Test-retest reliability of psychological and neurobehavioral tests self-administered by computer

Adult rat chromaffin cells may proliferate or extend neurites when stimulated by nerve growth factor (NGF) but their response is predominantly proliferative, making them a unique model for studying how mitogenic specificity is achieved. We examined contributions of the NGF receptors trk and p75 and of the major NGF signaling pathways to proliferation versus neurite outgrowth. The type of initial NGF response does not correlate with intensity of immunoreactivity for trk or p75. However, proliferation is initiated at lower NGF concentrations than neurite outgrowth, suggesting that it requires a less intense signal. Mitogenic cooperativity between receptors at low NGF concentrations is suggested by inhibitory effects of p75-blocking antibodies, but responses to trk-agonist antibody indicate that trk activation alone can induce proliferation. NGF-induced phosphorylation of ras-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) Erk1 and Erk2 is as prolonged in normal chromaffin cells as in PC12 cells, where NGF is neuritogenic. Trk-agonist antibody, which is as mitogenic as NGF but less neuritogenic, causes equally prolonged but less intense ERK phosphorylation. The MAPK kinase(MEK-1) inhibitor PD98059 partially inhibits Erk phosphorylation and does not inhibit chromaffin cell proliferation, while depolarization selectively inhibits proliferation without blocking Erk phosphorylation. Proliferation is markedly reduced by the phosphoinositol-3 (PI-3) kinase inhibitor LY294002 while downregulation of protein kinase C (PKC) causes no change. These findings suggest that low-level, rather than short-duration, stimulation of NGF signaling pathways causes NGF to be mitogenic. Ras-mediated MAPK activation may be more critical in neurite outgrowth than in proliferation and PI-3 kinase may be the major mitogenic determinant.     

Metabolic oxidative stress activates signal transduction and gene expression during glucose deprivation in human tumor cells

The mechanism of glucose deprivation-induced activation of Lyn kinase (Lyn), c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1 (JNK1) and increased expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and c-Myc was investigated in MCF-7/ADR adriamycin-resistant human breast carcinoma cells. Glucose deprivation significantly increased steady state levels of oxidized glutathione content (GSSG) and intracellular prooxidants (presumably hydroperoxides) as well as caused the activation of Lyn, JNK1, and the accumulation of bFGF and c-Myc mRNA. The suppression of GSSG accumulation and prooxidant production by treatment with the thiol antioxidant, N-acetylcysteine, also suppressed all the increases in kinase activation and gene expression observed during glucose deprivation. In addition, glucose deprivation was shown to induce oxidative stress in IMR90 SV40 transformed human fibroblasts, indicating that this phenomena is not limited to the MCF-7/ADR cell line. These and previous observations from our laboratory show that glucose deprivation-induced oxidative stress in MCF-7/ADR cells activates signal transduction involving Lyn, JNK1, and mitogen activated protein kinases (ERK1/ERK2) which results in increased bFGF and c-Myc mRNA accumulation. These results provide support for the hypothesis that alterations in intracellular oxidation/reduction reactions link changes in glycolytic metabolism to signal transduction and gene expression in these human tumor cells.     

Fluorinated siloxane amine oligomers

Fluorine‐containing siloxane oligomers were made from bis(aminopropyl)tetramethyldisiloxane and trimethyltris(trifluoropropyl)cyclotrisiloxane. These materials were characterized by IR spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography, nonaqueous colorimetric end group titration, and ¹H‐NMR. The end groups of one oligomer were chemically modified for an increased NMR signal for molecular weight determination. The cyclic trimeric siloxane starting material was additionally studied via ¹³C‐, ²⁹Si‐, and ¹⁹F‐NMR. Two forms of it were used: a white solid obtained at room temperature, and a colorless liquid isolated at low temperature. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 78: 1315–1320, 2000     

Gasification of silicone fluids under external thermal radiation. Part I. Gasification rate and global heat of gasification

Transient gasification rates and fluid temperatures were measured for polydimethylsiloxane fluids ranging in viscosity from 0.65 cS to 60 000 cS in a nitrogen atmosphere at external radiant fluxes from 20 kW/m² to 70 kW/m². A detailed energy balance for each fluid sample was conducted to determine its global heat of vaporization. Two major energy loss corrections were identified and quantified. The absorption of incident radiation by the volatile products from short chain oligomers was measured and found to substantially reduce the incident flux to the sample surface; the energy loss due to re-radiation was determined to be a substantial factor in reducing the net heat flux to the sample for long chain length fluids. Other energy losses, e.g. heat loss to the substrate, were observed but were less significant. The average gasification rate for each fluid increased linearly with increasing external radiant flux. The global heat of gasification increases with an increase in the chain length (molecular weight) for the siloxane oligomers. These agreed well with calculated values. The global heat of gasification for 50 cS fluid is about 1200 kJ/kg and its value remains nearly constant for all higher molecular weight dimethylsiloxanes. Pyrolysis rates for siloxane fluids are very sensitive to trace catalysts. Measurements of the global heat of gasification for ultra-clean polymers resulted in significantly higher values (3000 kJ/kg). The gasification of siloxanes occurs via two modes or combinations thereof: (1) volatilization of molecular species native to the polymer, and (2) volatilization of thermal degradation products. The former process dominates for low molecular weight siloxanes (η<10 cS) and the latter process dominates for high molecular weight siloxanes (η>1000 cS). For the intermediate molecular weight siloxanes, both volatilization and degradation processes occur. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling of probe‐fed cylindrical dielectric resonator antennas

Probe‐fed cylindrical dielectric resonator antennas (CDRAs), with dielectric constant ϵ_r=37 and supported by an infinite ground plane, are simulated using the finite element method. From this, closed form expressions are obtained for the resonant frequency, directivity, and unloaded Q‐factor, applicable to a wide range of antenna dimensions. The effects of (a) the finite circular ground plane, (b) the air gap between the CDRA and the ground plane, (c) the air gap between the CDRA and the feed probe, and (d) the length of the probe on these parameters are studied for a particular CDRA and appropriate correction factors are derived. The simulated results are compared with those obtained experimentally for various ground planes, probe lengths, and probe spacings. The closed form expressions provide good agreement with the experiments in resonant frequency, unloaded Q‐factor, and impedance bandwidth, but less accurate prediction in antenna directivity for the specified range of parameters. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 9: 2–13, 1999     

Space–time interface-tracking with topology change (ST-TC)

To address the computational challenges associated with contact between moving interfaces, such as those in cardiovascular fluid–structure interaction (FSI), parachute FSI, and flapping-wing aerodynamics, we introduce a space–time (ST) interface-tracking method that can deal with topology change (TC). In cardiovascular FSI, our primary target is heart valves. The method is a new version of the deforming-spatial-domain/stabilized space–time (DSD/SST) method, and we call it ST-TC. It includes a master–slave system that maintains the connectivity of the “parent” mesh when there is contact between the moving interfaces. It is an efficient, practical alternative to using unstructured ST meshes, but without giving up on the accurate representation of the interface or consistent representation of the interface motion. We explain the method with conceptual examples and present 2D test computations with models representative of the classes of problems we are targeting.     

Compact physical models for multilevel interconnect crosstalk in gigascale integration (GSI)

For the first time, compact physical models are derived for crosstalk noise of coplanar resistance-inductance-capacitance lines in a gigascale integration (GSI) chip that simultaneously consider far and near aggressors in both the same metal level and distant metal levels. Since both the amplitude and duration of noise are important, the noise voltage-time integral can be defined as a figure-of-merit for crosstalk, and it is shown that this integral attains its maximum at the length at which the interconnect resistance becomes equal to twice the characteristic impedance. It is also shown that crosstalk can be prohibitively large if interconnects have small resistances. There is, therefore, a tradeoff between interconnect latency and crosstalk. The compact models are finally used to calculate the crosstalk noise voltage for the case that wire width is optimized by simultaneously maximizing data flux density and minimizing latency. It has been proven that by utilizing the optimal wire width for signal interconnects and twice of that for power and ground lines, the worst case peak crosstalk noise voltage becomes smaller than 0.25 V/sub dd/ for all generations of technology.