1,495 research outputs found

    Inductive and non-inductive load tests on type ATB - form E General Electric Co. alternator

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    Citation: Harold, William H., Burt, Harvy Anson, and Fulton, Robert Anson. Inductive and non-inductive load tests on type ATB - form E General Electric Co. alternator. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1905.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: The generator tested for characteristic action under different load conditions is of the revolving field, separately excited, stationary armature type. The above drawing shows the principal points in the construction of the machine. On the left is the main pulley which is run by the main drive belt; on the right is a smaller one from which a small direct current generator is run for exciting the alternator field. The shaft is lubricated by rings which dip into an oil reservoir. The revolving field receives its exciting current from the exciter through two slip rings. The field spider and pole faces are of laminated steel that in the pole faces is japanned and that in the spider is not. These laminations are held together by bolts as shown in drawing. The armature ring is built of japanned laminations which are held together by bolts and clamps. If the laminations should for any reason become loose and cause a disagreeable humming they may readily be tightened. There are six field coils which are wound as shown; all coils are in series each adjacent one being wound opposite and the terminals brought to the slip rings. One brush on the ring is shown; there are two brushes on each ring. The scheme of an armature slot is shown on drawing and is the construction most commonly employed by modern dynamo builder

    TESS Discovery of an ultra-short-period planet around the nearby M dwarf LHS 3844

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    Data from the newly-commissioned \textit{Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite} (TESS) has revealed a "hot Earth" around LHS 3844, an M dwarf located 15 pc away. The planet has a radius of 1.32±0.021.32\pm 0.02 RR_\oplus and orbits the star every 11 hours. Although the existence of an atmosphere around such a strongly irradiated planet is questionable, the star is bright enough (I=11.9I=11.9, K=9.1K=9.1) for this possibility to be investigated with transit and occultation spectroscopy. The star's brightness and the planet's short period will also facilitate the measurement of the planet's mass through Doppler spectroscopy.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to ApJ Letters. This letter makes use of the TESS Alert data, which is currently in a beta test phase, using data from the pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Cente

    Empirical Evidence for Son-Killing X Chromosomes and the Operation of SA-Zygotic Drive

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    Diploid organisms have two copies of all genes, but only one is carried by each haploid gamete and diploid offspring. This causes a fundamental genetic conflict over transmission rate between alternative alleles. Single genes, or gene clusters, only rarely code for the complex phenotypes needed to give them a transmission advantage (drive phenotype). However, all genes on a male's X and Y chromosomes co-segregate, allowing different sex-linked genes to code for different parts of the drive phenotype. Correspondingly, the well-characterized phenomenon of male gametic drive, occurring during haploid gametogenesis, is especially common on sex chromosomes. The new theory of sexually antagonistic zygotic drive of the sex chromosomes (SA-zygotic drive) extends the logic of gametic drive into the diploid phase of the lifecycle, whenever there is competition among siblings or harmful sib-sib mating. The X and Y are predicted to gain a transmission advantage by harming offspring of the sex that does not carry them.Here we analyzed a mutant X-chromosome in Drosophila simulans that produced an excess of daughters when transmitted from males. We developed a series of tests to differentiate between gametic and SA-zygotic drive, and provide multiple lines of evidence that SA-zygotic drive is responsible for the sex ratio bias. Driving sires produce about 50% more surviving daughters than sons.Sex-ratio distortion due to genetic conflict has evolved via gametic drive and maternally transmitted endosymbionts. Our data indicate that sex chromosomes can also drive by harming the non-carrier sex of offspring

    The Use of a Mobile Laboratory Unit in Support of Patient Management and Epidemiological Surveillance during the 2005 Marburg Outbreak in Angola

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    A mobile laboratory unit (MLU) was deployed to Uige, Angola as part of the World Health Organization response to an outbreak of viral hemorrhagic fever caused by Marburg virus (MARV). Utilizing mainly quantitative real-time PCR assays, this laboratory provided specific MARV diagnostics in the field. The MLU operated for 88 consecutive days allowing MARV-specific diagnostic response in <4 hours from sample receiving. Most cases were found among females in the child-bearing age and in children less than five years of age including a high number of paediatric cases implicating breastfeeding as potential transmission route. Oral swabs were identified as a useful alternative specimen source to the standard whole blood/serum specimens for patients refusing blood draw. There was a high concordance in test results between the MLU and the reference laboratory in Luanda operated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The MLU was an important outbreak response asset providing valuable support in patient management and epidemiological surveillance. Field laboratory capacity should be expanded and made an essential part of any future outbreak investigation

    A New Chicken Genome Assembly Provides Insight into Avian Genome Structure

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    The importance of the Gallus gallus (chicken) as a model organism and agricultural animal merits a continuation of sequence assembly improvement efforts. We present a new version of the chicken genome assembly (Gallus_gallus-5.0; GCA_000002315.3), built from combined long single molecule sequencing technology, finished BACs, and improved physical maps. In overall assembled bases, we see a gain of 183 Mb, including 16.4 Mb in placed chromosomes with a corresponding gain in the percentage of intact repeat elements characterized. Of the 1.21 Gb genome, we include three previously missing autosomes, GGA30, 31, and 33, and improve sequence contig length 10-fold over the previous Gallus_gallus-4.0. Despite the significant base representation improvements made, 138 Mb of sequence is not yet located to chromosomes. When annotated for gene content, Gallus_gallus-5.0 shows an increase of 4679 annotated genes (2768 noncoding and 1911 protein-coding) over those in Gallus_gallus-4.0. We also revisited the question of what genes are missing in the avian lineage, as assessed by the highest quality avian genome assembly to date, and found that a large fraction of the original set of missing genes are still absent in sequenced bird species. Finally, our new data support a detailed map of MHC-B, encompassing two segments: one with a highly stable gene copy number and another in which the gene copy number is highly variable. The chicken model has been a critical resource for many other fields of study, and this new reference assembly will substantially further these efforts

    Impact of the 2014–2016 marine heatwave on US and Canada West Coast fisheries: Surprises and lessons from key case studies

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    Marine heatwaves are increasingly affecting marine ecosystems, with cascading impacts on coastal economies, communities, and food systems. Studies of heatwaves provide crucial insights into potential ecosystem shifts under future climate change and put fisheries social-ecological systems through “stress tests” that expose both vulnerabilities and resilience. The 2014–16 Northeast Pacific heatwave was the strongest and longest marine heatwave on record and resulted in profound ecological changes that impacted fisheries, fisheries management, and human livelihoods. Here, we synthesize the impacts of the 2014–2016 marine heatwave on US and Canada West Coast fisheries and extract key lessons for preparing global fisheries science, management, and industries for the future. We set the stage with a brief review of the impacts of the heatwave on marine ecosystems and the first systematic analysis of the economic impacts of these changes on commercial and recreational fisheries. We then examine ten key case studies that provide instructive examples of the complex and surprising challenges that heatwaves pose to fisheries social-ecological systems. These reveal important insights into improving the resilience of monitoring and management and increasing adaptive capacity to future stressors. Key recommendations include: (1) expanding monitoring to enhance mechanistic understanding, provide early warning signals, and improve predictions of impacts; (2) increasing the flexibility, adaptiveness, and inclusiveness of management where possible; (3) using simulation testing to help guide management decisions; and (4) enhancing the adaptive capacity of fishing communities by promoting engagement, flexibility, experimentation, and failsafes. These advancements are important as global fisheries prepare for a changing oceanWe are grateful to Nate Mantua, Manuel Hidalgo, Kiva Oken, and Cori Lopazanski for feedback on manuscript drafts. We thank Jean Lee for sharing a non-confidential version of the Gulf of Alaska commercial fisheries landings data and Evan Damkjar and John Davidson for sharing non-confidential versions of British Columbia's commercial and recreational fisheries landings data. CMF was funded by The Nature Conservancy, California. BM was partially supported by the Future Seas II project under NOAA's Climate and Fisheries Adaptation Program (NA20OAR431050). The scientific results and conclusions, as well as any views or opinions expressed herein, are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or the Department of Commerce.Ye

    Extensive Genetic Diversity, Unique Population Structure and Evidence of Genetic Exchange in the Sexually Transmitted Parasite Trichomonas vaginalis

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    The human parasite Trichomonas vaginalis causes trichomoniasis, the world's most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection. Research on T. vaginalis genetic diversity has been limited by a lack of appropriate genotyping tools. To address this problem, we recently published a panel of T. vaginalis-specific genetic markers; here we use these markers to genotype isolates collected from ten regions around the globe. We detect high levels of genetic diversity, infer a two-type population structure, identify clinically relevant differences between the two types, and uncover evidence of genetic exchange in what was believed to be a clonal organism. Together, these results greatly improve our understanding of the population genetics of T. vaginalis and provide insights into the possibility of genetic exchange in the parasite, with implications for the epidemiology and control of the disease. By taking into account the existence of different types and their unique characteristics, we can improve understanding of the wide range of symptoms that patients manifest and better implement appropriate drug treatment. In addition, by recognizing the possibility of genetic exchange, we are more equipped to address the growing concern of drug resistance and the mechanisms by which it may spread within parasite populations

    Genetic and environmental influences on human height from infancy through adulthood at different levels of parental education

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    Genetic factors explain a major proportion of human height variation, but differences in mean stature have also been found between socio-economic categories suggesting a possible effect of environment. By utilizing a classical twin design which allows decomposing the variation of height into genetic and environmental components, we tested the hypothesis that environmental variation in height is greater in offspring of lower educated parents. Twin data from 29 cohorts including 65,978 complete twin pairs with information on height at ages 1 to 69 years and on parental education were pooled allowing the analyses at different ages and in three geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia). Parental education mostly showed a positive association with offspring height, with significant associations in mid-childhood and from adolescence onwards. In variance decomposition modeling, the genetic and environmental variance components of height did not show a consistent relation to parental education. A random-effects meta-regression analysis of the aggregate-level data showed a trend towards greater shared environmental variation of height in low parental education families. In conclusion, in our very large dataset from twin cohorts around the globe, these results provide only weak evidence for the study hypothesis.Peer reviewe
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