The\u3ci\u3e Pig Pro\u3c/i\u3e Decision, Networking, and Environmental Protection: The Public Policy Challenge

On August 29, 1997, the Nebraska Supreme Court issued its first decision interpreting the provisions of Initiative 300 (I300), Nebraska’s family farm constitutional amendment. In its Pig Pro decision, a unanimous court ruled five Dawson county farmers who sought to form a non-profit cooperative corporation would violate article XII §12 of the Nebraska Constitution (I300). The decision means Nebraska farmers cannot network their operations and receive limited liability protection under I300

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Amendment E Appeal

On August 19, 2003 the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals ruled that South Dakota’s constitutional “Amendment E” restricting corporate farming violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. South Dakota Farm Bureau v Hazeltine, 340 F3d 583 (8CA 2003). On May 3, 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the State of South Dakota’s appeal of the Hazeltine ruling. Because Amendment E is similar to Nebraska’s Initiative 300 (I300), the Supreme Court decision allowing the Hazeltine decision to stand suggests that I300 may be vulnerable to a similar legal challenge

Analysis of the Very Inner Milky Way Dark Matter Distribution and Gamma-Ray Signals

We analyze the possibility that the HESS gamma-ray source at the Galactic Center could be explained as the secondary flux produced by annihilation of TeV Dark Matter (TeVDM) particles with locally enhanced density, in a region spatially compatible with the HESS observations themselves. We study the inner 100 pc considering (i) the extrapolation of several density profiles from state-of-the-art N-body + Hydrodynamics simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies, (ii) the DM spike induced by the black hole, and (iii) the DM particles scattering off by bulge stars. We show that in some cases the DM spike may provide the enhancement in the flux required to explain the cut-off in the HESS J1745-290 gamma-ray spectra as TeVDM. In other cases, it may helps to describe the spatial tail reported by HESS II at angular scales < 0.54 degrees towards Sgr A.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Physical Review D - Rapid Communication

A Hybrid model for the origin of photoluminescence from Ge nanocrystals in SiO2_2 matrix

In spite of several articles, the origin of visible luminescence from germanium nanocrystals in SiO$_2$ matrix is controversial even today. Some authors attribute the luminescence to quantum confinement of charge carriers in these nanocrystals. On the other hand, surface or defect states formed during the growth process, have also been proposed as the source of luminescence in this system. We have addressed this long standing query by simultaneous photoluminescence and Raman measurements on germanium nanocrystals embedded in SiO$_2$ matrix, grown by two different techniques: (i) low energy ion-implantation and (ii) atom beam sputtering. Along with our own experimental observations, we have summarized relevant information available in the literature and proposed a \emph{Hybrid Model} to explain the visible photoluminescence from nanocrystalline germanium in SiO$_2$ matrix.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Tensile Properties of Five Low-Alloy and Stainless Steels Under High-Heating-Rate and Constant-Temperature Conditions

Tensile properties of five low-alloy and stainless steels under high heating rate and constant temperatur

Inclusion Polymerization and Doping in Zeolite Channels. Polyaniline

Aniline has been polymerized in the three-dimensional channel system of zeolite Y. The monomer was diffused into zeolites with different levels of acidity from hexane solution. Subsequent admission of peroxydisulfate or iodate from aqueous solution yielded the intrazeolite polymers, as demonstrated by FT-IR, electronic absorption data and recovery of the included polymer. With S2O82-, the intrazeolite products are a function of the proton content of the zeolite. Polymer is only formed when a sufficient supply of protons is present in the zeolite host. When neutral iodate solution is used, no polymer is formed in NaY and acid zeolites, but at low pH aniline polymerizes in all zeolites. The open pore system of the zeolite host can be accessed by base such that the intrazeolite protonated polymer is transformed into the corresponding neutral polymer. The polymer chains encapsulated in zeolite hosts represent a new class of low- dimensional electronic materials

Novel intronic microRNA represses zebrafish myf5 promoter activity through silencing dickkopf-3 gene

A strong, negative cis-element located at the first intron +502/+835 (I300) of zebrafish myf5 has been reported. To elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying this repression network, we microinjected zebrafish single-cell embryos with I300 RNA, resulting in the dramatic reduction of luciferase activity driven by the myf5 promoter. Within this I300 segment, we identified an intronic microRNA (miR-In300) located at +609/+632 and found that it was more highly expressed in the older mature somites than those newly formed, which negatively correlated with the distribution of zebrafish myf5 transcripts. We proved that miR-In300 suppressed the transcription of myf5 through abolishing myf5 promoter activity, and we subsequently identified the long isoform of the Dickkopf-3 gene (dkk3) as the target gene of miR-In300. We further found that injection of the dkk3-morpholinos (MOs) resulted in downregulation of myf5 transcripts in somites, whereas co-injection of myf5 mRNA with dkk3-MO1 enabled rescue of the defects induced by dkk3-MO1 alone. Finally, injection of miR-In300-MO enhanced both myf5 transcripts in somites and the level of Dkk3 protein in zebrafish embryos. Based on these findings, we concluded that miR-In300 binds to its target gene dkk3, which inhibits the translation of dkk3 mRNA and, in turn, suppresses zebrafish myf5 promoter activity

Cavitation damage in liquid metals technical progress report, 1 jan. - 31 mar. 1965

Temperature effect on rate of cavitation damage of 316 stainless steel in pure liquid sodium at temperatures up to 1500 deg

Optical gating with organic building blocks : A quantitative model for the fluorescence modulation of photochromic perylene bisimide dithienylcyclopentene triads

We investigated the capability of molecular triads, consisting of two strong fluorophores that were covalently linked to a photochromic molecule, for optical gating. Therefore we monitored the fluorescence intensity of the fluorophores as a function of the isomeric state of the photoswitch. From the analysis of our data we develop a kinetic model that allows us to predict quantitatively the degree of the fluorescence modulation as a function of the mutual intensities of the lasers that are used to induce the fluorescence and the switching of the photochromic unit. We find that the achievable contrast for the modulation of the fluorescence depends mainly on the intensity ratio of the two light beams and appears to be very robust against absolute changes of these intensities. The latter result provides valuable information for the development of all-optical circuits which would require to handle different signal strengths for the input and output levels