Composition tunable memory and threshold switching in Al20As xTe80− x semiconducting glasses

I-V studies indicate a composition dependent switching behavior (Memory or Threshold) in bulk Al20AsxTe80−x glasses, which is determined by the coordination and composition of aluminum. Investigations on temperature and thickness dependence of switching and structural studies on switched samples suggest thermal and electronic mechanisms of switching for the memory and threshold samples, respectively. The present results also show that these samples have a wider composition range of threshold behavior with lower threshold voltages compared to other threshold samples.

TURBULENT PUMPING OF MAGNETIC FLUX REDUCES SOLAR CYCLE MEMORY AND THUS IMPACTS PREDICTABILITY OF THE SUN'S ACTIVITY

Prediction of the Sun's magnetic activity is important because of its effect on space environment and climate. However, recent efforts to predict the amplitude of the solar cycle have resulted in diverging forecasts with no consensus. Yeates et al. have shown that the dynamical memory of the solar dynamo mechanism governs predictability, and this memory is different for advection- and diffusion-dominated solar convection zones. By utilizing stochastically forced, kinematic dynamo simulations, we demonstrate that the inclusion of downward turbulent pumping of magnetic flux reduces the memory of both advection- and diffusion-dominated solar dynamos to only one cycle; stronger pumping degrades this memory further. Thus, our results reconcile the diverging dynamo-model-based forecasts for the amplitude of solar cycle 24. We conclude that reliable predictions for the maximum of solar activity can be made only at the preceding minimum-allowing about five years of advance planning for space weather. For more accurate predictions, sequential data assimilation would be necessary in forecasting models to account for the Sun's short memory.

Birth Weight, Working Memory and Epigenetic Signatures in IGF2 and Related Genes: A MZ Twin Study

Neurodevelopmental disruptions caused by obstetric complications play a role in the etiology of several phenotypes associated with neuropsychiatric diseases and cognitive dysfunctions. Importantly, it has been noticed that epigenetic processes occurring early in life may mediate these associations. Here, DNA methylation signatures at IGF2 (insulin-like growth factor 2) and IGF2BP1-3 (IGF2-binding proteins 1-3) were examined in a sample consisting of 34 adult monozygotic (MZ) twins informative for obstetric complications and cognitive performance. Multivariate linear regression analysis of twin data was implemented to test for associations between methylation levels and both birth weight (BW) and adult working memory (WM) performance. Familial and unique environmental factors underlying these potential relationships were evaluated. A link was detected between DNA methylation levels of two CpG sites in the IGF2BP1 gene and both BW and adult WM performance. The BW-IGF2BP1 methylation association seemed due to non-shared environmental factors influencing BW, whereas the WM-IGF2BP1 methylation relationship seemed mediated by both genes and environment. Our data is in agreement with previous evidence indicating that DNA methylation status may be related to prenatal stress and later neurocognitive phenotypes. While former reports independently detected associations between DNA methylation and either BW or WM, current results suggest that these relationships are not confounded by each other.

Por entre histórias e memórias: caminhos do curso de formação de professores do Colégio Estadual Trasilbo Filgueiras (19841985)

A presente dissertação centra-se na investigação das memórias e histórias da criação do Curso de Formação de Professores em nível médio, do Colégio Estadual Trasilbo Filgueiras, localizado no bairro Jardim Catarina, no município de São Gonçalo. O recorte temporal da pesquisa concentra-se no início da oferta do referido curso os anos de 1984 e 1985. A partir de um enfoque metodológico de natureza qualitativa, buscamos em fontes documentais - arquivo permanente da instituição escolar e impressos do Jornal O SÃO GONÇALO -, em diálogo com fontes orais - narrativas dos/as moradores/as, professoras, funcionários/as e alunas egressas - indícios (GINZBURG, 1989) das histórias vividas neste espaço formativo. As questões que este trabalho de investigação se propõe a discutir são: Por que foi criado o Curso de Formação de Professores no Colégio Estadual Trasilbo Filgueiras? Que narram os sujeitos da pesquisa sobre a criação do curso na instituição? A relação memória e história são compreendidas a partir de Benjamim (1996) e Nunes (2003), em uma perspectiva de que passado é entendido como tempo presente ao ser rememorado. A escala de análise (REVEL, 1998) é utilizada como ferramenta reflexiva da interação entre os diferentes sujeitos sociais. Sujeitos sociais que cotidianamente, no âmbito da esfera local e global, constroem os processos históricos mediante suas práticas culturais, relações sociais e modos de vida. A pesquisa justifica-se pela necessidade da reflexão, da rememoração e valorização das memórias escolares e da história da formação de professores no município de São Gonçalo, com vistas ao fortalecimento das instituições públicas que a desenvolvem. Palavras-chave: Curso

Effect of Susquehanna River stream flow on Chesapeake Bay salinities and history of past oyster mortalities on upper Bay bars

A study of possible causes for extensive mortality of oysters in the Upper Chesapeake Bay was taken on by year-round monitoring of conditions during a two-year period.

Population structure and history in East Asia

Archaeological, anatomical, linguistic, and genetic data have suggested that there is an old and significant boundary between the populations of north and south China. We use three human genetic marker systems and one human-carried virus to examine the north/south distinction. We find no support for a major north/south division in these markers; rather, the marker patterns suggest simple isolation by distance.

Exposure to chronic constant light impairs spatial memory and influences long-term depression in rats

Exposure to chronic constant light (CCL) influences circadian rhythms and evokes stress. Since hippocampus is sensitive to stress, which facilitates long-term depression (LTD) in the hippocampal CA1 area, we examined whether CCL exposure influenced hippoc

Effects of pentylenetetrazol-induced brief convulsive seizures on spatial memory and fear memory

Previous Studies have demonstrated that in the pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) kindling model, recurrent seizures either impair or have no effect on learning and memory. However, the effects of brief seizures on learning and memory remain unknown. Here, we found

DOPAMINE D2 RECEPTOR MECHANISMS CONTRIBUTE TO AGE-RELATED COGNITIVE DECLINE - THE EFFECTS OF QUINPIROLE ON MEMORY AND MOTOR-PERFORMANCE IN MONKEYS

The D2 dopamine (DA) receptor agonist, quinpirole, was characterized in young adult monkeys, young reserpine-treated monkeys and aged monkeys to assess the contribution of DA to age-related loss of prefrontal cortical (PFC) cognitive function, Monkeys were tested on a delayed response memory task that depends on the PFC, and a fine motor task that taps the functions of the motor cortex, In young adult monkeys, low quinpirole doses impaired performance of the PFC and fine motor tasks, while higher doses improved memory performance and induced dyskinesias and ''hallucinatory-like'' behaviors. The pattern of the quinpirole response in reserpine-treated monkeys suggested that the impairments in delayed response and fine motor performance resulted from drug actions at D2 autoreceptors, while the improvement in delayed response performance, dyskinesias and ''hallucinatory-like'' behaviors resulted from actions at postsynaptic receptors. In aged monkeys, low doses of quinpirole continued to impair fine motor performance, but lost their ability to impair delayed response performance. The magnitude of cognitive improvement and the incidence of ''hallucinatory-like'' behaviors were also reduced in the aged animals, suggesting some loss of postsynaptic D2 receptor function, The pattern of results is consistent with the greater loss of DA from the PFC than from motor areas in aged monkey brain (Goldman-Rakic and Brown, 1981; Wenk et al., 1989), and indicates that DA depletion contributes significantly to age-related cognitive decline.

Shape-memory and biocompatibility properties of segmented polyurethanes based on poly(L-lactide)

A series of segmented poly (L-lactide)-polyurethanes (PLA-PU) were synthesized by a two-step method, with oligo-poly(L-lactide) (PLA) as the soft segments and the reaction product of 2,4-toluene diisocyanate(TDI) and ethylene glycol(EG) as the hard segments. The shape memory properties of PLA-PUs were examined. The processed PLA-PUs could recover almost 100% to their original shape within 10 degrees C from the lowest recovery temperature. In the recovery process, the PLA-PUs showed a maximum contracting stress of shape change in the range of 1.5-4 MPa depending on the PLA segmental length and the hard-segmental content and higher than that of poly (e-caprolactone polyurethane) (PCL-PU). Besides, the influence of deforming and fixing temperatures on shape memory properties of PLA-PU was studied in detail. They could affect not only the recovery temperature but also the maximum contracting stress. The experiments of cell incubation were used to evaluate the biocompatibility of PLA-PU. The results show that the biocompatibility of PLA-PU is comparable to that of the pure PLA. This kind of polyurethane can be used as implanted medical devices with a shape memory property.

Communicable Memory and Lazy Barriers for Bulk Synchronous Parallelism in BSPk

Communication and synchronization stand as the dual bottlenecks in the performance of parallel systems, and especially those that attempt to alleviate the programming burden by incurring overhead in these two domains. We formulate the notions of communicable memory and lazy barriers to help achieve efficient communication and synchronization. These concepts are developed in the context of BSPk, a toolkit library for programming networks of workstations|and other distributed memory architectures in general|based on the Bulk Synchronous Parallel (BSP) model. BSPk emphasizes efficiency in communication by minimizing local memory-to-memory copying, and in barrier synchronization by not forcing a process to wait unless it needs remote data. Both the message passing (MP) and distributed shared memory (DSM) programming styles are supported in BSPk. MP helps processes efficiently exchange short-lived unnamed data values, when the identity of either the sender or receiver is known to the other party. By contrast, DSM supports communication between processes that may be mutually anonymous, so long as they can agree on variable names in which to store shared temporary or long-lived data.

Cuckoo: a Language for Implementing Memory- and Thread-safe System Services

This paper is centered around the design of a thread- and memory-safe language, primarily for the compilation of application-specific services for extensible operating systems. We describe various issues that have influenced the design of our language, called Cuckoo, that guarantees safety of programs with potentially asynchronous flows of control. Comparisons are drawn between Cuckoo and related software safety techniques, including Cyclone and software-based fault isolation (SFI), and performance results suggest our prototype compiler is capable of generating safe code that executes with low runtime overheads, even without potential code optimizations. Compared to Cyclone, Cuckoo is able to safely guard accesses to memory when programs are multithreaded. Similarly, Cuckoo is capable of enforcing memory safety in situations that are potentially troublesome for techniques such as SFI.