High brachial artery bifurcation: a report of 2 cases

High division of the brachial artery was observed in two cadavers, during routine dissection of upper extremities. In the first case, the brachial artery of the right upper extremity was divided into its two terminal branches immediately after passing between the lateral and medial roots of the median nerve and just below the origin of the profunda brachii artery. The lateral branch was the radial artery, located in the space normally occupied by the brachial artery and the medial one was the ulnar artery. In the second case, the brachial artery was divided into its two terminal branches just below the origin of the profunda brachii artery. Accurate knowledge of the relationships and course of these major arterial conduits and particularly of their variational patterns, is of considerable practical importance in the conduct of reperative surgery in the arm, forearm and hand.     

Morphological evolution of edge-hillocks on single-crystal films having anisotropic drift-diffusion under the capillary and electromigration forces

The morphological evolution of hillocks at the unpassivated sidewalls of single-crystal metallic thin film interconnects is investigated via computer simulations using the free-moving boundary value problem. The effect of drift-diffusion anisotropy on the development of surface topographical scenarios is fully explored under the action of electromigration and capillary forces, utilizing numerous combinations of the surface texture, the drift-diffusion anisotropy and the direction of the applied electric field. The simulation studies yield analytical relationships for the velocity of the surface solitary waves and the drift velocity of electromigration-induced internal voids as a function of the applied current densities, which contain intrinsic and structural properties of the single-crystal thin films. The threshold value of the applied current density, above which electromigration-induced internal voids can be formed and may cause the catastrophic failure of interconnects by breaching, also appears explicitly in this relationship.     

Electrophysiological effects of felodipine on guinea pig papillary muscles

Acetyl LDL (modified low-density lipoprotein), which is thought to be taken up through scavenger receptor A (SR-A), rapidly induced the appearance of phosphotyrosine proteins in monocytic THP-1-derived macrophages in vitro. The two alternative forms of Lyn (p53 and p56) were found to be tyrosine-phosphorylated within 30 s after the stimulation with acetyl LDL. The catalytic activity of Lyn measured by an in vitro kinase assay had also increased in acetyl LDL-stimulated THP-1-derived macrophages. Furthermore, Lyn could be co-immunoprecipitated with SR-A from the cell lysate. These observations suggest a functional and possible physical association of SR-A with Lyn in THP-1-derived macrophages, and also imply a possible involvement of Lyn in SR-A signal transduction.     

Human cholesterol synthesis measurement using deuterated water. Theoretical and procedural considerations

Creation of a dynamic levator aponeurosis fold or double eye adds to the beauty of the East Asian. The eyes are larger and less puffy, and the eyelashes appear longer and curve up and out instead of down. The distance from the ciliary border to the eyebrow is decreased and more in proportion. The Mongolian trait is preserved.     

Experimental treatment of brain tumor cells using CD suicide gene

Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) is a polyhormone precursor produced predominantly in the pars distalis and pars intermedia of the pituitary gland where it undergoes tissue specific processing to produce a whole array of peptides. We have shown previously that peptides derived from the N-terminal region of POMC are involved in adrenal growth in rats. Using specific two site immunoradiometric assays we have found that the plasma of 17 week old fetal sheep contain a 50 fold excess of pro-gamma-MSH over ACTH. As term approached, the levels of pro-gamma-MSH fell and ACTH rose with evidence of fragmentation of pro-gamma-MSH, suggesting that these peptides act in concert in the development of the fetal adrenal cortex and also provide the necessary drive to bring about parturition. In an attempt to explore the pathophysiology of adrenal function we have cloned human POMC cDNA which led to the discovery of a 9bp addition/deletion mutation in the C-terminus of gamma 3-MSH between positions 67-73. Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO) cells stably transfected with constructs containing the variant POMC cDNAs have shown a degree of partial processing. Work is currently underway to further investigate the effects of these mutations on the processing by the prohormone converting enzymes PC1 and PC2.     

Unsupervised and simultaneous training of multiple object detectors from unlabeled surveillance video

Object detection is an essential component in automated vision-based surveillance systems. In general, object detectors are constructed using training examples obtained from large annotated data sets. The inevitable limitations of typical training data sets make such supervised methods unsuitable for building generic surveillance systems applicable to a wide variety of scenes and camera setups. In our previous work we proposed an unsupervised method for learning and detecting the dominant object class in a general dynamic scene observed by a static camera. In this paper, we investigate the possibilities to expand the applicability of this method to the problem of multiple dominant object classes. We propose an idea on how to approach this expansion, and perform an evaluation of this idea using two representative surveillance video sequences.     

In Situ Electrical Network Activation and Deactivation in Short Carbon Fiber Composites via 3D Printing

Prior studies on carbon-filler based, conductive polymer composites have mainly investigated how conductive filler morphology and concentration can tailor a material's electrical conductivity and overlooks the effects of filler alignment due to the difficulty to control and quickly quantify the filler alignment. Here, direct ink write 3D printing's unique ability is utilized to control carbon fiber alignment with a single process parameter, velocity ratio, to instantaneously activate or deactivate the electrical network in composites. Maximum electrical conductivity is achieved by randomly aligning carbon fibers that enhances the chance of direct fiber-to-fiber contact and, thus, activating the electrical network. However, aligning the fibers by increasing the velocity ratio disrupts the electrical network by minimizing fiber-to-fiber contact that resulted in a drastic decrease in electrical conductivity by as much as five orders of magnitude in both short and long carbon fiber composites. With this study, this study demonstrates that electrically conductive or insulative composites can be fabricated sequentially with a single ink. This novel ability to instantaneously control the electrical conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced composites allow to directly embed conductive pathways into designs to 3D print multifunctional composites that are capable of localized heating and self-sensing.     

Simulation-based workforce assignment in a multi-organizational social network for alliance-based software development

The development of alliance-based software requires the collaboration of many stakeholders. These different stakeholders across multiple organizations form a complex social network. The goal of this paper is to develop a novel modeling framework, which will help task managers devise optimal workforce assignments considering both short-term and long-term aspects of the software development process. The proposed framework is composed of an assignment module and a prediction module. For a given task, the assignment module first selects a candidate workforce mix. Based on the candidate workforce mix, the prediction module then predicts the short-term performance (productivity) as well as the long-term performance (workforce training and robustness of the organization) of the organization. Then, the assignment module selects another candidate mix, and this iteration continues until an optimal workforce mix is found. The prediction module and the assignment module are based on an agent-based simulation method and a multi-objective optimization model, respectively. The proposed modeling framework is illustrated with a software enhancement request process in Kuali, an alliance-based open source software development project involving 12 organizations. The constructed framework is executed with varying parameters to demonstrate its use and benefit in the software enhancement process.