IVOA Recommendation: VOResource: an XML Encoding Schema for Resource Metadata Version 1.03

This document describes an XML encoding standard for IVOA Resource Metadata, referred to as VOResource. This schema is primarily intended to support interoperable registries used for discovering resources; however, any application that needs to describe resources may use this schema. In this document, we define the types and elements that make up the schema as representations of metadata terms defined in the IVOA standard, Resource Metadata for the Virtual Observatory [Hanicsh et al. 2004]. We also describe the general model for the schema and explain how it may be extended to add new metadata terms and describe more specific types of resources

Leaching Behavior of Rare Earth Elements in Fort Union Lignite Coals of North America

Fort Union lignite coal samples were subjected to a series of aqueous leaching experiments to understand the extraction behavior of the rare earth elements (REE). This testing was aimed at understanding the modes of occurrence of the REE in the lignite coals, as well as to provide foundational data for development of rare earth extraction processes. In a first series of tests, a sequential leaching process was used to investigate modes of occurrence of the REE of select lignite coals. The tests involved sequential exposure to solvents consisting of water, ammonium acetate and dilute hydrochloric acid (HCl). The results indicated that water and ammonium acetate extracted very little of the REE, indicating the REE are not present as water soluble or ion-exchangeable forms. However, the data shows that a large percentage of the REE were extracted with the hydrochloric acid (80-95wt%), suggesting presence in HCl-soluble mineral forms such as carbonates, and/or presence as organic complexes. A second series of tests was performed involving single-step leaching with dilute acids and various operating parameters, including acid type, acid concentration, acid/coal contact time and coal particle size. For select samples, additional tests were performed to understand the results of leaching, including float-sink density separations and humic acid extraction. The results have shown that the majority of REE in Fort Union lignites appear to be associated weakly with the organic matrix of the coals, most likely as coordination complexes of carboxylic acid groups. The light REE and heavy REE exhibit different behaviors, however. The extractable light REE appear to have association both in acid-soluble mineral forms and as organic complexes, whereas the extractable heavy REE appear to be almost solely associated with the organics. Scandium behavior was notably different than yttrium and the lanthanides, and the data suggests the extractable content is primarily associated as acid-soluble mineral forms

Asian-Americans and Class

This brief looks at the tensions between the culturally different groups that fall under the Asian-American as well as the tensions between Asian-Americans and some other groups of the Ethnoracial Pentagon. It also address what the effects of being a model minority have on Asian-Americans

Cosmology and Fermion Confinement in a Scalar-Field-Generated Domain Wall Brane in Five Dimensions

We consider a brane generated by a scalar field domain wall configuration in 4+1 dimensions, interpolating, in most cases, between two vacua of the field. We study the cosmology of such a system in the cases where the effective four-dimensional brane metric is de Sitter or anti de Sitter, including a discussion of the bulk coordinate singularities present in the de-Sitter case. We demonstrate that a scalar field kink configuration can support a brane with dS$_4$ cosmology, despite the presence of coordinate singularities in the metric. We examine the trapping of fermion fields on the domain wall for nontrivial brane cosmology.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures; minor changes, accepted by JHE

Portfolio Vol. IV N 4

Wager, Dick. Collective Bargaining. Prose. 3-5. Raymond, Toby. Lochinvar Rides Again. Poetry. 6. Wyman, John. Lily of the Alley. Prose. 8-9. Benson, Virginia. Lost Cause. Prose. 10. Collins, Peg. The Curtain Falls. Prose. 11. Dorsey, Ann. Jack. Picture. 12. Sulke, Jim. Old Pete. Picture. 12. Myers, Sue. Jerry. Picture. 12. Rosenthal, Joan. Canadian Farmhouse. Picture. 13. Deeds, Ed. Mirror Lake. Picture. 13. Peters, Doris. Trees. Picture. 13. Seagrave, Leslie. Chinese Coins. Poetry. 14. White, Molly. Thoughts in the Rain. Poetry. 14. Smith, Duke. Keeping the Records Straight. Prose. 15. Stocker, Ed. Joe. Prose. 16-17. Saunders, John. Seven Year\u27s Luck. Prose. 19-22

What Are the Barriers and Motivators to Exercise in 50-65 Year-Old Adults?

Introduction. The benefit of exercise in adults has been well established. Research has demonstrated improved cardiovascular health, decreased bone fractures, and increased mental capacity. While the benefits of exercise has clearly been demonstrated, personal barriers to exercise are yet to be fully elucidated. Thus, in collaboration with the YMCA, this study aimed to clarify barriers to exercise in 50-65 year-old adults.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1085/thumbnail.jp

Portfolio Vol. V N 1

Dippery, Franklin M. Unnamed. Prose. 2. Shields, Margaret. The Dance . Prose. 4. Raymond, Toby. Tundra . Prose. 7. Pruyn, Scott. Lest We Forget . Poem. 9. Tolan, Maurice. Pronounced \u27Mejico\u27 . Picture. 10. Phillips, Alison. Pronounced Mejico . Prose. 10. Benson, Virginia. Matter of Opinion . Poem. 12. Benson, Virginia. Cloud Shadows . Poem. 12. Benson, Virginia. Autumn Organist . Poem. 12. Sherman, Hoyt Leon. Orchard . Picture. 12. Nussbaum, Ervin. The End of John Brown . Picture. 13. Brannon, Pat. Revolution . Poem. 13. Anonymous, Pat. A Dream . Poem. 13. Anonymous, Pat. Her . Poem. 13. Seagrave, Leslie. Tibetan Rug . Prose. 14. Benson, Virginia. Cronin-The Keys of the Kingdom . Prose. 15. Benson, Virginia. Koestler-Darkness at Noon . Prose. 15. Jones, Charles. Mr. Doakes Almost Goes to Washington . Prose. 16. Collins, Peggy. Thespiana . Prose. 18. Smith, Duke. Keeping the Records Straight . Prose. 19

The UniTrap resource: tools for the biologist enabling optimized use of gene trap clones

We have developed a comprehensive resource devoted to biologists wanting to optimize the use of gene trap clones in their experiments. We have processed 300 602 such clones from both public and private projects to generate 28 199 ‘UniTraps’, i.e. distinct collections of unambiguous insertions at the same subgenic region of annotated genes. The UniTrap resource contains data relative to 9583 trapped genes, which represent 42.3% of the mouse gene content. Among the trapped genes, 7 728 have a counterpart in humans, and 677 are known to be involved in the pathogenesis of human diseases. The aim of this analysis is to provide the wet lab researchers with a comprehensive database and curated tools for (i) identifying and comparing the clones carrying a trap into the genes of interest, (ii) evaluating the severity of the mutation to the protein function in each independent trapping event and (iii) supplying complete information to perform PCR, RT-PCR and restriction experiments to verify the clone and identify the exact point of vector insertion. To share this unique resource with the scientific community, we have designed and implemented a web interface that is freely accessible at http://unitrap.cbm.fvg.it/

The effect of photo-ionization on the cooling rates of enriched, astrophysical plasmas

Radiative cooling is central to a wide range of astrophysical problems. Despite its importance, cooling rates are generally computed using very restrictive assumptions, such as collisional ionization equilibrium and solar relative abundances. We simultaneously relax both assumptions and investigate the effects of photo-ionization of heavy elements by the meta-galactic UV/X-ray background and of variations in relative abundances on the cooling rates of optically thin gas in ionization equilibrium. We find that photo-ionization by the meta-galactic background radiation reduces the net cooling rates by up to an order of magnitude for gas densities and temperatures typical of the shock-heated intergalactic medium and proto-galaxies. In addition, photo-ionization changes the relative contributions of different elements to the cooling rates. We conclude that photo-ionization by the ionizing background and heavy elements both need to be taken into account in order for the cooling rates to be correct to order of magnitude. Moreover, if the rates need to be known to better than a factor of a few, then departures of the relative abundances from solar need to be taken into account. We propose a method to compute cooling rates on an element-by-element basis by interpolating pre-computed tables that take photo-ionization into account. We provide such tables for a popular model of the evolving UV/X-ray background radiation, computed using the photo-ionization package CLOUDY.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS. One figure added and minor textual changes made to first version. Downloadable tables and videos available at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/WSS08

The annotation and the usage of scientific databases could be improved with public issue tracker software

Since the publication of their longtime predecessor The Atlas of Protein Sequences and Structures in 1965 by Margaret Dayhoff, scientific databases have become a key factor in the organization of modern science. All the information and knowledge described in the novel scientific literature is translated into entries in many different scientific databases, making it possible to obtain very accurate information on a biological entity like genes or proteins without having to manually review the literature on it. However, even for the databases with the finest annotation procedures, errors or unclear parts sometimes appear in the publicly released version and influence the research of unaware scientists using them. The researcher that finds an error in a database is often left in a uncertain state, and often abandons the effort of reporting it because of a lack of a standard procedure to do so. In the present work, we propose that the simple adoption of a public error tracker application, as in many open software projects, could improve the quality of the annotations in many databases and encourage feedback from the scientific community on the data annotated publicly. In order to illustrate the situation, we describe a series of errors that we found and helped solve on the genes of a very well-known pathway in various biomedically relevant databases. We would like to show that, even if a majority of the most important scientific databases have procedures for reporting errors, these are usually not publicly visible, making the process of reporting errors time consuming and not useful. Also, the effort made by the user that reports the error often goes unacknowledged, putting him in a discouraging position