Literatura científica selecionada sobre o tema "Heze fen hang"

Hemoglobin (Hb) is one of the most abundant proteins in the human body. When red blood cells rupture, cell-free Hb may initiate adverse pathophysiological reactions. Pathophysiology triggered by cell-free Hb plays an important role in modifying the phenotype of sickle cell disease (SCD). SCD is caused by a single nucleotide mutation of the β-globin gene resulting in Hemoglobin-S (HbS) instead of the normal HbA found in healthy individuals. Polymerization of HbS shortens the lifespan of sickle red blood cells and promotes intra- and extravascular hemolysis. In cell-free Hb ferrous Hb (Fe2+) is oxidized into ferric Hb (Fe3+) promoting the dissociation and transfer of heme into lipid compartments where it triggers lipid peroxidation and generation of cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory reaction products. These processes promote endothelial cell activation and damage. The endogenous plasma protein hemopexin exhibits the highest binding affinity for heme and binds heme in a 1:1 binding ratio. Heme bound to hemopexin is rendered relatively non-reactive and is delivered safely to hepatocytes for endocytosis and degradation. To investigate the endothelial-protective function of hemopexin based on its ability to scavenge heme, we exposed human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro to heme(NaOH) in the presence or absence of different hemopexin doses. As a read-out, different markers for endothelial cell activation were analyzed by either flow cytometry or multiplexed particle-based flow cytometry (Luminex). Briefly, confluent HUVEC were preincubated with hemopexin at different concentrations for 5 min before stimulation with heme(NaOH) for 25 min. Following stimulation cells were analyzed by flow cytometry for expression of membrane bound P-Selectin, a robust marker of endothelial cell activation. Alternatively, heme(NaOH) stimulation of hemopexin-preincubated HUVEC was conducted for 16 h and cell culture supernatants were analyzed by Luminex for three additional well-characterized plasma markers of endothelial cell activation: pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-8, cell adhesion molecule VCAM-1 and glycoprotein Von Willebrand factor (vWF). In the absence of hemopexin, heme(NaOH) consistently induced robust cell surface expression of P-Selectin and elevated levels of soluble IL-8, VCAM-1 and vWF. However, hemopexin completely blocked the stimulatory potential of heme as HUVEC exposed to pre-formed heme:hemopexin complexes showed unchanged P-Selectin expression levels compared to negative control samples. We found that hemopexin reduced heme(NaOH)-mediated P-selectin expression on HUVEC in a dose-dependent fashion. Once an equimolar ratio between heme and hemopexin was reached, P-selectin expression was abolished as shown in figure 1. In addition to P-Selectin, hemopexin also had a strong effect to reduce the heme-induced expression of IL-8, VCAM-1 and vWF to background levels. Thus, the presented data underlines on the one hand the stimulatory capacity of heme(NaOH) on endothelial cells and demonstrates on the other hand the potential of hemopexin to efficiently neutralize free heme. In a stoichiometric fashion, hemopexin potently prevents the pro-inflammatory effect of heme on endothelial cells. Hence, our study suggests a protective role of hemopexin for endothelial cells exposed to elevated levels of cell-free heme due to intravascular hemolysis. Additional experiments are required to elucidate the effect of hemopexin on the endothelium in more detail. Combined with our other lines of data, our results further support the investigation of hemopexin as a potential therapeutic agent in the treatment of sickle cell disease. Disclosures Adam: CSL Behring AG: Current Employment. Gentinetta:CSL Behring: Current Employment. Diditchenko:CSL Behring AG: Current Employment. Schaub:CSL Behring AG: Current Employment. Kato:CSL Behring AG: Current Employment. Brinkman:CSL Behring: Current Employment. Zuercher:CSL Behring AG: Current Employment.

Abstract The transferrin receptor (TfR) is a membrane glycoprotein whose only clearly defined function is to mediate cellular uptake of iron (Fe) from a plasma glycoprotein, transferrin. Iron uptake from diferric transferrin (Tf) involves the binding of transferrin to the TfR followed by internalization of Tf within an endocytic vesicle by receptor-mediated endocytosis. Iron is then released from transferrin within endosomes by a combination of Fe3+ reduction by Steap3 (likely when transferrin is still bound to TfR) and a decrease in pH (~pH 5.5). Following this, Fe2+ is transported across the endosomal membrane by DMT1. Transferrin receptors are highly expressed on immature erythroid cells, placental tissue, and rapidly dividing cells, both normal and malignant. In proliferating nonerythroid cells the expression of TfR is negatively regulated post-transcriptionally by intracellular iron through iron responsive elements (IREs) in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of transferrin receptor mRNA. IREs are recognized by specific cytoplasmic proteins (iron regulatory proteins; IRPs) that, in the absence of iron in the labile pool, bind to the IREs of transferrin receptor mRNA, preventing its degradation. On the other hand, the expansion of the labile iron pool leads to a rapid degradation of transferrin receptor mRNA that is not protected, since IRPs are not bound to it. However, some cells and tissues with specific requirements for iron probably evolved mechanisms that can override the IRE/IRP-dependent control of transferrin receptor expression. We previously documented that the TfR gene promoter contains an erythroid active element that stimulates the receptor gene transcription upon induction of hemoglobin synthesis (1). In this study we have demonstrated that incubation of erythroid cells with 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) increased TfR expression as well as iron incorporation into heme. This effect of ALA can be completely prevented by the inhibitors of heme biosynthesis (succinylacetone [blocks ALA dehydratase] or N-methylprotoporphyrin [blocks ferrochelatase]), indicating that the effect of ALA requires its metabolism to heme. The induction of TfR mRNA expression by ALA is primarily a result of increased mRNA synthesis, since the effect of ALA can be abolished by actinomycin D. Moreover, we found that the TfR promoter was activated in vitro by the addition of ALA or hemin to murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cells induced to differentiate using DMSO. Furtehermore, site-directed mutation of erythroid active element (1) in the TfR promoter abolished the effects of ALA or hemin. These results indicate that heme may directly or indirectly interact with the TfR promoter, consequently enhancing the gene expression. Hence, our results show that in erythroid cells heme serves as a positive feedback regulator that maintains high TfR levels thus ensuring adequate iron availability for hemoglobin synthesis. In conclusion, erythroid cells, which are the most avid consumers of iron in the organism, use a transcriptional mechanism to maintain very high transferrin receptor levels. 1 Chun-Nam Lok Ponka P. (2000) Identification of an Erythroid Active Element in the Transferrin Receptor Gene. J. Biol. Chem. 275: 24185-24190. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Medical landmark localization is crucial for treatment planning. Although FCN-based heatmap regression methods have made significant progress, there is a lack of FCN-based research focused on features that can learn spatial configuration between medical landmarks, notwithstanding the well-structured patterns of these landmarks. In this paper, we propose a novel spatial-configuration-feature-based network that effectively learns the anatomical correlation between the landmarks. Specifically, we focus on a regularization method and a spatial configuration loss that capture the spatial relationship between the landmarks. Each heatmap, generated using U-Net, is transformed into an embedded spatial feature vector using the soft-argmax method and spatial feature maps, here, Cartesian and Polar coordinates. A correlation map between landmarks based on the spatial feature vector is generated and used to calculate the loss, along with the heatmap output. This approach adopts an end-to-end learning approach, requiring only a single feedforward execution during the test phase to localize all landmarks. The proposed regularization method is computationally efficient, differentiable, and highly parallelizable. The experimental results show that our method can learn global contextual features between landmarks and achieve state-of-the-art performance. Our method is expected to significantly improve localization accuracy when applied to healthcare systems that require accurate medical landmark localization.

COVID-19 disease is associated with a high inflammatory load that can induce vascular inflammation, myocarditis, and cardiac arrhythmias. Mortality from COVID-19 disease in 2019 is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension. These disorders share the underlying pathophysiology related to the renin-angiotensin system (SARS). Cardiovascular disease and SARS pharmacological inhibition increase ACE2 levels, which can increase coronavirus virulence in the lung and heart. On the other hand, there is evidence that coronavirus infection can decrease ACE2, leading to toxic over-accumulation of angiotensin II, which induces acute respiratory distress syndrome and fulminant myocarditis. In addition, there is scientific evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can bind chemically to the heme group of hemoglobin and thus cause the release of iron ions (Fe2+ and Fe3+) that can damage tissues, including the lungs and heart. Another important information is that the heme group is produced by mitochondria and, in this case, the oral or intramuscular use of Coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinone) is strongly recommended, as it stimulates the increase in mitochondrial production. Therefore, the use of chelators of iron ions is notorious, as well as the administration of Coenzyme Q10 as a treatment for patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1, encoded by HMOX1) is a cytoprotective enzyme degrading heme into CO, Fe2+, and biliverdin. HO-1 was demonstrated to affect cardiac differentiation of murine pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), regulate the metabolism of murine adult cardiomyocytes, and influence regeneration of infarcted myocardium in mice. However, the enzyme’s effect on human cardiogenesis and human cardiomyocytes’ electromechanical properties has not been described so far. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the role of HO-1 in the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). hiPSCs were generated from human fibroblasts and peripheral blood mononuclear cells using Sendai vectors and subjected to CRISPR/Cas9-mediated HMOX1 knock-out. After confirming lack of HO-1 expression on the protein level, isogenic control and HO-1-deficient hiPSCs were differentiated into hiPSC-CMs. No differences in differentiation efficiency and hiPSC-CMs metabolism were observed in both cell types. The global transcriptomic analysis revealed, on the other hand, alterations in electrophysiological pathways in hiPSC-CMs devoid of HO-1, which also demonstrated increased size. Functional consequences in changes in expression of ion channels genes were then confirmed by patch-clamp analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the link between HO-1 and electrophysiology in human cardiomyocytes.

The recent discovery of the interfacial superconductivity (SC) of the Bi2Te3/Fe1+yTe heterostructure has attracted extensive studies due to its potential as a novel platform for trapping and controlling Majorana fermions. Here we present studies of another topological insulator (TI)/Fe1+yTe heterostructure, Sb2Te3/Fe1+yTe, which also has an interfacial 2-dimensional SC. The results of transport measurements support that reduction of the excess Fe concentration of the Fe1+yTe layer not only increases the fluctuation of its antiferromagnetic (AFM) order but also enhances the quality of the SC of this heterostructure system. On the other hand, the interfacial SC of this heterostructure was found to have a wider-ranging TI-layer thickness dependence than that of the Bi2Te3/Fe1+yTe heterostructure, which is believed to be attributed to the much higher bulk conductivity of Sb2Te3that enhances indirect coupling between its top and bottom topological surface states (TSSs). Our results provide evidence of the interplay among the AFM order, itinerant carries from the TSSs, and the induced interfacial SC of the TI/Fe1+yTe heterostructure system.

Abstract Fei-Fei Li, a well-known scientist focusing on computer vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI), did not expect such zeal in China about AI. During her last visit to Beijing, the professor of Stanford University drew much attention from both academy and industry here; NSR took the opportunity to interview Professor Li. She points out that, although the neural network has made marvelous advances in the past 15–20 years, there are still enormous challenges ahead. On the one hand, computational models for AI, such as many current deep neural networks, have theoretical bottlenecks to resolve, such as interpretability and explainability; on the other hand, AI should offer more in solving societal problems and in accelerating innovation in industries such as healthcare, traffic control and agriculture. This would be a more practical way to realize the potential and speed up the advancement of AI. Moreover, Prof. Li is interested but cautious about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Previous neurophysiological studies of the frontal eye field (FEF) in monkeys have focused on its role in saccade target selection and gaze shift control. It has been argued that FEF neurons indicate the locations of behaviorally significant visual stimuli and are not inherently sensitive to specific features of the visual stimuli per se. Here, for the first time, we directly examined single cell responses to simple, two-dimensional shapes and found that shape selectivity exists in a substantial number of FEF cells during a passive fixation task or during the sample, delay (memory), and eye movement periods in a delayed match to sample (DMTS) task. Our data demonstrate that FEF neurons show sensory and mnemonic selectivity for stimulus shape features whether or not they are behaviorally significant for the task at hand. We also investigated the extent and localization of activation in the FEF using a variety of shape stimuli defined by static or dynamic cues employing functional magentic resonance imaging (fMRI) in anesthetized and paralyzed monkeys. Our fMRI results support the electrophysiological findings by showing significant FEF activation for a variety of shape stimuli and cues in the absence of attentional and motor processing. This shape selectivity in FEF is comparable to previous reports in the ventral pathway, inviting a reconsideration of the functional organization of the visual system.

Rates of obesity have been growing at alarming rates, compromising the health of the world population. Thus, the search for interventions that address the metabolic repercussions of obesity are necessary. Here we evaluated the metabolic and antioxidant effects of zinc and branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) supplementation on obese rats. Male Wistar rats were fed either a high-fat/high-fructose diet (HFD) or a standard diet (SD) for 19 weeks. From the fifteenth week until the end of the experiment, HFD- and SD-fed rats received zinc (6 mg/kg) or BCAA (750 mg/kg) supplementation. Body weight, abdominal fat, lipid profile, blood glucose, insulin, leptin, and hepatic transaminases were evaluated. In the liver, superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and lipid peroxidation were also analyzed. HFD-fed animals showed increased weight gain, abdominal fat pad, plasma insulin, leptin, and triglycerides levels in comparison with SD-fed rats. Zinc supplementation reduced all these parameters, suggesting a beneficial role for the treatment of obesity. BCAA, on the other hand, did not show any beneficial effect. Liver antioxidant enzymes and hepatic transaminases plasma levels did not change among groups. Lipid peroxidation was higher in HFD-fed rats and was not reverted by zinc or BCAA supplementation. In conclusion, zinc supplementation may be a useful strategy for the treatment of the metabolic dysfunction associated with obesity.

Abstract Treatments were applied on 16 May with a CO2 powered sprayer calibrated to deliver 26.6 gpa through 4 flat fan 8006 nozzles, mounted on a hand-held boom, at 30 psi. Plots were 12 ft × 18 ft and were arranged in 4 replicates of a split plot design with alfalfa variety (Perry and Ranger) as main plots and insecticide treatment as subplots. Varietal information is not included here. Crop height was ca 1.5 ft at time of application. Alfalfa was planted in the fall of 1986. Soil type was a clay loam. No rainfall was received during the experiment.

Among the depositions taken as part of the Queen Catherine Howard treason case in 1541 is an illuminating exchange. Mary Hall/Lascelles, the originator of the reports of Catherine’s pre-marital sexual liaisons, claimed to have warned Henry Mannox, Catherine’s virginals tutor, to steer clear of Catherine, because ‘she do cu[m] of anobull hous & yf thow shuld mare here su[m] of here blod wold kell the’. Mannox coarsely replied, ‘hold thy pese woman I know here welhenoveghe for I have had here by thow count & know it amongst a C & she loff me & I lof her’. Mary clearly saw the Howard dynasty in this context as a large, cohesive entity primed to enact vengeance against those who wronged its members, and understood that women were among a dynasty’s chief assets. Mannox, on the other hand, disregarded this, and seemed to think that Catherine’s own individual feelings mattered more than what her family might think. These few sentences lay bare the inherent complexity of the early modern dynasty, and the importance of understanding the position of women within it: for, as this book argues, when women are placed centre stage it becomes evident that both of these interpretations of the function of an early modern dynasty could be valid, and that we need to nuance our understanding of women’s agency, dynastic identity, and politics to take account of this.

This chapter starts with the critique of the representationalist mainstream, based on the reality/representation dichotomy, narrating two cases. In the first case, a merger between two mass distribution companies raises a conflict between two distinct views of the logistics mission, conveyed by performance indicators. In the second case, the efforts of a construction company to improve work safety were hampered by the separation between project design and planning, on the one hand, and on-site construction, on the other, instantiated in the day-to-day work situations by a few conventional wisdoms. The pragmatist alternative to dualist representationalism, the semiotic mediation of situated activity, is presented. It responds to the need to relate the singular act, performed here and now, with broader meaning-making perspectives, rooted in history and sociality, and to continuously redefine the situation. The chapter puts forward Peirce’s theory of thirdness and triadic sign, and examines how it can be applied to organized activity.

As we write these words, the COVID-19 pandemic has become part of our lives in a much more controlled way. For instance, some of our habits have changed and we are able to resume our activities in the way of a “new normal,” returning to social contact with family, friends, and colleagues. In returning to a life without the constraint of the virus at such a high level, the academy tries to resume its rituals, including scholarly events. Email boxes and physical boards at universities are once again filling up with calls for submission of abstracts for congresses, seminars, and workshops. As these events are happening again, academia seems to be reflecting on the pros and cons of onsite scientific events. While acknowledging the importance of such scientific events and their potential for strengthening scholarly communities and collaborations, many academics have begun questioning the real impact of being physically present. This questioning seems to be based on several factors. On the one hand, it is clear that universities have been increasingly devaluing academics’ presence in congresses (unless by invitation). They allocate less funding for these activities, especially for those academics who wish to attend an event without presentation. With no presentation, institutions devalue attendance in performance appraisal processes. Increasingly, academic institutions value publications (indexed, despite some positive movement seeking to counter the tyranny of the “publish or perish” motto), and an academics ability to raise funding. Yet, not all congresses are associated with publication processes in indexed journals or proceedings. Books of abstracts (once edited by any congress) are almost extinct, namely because of their devaluation by institutes of higher learning (and funding entities). On the other hand, the massive and necessary use of online scientific events in 2020 and 2021 allowed us to realize that it is possible, efficient, and effective to hold these events in a format different from the traditional one. The internet offers versatility and more and more congresses are now offered online or in hybrid formats. These formats allow academics to overcome financial and physical complications caused by in-person scholarly events. Academics can request less funding and, at the same time, mitigate concerns of acceptance without presentations, covering classes while away, or having to supplement university sponsorship with personal funds. At some universities, funding comes after attendance regardless of availability of those funds and academics are asked to pay registration fee, plane tickets, and lodging with the expectation of being reimbursed upon return. This is particularly challenging given the present economic situation around the globe. At the same time, while physically at the event and away from families, work continues to accumulate for academics. They then must wade through this excess upon returning home, adding to an already excessive workload. This makes maintaining a work-life balance challenging. We at New Trends in Qualitative Research (NTQR) believe it is particularly relevant to discuss this topic within the context of the release of NTQR Volume 11. NTQR is an indexed journal associated with international scientific events in the field of qualitative research - Congreso Ibero-Americano en Investigación Cualitativa (CIAIQ) and the World Conference on Qualitative Research (WCQR). Specifically, the volume that we edit here aggregates works that, having been originally presented at WCQR2022 (held in an online format), went through a double-blind review process. This volume, annually edited (as WCQR is an annual event), allows us, as editors, to condense a diverse set of qualitative research work, focusing on different topics, and with different methodological designs. And, our concern as editors has always been to assure the quality of the published works, namely through a careful review and editing process. We do not know if we are ready to give up our physical presence at scientific events. But, with opportunities such as online presentations and online publishing venues, we may now be much more judicious in this presence. We may now take time to ponder the relevance of investing in attending a scientific event, and selecting (hand-drawn) two or three events per year, at most. WCQR has a strong emphasis in the building of a scientific community (in this case, bonded by the interest in qualitative research), reconciling physical and online presence, and is associated with quality journals. These aspects help academics to select it as one of the events where it is important to be present. Sincerely, The Editors

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

AbstractDespite being a coastal country located to the west of the Pacific, ancient China essentially had a continental cultural pattern, with its vision turned toward the mainland, and a geopolitical order of land-sea interactions of ancient civilization centered on the Central Plains (Zhongyuan, 中原) around the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and surrounded by “Peripheral Barbarians in Four Directions” (四方蛮夷) within “Four Seas” (四海). Nevertheless, these peripheral maritime “barbarian” Yi (夷) and Yue (越) and the oversea maritime Fan (番) had been active and developed along the southeast coast of China at the edge of these “Four Directions”. Here they had objectively played an important and indispensable role in the ancient history of Chinese civilization, from the native seafaring tradition of “being good at using boats” in the prehistoric and early historical period to the medieval and late historical “Maritime Silk Road” from Han (汉) to Tang (唐) dynasties.

AbstractDespite being a coastal country located to the west of the Pacific, ancient China essentially had a continental cultural pattern, with its vision turned toward the mainland, and a geopolitical order of land-sea interactions of ancient civilization centered on the Central Plains (Zhongyuan, 中原) around the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and surrounded by “Peripheral Barbarians in Four Directions” (四方蛮夷) within “Four Seas” (四海). Nevertheless, these peripheral maritime “barbarian” Yi (夷) and Yue (越) and the oversea maritime Fan (番) had been active and developed along the southeast coast of China at the edge of these “Four Directions”. Here they had objectively played an important and indispensable role in the ancient history of Chinese civilization, from the native seafaring tradition of “being good at using boats” in the prehistoric and early historical period to the medieval and late historical “Maritime Silk Road” from Han (汉) to Tang (唐) dynasties.

Flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) is a multifunctional DNA branching nuclease. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) exist in this protein widely, including phosphorylation, methylation, acetylation, ubiquitination and small ubiquitination modification (SUMO). Here, we make a summary for those PTMs studies on FEN1, to illustrate relationships between mutations of those amino acids and their functions alteration of FEN1. Numerous evidences have confirmed that dysfunction of FEN1 would lead to genome instability, and then induce a variety of chromosome-related diseases ultimately, including tumors. On one hand, interaction partner also stimulates FEN1 nuclease activity, to further ensure an effective role in the processing of different DNA structures; on the other hand, PTMs may regulate protein-protein interactions and FEN1’s cellular localization.

Abstract Bülow had never sought an appointment in Hanover, but in the summer of 1877 the musical establishment there had been visited by a double misfortune. On May 20 the assistant conductor Jean-Joseph Bott had fallen from the podium in a state of intoxication and had crashed onto the front row of the stalls during the middle of a performance of Liszt’s oratorio Saint Elisabeth. The work was stopped in its tracks and the in- sensible Bott was carried into the wings, with an injured right leg. Liszt himself was in the audience, quickly mounted the platform, and directed the rest of the performance.Bott was forced to resign, his reputation tar- nished, and not long afterwards he sank into obscurity as the director of a local music conservatory in Magdeburg. A few weeks later, fate struck the small opera house again. On August 15, the principal conductor Karl Fischer, who had been the Court Kapellmeister since 1852, was felled by a massive heart attack as he was dining at the Union Hotel, and the opera house was left in disarray. Within hours of hearing of Fischer’s death, Bronsart wrote to Bülow offering him the conductorship. ‘Would you be willing, hand in hand with me, to lead the opera here to a higher level of artistic significance?’As we have seen, Bülow was in Baden-Baden at that moment, taking a water cure, and it was from this unlikely location that he had given his cautious assent.

Abstract No one could accuse the Third Reich of being a topic neglected by historians, with something like 37,000 titles published so far, and still counting. But isn’t there a paradox here? On the one hand, few periods of human history, especially any as brief as this, can have been subjected to such intensive scrutiny, and on such a remarkably international scale. How can there possibly be anything new to be said about the twelve years of the Third Reich, or even the twenty-five years of National Socialism’s existence as a political movement? And on the other hand, surely there are few other periods of history on which the consensus view is so uniform, and so little divided by national loyalty.

A more poetic, literary style goes hand in hand with more elite drinking. Chapter 4 explores a range of texts on such drinking, which often involves servants, privacy, precious vessels, imported wine, erotic encounters, intense literary moods, and perfumed betel. Again, the conventions of genre are very much in evidence here, so this chapter is more a guide to those features of literature than a study of practice. The chapter also considers representations of ancient Indian “wine talk” and presents some didactic passages on how to drink properly, including a few from the Kāmasūtra. Additionally, the chapter examines the small number of Sanskrit texts devoted primarily to the pleasures and purposes of drinking.

Abstract As with Sibthorp’s first journey, there is a diary of his second one, but there are extensive gaps in it; long stays in Istanbul and Zakinthos are not covered, nor most of the return journey, nor a few weeks of his travels in the Ottoman Empire, though the latter are fortunately included in Thoburn’s account. Sibthorp’s diary was written in the field, in his careless hand which is often very difficult to decipher, It is preserved, as MS Sherard 216, cited here as Sibthorp Diary 2, and MS Sherard 217, cited here as Sibthorp Diary 3, in the Department of Plant Sciences. Oxford, Whereas MS Sherard 216 is the complete original pocket-book for the first part of the journey (Fig. 46). MS Sherard 217 consists of various parts of the original notebooks bound together much later, when no attempt was made to arrange them chronologically, though continuous entries begin with 9 September 1794 and end on 12 October 1794; there are entries for only a few days of 1795.

The rise and evolution of telecommunications networks over the last few decades have brought immeasurable benefits. Attention to the negative side of these developments has been slow, particularly in the Small Island Developing States of the Caribbean where countries are slowly becoming aware of the developmental, social and economic challenges posed by cybercrimes. Attention has largely been on developed states. However, the experiences covered here add to the global picture on the state of cyber security, increasing understanding of alternative experiences and where they sit alongside the more popular ones such as the US. The chapter details some major development in cyber security in the Caribbean, examining the development of the legal, institutional and organizational landscape in response to growing internal and external cyber threats. Main players and efforts are identified. Information was gathered from interviews and content analysis and the authors' first-hand knowledge.

The chapter surveys the rudiments in their original medieval notation. These were the first (and often only) music lessons taught to choristers in Catholic Europe. Scholars of early music will find few surprises here, although they may be taken aback to discover that these lessons were written centuries after the Guidonian system is commonly presumed to have disappeared from history. Giacomo Tritto’s Rules (1759) are taken to represent elementary music lessons in general, covering the gamut, the Guidonian hand, mutation, basic liturgical conventions, and the application of ficta accidentals. Sharps and flats were essential for correcting dissonant intervals, desirable for enhancing cadences, and useful for rendering tunes more fitting for contemporary taste. Canto fermo was later adapted to produce a more versatile type of notation known as canto figurato. This enabled apprentices to read any staff effortlessly, regardless of its clef or key signature.

Urban growth in developed countries has made highly difficult the logistics of public transport in many cities. This issue is a consequence of the increase in the number of public transport routes, which has caused that citizens do not know important information on such routes. Especially, data about stops, terminals, timetables, paths and which are the easily reachable places for each single route. On the other hand, smartphones have become very popular in the last lustra. This kind of device has high-end services such as cameras, high-tech sensors and Global-Positioning-System (GPS) navigation, to mention only a few. Thus, since mobile phones are useful and practically ubiquitous, they should be applied to collective-transport logistics, giving the edge to citizens in an economic manner. Ergo, to solve the aforementioned problem, we propose here an approach based on using technology connected to mobile phones, the GPS and the Internet.

Liebherr Aerospace designs and develops cooling air systems, with notably axial fan and radial turbine or compressor. The development of new architectures (especially electrical system) now requires improving the turbine performances on the whole operating range. To reach that industrial request, a variable nozzle area can be used, performed by changing the nozzle blade angle for a given blade height. For the blades to be moveable, tip and hub clearances must be present (and thus modeled) in the nozzle. The impact of that clearance on the turbine performance, and moreover on the flow field, is studied here by 3D numerical way. The clearance mass flow leads to the development of a marginal vortex along the nozzle blade chord that tends to increase the total pressure loss in the nozzle on the one hand, and to modify the flow angle on the rotor inlet on the other hand. The vortex development induces an efficiency loss that must be taken into account during the design.

Finite element method (FEM) numerical simulations of heat transfer for high-temperature regimes often require modeling of grey-body enclosure radiation where enclosure geometry definitions are obtained as part of the model grid generation process. Owing to the expense of solving the radiation problem, typical FEM approaches loosely couple the radiative transfer solution as boundary conditions to a standard conduction formulation. When the problem at hand is thermal-mechanical and relative motion occurs between enclosure surfaces, the simulation code is tasked with providing a means of updating the original enclosure surface geometry to reflect the deformed configuration. While this scenario is manageable for contiguously meshed discretizations, the difficulty of updating enclosure geometry is greatly increased when the model admits sliding. Here the analysis code must employ both mechanical and thermal contact, relying heavily on geometric search and contact constraints to enforce closure for the conduction formulation. General purpose large-deformation FEM structural codes employ surface contact utilities to provide geometric search and contact constraint definitions. This paper describes an ongoing effort to leverage contact utilities for solving the enclosure radiation problem in deforming and sliding mesh scenarios while having minimal impact to a traditional modeling approach. The current effort is divided into two areas, enclosure definitions and thermal contact, but the primary focus here is on enabling use of contact to provide definition of the enclosure. The proposed methodology is demonstrated on simple enclosure radiation models using SNL Sierra Mechanics Dash contact utilities and the Chaparral enclosure radiation library with Sierra Mechanics Structural and Thermal application codes. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

This work discusses the increased capabilities of a three-dimensional analysis tool for shape memory alloy engineering components. As the number and complexity of proposed SMA applications increases, engineers and designers must seek out or develop more capable predictive methods. Three-dimensional models implemented in a continuum finite element analysis (FEA) framework can be applied to most SMA component geometries. However, such methods may require fine meshes in 3-D space, resulting in many degrees of freedom and potentially long analysis times. On the other hand, constitutive models implemented in one dimension can be simple and fast, but are restricted to a limited class of problems for which such reductions are appropriate (e.g., rods and beams). More recently, engineers have begun investigating more complex SMA bending components for which 2-D shell elements might provide a computationally efficient FEA discretization. Here we consider a single modeling tool (a material subroutine) that combines 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D implementations for use in a general FEA framework. As an example analysis case, we consider an SMA bending element that has been adhesively bonded to a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminate and is subjected to thermally-induced actuation. The active SMA and passive composite components are bonded in a pre-stressed configuration such that the elastic laminate provides a variable restoring force to the SMA during transformation, resulting in repeatable actuation cycles. This two-part bonded configuration is analyzed using different types of finite elements (1-D beam, 2-D shell, and full 3-D continuum elements). The constitutive behavior of the shape memory alloy is defined using an established three-dimensional model based on continuum thermodynamics and motivated by the methods of classical plasticity. A user material subroutine (UMAT) in an Abaqus Unified FEA framework is used to implement the model. The methodology for capturing 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D thermomechanical response in a single such UMAT is described. The run times of the various analyses are compared, and the relative accuracies of the results are discussed.

Recently it has been shown that the femtosecond 3 pulse stimulated photon echo peak shift (3PEPS) measurement can give accurate dynamic information about the solvation process [1,2]. The peak shift is measured as a function of the population time T by obtaining time zero from the peaks of the two echo signals in phase matching directions - k 1+ k 2 + k 3 and k 1 - k 2 + k .. The decrease of peak shift reflects the decrease in rephasing capability caused by solvation dynamics. In other words, it measures the system’s degree of retained memory of its Bohr frequency after spending some time in a population state. The 3PEPS measurement is an indirect way of measuring the transition frequency correlation function M(t). It is also very sensitive to oscillatory contributions and can pick up intramolecular vibrations. Other features that make 3PEPS attractive are its insensitivity to the population dynamics and its unique capability of picking up very slow or static (inhomogeneous) components. It has shown that the solvation of polar solutes in polar solvents have rather universal characteristics. The initial ultrafast process, usually identified as an inertial response of solvent molecules, occurs on a < 100 fs time scale, and is essentially identical in various solvents [1]. On the other hand, the diffusive regime (> 0.5 ps) of the solvation process shows a strong solvent dependence which may be described satisfactory by dielectric relaxation theories. Here we report temperature dependent 3PEPS data for a dye (IR144) doped organic polymer glass, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), which is considered to have a slower dynamics and larger static inhomogeneity compared to room temperature solvents.

With the increased requirements for smaller size and more functions, hand held devices will use more and more small components to reduce the PWB areas. One of the solutions is stacked package. There are two kinds of stacked packages: one is die stacking and the other is package stacking. The package stacking is a more flexible solution for device manufacturers because the packages to be stacked could come from different vendors. All the packages can be tested separately before stacking so that there is no need for device manufacturers to acquire good dies or intellectual properties for die testing. In this study, the focus will be on the package stacking. The package stacking can be ASIC and memory stacking or memory and memory stacking. Three different stacked packages are selected for this study. Here the focus is on FEA modeling and simulation method for package stacking. Finally, the simulation results are compared with the results of thermal cycling test. A reasonable correlation is achieved based on current simulation method.

This paper reports detailed measurement of film cooling effectiveness for a scaled up film-cooling hole with an expanded exit fed by a smooth and ribbed secondary flow channel, an arrangement typical of turbine blades. The experiments are carried out at blowing ratios ranging from 0.4 to 1.25, and ten different rib patterns including forward oriented ribs and inverse oriented ribs are evaluated. Further, to develop an efficient film-cooling technique, several kinds of bumps are installed downstream of the hole exits, and the effects of the bumps on film effectiveness are investigated. The bump structures tested here are semicircular, hemispherical, and cylindrical bumps. The results show that the rib orientation strongly affects film effectiveness. When the blowing ratio is comparatively low, the forward oriented ribs afford higher film effectiveness. On the other hand, when the blowing ratio is comparatively high, the inverse oriented ribs afford higher film effectiveness. The cylindrical bump provides a better spreading of the ejected secondary flow than the other bumps, leading to higher film effectiveness. To clarify how the bumps improve the film effectiveness, computational simulations are performed. The simulations indicate that a longitudinal vortex, formed at the trailing edge of the cylindrical bump improves the film effectiveness by generating downward velocity vectors.

The increasing demand for fabrication of smaller structural and electronic devices with higher performance such as NEMS/MEMS has created great interest and motivation for extensive research and investigations in nanotechnology and its applications. Unique mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of the one dimensional carbon nanotubes (CNTs) structures project CNTs as an excellent candidate for the future NEMS/MEMS devices. However, carbon nanotubes do not always exist in their perfect hexagonal lattice structures. Defects may appear during the purification stages or chemical treatments as it might even be desirable for functionalization of carbon nanotubes. On the other hand, defects can greatly influence the mechanical performance of carbon nanotubes in structural applications where they are subjected to external mechanical loads. Therefore, a detailed investigation of the effects of defects on mechanical performance of carbon nanotubes is needed to explain the behavior of such structures. Here in this work, finite element method (FEM) is employed to numerically investigate the responses of defected carbon nanotubes to external loads. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with different structural configurations, i.e., zigzag, armchair, and chiral, with different types of vacancy defects are modeled and their effective mechanical properties are investigated. Finally, results are discussed and compared with those obtained for SWCNTs without defects.

Abstract Management of plant service life is a key issue for improving the safety of light water reactors. In boiling water reactor (BWR) plants, some incidents of intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) of components in contact with the main coolant, such as a shroud support weld, have been reported in the past. When a crack is detected in a nuclear component, crack growth analysis is required as part of assessing the structural integrity of that component. In Japan, the “Rules on Fitness-for-Service for Nuclear Power Plants” of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Code (JSME FFS Code) provides a simplified crack growth analysis method, assuming a semi-elliptical crack shape and calculating crack growth at the deepest and surface points of the crack. It is known, however, that the actual shape of the SCC is very likely to be different from a semi-ellipse due to the complex distribution of residual stress and the dependency of crack growth properties on the materials composing the welded joint, particularly in the case of a crack crossing the fusion line. Therefore, crack growth analysis techniques using finite element analysis (FEA) have recently been developed to analyze the crack growth behavior of a crack having a more detailed, natural shape. In crack growth analysis using the FEA technique, natural crack growth behavior in the materials composing the welded joint is estimated by using the reference curves of SCC. These reference curves are based on crack growth test data that are generally obtained with C(T) specimens prepared for homogeneous material. To demonstrate the applicability and adequacy of the analysis technique, it is important to validate the results of crack growth analysis using FEA. In this study, validation of the results of SCC crack growth analysis using FEA was conducted by comparison with the results of a SCC growth test. For the SCC growth test, a groove welded joint consisting of austenitic stainless steels was prepared. The welded joint was subjected to sensitizing heat treatment at 620°C for 24 h. A Lee-James specimen with a surface crack, whose crack plane crossed the fusion line between base and weld metals, was taken from the welded joint. After pre-cracking in air and in high-temperature water, the SCC crack growth test was conducted in a normal water chemistry (NWC) environment. Observation of the fracture surface revealed a transition from transgranular (TG) cracking to intergranular (IG) or interdendritic (ID) cracking, and broader IG morphology was observed on the base metal rather than on the weld metal due to a difference in the SCC growth sensitivity of both materials. On the other hand, a FEA model of the Lee-James specimen was prepared and SCC crack growth with a natural shape was analyzed by using FEA. Here, the observed crack front transitioning from TG to IG/ID was set as the initial crack front of the analysis. The reference curves of SCC growth rate for sensitized type 304 stainless steel and low carbon stainless steel in the JSME FFS Code were applied to the base metal and the weld metal of the specimen, respectively. A comparison of the analysis results with the fracture surface of the actual specimen confirmed that the analyzed crack shape generally showed good agreement with the observed crack shape on the fracture surface, although the analysis conservatively overestimated crack growth around surface points of the crack. Modification of the crack growth analysis was also investigated to obtain more accurate analysis results including around surface points of the crack.

The mechanisms of loosening resistance components are investigated within the framework of the three-dimensional finite element method (FEM). Here, the results of the double-nut tightening method (DN), spring washers (SW), and conical spring washers (CSW) are shown. This paper focuses on the comparison among the components above based on the results that have been published separately. For details on each analysis, readers are referred to [10–12]. We have found that DN shows significant loosening resistance if the locking is properly realized in the tightening process. However, if the locking is not performed properly, its ability to resist loosening completely disappears. SW shows negative loosening resistance because the sticking area on the contact surfaces is limited to two corner edges of the SW and the rotational force around these edges thus drastically leads to loosening. In regard to CSW, in the case of high axial force, it shows no apparent effect on preventing loosening. On the other hand, in the case of low axial force, it shows two opposite effects. The negative effect is an increase in the loosening rotation angle, while the positive one is the prevention of a decrease in axial force. When complete bearing-surface slip occurs, a CSW can prevent loosening because the positive effect becomes larger than the negative one. However, when only small bearing-surface slip occurs, a CSW cannot prevent loosening because the negative effect cancels the positive one.

Background: Repetitive peripheral sensory stimulation (RPSS) followed by 4- hour task-specific training improves upper limb motor function in subjects with stroke who experience moderate to severe motor upper limb impairments. Obectives: Here, we compared effects of RPSS versus sham followed by a shorter duration of training in subjects with moderate to severe motor impairments in the chronic phase after stroke. Design and setting: Single-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallelgroup clinical trial. Methods: We compared effects of 18 sessions of either 1.5 hours of active RPSS or sham followed by a supervised session of 30-minutes of functional electrical stimulation (FES) and 45-minutes of task-specific training (TST) of the paretic upper limb. In both groups, subjects were instructed to perform functional tasks at home, without supervision. The primary outcome measure was the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) after six weeks of treatment. Grasp and pinch strength were secondary outcomes. Results: In intention-to-treat analysis, WMFT improved significantly in both active and sham groups at 3 and 6 weeks of treatment. Grasp strength improved significantly in the active, but not in the sham group, at 3 and 6 weeks. Pinch strength improved significantly in both groups at 3 weeks, and only in the active group at 6 weeks. Conclusions: RPSS enhanced hand strength in chronic stroke. Despite the short duration of supervised training (2.75 hours/session), changes in WMFT in both groups were comparable to those reported after longer, more intensive training protocols. These findings are relevant to settings that impose constraints in duration of direct contact between therapists and patients.