Comprehensive behavioral testing in the R6/2 mouse model of Huntington's disease shows no benefit from CoQ10 or minocycline

Previous studies of the effects of coenzyme Q10 and minocycline on mouse models of Huntington’s disease have produced conflicting results regarding their efficacy in behavioral tests. Using our recently published best practices for husbandry and testing for mouse models of Huntington’s disease, we report that neither coenzyme Q10 nor minocycline had significant beneficial effects on measures of motor function, general health (open field, rotarod, grip strength, rearing-climbing, body weight and survival) in the R6/2 mouse model. The higher doses of minocycline, on the contrary, reduced survival. We were thus unable to confirm the previously reported benefits for these two drugs, and we discuss potential reasons for these discrepancies, such as the effects of husbandry and nutrition

Atomic Resonance and Scattering

Contains reports on eight research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant PHY79-09743)National Bureau of Standards (Grant NB-8-NAHA-3017)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-80-C-0104)National Science Foundation (Grant PHY82-10486)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-79-C-0183)National Science Foundation (Grant CHE79-02967-A04)U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract AFOSR-81-0067)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-83-K-0003

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

High-Redshift Quasars Found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data V. Hobby-Eberly Telescope Observations

We report the discovery of 27 quasars with redshifts between 3.58 and 4.49. The objects were identified as high-redshift candidates based on their colors in Sloan Digital Sky Survey commissioning data. The redshifts were confirmed with low resolution spectra obtained at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The quasars' $i^*$ magnitudes range from 18.55 to 20.97. Nearly 60% of the quasar candidates observed are confirmed spectroscopically as quasars. Two of the objects are Broad Absorption Line quasars, and several other quasars appear to have narrow associated absorption features.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, AJ accepte

Exceptional Diversity, Non-Random Distribution, and Rapid Evolution of Retroelements in the B73 Maize Genome

Recent comprehensive sequence analysis of the maize genome now permits detailed discovery and description of all transposable elements (TEs) in this complex nuclear environment. Reiteratively optimized structural and homology criteria were used in the computer-assisted search for retroelements, TEs that transpose by reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate, with the final results verified by manual inspection. Retroelements were found to occupy the majority (>75%) of the nuclear genome in maize inbred B73. Unprecedented genetic diversity was discovered in the long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon class of retroelements, with >400 families (>350 newly discovered) contributing >31,000 intact elements. The two other classes of retroelements, SINEs (four families) and LINEs (at least 30 families), were observed to contribute 1,991 and ∼35,000 copies, respectively, or a combined ∼1% of the B73 nuclear genome. With regard to fully intact elements, median copy numbers for all retroelement families in maize was 2 because >250 LTR retrotransposon families contained only one or two intact members that could be detected in the B73 draft sequence. The majority, perhaps all, of the investigated retroelement families exhibited non-random dispersal across the maize genome, with LINEs, SINEs, and many low-copy-number LTR retrotransposons exhibiting a bias for accumulation in gene-rich regions. In contrast, most (but not all) medium- and high-copy-number LTR retrotransposons were found to preferentially accumulate in gene-poor regions like pericentromeric heterochromatin, while a few high-copy-number families exhibited the opposite bias. Regions of the genome with the highest LTR retrotransposon density contained the lowest LTR retrotransposon diversity. These results indicate that the maize genome provides a great number of different niches for the survival and procreation of a great variety of retroelements that have evolved to differentially occupy and exploit this genomic diversity

Neue Methoden zur Analyse der Schwerpunktsetzung und der Zielbeiträge in der Forschungsförderung anhand der Energieforschungsförderung des Klima- und Energiefonds.IWI-Studie 187

Bei der vorliegenden Untersuchung handelt es sich um eine vorwiegend quantitative Analyse der durch den KLI.EN geförderten Projekte aus den zwei Energieforschungsprogram-men: Energie der Zukunft & Wiedervorlage Energie der Zukunft und Neue Energien 2020 – 1. & 2. Ausschreibung

Nutzen-, Programm-, und Systemevaluierung der Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft

Die Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft (CDG) ist eine Wissenstransfer- bzw. Forschungseinrichtung zwischen Universitäten und der Industrie und ein Instrument der anwendungsbezogenen Grundlagenforschung. In retrospektiver Analyse ist es dem CDG-Förderprogramm materiell gelungen, als Katalysator einer Vielzahl akademisch wie wirtschaftlich erfolgreicher Innovationsleistungen zu fungieren. In formeller Hinsicht zeichnet sich das Programm durch ein hohes Maß an Flexibilität aus, die von den institutionellen wie persönlichen Akteuren gleichermaßen geschätzt wird. Daraus erwächst dem Programm eine Umsetzungskompetenz, welche für das österreichische Innovationssystem von hohem Wert ist. Prospektiv könnte dem Programm eine zweite raison d’etre zuwachsen – nämlich nicht nur den Wettbewerb um Fördermittel an der Schnittstelle von Academia und Industrie zu institutionalisieren, sondern denselben auch am Übergang vom österreichischen zu internationalen Innovationssystemen voranzubringen

Real-time Environmental Monitoring for Cloud-based Hydrogeological Modeling with HydroGeoSphere

This paper describes an architecture for real-time environmental modeling. It consists of a wireless mesh network equipped with sensors and a cloud-based infrastructure to perform real-time environmental simulations using a physics-based model combined with an Ensemble Kalman Filter. The purpose of the system is to optimize groundwater abstraction close to a river. These initial studies demonstrate that the cloud infrastructure can simultaneously compute a large number of simulations, thus allowing for the implementation of Ensemble Kalman Filters in real-time

End-to-End Simulation and Verification of GNC and Robotic Systems Considering Both Space Segment and Ground Segment

In the framework of a project called On-Orbit Servicing End-to-End Simulation, the final approach to and capture of a tumbling client satellite in an on-orbit servicing mission is simulated. The necessary components are developed and the entire chain will be tested and verified. This involves both on-board and on-ground systems. The on-board system comprises a passive client satellite, and an active service satellite with its rendezvous and berthing payload. The space segment is simulated using a software satellite simulator and two robotic, hardware-in-the-loop test beds, the European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) 2.0 and the OOS-Sim. The ground segment is established as for a real servicing mission such that realistic operations can be performed from the different consoles in the control room. During the simulation of the telerobotic operation, it is important to provide a realistic communication environment with different parameters like they occur in the real-world (realistic delay and jitter for example)