Fluorescence in situ hybridization of three oncogenes on a leiomyoma

Using fluorescence in situ hybridization technique, expression of three oncogenes, C-myc, RARa, and cyclin-D was tested on a uterine leiomyoma. C-myc and RARa were amplified in approximately 30% and 90% of the cells, respectively. Numerous small signals of C-myc were indicative of the presence of double minutes. Amplification of RARa is being reported for the first time in a leiomyoma. Cyclin-D was normal in diploid cells while it was highly amplified in polyploid cells. Low levels of amplified C-myc and cyclin-D cells seem to be the reason for this tumor to be benign, while RARa could not be effective without the association of some other gene such as PML. Information presented here are significant toward developing new curative strategies such as gene-specific drugs and molecular manipulation to stop the activity of cancer gene. Further study may elucidate that how fibroids grow and maintain their rare benign nature.     

Optimal pricing, lot-sizing and marketing planning in a capacitated and imperfect production system

In the classical economic production quantity (EPQ) problem demand is considered to be known in advance. However, in the real-world, demand of a product is a function of factors such as product’s price, its quality, and marketing expenditures for promoting the product. Quality level of the product and specifications of the adopted manufacturing process also affect the unit product’s cost. Therefore, in this paper we consider a profit maximizing firm who wants to jointly determine the optimal lot-sizing, pricing, and marketing decisions along with manufacturing requirements in terms of flexibility and reliability of the process. Geometric programming (GP) technique is proposed to address the resulting nonlinear optimization problem. Using recent advances in optimization techniques we are able to optimally solve the developed, highly nonlinear, mathematical model. Finally, using numerical examples, we illustrate the solution approach and analyze the solution under different conditions.     

A longitudinal study of emoticon use in text messaging from smartphones

Our goal in the present study was to understand how emoticons are used in text messaging and, in particular, how genders differed in the frequency and variety of emoticons used via this medium. Previous research has found small and sundry differences in emotive expression online suggesting that technology has closed the gender gap. However, the data collected in these studies were public. In this study, we collected real portions of private communications data from individuals’ smartphones over a 6-month period. SMS messages, in general, were not used very much overall, with only 4% of all messages containing at least one emoticon. Still, differences between genders manifested in the amount and variety of emoticons used. Females sent more messages with emoticons; however, surprisingly, males used a more diverse range of emoticons.     

Reliability analysis of TLP tethers under impulsive loading

In the present study, reliability assessment of Tension Leg Platform (TLP) tethers against maximum tension (i.e. tension exceeding yield) has been carried out under combined action of extreme wave and impulsive forces. For this purpose, a nonlinear dynamic analysis of TLP has been carried out in time domain. A limit state function for maximum tension (i.e. tension exceeding yield) has been derived employing Von-Mises theory of failure. Using this derived limit state function and responses obtained after dynamic analysis under sinusoidal, half-triangular and triangular impulsive forces, reliability assessment of the TLP tethers has been carried out. Design point, important for probabilistic design of tethers, has been located on the failure surface after solving a constrained optimization problem. To study the influence of various random variables on tether reliability, sensitivity analysis has been carried out. Effects of angle of impact; effect of variable submergence; and effect of material yield strength on tether reliability have also been studied on parametric basis. Effect of uncertainty on overall tether reliability has also been discussed to show the importance of quality control in the various design parameters.     

Effect of wafer thinning methods towards fracture strength and topography of silicon die

This paper characterizes die damage resulting from various wafer thinning processes. Die fracture strength is measured using ball breaker test with respect to die surface finish. Further study on surface roughness and topography of each surface finish is obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Stress relief process with 25 μm removal is able to strengthen 100 μm wafer by 20.4% using chemical wet etch and 75 μm wafer by 36.4% with plasma etch. Relatively, plasma etching shows higher fracture strength and flexibility compared to chemical wet etch. This is due to topography of the finished surface of plasma etch is smoother and rounded, leading to a reduced stress concentration, hence improved fracture strength.     

Behavior of Composite Unreinforced Masonry–Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Wall Assemblages Under In-Plane Loading

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the in-plane behavior of face shell mortar bedded unreinforced masonry (URM) wall assemblages retrofitted with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates. Forty-two URM assemblages were tested under different stress conditions present in masonry shear and infill walls. Tests included prisms loaded in compression with different bed joint orientation (on/off-axis compression), diagonal tension specimens, and specimens loaded under joint shear. The behavior of each specimen type is discussed with emphasis on modes of failure, strength and deformation characteristics. Results showed that the application of FRP laminates on URM has a great influence on strength, postpeak behavior, as well as altering failure modes and maintaining the specimen integrity. The retrofitted specimens reached compressive strength of 1.62–5.64 times that of their unretrofitted counterparts, depending on the bed joint orientation, and joint shear strength increased by eightfold.     

Pressurised chamber design for conducting rolling contact experiments with liquid refrigerant lubrication

A novel pressurised chamber was designed to construct a special purpose test rig to achieve saturated liquid state of refrigerants for lubricated rolling contact fatigue experiments. Traditional bench testing using refrigerants as the lubricant is difficult due to the gaseous phase at standard atmospheric conditions. Pressurising the concentrated contact test chamber is therefore necessary to evaluate at a liquid state and therefore simulate practical applications. The gas/liquid phase transitions have a significant influence on the lubricant properties and hence wear mechanisms. It is necessary to modify the wear test conditions for the Hydrocarbon (HC) and Hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants to obtain realistic simulation of refrigerator compressor tests. The chamber design and test rig are described in this paper. A preliminary experimental study of the influence of the HC (R600a) on rolling wear of the silicon nitride (Si₃N₄)/steel elements using the pressurised chamber is presented. Rolling fatigue test methods are adopted to measure the wear performance of silicon nitride/steel bearing materials. In this case the rolling wear mechanisms of Si₃N₄ were measured using R600a refrigerant lubrication.     

Vertical spinal electronic device with large room temperature magnetoresistance

We report experimental transport measurements of a vertical hybrid ferromagnetic (FM)/III-V semiconductor (SC)/ferromagnetic(FM) type structure, i.e., Cr(20ML)/Co(15ML)/GaAs(50 nm, n-type)/Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As(200 nm, n-type)/FeNi(30 nm). The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics reveal Schottky/tunneling type behavior in the direction of FeNi/Semiconductor/Co and observed to be dependent on external magnetic field. The magnetoresistance (MR) behavior shows a strong dependence on the measured current and field. At low fields no significant change in MR has been observed with increasing current. However, at high fields the MR initially increases with increasing current and becomes stable beyond a critical current of 10 /spl mu/A. A maximum of 12% change in the MR has been observed at room temperature, which is far larger than that of the conventional AMR effect. This property of the device could be utilized as field sensors or magnetic logic devices.     

On exploiting task duplication in parallel program scheduling

One of the main obstacles in obtaining high performance from message-passing multicomputer systems is the inevitable communication overhead which is incurred when tasks executing on different processors exchange data. Given a task graph, duplication-based scheduling can mitigate this overhead by allocating some of the tasks redundantly on more than one processor. In this paper, we focus on the problem of using duplication in static scheduling of task graphs on parallel and distributed systems. We discuss five previously proposed algorithms and examine their merits and demerits. We describe some of the essential principles for exploiting duplication in a more useful manner and, based on these principles, propose an algorithm which outperforms the previous algorithms. The proposed algorithm generates optimal solutions for a number of task graphs. The algorithm assumes an unbounded number of processors. For scheduling on a bounded number of processors, we propose a second algorithm which controls the degree of duplication according to the number of available processors. The proposed algorithms are analytically and experimentally evaluated and are also compared with the previous algorithms     

Optimizing download time of embedded multimedia objects for Web browsing

Notoriously high delays in accessing Web pages loaded with massive multimedia objects are highly undesirable. Inspired by the requirements of news agencies and other information providers to include multimedia content in their pages, this paper proposes a new solution to the problem of minimizing the Web response time. We consider an environment that consists of a central multimedia repository and various sites physically dispersed. Our approach is based on simultaneous downloading of some of the embedded multimedia objects from the repository, and the rest from the regional servers. We propose a cost model to formalize the relative benefits of the proposed scheme, and design an algorithm that replicates multimedia objects so as to take advantage of concurrency in data transferring. An extensive simulation study evaluates the performance of the proposed replication policy under storage and processing capacity constraints, as well as with various network transfer rates. Comparisons are carried out with alternative schemes.