Distinctive growth requirements and gene expression patterns distinguish progenitor B cells from pre-B cells.

Long-term bone marrow cultures have been useful in determining gene expression patterns in pre-B cells and in the identification of cytokines such as interleukin 7 (IL-7). We have developed a culture system to selectively grow populations of B lineage restricted progenitors (pro-B cells) from murine bone marrow. Pro-B cells do not grow in response to IL-7, Steel locus factor (SLF), or a combination of the two. c-kit, the SLF receptor, and the IL-7 receptor are both expressed by pro-B cells, indicating that the lack of response is not simply due to the absence of receptors. Furthermore, SLF is not necessary for the growth of pro-B cells since they could be expanded on a stromal line derived from Steel mice that produces no SLF. IL-7 responsiveness in pre-B cells is associated with an increase in n-myc expression and is correlated with immunoglobulin (Ig) gene rearrangements. Although members of the ets family of transcription factors and the Pim-1 kinase are expressed by pro-B cells, n-myc is not expressed. Pro-B cells maintain Ig genes in the germline configuration, which is correlated with a low level of recombination activating genes 1 and 2 (Rag-1 and 2) mRNA expression, but high expression of sterile mu and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase. Pro-B cells are unable to grow separated from the stromal layer by a porous membrane, indicating that stromal contact is required for growth. These results suggest that pro-B cells are dependent on alternative growth signals derived from bone marrow stroma and can be distinguished from pre-B cells by specific patterns of gene expression

Real World Application of CCT Tools: How Reflection, Dialogue Processes and Action Research were used to promote organizational change and student success in Re-Engagement Work

I started the CCT program while also beginning a new role as a Dropout Recovery Specialist, working in partnership with a local school district. I work with students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out explore alternative options to finish their high school diploma or an equivalent. As the newest member of the center, the transition into a new organization created an internal struggle in finding my place. I was also seeing opportunities to improve current routines and practices as demands from district partners were increasing. Overwhelmed by the challenges before me, I was struggling to determine a place to start. This project explores how tools learned from the CCT program supported my transition into a new environment and supported me in promoting organizational change and collaboration within the center, and inspired my personal growth and reflection as an outcome of this program. Three tools have been integral to this process: regular reflection, dialogue processes and action research. Throughout this synthesis, I demonstrate the process of utilizing and implementing these tools for myself and my team, the progress to date, and the implications for work in the future

Thoracic Injury Effects Of Linear And Angular Karate Impacts

Skilled karate practitioners are reputed to be able to completely disable an opponent with one blow -- when necessary. Immediate questions arise as to whether karate participants: (a) can, in fact, deliver disabling injurious blows to the thorax, (b) can have a greater ability to damage the body with some technique types over others, and (c) can wear readily available safety equipment to temper blows to below the level of medically severe injury. The viscous response criteria (VCmax), based on chest compression and compression velocity, has been devised to estimate level of injury to the thorax or chest. Accordingly, a VCmax =1.0 m/s is the level for a 25% probability of severe injury, such as liver or lung laceration. Twelve international class karate competitors of 3rd, 4th, and 5th degree or higher (master class) black belt ranks, were evaluated impacting the thorax of an instrumented anthropometric test dummy (ATD) to determine the probable injury effects of linear (thrusting) and angular (striking or snapping) types of karate blows, with and without a chest protector. Techniques evaluated were the roundhouse kick, backfist strike, side-thrust kick, and the reverse punch. Data were analyzed using a 2*3*4 ANOVA design with Tukey's Studentized Range follow-up tests to discriminate within condition differences. The adjusted viscous response (VCmax) was the variable used for evaluation. Of the three skill classes evaluated, 3rd (M =1.2096, SD =.5309) and 4th (M =1.1127, SD =.4304) degree ranks generated statistically higher VCmax levels than master class competitors (M =.8036, SD =.2797) across all conaitions, F (2, 60) =7.57, F = .0012. The chest protector was found to be effective, F 0,60) =4.28, F =.0430, in attenuating the impact effects below the serious injury level (M =1.1382, SD = .4423 and M =.9535, SD = .4575, without and with the chest protector, respectively). The roundhouse kick (M =1.3778, SD =.4674) generated higher .VCmax than all other techniques, F (3, 60) =7.17, F = .0003,: the reverse punch (M =1.0122, SD =.3923); the side-thrust kick (M =.9538, SD =.4976); or the backfist strike (M =.8189, SD =.2986). No statistical difference was detected among the technique conditions. It was concluded that the highly skilled karate competitor could deliver severe or greater levels of damage to the thorax with karate techniques, especially the roundhouse kick. The level of damage to the thorax can be reduced below the "serious" level with the use of a chest protector

Design of a low cost earth resources system

The author has identified the following significant results. Survey results indicated that users of remote sensing data in the Southeastern U.S. were increasingly turning to digital processing techniques. All the states surveyed have had some involvement in projects using digitally processed data. Even those states which do not yet have in-house capabilities for digital processing were extremely interested in and were planning to develop such capabilities

Computer processing of peach tree decline data

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

The chaining lemma and its application

We present a new information-theoretic result which we call the Chaining Lemma. It considers a so-called “chain” of random variables, defined by a source distribution X(0)with high min-entropy and a number (say, t in total) of arbitrary functions (T1,…, Tt) which are applied in succession to that source to generate the chain (Formula presented). Intuitively, the Chaining Lemma guarantees that, if the chain is not too long, then either (i) the entire chain is “highly random”, in that every variable has high min-entropy; or (ii) it is possible to find a point j (1 ≤ j ≤ t) in the chain such that, conditioned on the end of the chain i.e. (Formula presented), the preceding part (Formula presented) remains highly random. We think this is an interesting information-theoretic result which is intuitive but nevertheless requires rigorous case-analysis to prove. We believe that the above lemma will find applications in cryptography. We give an example of this, namely we show an application of the lemma to protect essentially any cryptographic scheme against memory tampering attacks. We allow several tampering requests, the tampering functions can be arbitrary, however, they must be chosen from a bounded size set of functions that is fixed a prior

The microscopic theory of fission

Fission-fragment properties have been calculated for thermal neutron-induced fission on a $^{239}\textrm{Pu}$ target, using constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations with a finite-range effective interaction. A quantitative criterion based on the interaction energy between the nascent fragments is introduced to define the scission configurations. The validity of this criterion is benchmarked against experimental measurements of the kinetic energies and of multiplicities of neutrons emitted by the fragments.Comment: 8 page, 4 figures, to be published in Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Fission and Fission Product Spectroscop

Non-malleable codes for space-bounded tampering

Non-malleable codes—introduced by Dziembowski, Pietrzak and Wichs at ICS 2010—are key-less coding schemes in which mauling attempts to an encoding of a given message, w.r.t. some class of tampering adversaries, result in a decoded value that is either identical or unrelated to the original message. Such codes are very useful for protecting arbitrary cryptographic primitives against tampering attacks against the memory. Clearly, non-malleability is hopeless if the class of tampering adversaries includes the decoding and encoding algorithm. To circumvent this obstacle, the majority of past research focused on designing non-malleable codes for various tampering classes, albeit assuming that the adversary is unable to decode. Nonetheless, in many concrete settings, this assumption is not realistic

Development of large-internal-surface-area nickel-metal plaques third quarterly progress report, dec. 19, 1964 - mar. 18, 1965

Electrodes impregnated with cadmium for porosity and electrochemical evaluatio