NEW NATIONAL CENTER FOR VALUE-ADDED AGRICULTURE

Farm Management,

The Half-lives of 132^{132}La and 135^{135}La

The half-lives of $^{135}$La and $^{132}$La were determined via gamma spectroscopy and high-precision ionization chamber measurements. The results are 18.930(6) h for $^{135}$La and 4.59(4) h for $^{132}$La compared to the previously compiled values of 19.5(2) h and 4.8(2) h, respectively. The new results represent an improvement in the precision and accuracy of both values. These lanthanum isotopes comprise a medically interesting system with positron emitter $^{132}$La and Auger electron emitter $^{135}$La forming a matched pair for internal diagnostics and therapeutics. The precise half-lives are necessary for proper evaluation of their value in medicine and for a more representative tabulation of nuclear data.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Lessons Learned from the Canadian Cattle Industry: National Animal Identification and The Mad Cow

Canada implemented a national cattle identification system, led and developed by the industry. Initially a voluntary program beginning in July 2001, it became mandatory in July 2002 and achieved 92-95 percent compliance by that fall. The costs to develop and initiate the system were low; animals are tagged before leaving the farm of origin and the tags are read when the animal dies or is exported. The national identification system did not protect Canadian cattle from a sole case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow Disease, found in the spring of 2003, but it did help speed and lend confidence to the investigation. While the identification system was the objective of the study, the team also reports on how markets and an industry behave in a crisis

A general computer program for the Bell detection loophole

The difference between ideal experiments to test Bell's weak nonlocality and the real experiments leads to loopholes. Ideal experiments involve either inequalities (Bell) or equalities (Greenberger, Horne, Zeilinger). Every real experiment has its own critical inequalities, which are almost all more complicated than the corresponding ideal inequalities and equalities. If one of these critical inequalities is violated, then the detection loophole is closed, with no further assumptions. If all the critical inequalities are satisfied, then it remains open, unless further assumptions are made. The computer program described here and published on the website http://www.strings.ph.qmw.ac.uk/QI/main.htm obtains the critical inequalities for any real experiment, given the number of allowed settings of the angles and the corresponding possible output signals for a single run. Given all the necessary conditional probabilities or rates, it tests whether all these inequalities are satisfied.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. Revised version with additional reference to Pitowski and Svozi

Иерархическая организация мира, интеллект и сознание

Отказ от фиксированной сложности элементов нижележащих уровней позволил показать, что с точки зрения иерархической организации неживые тела, живые организмы и сознание существуют одинаковым образом, как физическая реальность. Такие свойства сознания, как целостность, контекстность, переживание и чувствование, можно описать только с позиции физического существования, но не формальных или алгоритмических систем. Делается вывод, что сознание не может быть получено с помощью машины Тьюринга и иных вычислительных систем, основанных на формальных принципах.Відмова від фіксованої складності елементів долішніх рівней дозволили показати, що з точки зору ієрархічної організації неживі тіла, живі організми та свідомість існують однаковим чином, як фізична реальність. Такі властивості свідомості, як цілісність, контекстність, переживання та почування, можливо описати лише за позиції фізичного існування, але не формальних або алгоритмічних систем. Робиться висновок, що свідомість не може бути отримана з допомогою машини Тьюрінгу і інших обчислювальних систем, заснованих на формальних принципах.Refusal from fixed complexity of elements of underlying levels has allowed to show that from the point of view of the hierarchical organization lifeless bodies, live organisms and consciousness exist equally, as a physical reality. Such properties of consciousness as integrity, contextual, and feeling it is possible to reproduce experience only from a position of physical existence, but not formal or algorithmic systems. The conclusion becomes that the consciousness cannot be received by means of the machine of the Turing and other computing systems based on formal principles

Alien Registration- Clause, Stanley (Eustis, Franklin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/17538/thumbnail.jp

SPARSE APERTURE SPECKLE INTERFEROMETRY TELESCOPE ACTIVE OPTICS CONTROL SYSTEM

A conventional large aperture telescope required for binary star research is typically cost prohibitive. A prototype active optics system was created and fitted to a telescope frame using relatively low cost components. The active optics system was capable of tipping, tilting, and elevating the mirrors to align reflected star light. The low cost mirror position actuators have a resolution of 31 nm, repeatable to within 16 nm. This is accurate enough to perform speckle analysis for the visible light spectrum. The mirrors used in testing were not supported with a whiffletree and produced trefoil-like aberrations which made phasing two mirrors difficult. The active optics system was able to successfully focus and align the mirrors through manual adjustment. Interference patterns could not be found due to having no method of measuring the mirror surfaces, preventing proper mirror alignment and phasing. Interference from air turbulence and trefoil-like aberrations further complicated this task. With some future project additions, this system has the potential to be completely automated. The success of the active optics actuators makes for a significant step towards a fully automated sparse aperture telescope

The role of mechanical forces in cardiomyocyte differentiation in 3D culture

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in many developing and industrialized countries. The loss of cardiomyocyte (CM) proliferation in the post-natal myocardium is the major barrier to myocardial regeneration, which leads to a loss of functional myocytes and thus contractile function after injury. While significant advances in cardiac tissue engineering as an alternative strategy for treatment have been made in the recent years, the application for repair of the injured myocardium remains to be realized. However, tissue engineering as an in vitro model system for characterizing functional properties of cardiac tissue can be used as a powerful tool now. The overall goal of this doctoral thesis was to determine the role of mechanical strain on CM differentiation within a 3D engineered tissue to use as a system for evaluation of strategies for enhancing directed CM differentiation and tissue contractile properties. Substantial progress towards this goal was made by a combination of testing new strategies for monitoring differential CM differentiation and contractile function, such as using MDSCs in a 3D collagen gel bioreactor to induce CM differentiation and applying mechanical strain to determine the responsive cell type, and by developing new tools and methods for characterizing CM differentiation and cell morphology changes. Our in vitro engineered cardiac tissue from fetal/developing native cardiac cells maintained CM proliferative activity and contractile properties similar to the native myocardium which increased in response to mechanical stretch. The implanted graft maintained CM proliferative activity in vivo, survived as a donor myocardial tissue, and contributed to the cardiac functional recovery of injured myocardium better than a graft with post-natal cardiac cells. Skeletal muscle derived stem cell (MDSC) aggregate formation and 3D collagen gel bioreactor (3DGB) culture (MDSC-3DGB) triggered differentiation of cells with an immature functioning CM phenotype in vitro. In addition, mechanical strain directed cell morphology changes were significant factors in directing CM differentiation from MDSCs within MDSC-3DGB. In conclusion, our 3D collagen gel bioreactor culture, with capabilities for spatial and temporal monitoring, represents a powerful model for elucidating the role of specific environmental factors and their underlying mechanisms on directed cell proliferation and differentiation