Top Component Research Articles

Dual-Layered Film Protected Lithium Metal Anode to Enable Dendrite-Free Lithium Deposition.

Lithium metal batteries (such as lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, solid state batteries with lithium metal anode) are highly considered as promising candidates for next-generation energy storage systems. However, the unstable interfaces between lithium anode and electrolyte definitely induce the undesired and uncontrollable growth of lithium dendrites, which results in the short-circuit and thermal runaway of the rechargeable batteries. Herein, a dual-layered film is built on a Li metal anode by the immersion of lithium plates into the fluoroethylene carbonate solvent. The ionic conductive film exhibits a compact dual-layered feature with organic components (ROCO2 Li and ROLi) on the top and abundant inorganic components (Li2 CO3 and LiF) in the bottom. The dual-layered interface can protect the Li metal anode from the corrosion of electrolytes and regulate the uniform deposition of Li to achieve a dendrite-free Li metal anode. This work demonstrates the concept of rational construction of dual-layered structured interfaces for safe rechargeable batteries through facile surface modification of Li metal anodes. This not only is critically helpful to comprehensively understand the functional mechanism of fluoroethylene carbonate but also affords a facile and efficient method to protect Li metal anodes.

Space degradation of 3J solar cells: I—Proton irradiation

AbstractTo understand the influence of proton irradiation on lattice‐matched GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple junction (TJ) solar cells under low intensity, low temperature (LILT) conditions, we investigated electrical behaviors of top, middle, and bottom component cells together with TJ cells under these conditions. Proton irradiations with energies of 1 MeV and fluences ranging from 2 × 1010 to 1.6 × 1012 cm−2 were performed at temperatures ranging from 100 to 300 K. Our study reveals that any of the 3 subcells can become the current limiting cell in the TJ cell, depending on temperature and fluence. In particular, remarkable degradation of the bottom cell at low temperature can make this subcell the current limiting in a TJ cell even for limited fluences. The results indicate that the defect distribution is non‐uniform for low temperature irradiation.

Dual-band transmission polarization converter based on planar-dipole pair frequency selective surface

A novel linear polarization converter operating in C- and X-bands with high polarization conversion ratio is described and demonstrated based on frequency selective surface. The building element is a planar-dipole pair, which is orthogonally printed on a double-layer substrate and vertically connected by a pair of through-via holes functioning as a quasi-two-wire transmission line coupler. A perforated metal shielding layer is sandwiched between the double-layer structure to only support a transverse electric and magnetic (TEM) mode coupling between the top and bottom dipolar components. The front dipole responds to the incident transverse electric (TE) wave, and sends the induced current into the two-wire transmission line to feed the bottom dipole. The bottom dipole is orthogonal or oriented at an arbitrary angle with respect to the top one, and a resultant outgoing transverse magnetic (TM) wave or arbitrary orientation polarized wave can be achieved. In addition, a bidirectional orthogonal polarization converter is realized by using double orthogonally arranged planar-dipole pairs, which are also printed on the same double-layer substrate.

Optimization of Multi-Layer Dome Structures for Enhanced Performance and Comfort of Protector Pads

A multi-material, multi-layer dome structure is proposed for desigining futuristic body protection pads that will address a safety issue prominent among the population of elderly people, patients, industry workers, military personnel, and sport players. Those people are prone to be subjected to blunt impacts due to falls, bullets, and blast waves, which can result in serious injuries, early death, and extremely high medical costs. Protector pads can effectively reduce impact force and prevent injuries in high-risk individuals. However, most currently available protection pads are bulky, heavy, or rigid. Therefore, new body protectors need to be developed to satisfy the requirements of wearing comfort, ease of fitting, ensured protection, and cost-effectiveness. Out of many different design ideas generated, the most promising ones were identified through an evaluation process based on various criteria such as performance, comfort, and manufacturability. One of those designs utilizes a dome-shaped top layer and thin fabric membrane component that is very strong in tension but flexible in bending. Such structure will make the pads excellent in dissipating shock energy by diverting normal impact force to lateral direction and minimizing the force directly transmitted to the weakest body parts. Through finite element analyses, the best combinations of materials and components were identified. The selected pad structure was optimized for light-weight and flexibility while keeping excellent resistance to the compression. The thickness of the shell element and the overall thickness of the whole pad were optimized for the same level of deflection and stress as other simple shell pads. The results showed that the dome-shaped structure could be a useful component of effective body protection pads through optimal combination of various materials and layers.

Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm ed. by Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Blainey

Reviewed by: Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm ed. by Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Blainey Anne S. Dowd (bio) Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm. Edited by Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Blainey. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2016. Pp. xiii + 324. Handcover $65. Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Blainey have neatly joined a series of thematically linked articles in this volume with as much sophistication as the ancient craftspeople that skillfully left minute spaces between polished mosaic mirror tesserae. Spanning experimental archaeology, anthropology or ethnography of religion, and iconography, the chapters illuminate technical and symbolic aspects of mirror production and use. From a chaîne operatoire or production sequence perspective, the volume is successful because it draws a wealth of examples from across Mesoamerica, giving a sense of the diverse approaches to mirror technology. The argument that sequence and horizontal separation of manufacturing tasks and workshop locations should be followed to the final disposition or lateral recycling of parts of finished products is important for understanding social roles of craftspeople through to end users. Brigitte Kovacevich's (Chapter 4) reference to a string-saw anchor, a grooved stone found among unfinished sawn pyrite plaques, a pyrite bead, pyrite nodules, perforated limestone mirror backs, and other workshop debris in Structure K6–34, Cancuén, Guatemala, is an example of a distinctive fabrication tool. Julie Gazzola, Sergio Gómez Chávez, and Thomas Calligaro (Chapter 5) address the difficulty of recognizing the minerals left when unstable ores such as pyrite or hematite degrade in moist soil environments. Recognizing oxidized sulfate powder or other mineral residues that may be all that remains of deteriorated iron-ore artifacts such as pyrite, hematite, magnetite, or ilmenite should increase the likelihood that plaque or other materials are correctly identified. Gallaga (Chapter 2) estimates the amount of time to produce a pyrite mirror with sandstone back at about 110–160 person days. One reason fabrication is so labor intensive is that pyrite (FeS2) is 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale. Emiliano Melgar, Gallaga, and Reyna Solis (Chapter 3) provide syntheses of experimental [End Page 473] archaeological results, including SEM microscopic analyses to ascertain production tools and methods. Manufactured Light authors considered how light technology was employed in depth. Gallaga (Chapter 1) discusses using mirrors in interior settings to produce light flashes or pointer beams on walls; Karl Taube (Chapter 13) credits this concept to the Greek philosopher Iamblichus. Jóse J. Lunazzi (Chapter 6) reports a test of mirror properties' refraction or reflection functions for long-range signaling at 1.4 km. One can imagine how hierophantic effects of sunlight could have been augmented by the use of mirrors to signal distant people for the timing of ritual acts. Blainey (Chapter 9) discusses archaeological investigation of psycho-tropic substances, entheogens, which may have enabled visions or dreams while looking into a mirror. As Lunazzi mentions (Chapter 6), looking at the reflection of astronomical events in the sky though a mirror offers a perspective down and reversed from the reality above. This quality of reflecting an alternate or supernatural reality has shaped Mesoamerican thought and culture in profound ways. Other chapters treat iron-ore mirror or ornament symbolism. Joseph B. Mountjoy (Chapter 7) makes a case for mirror use in rituals of renewal in Jalisco, Mexico, focused on the dry-to-wet season transition so important to early rainfall farmers. Achim Lelgemann (Chapter 8) describes hematite, obsidian, and turquoise mirror fragments that were the top central component in a cosmically ordered cache covering a possible human skeletal one-legged antecedent of Tezcatlipoca, Nahua god of war, at La Quemada in Zacatecas, Mexico. John J. McGraw (Chapter 10) introduces readers to ideas about ritual ecology wherein quartz crystals play an important role, contributing to religious charisma among Tz'utujil, K'iche', and Kaqchikel diviners and daykeepers in Guatemala. Carrie L. Dennett and Blainey (Chapter 11) seek to explain "Mesoamerican" mirrors in Intermediate Area contexts using ideas about economically motivated gifting based on principles of peer elite emulation and exchange. Olivia Kindel (Chapter 12) describes contemporary mirror use—worn as chest pectorals or necklace pendants—among the indigenous Wixaritari or Huichol, Mexico...

Пропозиционально-семантическая организация гнёзд однокоренных слов с вершинными компонентами отец, папа в русском языке (на материале лексикографических источников)

The present study is carried out in the course of cognitive word formation of the Russian language. The author, noting the axiological nature of word formation, pays close attention to the internal (propositional-semantic) organization of the same root word families - one of its complex units. The object of study in the work are the same root word families with the vertex components otets , papa , each of which demonstrates the angles of understanding of the culturally significant fragment of the world in the minds of the Russian people. The source of the same-root vocabulary selected for the analysis within two families are the dictionary materials. Reference to lexicographic works and application of the method of propositional-frame modeling allow, firstly, to establish a set of same-root lexemes, united by the vertices otets , papa ; secondly, to determine the semantic volume and word-formation capabilities of the vertex components otets , papa ; thirdly, to trace the features of the implementation of multidimensional semantics of the vertex components otets , papa in the semantic structure of same-root derived lexemes within the boundaries of the considered families through identification of propositional structures. It is established that the propositional-semantic organization of families of same-root words is set by the meaning-generating potential of the top components and highlights the actual, culturally significant, aspects of the perception of father in the consciousness of the Russian people. It is concluded that the same-root lexemes within the comparative families reveal different semantic specialization, which reflects the system of knowledge and ideas of modern Russian speakers.

Top managerial power and stock price efficiency: Evidence from China

Using higher top managerial ownership, occurrence of CEO duality, and lower ownership of the controlling shareholder to proxy for higher top managerial power in China's A-shares, we find firms with higher top managerial power have higher stock price delay after controlling for liquidity and investor attention variables. Moreover, top managerial ownership of SOE firms exhibits a lower influence on stock price delay than top managerial ownership of non-SOE firms, suggesting top managers' promotion incentive in SOE firms has the opposite effect to their equity incentive on stock price efficiency. Furthermore, our findings show that firms with higher top managerial power component of stock price delay exhibit lower quality of accruals, spend more time to release financial reports, and have higher chances of financial misconduct and that accounting quality measures associated with top managerial power significantly explain stock price delay, indicating top managerial power influences stock price efficiency through the accounting quality channel. Finally, our evidence shows that the Split-Share Structure Reform initiated in 2005 increases the influences of both top managerial ownership and ownership of the controlling shareholder on stock price delay and suggests that the anti-corruption campaign launched in 2012 restricts financial manipulations from top managers whereas decreases the incentives of the controlling shareholder to monitor top managers.

GhMAP3K65, a Cotton Raf-Like MAP3K Gene, Enhances Susceptibility to Pathogen Infection and Heat Stress by Negatively Modulating Growth and Development in Transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinases (MAP3Ks), the top components of MAPK cascades, modulate many biological processes, such as growth, development and various environmental stresses. Nevertheless, the roles of MAP3Ks remain poorly understood in cotton. In this study, GhMAP3K65 was identified in cotton, and its transcription was inducible by pathogen infection, heat stress, and multiple signalling molecules. Silencing of GhMAP3K65 enhanced resistance to pathogen infection and heat stress in cotton. In contrast, overexpression of GhMAP3K65 enhanced susceptibility to pathogen infection and heat stress in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana. The expression of defence-associated genes was activated in transgenic N. benthamiana plants after pathogen infection and heat stress, indicating that GhMAP3K65 positively regulates plant defence responses. Nevertheless, transgenic N. benthamiana plants impaired lignin biosynthesis and stomatal immunity in their leaves and repressed vitality of their root systems. In addition, the expression of lignin biosynthesis genes and lignin content were inhibited after pathogen infection and heat stress. Collectively, these results demonstrate that GhMAP3K65 enhances susceptibility to pathogen infection and heat stress by negatively modulating growth and development in transgenic N. benthamiana plants.

Sum of Squares Certificates for Stability of Planar, Homogeneous, and Switched Systems

We show that existence of a global polynomial Lyapunov function for a homogeneous polynomial vector field or a planar polynomial vector field (under a mild condition) implies existence of a polynomial Lyapunov function that is a sum of squares (sos) and that the negative of its derivative is also a sum of squares. This result is extended to show that such sos-based certificates of stability are guaranteed to exist for all stable switched linear systems. For this class of systems, we further show that if the derivative inequality of the Lyapunov function has an sos certificate, then the Lyapunov function itself is automatically a sum of squares. These converse results establish cases where semidefinite programming is guaranteed to succeed in finding proofs of Lyapunov inequalities. Finally, we demonstrate some merits of replacing the sos requirement on a polynomial Lyapunov function with an sos requirement on its top homogeneous component. In particular, we show that this is a weaker algebraic requirement in addition to being cheaper to impose computationally.

GATE: an efficient procedure in study of pleiotropic genetic associations

BackgroundThe association studies on human complex traits are admittedly propitious to identify deleterious genetic markers. Compared to single-trait analyses, multiple-trait analyses can arguably make better use of the information on both traits and markers, and thus improve statistical power of association tests prominently. Principal component analysis (PCA) is a well-known useful tool in multivariate analysis and can be applied to this task. Generally, PCA is first performed on all traits and then a certain number of top principal components (PCs) that explain most of the trait variations are selected to construct the test statistics. However, under some situations, only utilizing these top PCs would lead to a loss of important evidences from discarded PCs and thus makes the capability compromised.MethodsTo overcome this drawback while keeping the advantages of using the top PCs, we propose a group accumulated test evidence (GATE) procedure. By dividing the PCs which is sorted in the descending order according to the corresponding eigenvalues into a few groups, GATE integrates the information of traits at the group level.ResultsSimulation studies demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach over several existing methods in terms of statistical power. Sometimes, the increase of power can reach 25%. These methods are further illustrated using the Heterogeneous Stock Mice data which is collected from a quantitative genome-wide association study.ConclusionsOverall, GATE provides a powerful test for pleiotropic genetic associations.

Diverted medications and new psychoactive substances—A chemical network analysis of discarded injecting paraphernalia in Hungary

BackgroundUntil about 2010, people who inject drugs (PWIDs) injected almost exclusively heroin and amphetamines in Hungary. After 2010, self-reported studies have indicated a dominance of new psychoactive substances on the drug market for injectable drugs. MethodsBetween March 2015 and February 2016, we collected used and discarded injecting paraphernalia. We utilized chemical analysis to assess and UCINet to visualize the connections between the most prevalent main substances and their respective co-occurring additional components at 7 locations in Hungary. ResultsThe samples (n=2977) contained a mean of 4.5 components (SD=3.1, range: 1–18); 422 contained only one component. We found that the most common main components were the diverted substitution medication methadone (32%) and cathinones: pentedrone (18%), mephedrone (13%), alpha-PHP (8%), and alpha-PEP (5%). While these main substances also occurred among the top co-occurring additional components, caffeine and benzoic acid (a preservative) also frequently co-occurred. ConclusionA large number of co-occurring additional components indicate either common reuse of injecting paraphernalia or the common addition of additives or both. While caffeine may indeed be an adulterant, the high prevalence of benzoic acid may be difficult to explain. The preference of methadone despite the availability of a wide array of drugs may indicate a preference for opioids during the current heroin drought and/or a true demand for opioid substitution therapy.

واقع تطبيق عناصر الإبداع الإداري ومعوقاته لدى إدارات جامعة الأميرة نوره بنت عبد الرحمن من وجهة نظر الإداريات العاملين فيها

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى التعرف على واقع تطبيق عناصر الإبداع الإداري والمتمثلة في: الأصالة، الطلاقة، المرونة، المخاطرة، القدرة على التحليل، الحساسية للمشكلات، والخروج عن المألوف لدى إدارات جامعة الأميرة نوره بنت عبدالرحمن، والتعرف على المعوقات التنظمية والمعوقات الشخصية التي تحد من تطبيق عناصر الإبداع الإداري لدى إدارات جامعة الأميرة نوره بنت عبد الرحمن من وجهة نظر الإداريات العاملين فيها. وقد استخدمت الباحثة المنهج الوصفي، والاستبانة كأداة للدراسة، وشملت عينة الدراسة (123) من الإداريات العاملين في جامعة الأميرة نوره بنت عبد الرحمن. ومن النتائج التي توصلت لها الدراسة أن - أن درجة تطبيق مديرات ادارات جامعة الأميرة نوره بنت عبد الرحمن لعناصر الإبداع الإداري، ومدى توفر عناصر الإبداع الإداري هي درجة كبيرة. وقد احتلت عنصر المرونة العنصر الأعلى في تطبيق جامعة الأميرة نوره بنت عبدالرحمن لعناصر الإبداع الإداري، بينما احتل عنصر الخروج عن المألوف أقل عناصر الإبداع الإداري. وأظهرت الدراسة أن أفراد عينة الدراسة يرون أن هناك معوقات بدرجة متوسطة تواجه مديرات الإدارات في الجامعة في ممارسة الإبداع الإداري، وكانت المعوقات التنظيمية أكثر تأثيا من المعوقات الشخصية. ,This study aimed to identify the status of the application of the elements of the administrative creativity of : originality, fluency , flexibility , risk- analysis capability , sensitivity to problems , and out of the ordinary at Princess Noura Bint Abdul Rahman University.departments, and to identify the obstacles Altnzemih personal obstacles that limit applying the elements of management innovation at Princess Noura Bint Abdul Rahman University departments from the viewpoint of administrators its staff. The researcher used the descriptive approach , and the questionnaire as a tool for the study, and the study sample included( 123 ) of the administrators working in Princess Noura Bint Abdul Rahman University. It is the findings of a study that - that the degree of application managers departments Princess Noura Bint Abdul Rahman University. of the elements of the administrative creativity , and the extent of the administrative Anaasralabdaa offers are great degree. Top flexibility component element has been ranked in the application of Princess Noura Bint Abdul Rahman University for administrative elements of creativity , while finished out of the ordinary elements less administrative creativity element. The study showed that the study sample believe that there are obstacles facing moderately directors of departments at the university in the practice of administrative creativity, and organizational obstacles were more Tothia personal obstacle.

Physiological responses to drought stress in wild relatives of wheat: implications for wheat improvement

Wild progenitors of common wheat are a potential source of tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. We conducted a glasshouse pot experiment to study genotypic differences in response to drought stress in a collection of 180 accessions of Aegilops and Triticum along with one tolerant and one sensitive control variety. Several physiological traits and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were evaluated. Our findings indicated that drought significantly reduced shoot fresh (59.45%) and dry (50.83%) weights, stomatal conductance (41.52%) and maximum photosynthetic capacity (41.06%), but increased initial fluorescence (28.10%). Drought stress also decreased the chlorophyll content, relative water content and maximum quantum efficiency by 14.90, 12.13 and 11.42%, respectively. Principal component analysis of the 182 individuals identified three components that explained 57.61 and 61.68% of the total variation in physiological and photosynthetic traits under control and stress conditions, respectively. When grouped into the 12 species tested, the three top components explained 78.22% of the total variation under drought. The means comparison, stress tolerance index and biplot analysis identified five accessions with superior tolerance to drought. Remarkably, four species of wild relatives—Ae. cylindrica (DC genome), Ae. crassa (DM genome), Ae. caudata (C genome) and T. urartu (Au genome)—responded well to drought stress with a lower percentage decline for most traits and high values for the first two components. The potential of these species offers further opportunities for analysis at the molecular and cellular levels to confront with drought stress through a physiological mechanism.

Abstract MP013: Diet High in Sweets and Sugar-sweetened Beverages But Low in Fruits and Vegetables is Associated With Pro-inflammatory Adipokine Profile in Mexican Americans at Risk For Diabetes

Background: High consumption of sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with obesity, insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. Pro- and anti-inflammatory adipokines may mediate the relationship between dietary intake and poor metabolic profile. However, studies investigating the association between diet and adipokines are scant and often restricted to one or two biomarkers. Study design and methods: Subjects were participants of BetaGene, a study of obesity, insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction in Mexican Americans (n=1,128, 73% female, age 34.6±8.0, BMI 29.5±5.9). Adiponectin, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-1Ra, leptin, lipocalin, MCP-1, resistin and TNF-α were assayed using Millipore multiplex kits with magnetic bead panels; apelin, CRP, DPP-IV, visfatin, SFRP4 and SFRP5 were measured with ELISA. Dietary intake was assessed by 12-mo recall (126-item Harvard-FFQ). Joint multivariate associations between levels of adipokines and food group consumed (grams/day) were analyzed using canonical correlation after adjustment for age, sex and energy intake. Results: Median (IQR) energy intake was 2.27 (1.75,2.85) Mcal/day. While 55% of total intake was accounted for by carbohydrates, 24% was due to sugar. A total of 37% of the shared variation between diet and adipokines was explained by the top linear association between the two. The top dietary component ( Figure 1 ) was most represented by sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB, loading coefficient ρ=0.55), sweets (ρ=0.53), fruits (ρ=-0.47), fruit juices (ρ=-0.34), and vegetables (ρ=-0.30), while the adipokine component was most represented by leptin (ρ=0.63), CRP (ρ=0.56), and MCP-1 (ρ=0.47). Conclusions: Diets high in sweets and sugar-sweetened beverage but low in fruits and vegetables contribute to a pro-inflammatory profile characterized by high leptin, CRP and MCP-1, which in turn is associated with poor metabolic profile in Mexican Americans at risk for type 2 diabetes.

NONCOMPACT GROUPS OF HERMITIAN SYMMETRIC TYPE AND FACTORIZATION

We investigate Birkhoff (or triangular) factorization and (what we propose to call) root subgroup factorization for elements of a noncompact simple Lie group G0 of Hermitian symmetric type. For compact groups root subgroup factorization is related to Bott–Samelson desingularization, and many striking applications have been discovered by Lu ([5]). In this paper, in the noncompact Hermitian symmetric case, we obtain parallel characterizations of the Birkhoff components of G0 and an analogous construction of root subgroup coordinates for the Birkhoff components. As in the compact case, we show that the restriction of Haar measure to the top Birkhoff component is a product measure in root subgroup coordinates.

Indacenodithiophene-based wide bandgap copolymers for high performance single-junction and tandem polymer solar cells

Two wide bandgap copolymers based on bulky indacenodithiophene (IDT) and alkoxylated benzothiadiazole units (PIDTBTO-T and PIDTBTO-TT) with the thiophene or thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (TT) π-bridge are designed and synthesized. The effect of π-bridge on the π-π packing, optical, carrier transport, nano-sized phase separation and photovoltaic properties of the copolymers are investigated in depth. In comparison with the PIDTBTO-T-based counterpart, the best performance solar cell based on PIDTBTO-TT exhibits a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.15% which is mainly attributed to the formation of a fibrous network for the active layer based on PIDTBTO-TT. Furthermore, when a novel hybrid electron transport layer (PDIN:PFN) is introduced into a tandem solar cell using the PIDTBTO-TT-based device and a PTB7-Th-based device as the bottom and top cell components, respectively, the resulting solar cell exhibits an outstanding PCE of 11.15% with a large open circuit voltage of 1.70V. To the best of our knowledge, the PCEs of 8.15% and 11.15% are the highest values reported to date for the single-junction and tandem solar cells using IDT-based copolymers, respectively. Our results demonstrate that the π-bridge modulation is effective in adjusting the charge carrier mobility and photovoltaic performance of IDT-based wide bandgap copolymers for single-junction and tandem devices.

Age-associated patterns in gray matter volume, cerebral perfusion and BOLD oscillations in children and adolescents.

Healthy brain development involves changes in brain structure and function that are believed to support cognitive maturation. However, understanding how structural changes such as grey matter thinning relate to functional changes is challenging. To gain insight into structure-function relationships in development, the present study took a data driven approach to define age-related patterns of variation in gray matter volume (GMV), cerebral blood flow (CBF) and blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal variation (fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations; fALFF) in 59 healthy children aged 7-18 years, and examined relationships between modalities. Principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to each modality in parallel, and participant scores for the top components were assessed for age associations. We found that decompositions of CBF, GMV and fALFF all included components for which scores were significantly associated with age. The dominant patterns in GMV and CBF showed significant (GMV) or trend level (CBF) associations with age and a strong spatial overlap, driven by increased signal intensity in default mode network (DMN) regions. GMV, CBF and fALFF additionally showed components accounting for 3-5% of variability with significant age associations. However, these patterns were relatively spatially independent, with small-to-moderate overlap between modalities. Independence of age effects was further demonstrated by correlating individual subject maps between modalities: CBF was significantly less correlated with GMV and fALFF in older children relative to younger. These spatially independent effects of age suggest that the parallel decline observed in global GMV and CBF may not reflect spatially synchronized processes. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2398-2407, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Principal components adjusted variable screening

Marginal screening has been established as a fast and effective method for high dimensional variable selection method. There are some drawbacks associated with marginal screening, since the marginal model can be viewed as a model misspecification from the joint true model. A principal components adjusted variable screening method is proposed, which uses top principal components as surrogate covariates to account for the variability of the omitted predictors in generalized linear models. The proposed method is demonstrated with superior numerical performance compared with the competing methods. The efficiency of the method is also illustrated with the analysis of the Affymetrix genechip rat genome 230 2.0 array data and the European American SNPs data.

Practitioners' preference: which project planning components offer the most promise?

This research was designed to uncover top planning components as determined by current project management practitioners. A qualitative analysis was conducted involving 58 project managers representing diverse professional years of experience, project sizes, and industries. Various planning components were deemed to be value-adding including the top four which were (in descending order): WBS, scope planning, risk management and stakeholder management. Key findings from the content analysis produced 'themes' which seem to support this ranking. These planning components and associated themes were: a) WBS - 'structure' and 'accountability'; b) scope planning - 'clarity' and 'reflectiveness'; c) risk management - 'uncertainties' and 'insurance'; d) stakeholder management - 'identification' and 'influence'.

(Invited) Rapid Formation of Single-Cell Pairs for Hybrid Cells

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been used as a manipulation tool for a separation, sorting and patterning of particles and cells. We have used negative-DEP (n-DEP) which directs particles and cells to form line patterns with particles and cells rapidly toward the localized positions with relative weak electric fields. In this presentation, a microwell array electrode was used to produce vertical pairs with two different types of cells by positive-DEP (p-DEP). A microwell array (250,000 wells, 500 × 500) was fabricated on a substrate with indium tin oxide (ITO) layer by coventional photolithography. Microwells were designed in 16 μm width and 25 μm depth. Another ITO substrate was mounted on the microwell array via 30 μm thick polyester film to form a fluidic channel. Mouse myeloma cells (4.0 × 107cells/mL, 12 μm diameter) stained in blue with Hoechst 33342 were introduced into the fluidic channel. AC voltage (1.0 MHz, 10 Vpp) was immediately applied between the upper ITO and lower ITO with microwell array to guide cells in individual microwells by p-DEP. On applying the AC voltage, the dispersed cells immediately, i.e., within 1 s, stayed at positions with microwells. In the microwells trapped with two cells, cells in the top component were removed by the fluidic flow, but cells in the bottom component were retained in the microwells because the fluidic flow could not remove cells from microwells with a depth of 25 μm, i.e., twice the cell diameter or more. These results clearly indicate that the cell array could be formed on the microwell array electrode easily and rapidly by p-DEP. K562 cells (15 μm diameter) stained in green with 5-(and-6)-carboxyfluoresein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFDA SE) were also guided into microwells occupied with myeloma cells in blue by p-DEP. Myeloma cells in blue and K562 cells in green were successively trapped into microwells by p-DEP. The presence of two cells is not particularly clear in the optical image. In contrast, both blue and green signals which are indicated the presence of myeloma cells and K562 cells are clearly observed from the individual microwells. These results strongly indicated that two different types of cells are vertically aligned in microwells to form single-cell pairs. We can obtain pairs of different cells within 1 min with the pairing efficiency of approximately 68 %. The vertical alignment of cell pairs would be a distinct advantage for producing couplets by cell fusion using electric pulse fields generated between the upper electrode and the lower microwell array electrode, which were used for the cell pairing by p-DEP. The array of two different types of cells can be easily and rapidly formed using the simple device with a p-DEP process. Figure 1