Possible environmental effects of increased coal use in California

If coal is to be utilized in California it must be made compatible with the state's drive toward restoring environmental quality. The impacts resulting from coal's mining and transportation, or from water consumption, water quality degradation and electric transmission line routing can probably be adequately mitigated through strong and early planning efforts, the use of improved control and process technologies, and sincere utility commitment. The socioeconomic impacts may prove somewhat more difficult to satisfactorily mitigate. Of greatest concern is adequate control of generated air pollutants and disposal of solid and liquid wastes since acceptable technologies or handling techniques have yet to be conclusively demonstrated

Molecular dynamics study of melatonin binding to homology modelled Mel1a G-protein coupled receptor

The Mel1a G-coupled Protein receptor (GPCR) was modelled using the I-Tasser online web service. All-atom molecular dynamics was used to improve the structure. The primary ligand melatonin was docked to the structure post molecular dynamics and structurally aligned to the X-ray crystallographic structures of the β2 adrenergic and rhodopsin GPCR’s, of the same family of proteins. A second set of all-atom molecular dynamics was undertaken with melatonin in the proposed active site which was parameterized ab initio in Gaussian16 to note any key conformational changes due to binding. The Mel1a GPCR becomes depolarized as a result of binding in the proposed active site by melatonin, based on Van der Waal interaction with amino acid residues on the extracellular side of the membrane (Ser176, Cys177, Tyr281 and Ser103)

Progress toward a cosmic dust collection facility on space station

Scientific and programmatic progress toward the development of a cosmic dust collection facility (CDCF) for the proposed space station is documented. Topics addressed include: trajectory sensor concepts; trajectory accuracy and orbital evolution; CDCF pointing direction; development of capture devices; analytical techniques; programmatic progress; flight opportunities; and facility development

Pairwise Well-Formed Modes and Transformations

One of the most significant attitudinal shifts in the history of music occurred in the Renaissance, when an emerging triadic consciousness moved musicians towards a new scalar formation that placed major thirds on a par with perfect fifths. In this paper we revisit the confrontation between the two idealized scalar and modal conceptions, that of the ancient and medieval world and that of the early modern world, associated especially with Zarlino. We do this at an abstract level, in the language of algebraic combinatorics on words. In scale theory the juxtaposition is between well-formed and pairwise well-formed scales and modes, expressed in terms of Christoffel words or standard words and their conjugates, and the special Sturmian morphisms that generate them. Pairwise well-formed scales are encoded by words over a three-letter alphabet, and in our generalization we introduce special positive automorphisms of $F3$, the free group over three letters.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, paper presented at the MCM2017 at UNAM in Mexico City on June 27, 2017, keywords: pairwise well-formed scales and modes, well-formed scales and modes, well-formed words, Christoffel words, standard words, central words, algebraic combinatorics on words, special Sturmian morphism

Epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of human clinical isolates of Staphylococcus intermedius group

ABSTRACT The veterinary pathogens in the Staphylococcus intermedius group (SIG) are increasingly recognized as causes of human infection. Shared features between SIG and Staphylococcus aureus may result in the misidentification of SIG in human clinical cultures. This study examined the clinical and microbiological characteristics of isolates recovered at a tertiary-care academic medical center. From 2013 to 2015, 81 SIG isolates were recovered from 62 patients. Patients were commonly ≥50 years old, diabetic, and/or immunocompromised. Documentation of dog exposure in the electronic medical record was not common. Of the 81 SIG isolates, common sites of isolation included 37 (46%) isolates from wound cultures and 17 (21%) isolates from respiratory specimens. Although less common, 10 (12%) bloodstream infections were documented in 7 unique patients. The majority of SIG (65%) isolates were obtained from polymicrobial cultures. In comparison to S. aureus isolates from the same time period, significant differences were noted in proportion of SIG isolates that were susceptible to doxycycline (74% versus 97%, respectively; P &lt; 0.001), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (65% versus 97%, respectively; P &lt; 0.001), and ciprofloxacin (78% versus 59%, respectively; P &lt; 0.01). Methicillin resistance (MR) was detected in 12 (15%) of 81 SIG isolates. All MR isolates detected by an oxacillin disk diffusion test would have been misclassified as methicillin susceptible using a cefoxitin disk diffusion test. Thus, SIG is recovered from human clinical specimens, and distinction of SIG from S. aureus is critical for the accurate characterization of MR status in these isolates. </jats:p