Recent Developments: Broussard v. State and the Not So Obvious Application of the Open and Obvious Doctrine

The article discusses Louisiana Supreme Court tort case Broussard v. State based on the open and obvious doctrine. Topics discussed include procedural history of Broussard case, Court case Murray v. Ramada Inns Inc. and the U.S Second Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in case Michalski v. Home Depot. It informs that the open and obvious doctrine eliminates landowner liability to business visitors resulting from open and obvious dangers restatement

A Dynamic Programming Approach to De Novo Peptide Sequencing via Tandem Mass Spectrometry

The tandem mass spectrometry fragments a large number of molecules of the same peptide sequence into charged prefix and suffix subsequences, and then measures mass/charge ratios of these ions. The de novo peptide sequencing problem is to reconstruct the peptide sequence from a given tandem mass spectral data of k ions. By implicitly transforming the spectral data into an NC-spectrum graph G=(V,E) where |V|=2k+2, we can solve this problem in O(|V|+|E|) time and O(|V|) space using dynamic programming. Our approach can be further used to discover a modified amino acid in O(|V||E|) time and to analyze data with other types of noise in O(|V||E|) time. Our algorithms have been implemented and tested on actual experimental data.Comment: A preliminary version appeared in Proceedings of the 11th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, pages 389--398, 200

Improved Cell-Free RNA and Protein Synthesis System

Cell-free RNA and protein synthesis (CFPS) is becoming increasingly used for protein production as yields increase and costs decrease. Advances in reconstituted CFPS systems such as the Protein synthesis Using Recombinant Elements (PURE) system offer new opportunities to tailor the reactions for specialized applications including in vitro protein evolution, protein microarrays, isotopic labeling, and incorporating unnatural amino acids. In this study, using firefly luciferase synthesis as a reporter system, we improved PURE system productivity up to 5 fold by adding or adjusting a variety of factors that affect transcription and translation, including Elongation factors (EF-Ts, EF-Tu, EF-G, and EF4), ribosome recycling factor (RRF), release factors (RF1, RF2, RF3), chaperones (GroEL/ES), BSA and tRNAs. The work provides a more efficient defined in vitro transcription and translation system and a deeper understanding of the factors that limit the whole system efficiency

Modelling the advection of vertically migrating shrimp larvae

The role of larval advection in determining the complex, large-scale patterns of immigration of penaeid postlarvae in the Gulf of Carpentaria is investigated by modelling the interaction between diurnal vertical migration of larvae with wind-forced and tidal currents. Eight vertical migration schemes are modelled in which both the timing of the migration and the position of the larvae in the water column are varied. These schemes are then coupled with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional models of the currents of the Gulf, to examine horizontal advection of larvae. When the larvae migrate vertically with a diurnal period, their horizontal advection is enhanced. The largest horizontal advection distances occur when the larvae move diurnally from the water column into the bottom boundary layer. Advection distances of up to 165 km are possible during the two to three week planktonic larval period. This distance corresponds to, and may determine, the offshore extent of the adult distribution. The onshore advection pattern of larvae varies in both space and time (on a seasonal scale) and is consistent with the observed spatial and temporal recruitment patterns seen by sampling postlarval immigation into nursery areas. During the period of highest reproductive activity (March) in the southeastern corner of the Gulf, the area of the largest fishery, the advection of larvae is offshore and little recruitment of postlarvae to the nursery grounds is accomplished. Six months later, during the next period of reproductive activity (October), when the number of spawning female shrimp is much lower, the phase of the tidal currents, relative to the day-night cycle, has progressed 180° and the larvae are moved onshore allowing postlarvae access to their estuarine nursery grounds several months prior to the main fishing season (March)

Barcoding cells using cell-surface programmable DNA-binding domains

We develop here a novel approach to barcode large numbers of cells through cell-surface expression of programmable zinc-finger DNA-binding domains (sZFs). We show sZFs enable double-stranded DNA to sequence-specifically label living cells, and also develop a sequential tagging approach to in situ image >3 cell types using just 3 fluorophores. Finally we demonstrate their broad versatility through ability to serve as surrogate reporters and facilitate selective cell capture and targeting

Toward Open Access: it takes a village

This is the author final draft (post peer review), as permitted by publisher agreement. Published, closed- access version is available on the Taylor & Francis website for Library Administration journal.Academics and librarians have worked in tandem for many years to broaden access to the scholarship they create, scrutinize, collect, and consume. Recent developments have focused on campus faculty advocating for change by developing self-imposed open access policies. Such policy developments have occurred in an evolutionary process, the beginnings of which might be identified as the “serials crisis” peaking in the 1990’s, followed by the focus on efforts to examine and reform broken aspects of the system of scholarly communication, and most recently the feasibility of faculty-initiated open access policies on university campuses. This paper provides an analysis of one university’s ten year evolution to an open access policy focusing primarily on its advocates’ lessons learned and the library’s role in order to add the perspective of a public institution’s experience

Heritable genome editing in C. elegans via a CRISPR-Cas9 system

CRISPR-Cas systems have been used with single-guide RNAs for accurate gene disruption and conversion in multiple biological systems. Here we report the use of the endonuclease Cas9 to target genomic sequences in the C. elegans germline, utilizing single-guide RNAs that are expressed from a U6 small nuclear RNA promoter. Our results demonstrate that targeted, heritable genetic alterations can be achieved in C. elegans, providing a convenient and effective approach for generating loss-of-function mutants