The Solar Test of the Equivalence Principle

The Earth, Mars, Sun, Jupiter system allows for a sensitive test of the strong equivalence principle (SEP) which is qualitatively different from that provided by Lunar Laser Ranging. Using analytic and numerical methods we demonstrate that Earth-Mars ranging can provide a useful estimate of the SEP parameter $\eta$. Two estimates of the predicted accuracy are derived and quoted, one based on conventional covariance analysis, and another (called ``modified worst case'' analysis) which assumes that systematic errors dominate the experiment. If future Mars missions provide ranging measurements with an accuracy of $\sigma$ meters, after ten years of ranging the expected accuracy for the SEP parameter $\eta$ will be of order $(1-12)\times 10^{-4}\sigma$. These ranging measurements will also provide the most accurate determination of the mass of Jupiter, independent of the SEP effect test.Comment: 10 pages; LaTeX; three figures upon reques

“We are Maine”—Is There an Authentic Maine Public Policy?

The authors explore whether there is something about how policy is developed, approved, and implemented—or something about the content of policy—that is based upon Maine as place? Is there a genuine Maine public policy that reflects the unique demography, geography, and culture of this place? Or is the work of policy here essentially the same as anywhere else in our democracy

Two birds, one stone: Can a natural resources core class serve the entire university?

As natural resource management grows more complex, natural resource curricula continually must expand to incorporate new topics and techniques. At the same time, colleges and departments are pressured to keep within tight budgets, and to meet the demands of students, parents and legislators to minimize the length of time needed to acquire a degree. In the College of Natural Resources (CNR) at Utah State University (USU), one strategy for achieving these apparently conflicting needs has been to create core courses that can serve students in all CNR majors, thereby reducing the potential for overlap and redundancy. When the university switched in 1998 from a quarter to a semester calendar, the college was challenged to maintain a core while reducing the number of required credits, continuing to meet professional accreditation standards, and participating in an expanded university-wide general education program. One way we tried to meet that challenge was to develop a new core course called Natural Resources and Society that would simultaneously: (1) meet the core goal of introducing majors to the human dimensions of natural resources; (2) meet the general education goal of providing a broad introduction to the ideas and methods of the social sciences; (3) attract large numbers of non-CNR students (important because some university funding is tied to student credit hours); and (4) recruit students into the university\u27s lowest-enrollment college. This paper describes our evaluation of the course\u27s success at meeting those objectives

Supervising Academic Athletic Counseling

There has been much discussion in the academic athletic counseling literature about "how to" deliver services to various populations. However, little attention has been devoted to the "quality control" of these services. One important way of maintaining service quality is through the supervision of academic athletic counselor trainees and practitioners. The purpose of this article was twofold: first, to present supervision models particularly pertinent to the field of academic athletic counseling; and second, to present issues and problems commonly encountered in the supervision of academic athletic counselor trainees and practitioners

A quantum mechanical model of the upper bounds of the cascading contribution to the second hyperpolarizability

Microscopic cascading of second-order nonlinearities between two molecules has been proposed to yield an enhanced third-order molecular nonlinear-optical response. In this contribution, we investigate the two-molecule cascaded second hyperpolarizability and show that it will never exceed the fundamental limit of a single molecule with the same number of electrons as the two-molecule system. We show the apparent divergence behavior of the cascading contribution to the second hyperpolarizability vanishes when properly taking into account the intermolecular interactions. Although cascading can never lead to a larger nonlinear-optical response than a single molecule, it provides alternative molecular design configurations for creating materials with large third-order susceptibilities that may be difficult to design into a single molecule.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

Cyclic cidofovir (cHPMPC) prevents congenital cytomegalovirus infection in a guinea pig model

BACKGROUND: Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a major public health problem. Antiviral therapies administered during pregnancy might prevent vertical CMV transmission and disease in newborns, but these agents have not been evaluated in clinical trials. The guinea pig model of congenital CMV infection was therefore used to test the hypothesis that antiviral therapy, using the agent agent cyclic cidofovir (cHPMPC), could prevent congenital CMV infection. RESULTS: Pregnant outbred Hartley guinea pigs were challenged in the early-third trimester with guinea pig CMV (GPCMV) and treated with placebo, or the antiviral agent, cyclic cidofovir. To optimize detection of vertical infection, an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP)-tagged virus was employed. Compared to placebo, cyclic cidofovir-treated dams and pups had reduced mortality following GPCMV challenge. The magnitude of GPCMV-induced maternal and fetal mortality in this study was reduced from 5/25 animals in the placebo group to 0/21 animals in the treatment group (p = 0.05, Fisher's exact test). By viral culture assay, antiviral therapy was found to completely prevent GPCMV transmission to the fetus. In control pups, 5/19 (26%) were culture-positive for GPCMV, compared to 0/16 of pups in the cyclic cidofovir treatment group (p < 0.05, Fisher's exact test). CONCLUSION: Antiviral therapy with cyclic cidofovir improves pregnancy outcomes in guinea pigs, and eliminates congenital CMV infection, following viral challenge in the third trimester. This study also demonstrated that an eGFP-tagged recombinant virus, with the reporter gene inserted into a dispensable region of the viral genome, retained virulence, including the potential for congenital transmission, facilitating tissue culture-based detection of congenital infection. These observations provide support for clinical trials of antivirals for reduction of congenital CMV infection

An open label study to determine the effects of an oral proteolytic enzyme system on whey protein concentrate metabolism in healthy males

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Current research suggests that protein intake of 1.5 – 2.8 g/kg/day (3.5 times the current recommended daily allowance) is effective and safe for individuals trying to increase or maintain lean muscle mass. To achieve these levels of daily protein consumption, supplementing the diet with processed whey protein concentrate (WPC) in liquid form has become a popular choice for many people. Some products have a suggested serving size as high as 50 g of protein. However, due to possible inhibition of endogenous digestive enzymes from over-processing and rapid small intestine transit time, the average amount of liquid WPC that is absorbed may be only 15 g. The combined effect of these factors may contribute to incomplete digestion, thereby limiting the absorption rate of protein before it reaches the ceacum and is eliminated as waste. The purpose of this study was to determine if Aminogen^®, a patented blend of digestive proteases from <it>Aspergillus niger </it>and <it>Aspergillus oryzae</it>, would significantly increase the in-vivo absorption rate of processed WPC over control values. It also investigated if any increase would be sufficient to significantly alter nitrogen (N2) balance and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels over control values as further evidence of increased WPC absorption rate.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two groups of healthy male subjects were assigned a specified balanced diet before and after each of two legs of the study. Subjects served as their own controls. In the first leg each control group (CG) was dosed with 50 g of WPC following an overnight fast. Nine days later each test group (TG) was dosed following an overnight fast with 50 g of WPC containing either 2.5 g (A2.5) or 5 g (A5) of Aminogen^®. Blood samples were collected during each leg at 0 hr, 0.5 hr, 1 hr, 2 hr, 3 hr, 3.5 hr and 4 hr for amino acid (AA) and CRP analyses. The following 18 AAs were quantified: alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine and valine. Urine was collected for 24 hours from 0 hr for total N2 analysis. Results are expressed as means ± SEM. All significance and power testing on results was done at a level of alpha = 0.05. Area under the concentration time curve (AUC) was calculated using the trapezoidal rule. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA-1) was done between CGs, between TGs and between time points. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA-1-RM) was done to compare CGs and TGs. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA-2) was performed on total serum amino acid (TSAA) levels, urine N2 levels and CRP levels between each CG and TG.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After baseline subtraction the mean AUC was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) greater in each TG compared the corresponding CG. Comparison of the mean AUC between each TG and each CG was not significantly different. Total serum amino acid (TSAA) levels were significantly greater in each TG compared the corresponding CG. They were also significantly different between each TG but not between each CG. All individual serum amino acid (ISAA) levels in TG-A2.5 except glycine, histidine, methionine and serine were significantly higher than in CG-A2.5 at 4 hr. All ISAA levels in TG-A5 except methionine and serine were significantly higher than in CG-A5 at 4 hr. The N2 balance was significantly higher in each TG compared to the corresponding CG, but not significantly different between each CG and between each TG. Significant differences in CRP levels are reported between each TG compared to the corresponding CG, but not significantly different between each TG and between each CG.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A patented blend of digestive proteases (Aminogen^®) increased the absorption rate of processed WPC over controls, as measured by statistically significant increases in AUC, TSAA levels, ISAA levels and N2 balance. Significant decreases in CRP levels and fluxes in AA levels are also reported.</p

Synthesis and evaluation of halogenated nitrophenoxazinones as nitroreductase substrates for the detection of pathogenic bacteria

The synthesis and microbiological evaluation of 7-, 8- and 9-nitro-1,2,4-trihalogenophenoxazin-3-one substrates with potential in the detection of nitroreductase-expressing pathogenic microorganisms are described. The 7- and 9-nitrotrihalogenophenoxazinone substrates were reduced by most Gram negative microorganisms and were inhibitory to the growth of certain Gram positive bacteria; however, the majority of Gram positive strains that were not inhibited by these agents, along with the two yeast strains evaluated, did not reduce the substrates. These observations suggest there are differences in the active site structures and substrate requirements of the nitroreductase enzymes from different strains; such differences may be exploited in the future for differentiation between pathogenic microorganisms. The absence of reduction of the 8-nitrotrihalogenophenoxazinone substrates is rationalized according to their electronic properties and correlates well with previous findings

Synthesis and Characterization of Three-Coordinate Ni(III)-Imide Complexes

A new family of low-coordinate nickel imides supported by 1,2-bis(di-tert-butylphosphino)ethane was synthesized. Oxidation of nickel(II) complexes led to the formation of both aryl- and alkyl-substituted nickel(III)-imides, and examples of both types have been isolated and fully characterized. The aryl substituent that proved most useful in stabilizing the Ni(III)-imide moiety was the bulky 2,6-dimesitylphenyl. The two Ni(III)-imide compounds showed different variable-temperature magnetic properties but analogous EPR spectra at low temperatures. To account for this discrepancy, a low-spin/high-spin equilibrium was proposed to take place for the alkyl-substituted Ni(III)-imide complex. This proposal was supported by DFT calculations. DFT calculations also indicated that the unpaired electron is mostly localized on the imide nitrogen for the Ni(III) complexes. The results of reactions carried out in the presence of hydrogen donors supported the findings from DFT calculations that the adamantyl substituent was a significantly more reactive hydrogen-atom abstractor. Interestingly, the steric properties of the 2,6-dimesitylphenyl substituent are important not only in protecting the Ni═N core but also in favoring one rotamer of the resulting Ni(III)-imide, by locking the phenyl ring in a perpendicular orientation with respect to the NiPP plane