An anocellar polistine wasp (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae) from Texas

A remarkable teratological female of Polistes (Fuscopolistes) dorsalis neotropicus Bequaert, 1940 (Vespidae: Polistinae) is described and illustrated. The specimen lacks all three external dorsal ocelli but is normally developed in almost every other aspect. Additionally, similar findings in other Hymenoptera are briefly discussed, as are the consequences and the reasons that might cause the random loss of ocelli

Electronic filters, repeated signal charge conversion apparatus, hearing aids and methods

An electronic filter for filtering an electrical signal. Signal processing circuitry therein includes a logarithmic filter having a series of filter stages with inputs and outputs in cascade and respective circuits associated with the filter stages for storing electrical representations of filter parameters. The filter stages include circuits for respectively adding the electrical representations of the filter parameters to the electrical signal to be filtered thereby producing a set of filter sum signals. At least one of the filter stages includes circuitry for producing a filter signal in substantially logarithmic form at its output by combining a filter sum signal for that filter stage with a signal from an output of another filter stage. The signal processing circuitry produces an intermediate output signal, and a multiplexer connected to the signal processing circuit multiplexes the intermediate output signal with the electrical signal to be filtered so that the logarithmic filter operates as both a logarithmic prefilter and a logarithmic postfilter. Other electronic filters, signal conversion apparatus, electroacoustic systems, hearing aids and methods are also disclosed

Electronic filters, signal conversion apparatus, hearing aids and methods

An electronic filter for filtering an electrical signal. Signal processing circuitry therein includes a logarithmic filter having a series of filter stages with inputs and outputs in cascade and respective circuits as GOVERNMENT SUPPORT This invention was made with U.S. Government support under Veterans Administration Contract VA KV 674P857 and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Research Grant No. NAG10-0040. The U.S. Government has certain rights in this invention

Evaluation of Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles as a Feedstuff for Heifers in the Last Trimester fo Gestation

Ninety-six crossbred heifers were used in an experiment to evaluate the effect of dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS), fed in the last trimester of gestation, on heifer performance and reproduction. Animals were blocked by previous heifer development strategy (Antelope Research Station range developed = ANT 1; Antelope Research Station dry lot developed = ANT 2; Cottonwood research station = CTW), stratified by expected calving date, body weight and body condition score, and randomly allotted to one of twelve pens. Each pen was randomly assigned to one of two treatments (6 pens/treatment; 4 pens per block). Treatments were 1) dried distillers grains and grass hay (DDGS) or 2) soybean hulls and grass hay (SBH). Treatments were applied during the last-trimester of gestation. Diets were developed utilizing the 1996 NRC computer model and designed to meet nutrient requirements at 240 days of gestation under thermo-neutral conditions. Treatment diets offered similar amounts of NEm each day based on assumptions of the energy content of SBH and DDGS (assumed SBH = 80% TDN and DDGS = 88% TDN). Heifers fed the DDGS had a greater (P\u3c0.01) increase in body weight and a heavier (P=0.03) final weight compared to the heifers fed SBH. Body condition score was not affected by diet. Calf birth weights were similar for both the DDGS and SBH treatments with a mean birth weight of 87.0 lbs ± 5.3lb and 85.0 lbs ± 3.4lbs respectively. Treatment had no effect on calving ease or calf vigor scores. These results suggest that in limit fed situations DDGS and SBH can both be supplemented at 40 percent of the diet with no negative affects on cow performance, calf birth weight, or calving difficulty

Embryonic expression and cloning of the murine GATA-3 gene.

We describe the embryonic expression pattern as well as the cloning and initial transcriptional regulatory analysis of the murine (m) GATA-3 gene. In situ hybridization shows that mGATA-3 mRNA accumulation is temporally and spatially regulated during early development: although found most abundantly in the placenta prior to 10 days of embryogenesis, mGATA-3 expression becomes restricted to specific cells within the embryonic central nervous system (in the mesencephalon, diencephalon, pons and inner ear) later in gestation. GATA-3 also shows a restricted expression pattern in the peripheral nervous system, including terminally differentiating cells in the cranial and sympathetic ganglia. In addition to this distinct pattern in the nervous system, mGATA-3 is also expressed in the embryonic kidney and the thymic rudiment, and further analysis showed that it is expressed throughout T lymphocyte differentiation. To begin to investigate how this complex gene expression pattern is elicited, cloning and transcriptional regulatory analyses of the mGATA-3 gene were initiated. At least two regulatory elements (one positive and one negative) appear to be required for appropriate tissue-restricted regulation after transfection of mGATA-3-directed reporter genes into cells that naturally express GATA-3 (T lymphocytes and neuroblastoma cells). Furthermore, this same region of the locus confers developmentally appropriate expression in transgenic mice, but only in a subset of the tissues that naturally express the gene

Quantum computation and the physical computation level of biological information processing

On the basis of introspective analysis, we establish a crucial requirement for the physical computation basis of consciousness: it should allow processing a significant amount of information together at the same time. Classical computation does not satisfy the requirement. At the fundamental physical level, it is a network of two body interactions, each the input-output transformation of a universal Boolean gate. Thus, it cannot process together at the same time more than the three bit input of this gate - many such gates in parallel do not count since the information is not processed together. Quantum computation satisfies the requirement. At the light of our recent explanation of the speed up, quantum measurement of the solution of the problem is analogous to a many body interaction between the parts of a perfect classical machine, whose mechanical constraints represent the problem to be solved. The many body interaction satisfies all the constraints together at the same time, producing the solution in one shot. This shades light on the physical computation level of the theories that place consciousness in quantum measurement and explains how informations coming from disparate sensorial channels come together in the unity of subjective experience. The fact that the fundamental mechanism of consciousness is the same of the quantum speed up, gives quantum consciousness a potentially enormous evolutionary advantage.Comment: 13 page

Measurements of the Suitability of Large Rock Salt Formations for Radio Detection of High Energy Neutrinos

We have investigated the possibility that large rock salt formations might be suitable as target masses for detection of neutrinos of energies about 10 PeV and above. In neutrino interactions at these energies, the secondary electromagnetic cascade produces a coherent radio pulse well above ambient thermal noise via the Askaryan effect. We describe measurements of radio-frequency attenuation lengths and ambient thermal noise in two salt formations. Measurements in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), located in an evaporite salt bed in Carlsbad, NM yielded short attenuation lengths, 3-7 m over 150-300 MHz. However, measurements at United Salt's Hockley mine, located in a salt dome near Houston, Texas yielded attenuation lengths in excess of 250 m at similar frequencies. We have also analyzed early ground-penetrating radar data at Hockley mine and have found additional evidence for attenuation lengths in excess of several hundred meters at 440 MHz. We conclude that salt domes, which may individually contain several hundred cubic kilometer water-equivalent mass, provide attractive sites for next-generation high-energy neutrino detectors.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, to be submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Method