Modeling subauroral polarization streams equatorward of the plasmapause footprints

Pint?r, B.; Thom, S. D.; Balthazor, R.; Vo, H.; Bailey, G. J., Modeling subauroral polarization streams equatorward of the plasmapause footprints, Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 111, Issue A10, CiteID A10306 RAE2008

Evidence in support of a role for plant-mediated proteolysis in the rumens of grazing animals

Kingston-Smith, A. H., Merry, R. J., Leemans, D. K., Thomas, Howard, Theodorou, M. K. (2005). Evidence in support of a role for plant-mediated proteolysis in the rumens of grazing animals. British Journal of Nutrition, 93(1), 73-79. Sponsorship: DEFRA / BBSRC RAE2008

GABRIEL URBAIN FAURÉ, THE UNSUNG MODERNIST: A PERFORMANCE SURVEY OF SELECTED LATE WORKS WRITTEN AFTER 1892 FOR PIANO SOLO, AND PIANO IN COLLABORATION WITH VIOLIN, VIOLONCELLO, AND VOICE

Gabriel Urbain Fauré lived during one of the most exciting times in music history. Spanning a life of 79 years (1845-1924), he lived through the height of Romanticism and the experimental avant-garde techniques of the early 20th century. In Fauré's music, one can find traces of Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Poulenc. One can even argue that Fauré presages Skryabin and Shostakovich. The late works of Gabriel Fauré, chiefly those composed after 1892, testify to the argument that Fauré holds an important position in the shift from tonal to atonal composition and should be counted among such transitional composers as Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Richard Strauss, and Ferruccio Busoni. Fauré's unique way of fashioning harmonic impetus of almost purely linear means, resulting in a synthesis of harmonic and melodic devices, led me to craft the term mélodoharmonique. This term refers to a contrapuntally motivated technique of composition, particularly in a secondary layer of musical texture, in which a component of harmonic progression (i.e. arpeggiation, broken chord, etc.) is fused with linear motivic or thematic development. This dissertation seeks to bring to public attention through exploration in lecture and recital format, certain works of Gabriel Fauré, written after 1892. The repertoire will be selected from works for solo piano and piano in collaboration with violin, violoncello, and voice, which support the notion of Fauré as a modernist deserving larger recognition for his influence in the transition to atonal music. The recital repertoire includes the following--Song Cycles: La bonne chanson, opus 61; La chanson d'Ève, opus 95; Le jardin clos, opus 106; Mirages, opus 113; L'horizon chimérique, opus 118; Piano Works: Prelude in G minor opus 103, No. 3; Prelude in E minor opus 103, No. 9; Eleventh Nocturne, opus 104, No.1; Thirteenth Nocturne, opus 119; Chamber Works: Second Violin Sonata, opus 108; First Violoncello Sonata, opus 109; Second Violoncello Sonata, opus 117.

Nurturing Change: Lilly Martin Spencer's Images of Children

This dissertation is the first full-length study to concentrate on American genre painter Lilly Martin Spencer's images of children, which constituted nearly one half of her saleable production during the height of her artistic career from 1848 to 1869. At this time, many young parents received advice regarding child rearing through books and other publications, having moved away from their families of origin in search of employment. These literatures, which gained in popularity from the 1830s onward, focused on spiritual, emotional, and disciplinary matters. My study considers four major themes from the period's writing on child nurture that changed over time, including depravity and innocence, parent/child bonding, standards of behavior and moral rectitude, and children's influence on adults. It demonstrates how Spencer's paintings, prints, and drawings featuring children supported and challenged these evolving ideologies, helping to shed light not only on the artist's reception of child-rearing advice, but also on its possible impact on her middle-class audience, to whom she closely catered. In four chapters, I investigate Spencer's images of sleeping children as visual equivalents of contemporary consolation literature during a time of high infant and child mortality rates; her paintings of parent/child interaction as promoting separation from mothers and emotional bonding with fathers; her prints of mischievous children as both considering changing ideals about children's behavior and comforting Anglo-American citizens afraid of what they saw as threatening minority groups; and her pictures with Civil War and Reconstruction subject matter as contending with the popular concept of the moral utility of children. By framing my interpretations of Spencer's output around key issues in the period's dynamic child-nurture literature, I advance new comprehensive readings of many of her most well-known paintings, including Domestic Happiness, Fi, Fo, Fum!, and The Pic Nic or the Fourth of July. I also consider work often overlooked by other art historians, but which received acclaim in Spencer's own time, including the lithographs of children made after her designs, and the allegorical painting Truth Unveiling Falsehood. Significantly, I provide the first in-depth analysis of a newly rediscovered Reconstruction-era painting, The Home of the Red, White, and Blue.

JOACHIM, BRAHMS, AND SCHUMANN: THE FLOURSHING OF NINETEENTHCENTURY VIOLIN REPERTOIRE

The cultivation of violin repertoire and its ultimate dominance of the late Nineteenth-Century orchestral library are best examined through the analysis and study of the works of Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), and Robert Schumann (1810-1856). Each of these men, in their own right, made significant contributions to the development of violin repertoire during the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. Yet their achievements were also the result of a collaborative effort and shared influence, the absence of which would have yielded a diminutive musical landscape, especially in the concerti of Brahms and Joachim. This dissertation explores Joachim’s technical dexterity and its influence on Brahms and Schumann, and further studies the vital role Brahms and Schumann played in forming Joachim as both composer and editor. The pieces examined in this dissertation evidence the significant influence each of these composers shared. Three chamber compositions stand as guideposts in the analysis and establish a stylistic foundation to collaborative efforts among Joachim, Brahms, and Schumann. The preliminary recital focuses on these chamber pieces which illustrate the individual style of each composer, featuring Joachim’s Romance, Op. 2, written between 1848 and 1852, Schumann’s Second Sonata, Op. 121, written in 1851, and Brahms’ Second Sonata, Op. 100, written in 1886. A second performance includes the enigmatic F-A-E Sonata of Brahms, Schumann, and Albert Deitrich, Schumann’s pupil, as well as Joachim’s Second Concerto. A collaborative effort, the F-A-E Sonata represents Brahms’ and Schumann’s efforts to write with Joachim’s unbridled style and technique in mind. An even greater musical offering, Joachim’s Second Concerto, a gift to Brahms in 1860, has been called the “Holy Grail” of concertos, and is considered the preeminent display of Joachim’s creative genius by incorporating demanding technical challenges and Hungarian-like overtones. The third and final program features Brahms’ Concerto in D Major. A fitting response to Joachim’s gift 17 years later, Brahms’ Concerto was written for Joachim at the height of his career, bearing the performer’s stylistic elements throughout. The recital also includes various Hungarian Dances by Brahms. While the Dances were not original to Brahms, they further illustrate the underlying idiom of Hungarian folk music in both Brahms’ and Joachim’s art.

The origin and evolution of phototropins.

Plant phototropism, the ability to bend toward or away from light, is predominantly controlled by blue-light photoreceptors, the phototropins. Although phototropins have been well-characterized in Arabidopsis thaliana, their evolutionary history is largely unknown. In this study, we complete an in-depth survey of phototropin homologs across land plants and algae using newly available transcriptomic and genomic data. We show that phototropins originated in an ancestor of Viridiplantae (land plants + green algae). Phototropins repeatedly underwent independent duplications in most major land-plant lineages (mosses, lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants), but remained single-copy genes in liverworts and hornworts-an evolutionary pattern shared with another family of photoreceptors, the phytochromes. Following each major duplication event, the phototropins differentiated in parallel, resulting in two specialized, yet partially overlapping, functional forms that primarily mediate either low- or high-light responses. Our detailed phylogeny enables us to not only uncover new phototropin lineages, but also link our understanding of phototropin function in Arabidopsis with what is known in Adiantum and Physcomitrella (the major model organisms outside of flowering plants). We propose that the convergent functional divergences of phototropin paralogs likely contributed to the success of plants through time in adapting to habitats with diverse and heterogeneous light conditions.

Thermal-mechanical analysis of flexible substrates during lead-free solder reflow

This paper presents modeling results about the performance of flexible substrates when subjected to higher lead-free reflow temperatures. Both adhesiveless and adhesive types of polyimide substrates were studied. Finite element (FE) models of flex substrates were built, two copper tracks located in the centre of the substrate was considered. The thermal induced shear stress in the flex substrate during the lead-free reflow process was studied and the effect of the design changes including the track thickness, flex thickness, and copper width were studied. For both types of flexes, the one of most important variables for minimizing damage to the substrate is the height of the copper tracks. The height of flex and the width of copper track show less impact. Beside of the geometry effects, the increase in reflow peak temperature can also result in a significant increase in the interfacial stress between the copper track and flex. Higher stresses were identified within the adhesive flex due to the big CTE mismatch between the copper and adhesive/dielectric

Numerical simulation of heat transfer in rectangular microchannel

Numerical simulation of heat transfer in a high aspect ratio rectangular microchannel with heat sinks has been conducted, similar to an experimental study. Three channel heights measuring 0.3 mm, 0.6mmand 1mmare considered and the Reynolds number varies from 300 to 2360, based on the hydraulic diameter. Simulation starts with the validation study on the Nusselt number and the Poiseuille number variations along the channel streamwise direction. It is found that the predicted Nusselt number has shown very good agreement with the theoretical estimation, but some discrepancies are noted in the Poiseuille number comparison. This observation however is in consistent with conclusions made by other researchers for the same flow problem. Simulation continues on the evaluation of heat transfer characteristics, namely the friction factor and the thermal resistance. It is found that noticeable scaling effect happens at small channel height of 0.3 mm and the predicted friction factor agrees fairly well with an experimental based correlation. Present simulation further reveals that the thermal resistance is low at small channel height, indicating that the heat transfer performance can be enhanced with the decrease of the channel height.

Morphological and molecular characteristics of a new species of Pasteuria parasitic on Meloidogyne ardenensis

A species of the hyper-parasitic bacterium Pasteuria was isolated from the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne ardenensis infecting the roots of ash (Fraxinus excelsior). It is morphologically different from some other Pasteuria pathogens of nematodes in that the spores lack a basal ring on the ventral side of the spore and have a unique clumping nature. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the clumps of spores are not random aggregates but result from the disintegration of the suicide cells of the thalli. Sporulation within each vegetative mycelium was shown to be asynchronous. In addition to the novel morphological features 16S rRNA sequence analysis showed this to be a new species of Pasteuria which we have called P. hartismeri. Spores of P. hartismeri attach to juveniles of root-knot nematodes infecting a wide range of plants such as mint (Meloidogyne hapla), rye grass (unidentified Meloidogyne sp.) and potato (Meloidogyne fallax).

Solder paste characterisation: towards the development of quality control (QC) tool

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a quality control tool based on rheological test methods for solder paste and flux media. Design/methodology/approach – The rheological characterisation of solder pastes and flux media was carried out through the creep-recovery, thixotropy and viscosity test methods. A rheometer with a parallel plate measuring geometry of 40mm diameter and a gap height of 1mm was used to characterise the paste and associated flux media. Findings – The results from the study showed that the creep-recovery test can be used to study the deformation and recovery of the pastes, which can be used to understand the slump behaviour in solder pastes. In addition, the results from the thixotropic and viscosity test were unsuccessful in determining the differences in the rheological flow behaviour in the solder pastes and the flux medium samples. Research limitations/implications – More extensive rheological and printing testing is needed in order to correlate the findings from this study with the printing performance of the pastes. Practical implications – The rheological test method presented in the paper will provide important information for research and development, quality control and production staff to facilitate the manufacture of solder pastes and flux media. Originality/value – The paper explains how the rheological test can be used as a quality control tool to identify the suitability of a developmental solder paste and flux media used for the printing process.

Effects Of Oil On Digestive Cells In Mussels - Quantitative Alterations In Cellular And Lysosomal Structure

Structural changes were observed in the digestive tubule epithelial cells of Mytilus edulis following long-term exposure to the water accommodated fraction (WAF) of North Sea crude oil (30 μg · l−1 total oil derived aromatic hydrocarbons). The changes observed involved a reduction in the height of the digestive cells beyond that demonstrated in a normal feeding cycle. In addition there was a loss of the normal synchrony of the digestive cells to a point where nearly all the tubules exhibited an appearance similar to that which is usually termed ‘reconstituting’. These alterations were quantified using an image analysis technique and the mean height of the digestive cells used as an index of digestive function or state. Long-term exposure also induced a radical alteration of the structure of secondary lysosomes within the digestive cells, resulting in the formation of large lysosomes, believed to be autolysosomes. Stereological analyses showed that these lysosomes are reduced in numbers and greatly increased in volume in comparison with controls. There is a concomitant increase in surface area of lysosomes per unit volume of digestive cell compared with control conditions. These alterations are indicative of fundamental changes in secondary lysosomal function involving an autophagic response to oil derived hydrocarbons. which would contribute to the reduction of digestive cell cytoplasm. These cellular alterations are discussed in terms of their use as indices of cell injury, in response to oil.

Transcriptome analysis of sulfate deficiency response in marine microalga Emiliania huxleyi

Summary The response to sulfate deficiency of plants and freshwater green algae has been extensively analysed by system biology approaches. By contrast, seawater sulfate concentration is high and very little is known about the sulfur metabolism of marine organisms. Here, we used a combination of metabolite analysis and transcriptomics to analyse the response of the marine microalga Emiliania huxleyi as it acclimated to sulfate limitation. Lowering sulfate availability in artificial seawater from 25 to 5 mM resulted in significant reduction in growth and intracellular concentrations of dimethylsulfoniopropionate and glutathione. Sulfate-limited E. huxleyi cells showed increased sulfate uptake but sulfate reduction to sulfite did not seem to be regulated. Sulfate limitation in E. huxleyi affected expression of 1718 genes. The vast majority of these genes were upregulated, including genes involved in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, and genes involved in the general stress response. The acclimation response of E. huxleyi to sulfate deficiency shows several similarities to the well-described responses of Arabidopsis and Chlamydomonas, but also has many unique features. This dataset shows that even though E. huxleyi is adapted to constitutively high sulfate concentration, it retains the ability to re-program its gene expression in response to reduced sulfate availability.

Contribution of the UV component of natural sunlight to photoinhibition of photosynthesis in six species of subtidal brown and red seaweeds.

Field-collected specimens of three species of Laminaria and three species of subtidal red algae (Delesseria sanguinea, Plocamium cartilagineum and Phyllophora pseudoceranoides) were exposed to natural summer sunlight on Helgoland (southern North Sea) for up to 4 h at 15 °C. Dark-adapted variable fluorescence (Fv : Fm) was measured immediately after these treatments, and following 6, 24 and 48 h of recovery in moderate irradiances of white light. The response of plants to the full spectrum of natural sunlight was compared with that to PAR alone, UV-A + visible, UV-A + UV-B, or UV-A alone. The Fv : Fm values of all species were reduced to minimal values after 4 h in all of these treatments, but those of the more resistant species (Laminaria spp. and P. pseudoceranoides) were higher after shorter exposures to UV radiation alone than to PAR with or without UV. The recovery of Fv : Fm in all species was also more rapid in the two treatments that contained UV radiation alone than in those that included PAR. These results suggest that it is the high irradiances of PAR in natural sunlight which are responsible for the photoinhibition of photosynthesis of subtidal seaweeds and that the current ambient irradiances of UV radiation (either UV-B or UV-A) in northern temperate latitudes would not contribute significantly to this photoinhibition.

Range-edge effects promote clonal growth in peripheral populations of the one-sided wintergreen Orthilia secunda

Existing in suboptimal conditions is a frequent occurrence for species inhabiting the cusp of their ecological range. In range-edge populations of plants, the scarcity of suitable habitat may be reflected in small population sizes which may result in increased self-pollination and/or inbreeding and an increase in the incidence of clonal reproduction. These factors may result in a decrease in levels of genetic diversity and a loss of potential adaptive variation that may compromise species' ability to cope with changes in their environment, an issue that is particularly relevant today with the current concern surrounding global climate change and its effect on species' distributional ranges. In the present study, we have compared the levels of clonal reproduction in the one-sided wintergreen Orthilia secunda (L.) House in (1) populations from its main continuous distribution range, (2) populations occurring on the limits of the continuous range, and (3) peripheral populations outwith the species' continuous distribution range. Range-edge populations in Scotland and Sweden displayed significantly lower genotypic richness and diversity than those from the main area of the species' distribution in these countries. Populations from Ireland, which occur in the temperate zone rather than the boreal conditions that are the preferred habitat for the species, and which represent relict populations left over from cooler periods in the Earth's history, displayed no within-population genetic diversity, suggesting a complete lack of sexual reproduction. Furthermore, the genetic distinctiveness of the Irish populations, which contained alleles not found in either the Scottish or the Swedish populations, highlights the value of 'trailing edge' populations and supports the concept of 'parochial conservation', namely the conservation of species that are locally rare but globally common.

Spontaneous transitions in the coordination of a whole body task

This paper describes an example of spontaneous transitions between qualitatively different coordination patterns during a cyclic lifting and lowering task. Eleven participants performed 12 trials of repetitive lifting and lowering in a ramp protocol in which the height of the lower shelf was raised or lowered I cm per cycle between 10 and 50 cm. Two distinct patterns of coordination were evident: a squat technique in which moderate range of hip, knee and ankle movement was utilised and ankle plantar-flexion occurred simultaneously with knee and hip extension; and a stoop technique in which the range of knee movement was reduced and knee and hip extension was accompanied by simultaneous ankle dorsi-flexion. Abrupt transitions from stoop to squat techniques were observed during descending trials, and from squat to stoop during ascending trials. Indications of hysteresis was observed in that transitions were more frequently observed during descending trials, and the average shelf height at the transition was 5 cm higher during ascending trials. The transitions may be a consequence of a trade-off between the biomechanical advantages of each technique and the influence of the lift height on this trade-off. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.