Nucleated dewetting in supported ultra-thin liquid films with hydrodynamic slip

This study reveals the influence of the surface energy and solid/liquid boundary condition on the breakup mechanism of dewetting ultra-thin polymer films. Using silane self-assembled monolayers, SiO$_2$ substrates are rendered hydrophobic and provide a strong slip rather than a no-slip solid/liquid boundary condition. On undergoing these changes, the thin-film breakup morphology changes dramatically -- from a spinodal mechanism to a breakup which is governed by nucleation and growth. The experiments reveal a dependence of the hole density on film thickness and temperature. The combination of lowered surface energy and hydrodynamic slip brings the studied system closer to the conditions encountered in bursting unsupported films. As for unsupported polymer films, a critical nucleus size is inferred from a free energy model. This critical nucleus size is supported by the film breakup observed in the experiments using high speed \emph{in situ} atomic force microscopy.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, including supplementary materia

Police Interaction Research Project: A Study of the Interactions that Occur Between the Police and Survivors Following a Sexual Assault

This study is intended to address problems that may exist for survivors and the NYPD. It will not only help the survivor struggling with the trauma of sexual assault, but may encourage more victims to utilize the resources of NYC's law enforcement community. If we want more rape victims to report these crimes to the authorities we need to understand more about what enhances or discourages this process. A better understanding of this process will enable us to develop a more collaborative approach to dealing with the issue of rape in New York City

Partners and Peers: Sexual and Dating Violence Among NYC Youth

Partners and Peers found that youth tell other youth -- if they tell anyone at all -- about their experiences. This makes it essential that information is available to teens in a format they can utilize. The Teen Health Map, with a subway map on one side and youth-friendly referral guide to health and sexual violence resources on the other, was developed by the Alliance to support those who participated in the study. This has become an important resource on its own as a confidential source of information that youth can share with each other. In its second printing, the map has been purchased by the NYC Department of Education and Department of Youth and Community Development for those they serve. The Teen Health Map was tested extensively and developed to young people's specifications for use and confidentiality

Adolescent Relationship Violence: Help-Seeking and Help-Giving Behaviors among Peers

Young people tend to disclose relationship violence experiences to their peers, if they disclose at all, yet little is known about the nature and frequency of adolescent help-seeking and help-giving behaviors. Conducted within a sample of 1,312 young people from four New York City high schools, this is the first paper to ask adolescent help-givers about the various forms of help they provide and among the first to examine how ethnicity and nativity impact help-seeking behaviors. Relationship violence victims who had ever disclosed (61 %) were more likely to choose their friends for informal support. Ethnicity was predictive of adolescent disclosure outlets, whereas gender and nativity were not. Latinos were significantly less likely than non-Latinos to ever disclose to only friends, as compared to disclosing to at least one adult. The likelihood of a young person giving help to their friend in a violent relationship is associated with gender, ethnicity, and nativity, with males being significantly less likely than females to give all forms of help to their friends (talking to their friends about the violence, suggesting options, and taking action). Foreign-born adolescents are less likely to talk or suggest options to friends in violent relationships. This study also found that Latinos were significantly more likely than non-Latinos to report taking action with or on behalf of a friend in a violent relationship. This research shows that adolescents often rely on each other to address relationship violence, underlining the importance of adolescents’ receipt of training and education on how to support their friends, including when to seek help from more formal services. To further understand the valuable role played by adolescent peers of victims, future research should explore both which forms of help are perceived by the victim to be most helpful and which are associated with more positive outcomes

clinical homogeneity and allelic heterogeneity in seven patients

Background Larsen syndrome is an autosomal dominant skeletal dysplasia characterized by large joint dislocations and craniofacial dysmorphism. It is caused by missense or small in-frame deletions in the FLNB gene. To further characterize the phenotype and the mutation spectrum of this condition, we investigated seven probands, five sporadic individuals and a mother-son-duo with Larsen syndrome. Methods The seven patients from six unrelated families were clinically and radiologically evaluated. All patients were screened for mutations in selected exons and exon-intron boundaries of the FLNB gene by Sanger sequencing. FLNB transcript analysis was carried out in one patient to analyse the effect of the sequence variant on pre-mRNA splicing. Results All patients exhibited typical facial features and joint dislocations. Contrary to the widely described advanced carpal ossification, we noted delay in two patients. We identified the five novel mutations c.4927G > A/p.(Gly1643Ser), c.4876G > T / p.(Gly1626Trp), c.4664G > A / p.(Gly1555Asp), c.2055G > C / p.Gln685delins10 and c.5021C > T / p.(Ala1674Val) as well as a frequently observed mutation in Larsen syndrome [c.5164G > A/p.(Gly1722Ser)] in the hotspot regions. FLNB transcript analysis of the c.2055G > C variant revealed insertion of 27 bp intronic sequence between exon 13 and 14 which gives rise to in-frame deletion of glutamine 685 and insertion of ten novel amino acid residues (p.Gln685delins10). Conclusions All seven individuals with Larsen syndrome had a uniform clinical phenotype except for delayed carpal ossification in two of them. Our study reveals five novel FLNB mutations and confirms immunoglobulin-like (Ig) repeats 14 and 15 as major hotspot regions. The p.Gln685delins10 mutation is the first Larsen syndrome-associated alteration located in Ig repeat 5. All mutations reported so far leave the filamin B protein intact in accordance with a gain-of-function effect. Our findings underscore the characteristic clinical picture of FLNB-associated Larsen syndrome and add Ig repeat 5 to the filamin B domains affected by the clustered mutations

Advancements in Algorithms for Approximations of Rank Structured Matrices

Many problems in mathematical physics and engineering involve solving linear systems Ax = b which are highly structured. These structured matrices, which typically arise from discretizations of partial differential or integral equations, can be represented compactly through specific algebraic representations. Two such algebraic representations which fall into this category are the fast multipole method (FMM), originally introduced by Greengard and Rokhlin, and Hierarchically Semi-Separable (HSS) . These representations, which exploit the low-rank structure of off-diagonal blocks, have enabled fast solvers (linear time in certain scenarios) and are commonly used practice today. In this thesis, we provide new advancements which further enhance the performance of these algorithms. The contributions of this thesis are twofold: (i) we present a new fast memory efficient construction algorithm for Hierarchically Semi-Separable (HSS) representations, and (ii) we present a fast matrix-matrix multiply for the fast multipole method (FMM).The HSS representation takes advantage of the fact that off-diagonal blocks are known to have low rank in order to yield fast solvers. The memory consumption of the HSS representation itself is O(n) if the rank of the off-diagonal blocks is small. If the user is not required to store the matrix A, but instead only provides a functional interface in order to access the elements of the matrix, it is worthwhile to ask for the algorithm which computes the HSS representation to be memory efficient as well. Previous algorithms, have shown the HSS representation can be computed in O(n^2) flops. Randomized algorithms also exist. However, the memory requirements of these algorithms can be excessive, requiring as much as O(n^2) peak workspace memory. We deal with this issue and present an algorithm that requires O(n^{1.5}) peak workspace memory in the worst case, while still requiring only O(n^2) flops. The HSS Representation assumes off-diagonal blocks which have low rank, but in practice there are many cases for which this criteria is not satisfied, and in fact can be as much as O(√n). For this reason, there is much interest in FMM, as it relaxes this requirement, only demanding that off-diagonal blocks corresponding to well-separated clusters have low rank. However, the structure of the FMM inverse is not known. To better understand this problem, we consider the problem of computing a 1D FMM representation of the matrix-matrix product of two 1D FMM matrices. We show that the product of two standard (3 pt) 1D FMM matrices possesses a slightly modified 5 pt 1D FMM structure, and we provide a linear time (O(n) flop) algorithm for computing this product. Further, this work suggests that the inverse of an FMM matrix is not itself FMM

An examination of inner experience: Anxiety

Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) is used to examine the inner experience of seven individuals who have been diagnosed with at least one anxiety disorder and four control individuals. Idiographic results for each of the 11 participants are provided, including a description of frequent and rare/unique experiences of each participant. These results are followed by between participant nomothetic comparisons. Among the results, it was found that anxious participants experienced more indefinite figure-ground and concrete experiences when compared to controls. Anxious participants are also more likely than controls to engage in negative valence self-evaluations and rate moments as being anxious. There is also some evidence to support the notion that, overall, anxious and depressive symptoms decrease over the course of sampling regardless of group affiliation; Following the results, implications of findings from this study and future recommendations are discussed