ESTIMATION OF EXPORT DEMAND FUNCTIONS FOR U.S. WHEAT

Export demand functions for U.S. wheat were estimated for five world regions. Estimates of the effects of income, price, and nonprice variables on U.S. wheat exports were obtained using various econometric procedures. The major finding of the paper indicates that exchange rate changes have had a substantial impact on U.S. wheat exports. This result, conditioned on the aggregative nature of the study, supports the belief expressed by some researchers in recent years.Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade,

The Domestic and Export Markets for California Almonds

Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

Endothelial Progenitors Exist within the Kidney and Lung Mesenchyme

The renal endothelium has been debated as arising from resident hemangioblast precursors that transdifferentiate from the nephrogenic mesenchyme (vasculogenesis) and/or from invading vessels (angiogenesis). While the Foxd1-positive renal cortical stroma has been shown to differentiate into cells that support the vasculature in the kidney (including vascular smooth muscle and pericytes) it has not been considered as a source of endothelial cell progenitors. In addition, it is unclear if Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells in other organs such as the lung have the potential to form endothelium. This study examines the potential for Foxd1-positive cells of the kidney and lung to give rise to endothelial progenitors. We utilized immunofluorescence (IF) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to co-label Foxd1-expressing cells (including permanently lineage-tagged cells) with endothelial markers in embryonic and postnatal mice. We also cultured FACsorted Foxd1-positive cells, performed in vitro endothelial cell tubulogenesis assays and examined for endocytosis of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Ac-LDL), a functional assay for endothelial cells. Immunofluorescence and FACS revealed that a subset of Foxd1-positive cells from kidney and lung co-expressed endothelial cell markers throughout embryogenesis. In vitro, cultured embryonic Foxd1-positive cells were able to differentiate into tubular networks that expressed endothelial cell markers and were able to endocytose Ac-LDL. IF and FACS in both the kidney and lung revealed that lineage-tagged Foxd1-positive cells gave rise to a significant portion of the endothelium in postnatal mice. In the kidney, the stromal-derived cells gave rise to a portion of the peritubular capillary endothelium, but not of the glomerular or large vessel endothelium. These findings reveal the heterogeneity of endothelial cell lineages; moreover, Foxd1-positive mesenchymal cells of the developing kidney and lung are a source of endothelial progenitors that are likely critical to patterning the vasculature. © 2013 Sims-Lucas et al

Bi-directional thruster development and test report

The design, calibration and testing of a cold gas, bi-directional throttlable thruster are discussed. The thruster consists of an electro-pneumatic servovalve exhausting through opposite nozzles with a high gain pressure feedback loop to optimize performance. The thruster force was measured to determine hysteresis and linearity. Integral gain was used to maximize performance for linearity, hysteresis, and minimum thrust requirements. Proportional gain provided high dynamic response (bandwidth and phase lag). Thruster performance is very important since the thrusters are intended to be used for active control

Overview of E-Learning Environment for Web-Based Study of Testing and Diagnostics of Digital Systems

In this paper, we present an overview of latest developments taking place at Tallinn Technical University (TTU) in the area of e-learning supported by Europea

Double-flow focused liquid injector for efficient serial femtosecond crystallography

Serial femtosecond crystallography requires reliable and efficient delivery of fresh crystals across the beam of an X-ray free-electron laser over the course of an experiment. We introduce a double-flow focusing nozzle to meet this challenge, with significantly reduced sample consumption, while improving jet stability over previous generations of nozzles. We demonstrate its use to determine the first room-temperature structure of RNA polymerase II at high resolution, revealing new structural details. Moreover, the double flow- focusing nozzles were successfully tested with three other protein samples and the first room temperature structure of an extradiol ring-cleaving dioxygenase was solved by utilizing the improved operation and characteristics of these devices

Combined Effects of Acute Temperature Change and Elevated pCO2 on the Metabolic Rates and Hypoxia Tolerances of Clearnose Skate (Rostaraja eglanteria), Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), and Thorny Skate (Amblyraja radiata)

Understanding how rising temperatures, ocean acidification, and hypoxia affect the performance of coastal fishes is essential to predicting species-specific responses to climate change. Although a population’s habitat influences physiological performance, little work has explicitly examined the multi-stressor responses of species from habitats differing in natural variability. Here, clearnose skate (Rostaraja eglanteria) and summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) from mid-Atlantic estuaries, and thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) from the Gulf of Maine, were acutely exposed to current and projected temperatures (20, 24, or 28 °C; 22 or 30 °C; and 9, 13, or 15 °C, respectively) and acidification conditions (pH 7.8 or 7.4). We tested metabolic rates and hypoxia tolerance using intermittent-flow respirometry. All three species exhibited increases in standard metabolic rate under an 8 °C temperature increase (Q10 of 1.71, 1.07, and 2.56, respectively), although this was most pronounced in the thorny skate. At the lowest test temperature and under the low pH treatment, all three species exhibited significant increases in standard metabolic rate (44–105%; p \u3c 0.05) and decreases in hypoxia tolerance (60–84% increases in critical oxygen pressure; p \u3c 0.05). This study demonstrates the interactive effects of increasing temperature and changing ocean carbonate chemistry are species-specific, the implications of which should be considered within the context of habitat. Associated dataset: Gail D. Schweiterman, Daniel P. Crear et al. 2019. Metabolic Rates and Hypoxia Tolerences of clearnose skate (Rostaraja eglanteria), summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), and thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) https://doi.org/10.25773/qmew-c18

Metabolic Rates and Hypoxia Tolerences of clearnose skate (Rostaraja eglanteria), summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), and thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata)

These data were collected following methods described in the associated publication: LINK “Combined Effects of Acute Temperature Change and Elevated pCO2 on the Metabolic Rates and Hypoxia Tolerances of Clearnose Skate (Rostaraja eglanteria), Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), and Thorny Skate (Amblyraja radiata)”. Schweiterman, G.D. et al. 2019 Biology, 8(3), 56

Probing a Complex of Cytochromecand Cardiolipin by Magnetic Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy: Implications for the Initial Events in Apoptosis

Oxidation of cardiolipin (CL) by its complex with cytochrome c (cyt c) plays a crucial role in triggering apoptosis. Through a combination of magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy and potentiometric titrations, we show that both the ferric and ferrous forms of the heme group of a CL:cyt c complex exist as multiple conformers at a physiologically relevant pH of 7.4. For the ferric state, these conformers are His/Lys- and His/OH–-ligated. The ferrous state is predominantly high-spin and, most likely, His/–. Interconversion of the ferric and ferrous conformers is described by a single midpoint potential of -80 ± 9 mV vs SHE. These results suggest that CL oxidation in mitochondria could occur by the reaction of molecular oxygen with the ferrous CL:cyt c complex in addition to the well-described reaction of peroxides with the ferric form

Asymptotics and local constancy of characters of p-adic groups

In this paper we study quantitative aspects of trace characters $\Theta_\pi$ of reductive $p$-adic groups when the representation $\pi$ varies. Our approach is based on the local constancy of characters and we survey some other related results. We formulate a conjecture on the behavior of $\Theta_\pi$ relative to the formal degree of $\pi$, which we are able to prove in the case where $\pi$ is a tame supercuspidal. The proof builds on J.-K.~Yu's construction and the structure of Moy-Prasad subgroups.Comment: Proceedings of Simons symposium on the trace formul