Cardiovascular reactivity and central adiposity in older African Americans.

This study examined central adiposity, as measured by waist circumference (WC), in relation to mental-stress induced systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) responses, body composition, the metabolic syndrome, and health practices in 22 older, African American men and women (ages 52–79 years). The high WC (>100 cm) group showed significantly greater SBP, DBP, and HR reactivity, greater fasting insulin levels, lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, greater fat mass in both truncal and peripheral regions, and greater body mass index as compared to the low WC (     

A reasonably practical XUV laser for applications

We describe a laboratory-scale 109 nm Xe Auger laser pumped by an all-commercial high-repetition-rate Nd:YAG laser system. The Xe laser provides pulse energies up to 1 μJ, and an average flux of 3×10 ¹² photons/s at 11.5 eV. Measurements of the gain, output energy, and output beam shape are reported, along with an investigation of the time dependence of the gain     

Direct currect arc-plasma synthesis of tungsten carbides

Chemical reactions which occur in a thermal plasma between fine powders of tungsten and graphite and between powdered tungsten and methane have been studied. When using a commercial d.c. torch and a standard reactor design, the conversion to tungsten carbide is relatively poor. With a specially designed reactor operating in a transferred-arc mode, nearly complete conversion to carbide results when operating at the same power level and with methane as a reactant. Crystal structures and particle morphologies have been studied with electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Several initial stages of the particle-particle and particle-gas reactions have been determined. A number of interesting composite particles corresponding to intermediate reaction steps has been observed.     

Prenatally elevated physiological arousal interferes with perceptual learning in bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) embryos.

Neonatal studies suggest elevated arousal can negatively influence perceptual and cognitive processes during early development. The authors explored this issue during the prenatal period by pharmacologically elevating physiological arousal in bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) embryos during exposure to a maternal call, then assessing preference for the familiar call following hatching. Embryos receiving norepinephrine showed a prenatal elevation in heart rate and failed to demonstrate a preference for the familiar call following hatching. Embryos not receiving norepinephrine showed no elevation in heart rate and demonstrated a preference for the familiar call. These results indicate elevated arousal can interfere with perceptual learning during the prenatal period and provide additional evidence for an optimal window of arousal necessary to foster species-typical perceptual functioning during early development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Optimizing Compiler for Automatic Shader Bounding

Programmable shading provides artistic control over materials and geometry, but the black box nature of shaders makes some rendering optimizations difficult to apply. In many cases, it is desirable to compute bounds of shaders in order to speed up rendering. A bounding shader can be automatically derived from the original shader by a compiler using interval analysis, but creating optimized interval arithmetic code is non‐trivial. A key insight in this paper is that shaders contain metadata that can be automatically extracted by the compiler using data flow analysis. We present a number of domain‐specific optimizations that make the generated code faster, while computing the same bounds as before. This enables a wider use and opens up possibilities for more efficient rendering. Our results show that on average 42–44% of the shader instructions can be eliminated for a common use case: single‐sided bounding shaders used in lightcuts and importance sampling.     

Analysis of Line Positions and Strengths of H216O Ground and Hot Bands Connecting to Interacting Upper States: (020), (100), and (001)

High-resolution spectra of H216O were recorded with a Fourier-transform spectrometer covering transitions in the (020)-(010), (100)-(010), and (001)-(010) bands from 1100 to over 2300 cm-1. Also included in the study were previously reported measurements of these bands and measurements of the (020)-(000), (100)-(000), and (001)-(000) bands from 2620 cm-1 to 4500 cm-1. The linestrengths were fitted to a model which takes into account the interactions between the vibrational states (020), (100), and (001). The model included dipole moment matrix elements (also referred to as transition elements) represented by 19 expansion coefficients for B-type transitions and 14 expansion coefficients for A-type band transitions. The most satisfactory results were obtained when the relative signs and values of the leading dipole moment terms of each of the three "hot" bands were as follows: u(020-010) = 1.936(97) x 10(-1) D, u(100-010) = 3.876(19) x 10(-2) D, and u(001-010) = 2.523(75) x 10(-2) D. Hot water emission experimental frequencies from other studies were included in an analysis to obtain rotational energies for levels up to high J and/or Ka of the (020), (100), and (001) vibrational states. The results from this study provide a more accurate representation of the parameters than those available at present for the six bands. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.     

Considerations of Microstructural Influences for Diffusion Welding of Metals in Microsystem Technology

Diffusion welding is a special high‐tech solid joining technique. Most research was done and publications were written in the years between 1970 and 1980. The aim of this paper is to take a closer look at the fundamental processes inside the material during diffusion welding and to discuss the relation between the materials microstructure for diffusion processes from a material science point of view. For this, it is necessary to discuss the impact of different lattice defects and to observe the intrinsic energetically conditions of a metal originating from its delivery state and manufacturing history, as well as its surface condition. In particular, emphasis is paid to the special requirements for joining of micro process devices.     

Superconductivity above 100K in compounds containing Hg

Several members of a new family of (Hg,Tl)(Ba,Sr)CaCuO high temperature superconductors have been synthesized. These compounds, which are analogs to the Hg-Ba-Ca- and Tl-Ba-Ca-layered cuprates, are multi-phased and have superconducting transition temperatures above 100K. Several samples with a nominal composition of HgTl₂Ba₄Ca₄Cu₆O_y had T_cs near 130K. Details of the characterization of these samples are presented.