guide collective human behavior in Collectivist Crowdsourcing; the design is explained through a scenario-based and experiment-based analyses. The paper then discusses how to design collective human behavior with Gameful Digital Rhetoric and how to identify the design’s potential pitfalls. Our approach offers useful insights into the design of future social digital services that influence collective human behavior     

Comparative study of homogeneous solvents for the esterification crosslinking of cellulose with 1,2,3,4‐butanetetracarboxylic dianhydride and water absorbency of the reaction products

Superabsorbent hydrogels were prepared via esterification crosslinking of cellulose with 1,2,3,4‐butanetetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTCA) in three solvent systems: lithium chloride (LiCl)/N‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidinone (NMP), LiCl/N,N‐dimethylacetamide (DMAc), and tetrabutylammonium fluoride/dimethyl sulfoxide (TBAF/DMSO). The absorbency of the hydrogels was strongly dependent on the BTCA feed to cellulose ratio as well as the nature of the solvent system used. The rate of cellulose esterification was enhanced in TBAF/DMSO relative to the other systems, and the highest water absorbency of the hydrogels (987 g g^?1 polymer) was also achieved using this system. The hydrogels obtained in the TBAF/DMSO system had a similar degree of both crosslinking and grafting, indicating that both reactions were promoted to the same extent in this solvent, whereas crosslinking was preferentially enhanced over grafting in the LiCl/NMP and LiCl/DMAc systems. The difference in the composition of the hydrogels was attributed to the difference in the electronegativity of the fluoride and chloride anions in these solvents. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Structural interpretation of plasma-polymerized propargyl alcohol

Vapor of propargyl alcohol under reduced pressure was glow-discharged for plasma polymerization by which hydrophilic polymer film could be deposited onto a solid substrate. The hydrophilic property was more enhanced with use of the same monomer containing water. An interpretation of chemical structures of the polymer molecules was therefore attempted to discover the reason of the hydrophilic property. The polymer materials were subjected to IR spectroscopy, ¹³C-NMR and ¹H-NMR spectroscopies, elemental analysis, number average molecular weight determination, mass spectrometry, and other wet chemical analysis for . The IR spectra of the polymers showed the presence of OH, C?O, and C?C groups with a disappearance of C?C group of the monomer. It was also found that the molecular formula of a solvent extract of the polymer derived from the plain monomer was C₂₆H₃₆O₉ ≒ 490, involving four hydroxyl, one carbonyl, and two to three olefinic unsaturation groups within a unit molecule. On the other hand, the polymer from 60% water-containing monomer showed its molecular formula as C₄₄H₆₆O₁₈ ≒ 890, containing seven to eight hydroxyl, two carbonyl, and one to two olefinic unsaturation groups. This information was used to establish the symbolic chemical structures of the polymer molecules. It has been found that both polymers were not as much crosslinked as other plasma polymers because of having side chains with fewer branching. The oxygen atoms were retained in the polymer not only as the forms of OH and C?O but also as a member of the principal frame of the polymers.     

ATM: Functions of ATM Kinase and Its Relevance to Hereditary Tumors

Ataxia–telangiectasia mutated (ATM) functions as a key initiator and coordinator of DNA damage and cellular stress responses. ATM signaling pathways contain many downstream targets that regulate multiple important cellular processes, including DNA damage repair, apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, oxidative sensing, and proliferation. Over the past few decades, associations between germline ATM pathogenic variants and cancer risk have been reported, particularly for breast and pancreatic cancers. In addition, given that ATM plays a critical role in repairing double-strand breaks, inhibiting other DNA repair pathways could be a synthetic lethal approach. Based on this rationale, several DNA damage response inhibitors are currently being tested in ATM-deficient cancers. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge related to the structure of the ATM gene, function of ATM kinase, clinical significance of ATM germline pathogenic variants in patients with hereditary cancers, and ongoing efforts to target ATM for the benefit of cancer patients.