Study of hard QCD at the Tevatron

Recent measurements of photon, jet, and boson+jet production from the CDF and D0 Collaborations are presented. NLO pQCD describes most of the results except for the shapes of inclusive isolated photon and γ+jet differential cross-section measurements. Calculations involving matrix elements matched to parton showers agree with the data except at low pT . Limits on several exotic models are set based on dijet distributions

Long term storage of Podospora anserina

Until now, maintenance of Podospora anserina strains was tedious, requiring yearly sexual crosses, spore isolation and germination, verification of the genotype and transfer of mycelium to stock tubes maintained at 4 C. We have circumvented these difficulties by storage of ascospores at -80 C

Eye movements in code reading:relaxing the linear order

Abstract—Code reading is an important skill in programming. Inspired by the linearity that people exhibit while natural lan-guage text reading, we designed local and global gaze-based mea-sures to characterize linearity (left-to-right and top-to-bottom) in reading source code. Unlike natural language text, source code is executable and requires a specific reading approach. To validate these measures, we compared the eye movements of novice and expert programmers who were asked to read and comprehend short snippets of natural language text and Java programs. Our results show that novices read source code less linearly than natural language text. Moreover, experts read code less linearly than novices. These findings indicate that there are specific differences between reading natural language and source code, and suggest that non-linear reading skills increase with expertise. We discuss the implications for practitioners and educators. I

Selection of a new auxotrophic mutant by transformation-mediated gene disruption in Podospora anserina.

A mutant auxotroph for methionine was isolated in Podospora anserina during a transformation experiment. The transforming plasmid (pPAaURA5) consisted of a 1.55 kb nuclear DNA fragment of Podospora containing the URA5 gene (Begueret et al. 1984, Gene 32:487-492; Turq and Begueret 1987, Gene 53:201-209), and most (2.06 kb) of the Podospora intronic alpha mitochondrial sequence (Osiewacz and Esser 1984, Curr. Genet. 8:299-305) cloned in the pUC18 vector

Nailed Mortised-Plate Connections for Small-Diameter Round Timber

In an effort to encourage the development of value-added engineered applications for smalldiameter round timber, research is being conducted at the US Forest Products Laboratory to develop and verify design guidelines for connections with specific application to round timbers. The objective of this study is to provide potential users with a number of viable connection options applicable to the fabrication of engineered, round-timber structural components and systems. Target uses include trusses, built-up flange beams, and space frames. This article presents information on a mortised steel-plate connection fabricated using power-driven nails in 150-mm-dia ponderosa pine. The article discusses methods used to determine per nail load capacity and to develop design procedures that incorporate that value in the determination of a multinail connection design value. These connections offer the advantage of low labor and material cost, ductile failure modes, and strengths in the range of 4.7 kN/nail. The failure of the connections was mode III nail failure and wood block shear failure. Joints that failed in block shear appeared to have roughly the same strength as those that failed from nail yield. The National Design Specification yield model for nails provides accurate predictions of joint capacity for nail yield-type failures and overestimates strength of joints that exhibit wood failure. Block shear capacity can be estimated on the basis of clear-wood strength and effective tensile and shear area of the connection

"It's the only thing I can trust": Envisioning Large Language Model Use by Autistic Workers for Communication Assistance

Autistic adults often experience stigma and discrimination at work, leading them to seek social communication support from coworkers, friends, and family despite emotional risks. Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly considered an alternative. In this work, we investigate the phenomenon of LLM use by autistic adults at work and explore opportunities and risks of LLMs as a source of social communication advice. We asked 11 autistic participants to present questions about their own workplace-related social difficulties to (1) a GPT-4-based chatbot and (2) a disguised human confederate. Our evaluation shows that participants strongly preferred LLM over confederate interactions. However, a coach specializing in supporting autistic job-seekers raised concerns that the LLM was dispensing questionable advice. We highlight how this divergence in participant and practitioner attitudes reflects existing schisms in HCI on the relative privileging of end-user wants versus normative good and propose design considerations for LLMs to center autistic experiences.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure, CHI '24 Conferenc

Four mitochondrial loci in Podospora anserina

Four mitochondrial loci in Podospora anserin