Effects of the intermediate retinoid metabolite retinal on the pattern of the dental lamina in vitro

Retinoids have important roles in pattern formation during embryonic development and might act as endogenous morphogens. They are necessary for normal odontogenesis and excess retinol alters the pattern of odontogenesis producing supernumerary buds of the dental lamina in the diastema region of the mouse mandible. Because the metabolism of retinoids in the developing mandible is unknown, the effects of retinal (an intermediate metabolite in the local conversion of retinol to retinoic acid) on the patterning of odontogenesis were examined. Retinal produces supernumerary buds and enhanced epithelial proliferation in day-9 mandibles in vitro. The endogenous levels of retinal in the mandible at the time of initiation of odontogenesis were also measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Retinal was detected only at day 10 and not at later stages of development. Local metabolism of this intermediate retinoid may be a rate-determining step in the production of active retinoid metabolites that may control the pattern of the dentition, which is established at the time of the appearance of the dental lamina at embryonic day 12.     

A STUDY OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN OPTIMALITY FOR WIENER SYSTEMS

In the context of nonlinear dynamic system identification for Hammerstein systems, Rollins et al. (2003a) studied the information efficiency of the following two competing experimental design approaches: statistical design of experiments (SDOE) and pseudo-random sequences design (PRSD). The focus of this study is the Wiener system and evaluates SDOE against PRS under D-optimal efficiency. Three cases are evaluated and the results strongly support SDOE as the better approach.     

Effect of energetic electron and proton bombardment on the reflectance of silicon-carbide mirrors in the extreme-ultraviolet region

Chemical-vapor-deposited silicon-carbide mirrors were exposed to bombardment by 95-keV electrons and 100-keV protons with accumulated fluxes comparable with those expected in low-altitude Earth orbit for simulated periods of as many as 5 years. The reflectances of four mirrors were measured at five wavelengths (58.4, 73.6, 104.8, 121.6, and 161 nm) and at 11 angles of incidence from 5° to 80°. The electron and proton exposure resulted in no significant change in the reflectances of the mirrors.     

Free-living inferential modeling of blood glucose level using only noninvasive inputs

The goal of this work is to present a causation modeling methodology with the ability to accurately infer blood glucose levels using a large set of highly correlated noninvasive input variables over an extended period of time. These models can provide insight to improve glucose monitoring, and glucose regulation through advanced model-based control technologies. The efficacy of this approach is demonstrated using real data from a type 2 diabetic (T2D) subject collected under free-living conditions over a period of 25 consecutive days. The model was identified and tested using eleven variables that included three food variables as well as several activity and stress variables. The model was trained using 20 days of data and validated using 5 days of data. This gave a fitted correlation coefficient of 0.70 and an average absolute error (AAE) (i.e., the average of the absolute values for the measured glucose concentration minus modeled glucose concentration) of 13.3 mg/dL for the validation data. This AAE result was significantly better than the subject’s personal glucose meter AAE of 15.3 mg/dL for replicated measurements.     

Noniterative blind data restoration by use of an extracted filter function

A signal-processing algorithm has been developed where a filter function is extracted from degraded data through mathematical operations. The filter function can then be used to restore much of the degraded content of the data through use of a deconvolution algorithm. This process can be performed without prior knowledge of the detection system, a technique known as blind deconvolution. The extraction process, designated self-deconvolving data reconstruction algorithm, has been used successfully to restore digitized photographs, digitized acoustic waveforms, and other forms of data. The process is noniterative, computationally efficient, and requires little user input. Implementation is straightforward, allowing inclusion into many types of signal-processing software and hardware. The novelty of the invention is the application of a power law and smoothing function to the degraded data in frequency space. Two methods for determining the value of the power law are discussed. The first method assumes the power law is frequency dependent. The function derived comparing the frequency spectrum of the degraded data with the spectrum of a signal with the desired frequency response. The second method assumes this function is a constant of frequency. This approach requires little knowledge of the original data or the degradation.     

Cyclic Lateral Load Behavior of a Pile Cap and Backfill

A series of static cyclic lateral load tests were performed on a full-scale 4×3 pile group driven into a cohesive soil profile. Twelve 324-mm steel pipe piles were attached to a concrete pile cap 5.18×3.05?m in plan and 1.12?m in height. Pile–soil–pile interaction and passive earth pressure provided lateral resistance. Seven lateral load tests were conducted in total; four tests with backfill compacted in front of the pile cap; two tests without backfill; and one test with a narrow trench between the pile cap and backfill soil. The formation of gaps around the piles at larger deflections reduced the pile–soil–pile interaction resulting in a degraded linear load versus deflection response that was very similar for the two tests without backfill and the trenched test. A typical nonlinear backbone curve was observed for the backfill tests. However, for deflections greater than 5 mm, the load-deflection behavior significantly changed from a concave down shape for the first cycle to a concave up shape for the second and subsequent cycles. The concave up shape continued to degrade with additional cycles past the second and typically became relatively constant after five to seven cycles. A gap formed between the backfill soil and the pile cap, which contributed to the load-deflection degradation. Crack patterns and sliding surfaces were consistent with that predicted by the log spiral theory. The results from this study indicate that passive resistance contributes considerably to the lateral resistance. However, with cyclic loading the passive force degrades significantly for deflections greater than 0.5% of the pile cap height.     

Factors affecting serum oxytetracycline levels in beef calves

Fifteen Aberdeen Angus steers, 295-364 kg, were dosed with either 4.4 or 11 mg of oxytetracycline hydrochloride/kg im. The antimicrobial activity of the serum was determined periodically, and the resulting data were treated statistically to determine the sources of variation. Variance in serum levels of oxytetracycline activity was attributed to dose, time of bleeding, order of dosing, animal, and assay. The total variance component was proportionately greater for the 11-mg/kg dose than for the 4.4-mg/kg dose. Animal variance increased with the higher dose level of oxytetracycline. The influence of dose on serum level was tested by applying a t test to the mean serum levels and their standard deviations at each bleeding time. The 4.4- and 11-mg/kg serum levels were significantly different (p less than 0.01) at all bleeding times. The 4.4-mg/kg serum levels mutliplied by 2.5 were not significantly different (p less than 0.05) from the 11-mg/kg serum levels at all bleeding times.     

Sliding in inclined slurry pipelines at shutdown

The sliding phenomenon which is reported to impose a restriction upon the slope of slurry pipelines is investigated experimentally. Two different types of behavior which could be called “sliding” were observed. At pipe inclianations greater than 22° to the horizontal, fully settled layers of solid particles would slide with shear occurring at or near the pipe wall. The critical angle of inclination increased as the particle size decreased. When the slurry was not fully settled, a natural convective flow process was observed to move the slurry down a pipe incline. This flow occurred at much lower pipe inclinations. Concentration profiles measured near the bottom of a pipe incline showed little effect of slurry type or concentration, provided the slurry contained a significant amount of slowly settling solids. In this case, pipe slope was the most important variable.