Sediment organic matter, grain size, and results of prediction models from northern North Atlantic and Arctic Seas

Sediment samples and hydrographic conditions were studied at 28 stations around Iceland. At these sites, Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) casts were conducted to collect hydrographic data and multicorer casts were conductd to collect data on sediment characteristics including grain size distribution, carbon and nitrogen concentration, and chloroplastic pigment concentration. A total of 14 environmental predictors were used to model sediment characteristics around Iceland on regional geographic space. For these, two approaches were used: Multivariate Adaptation Regression Splines (MARS) and randomForest regression models. RandomForest outperformed MARS in predicting grain size distribution. MARS models had a greater tendency to over- and underpredict sediment values in areas outside the environmental envelope defined by the training dataset. We provide first GIS layers on sediment characteristics around Iceland, that can be used as predictors in future models. Although models performed well, more samples, especially from the shelf areas, will be needed to improve the models in future.

A CAD framework for the characterization and use of Memristor models

In the recent years the missing fourth component, the memristor, was successfully synthesized. However, the mathematical complexity and variety of the models behind this component, in addition to the existence of convergence problems in the simulations, make the design of memristor-based applications long and difficult. In this work we present a memristor model characterization framework which supports the automated generation of subcircuit files. The proposed environment allows the designer to choose and parameterize the memristor model that best suits for a given application. The framework carries out characterizing simulations in order to study the possible non-convergence problems, solving the dependence on the simulation conditions and guaranteeing the functionality and performance of the design. Additionally, the occurrence of undesirable effects related to PVT variations is also taken into account. By performing a Monte Carlo or a corner analysis, the designer is aware of the safety margins which assure the correct device operation.

Evaluation and improvement of empirical models of global solar irradiation: Case study northern Spain

This paper presents a new methodology to build parametric models to estimate global solar irradiation adjusted to specific on-site characteristics based on the evaluation of variable im- portance. Thus, those variables higly correlated to solar irradiation on a site are implemented in the model and therefore, different models might be proposed under different climates. This methodology is applied in a study case in La Rioja region (northern Spain). A new model is proposed and evaluated on stability and accuracy against a review of twenty-two already exist- ing parametric models based on temperatures and rainfall in seventeen meteorological stations in La Rioja. The methodology of model evaluation is based on bootstrapping, which leads to achieve a high level of confidence in model calibration and validation from short time series (in this case five years, from 2007 to 2011). The model proposed improves the estimates of the other twenty-two models with average mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.195 MJ/m2 day and average confidence interval width (95% C.I., n=100) of 0.261 MJ/m2 day. 41.65% of the daily residuals in the case of SIAR and 20.12% in that of SOS Rioja fall within the uncertainty tolerance of the pyranometers of the two networks (10% and 5%, respectively). Relative differences between measured and estimated irradiation on an annual cumulative basis are below 4.82%. Thus, the proposed model might be useful to estimate annual sums of global solar irradiation, reaching insignificant differences between measurements from pyranometers.

Design and integration of lower ports for ITER diagnostic systems

All around the ITER vacuum vessel, forty-four ports will provide access to the vacuum vessel for remotehandling operations, diagnostic systems, heating, and vacuum systems: 18 upper ports, 17 equatorialports, and 9 lower ports. Among the lower ports, three of them will be used for the remote handlinginstallation of the ITER divertor. Once the divertor is in place, these ports will host various diagnosticsystems mounted in the so-called diagnostic racks. The diagnostic racks must allow the support andcooling of the diagnostics, extraction of the required diagnostic signals, and providing access and main-tainability while minimizing the leakage of radiation toward the back of the port where the humans areallowed to enter. A fully integrated inner rack, carrying the near plasma diagnostic components, will bean stainless steel structure, 4.2 m long, with a maximum weight of 10 t. This structure brings water forcooling and baking at maximum temperature of 240?C and provides connection with gas, vacuum andelectric services. Additional racks (placed away from plasma and not requiring cooling) may be requiredfor the support of some particular diagnostic components. The diagnostics racks and its associated exvessel structures, which are in its conceptual design phase, are being designed to survive the lifetimeof ITER of 20 years. This paper presents the current state of development including interfaces, diagnos-tic integration, operation and maintenance, shielding requirements, remote handling, loads cases anddiscussion of the main challenges coming from the severe environment and engineering requirements.

UV-induced inhibition of transcription involves repression of transcription initiation and phosphorylation of RNA polymerase II

Cells from patients with Cockayne syndrome (CS) are hypersensitive to DNA-damaging agents and are unable to restore damage-inhibited RNA synthesis. On the basis of repair kinetics of different types of lesions in transcriptionally active genes, we hypothesized previously that impaired transcription in CS cells is a consequence of defective transcription initiation after DNA damage induction. Here, we investigated the effect of UV irradiation on transcription by using an in vitro transcription system that allowed uncoupling of initiation from elongation events. Nuclear extracts prepared from UV-irradiated or mock-treated normal human and CS cells were assayed for transcription activity on an undamaged β-globin template. Transcription activity in nuclear extracts closely mimicked kinetics of transcription in intact cells: extracts from normal cells prepared 1 h after UV exposure showed a strongly reduced activity, whereas transcription activity was fully restored in extracts prepared 6 h after treatment. Extracts from CS cells exhibited reduced transcription activity at any time after UV exposure. Reduced transcription activity in extracts coincided with a strong reduction of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) containing hypophosphorylated C-terminal domain, the form of RNAPII known to be recruited to the initiation complex. These results suggest that inhibition of transcription after UV irradiation is at least partially caused by repression of transcription initiation and not solely by blocked elongation at sites of lesions. Generation of hypophosphorylated RNAPII after DNA damage appears to play a crucial role in restoration of transcription. CS proteins may be required for this process in a yet unknown way.

Neural basis of lexical-semantic processing and integration of symbolic gestures with words

Three studies investigated the relation between symbolic gestures and words, aiming at discover the neural basis and behavioural features of the lexical semantic processing and integration of the two communicative signals. The first study aimed at determining whether elaboration of communicative signals (symbolic gestures and words) is always accompanied by integration with each other and, if present, this integration can be considered in support of the existence of a same control mechanism. Experiment 1 aimed at determining whether and how gesture is integrated with word. Participants were administered with a semantic priming paradigm with a lexical decision task and pronounced a target word, which was preceded by a meaningful or meaningless prime gesture. When meaningful, the gesture could be either congruent or incongruent with word meaning. Duration of prime presentation (100, 250, 400 ms) randomly varied. Voice spectra, lip kinematics, and time to response were recorded and analyzed. Formant 1 of voice spectra, and mean velocity in lip kinematics increased when the prime was meaningful and congruent with the word, as compared to meaningless gesture. In other words, parameters of voice and movement were magnified by congruence, but this occurred only when prime duration was 250 ms. Time to response to meaningful gesture was shorter in the condition of congruence compared to incongruence. Experiment 2 aimed at determining whether the mechanism of integration of a prime word with a target word is similar to that of a prime gesture with a target word. Formant 1 of the target word increased when word prime was meaningful and congruent, as compared to meaningless congruent prime. Increase was, however, present for whatever prime word duration. In the second study, experiment 3 aimed at determining whether symbolic prime gesture comprehension makes use of motor simulation. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation was delivered to left primary motor cortex 100, 250, 500 ms after prime gesture presentation. Motor Evoked Potential of First Dorsal Interosseus increased when stimulation occurred 100 ms post-stimulus. Thus, gesture was understood within 100ms and integrated with the target word within 250 ms. Experiment 4 excluded any hand motor simulation in order to comprehend prime word. The effect of the prior presentation of a symbolic gesture on congruent target word processing was investigated in study 3. In experiment 5, symbolic gestures were presented as primes, followed by semantically congruent target word or pseudowords. In this case, lexical-semantic decision was accompanied by a motor simulation at 100ms after the onset of the verbal stimuli. Summing up, the same type of integration with a word was present for both prime gesture and word. It was probably subsequent to understanding of the signal, which used motor simulation for gesture and direct access to semantics for words. However, gesture and words could be understood at the same motor level through simulation if words were preceded by an adequate gestural context. Results are discussed in the prospective of a continuum between transitive actions and emblems, in parallelism with language; the grounded/symbolic content of the different signals evidences relation between sensorimotor and linguistic systems, which could interact at different levels.

Motorcycle accident cause factors and identification of countermeasures. Volume II: appendix/supplemental data. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

The electrical admittance of a homogeneous polarized fully electroded circular disc, loss-less and mechanically free : analysis, including Rayleigh correction, data for routine determination of elastic modulus and Piezoelectric coupling, and discussion of limitation of correction, anisotrophy parameters involved, and deductions concerning dimensional standarization /

"ONR Contract No. Nonr-1055(00)."

Energy related innovation, the missing link? : a revision and integration of the business cycle theories of Keynes and Schumpeter /

"To be presented at the Sixteenth International Atlantic Economic Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 6-9, 1983."

Experimental essays on medical and philosophical subjects : particularly, I. On the fermentation of alimentary mixtures, and digestion of the food. II. On the nature and properties of fixed air. III. On the respective powers, and manner of acting, of the different kinds of antiseptics. IV. On the scurvy ; with a proposal for trying new methods to prevent or cure the same, at sea. V. On the dissolvent power of quick-lime ; and a further investigation of the properties of fixed air /

Mode of access: Internet.

The last of the war lords ; new lights on the life and personality of Kaiser Wilhelm II., his relations with Britons and Americans, with artists and writers, and some account of his love-affairs.

Mode of access: Internet.

Digitization and integration of strong motion accelerograms /

Final report, issued Aug. 1977.

Validation and refinement of survival models for liver retransplantation

Orthotopic liver retransplantation (re-OLT) is highly controversial. The objectives of this study were to determine the validity of a recently developed United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) multivariate model using an independent cohort of patients undergoing re-OLT outside the United States, to determine whether incorporation of other variables that were incomplete in the UNOS registry would provide additional prognostic information, to develop new models combining data sets from both cohorts, and to evaluate the validity of the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) in patients undergoing re-OLT. Two hundred eighty-one adult patients undergoing re-OLT (between 1986 and 1999) at 6 foreign transplant centers comprised the validation cohort. We found good agreement between actual survival and predicted survival in the validation cohort; 1-year patient survival rates in the low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups (as assigned by the original UNOS model) were 72%, 68%, and 36%, respectively (P < .0001). In the patients for whom the international normalized ratio (INR) of prothrombin time was available, MELD correlated with outcome following re-OLT; the median MELD scores for patients surviving at least 90 days compared with those dying within 90 days were 20.75 versus 25.9, respectively (P = .004). Utilizing both patient cohorts (n = 979), a new model, based on recipient age, total serum bilirubin, creatinine, and interval to re-OLT, was constructed (whole model χ(2) = 105, P < .0001). Using the c-statistic with 30-day, 90-day, 1-year, and 3-year mortality as the end points, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for 4 different models were compared. In conclusion, prospective validation and use of these models as adjuncts to clinical decision making in the management of patients being considered for re-OLT are warranted.