B780: A Cost Analysis of Pruning Procedures in Lowbush Blueberry Production

Burning fields with fuel oil is currently the most practical method of pruning blueberries but is costly and destructive to the organic material on the surface of the soil. Fuel oil is a nonrenewable resource that is rapidly increasing in cost and, in the future, may become less readily available for this use. The need to develop alternative means of pruning lowbush bleuberries is evident. This bulletin compares the economics of six pruning procedures on operations of three sizes. The budgets are based on certain assumptions and costs which will change over time. The results will allow blueberry growers to compare procedures to determine which one is most economically feasible for their particular operation and its resources.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1066/thumbnail.jp

Modulation of Cardiac Performance by Motor Protein Gene Transfer

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75444/1/annals.1420.011.pd

Selective Dimerization of Ethylene to 1-Butene with a Porous Catalyst

Current heterogeneous catalysts lack the fine steric and electronic tuning required for catalyzing the selective dimerization of ethylene to 1-butene, which remains one of the largest industrial processes still catalyzed by homogeneous catalysts. Here, we report that a metal–organic framework catalyzes ethylene dimerization with a combination of activity and selectivity for 1-butene that is premier among heterogeneous catalysts. The capacity for mild cation exchange in the material MFU-4l (MFU-4l = Zn[subscript 5]Cl[subscript 4](BTDD)[subscript 3], H[subscript 2]BTDD = bis(1H-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-b],[4′,5′-i])dibenzo[1,4]dioxin) was leveraged to create a well-defined and site-isolated Ni(II) active site bearing close structural homology to molecular tris-pyrazolylborate complexes. In the presence of ethylene and methylaluminoxane, the material consumes ethylene at a rate of 41,500 mol per mole of Ni per hour with a selectivity for 1-butene of up to 96.2%, exceeding the selectivity reported for the current industrial dimerization process.Saudi AramcoAmerican Society for Engineering Education. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship3M CompanyResearch Corporation for Science Advancement. Cottrell Scholars ProgramAlfred P. Sloan Foundatio

iObserve: Integrated Observation and Modeling Techniques to Support Adaptation and Evolution of Software Systems

The goal of iObserve is to develop methods and tools to support evolution and adaptation of long-lived software systems. Future long-living software systems will be engineered using third-party software services and infrastructures. Key challenges for such systems will be caused by dynamic changes of deployment options on cloud platforms. Third-party services and infrastructures are neither owned nor controlled by the users and developers of service-based systems. System users and developers are thus only able to observe third-party services and infrastructures via their interface, but are not able to look into the software and infrastructure that provides those services. In this technical report, we summarize our results of four activities to realize a complete tooling around Kieker, Palladio, and MAMBA, supporting performance and cost prediction, and the evaluation of data privacy in context of geo-locations. Furthermore, the report illustrates our efforts to extend Palladio

Variability in Short Gamma-ray Bursts: Gravitationally Unstable Tidal Tails

Short gamma-ray bursts are thought to result from the mergers of two neutron stars or a neutron star and stellar mass black hole. The final stages of the merger are generally accompanied by the production of one or more tidal "tails" of ejecta, which fall back onto the remnant-disc system at late times. Using the results of a linear stability analysis, we show that if the material comprising these tails is modeled as adiabatic and the effective adiabatic index satisfies $\gamma \ge 5/3$, then the tails are gravitationally unstable and collapse to form small-scale knots. We analytically estimate the properties of these knots, including their spacing along the tidal tail and the total number produced, and their effect on the mass return rate to the merger remnant. We perform hydrodynamical simulations of the disruption of a polytropic (with the polytropic and adiabatic indices $\gamma$ equal), $\gamma =2$ neutron star by a black hole, and find agreement between the predictions of the linear stability analysis and the distribution of knots that collapse out of the instability. The return of these knots to the black hole induces variability in the fallback rate, which can manifest as variability in the lightcurve of the GRB and -- depending on how rapidly the instability operates -- the prompt emission. The late-time variability induced by the return of these knots is also consistent with the extended emission observed in some GRBs.Comment: Small corrections, additional references included to reflect ApJL published versio

Run-time Architecture Models for Dynamic Adaptation and Evolution of Cloud Applications

Cloud applications are subject to continuous change due to modifications of the software application itself and, in particular, its environment. To manage changes, cloud-based systems provide diverse self-adaptation mechanisms based on run-time models. Observed run-time models are means for leveraging self- adaption, however, are hard to apply during software evolution as they are usually too detailed for comprehension by humans.In this paper, we propose iObserve, an approach to cloud-based system adaptation and evolution through run-time observation and continuous quality analysis. With iObserve, run-time adaptation and evolution are two mutual, interwoven activities that influence each other. Central to iObserve is (a) the specification of the correspondence between observation results and design models, and (b) their use in both adaptation and evolution. Run-time observation data is promoted to meaningful values mapped to design models, thereby continuously updating and calibrating those design models during run-time while keeping the models comprehendible by humans. This engineering approach allows for automated adaptation at run-time and simultaneously supports software evolution. Model-driven software engineering is employed for various purposes such as monitoring instrumentation and model transformation. We report on the experimental evaluation of this approach in lab experiments using the CoCoME benchmark deployed on an OpenStack cloud

Upregulation of SOCS-3 and PIAS-3 Impairs IL-12-Mediated Interferon-Gamma Response in CD56+ T Cells in HCV-Infected Heroin Users

CD56(+) T cells are abundant in liver and play an important role in host innate immunity against viral infections, including hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, a common infection among heroin abusers. We thus investigated the in vivo impact of heroin use or heroin use plus HCV infection on the CD56(+) T cell frequency and function.A total of 37 heroin users with (17) or without (20) HCV infection and 17 healthy subjects were included in the study. Although there was no significant difference in CD56(+) T cell frequency in PBMCs among three study groups, CD56(+) T cells isolated from the heroin users had significantly lower levels of constitutive interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) expression than those from the normal subjects. In addition, when stimulated by interleukin (IL)-12, CD56(+) natural T cells from HCV-infected heroin users produced significantly lower levels of IFN-gamma than those from the normal subjects. This diminished ability to produce IFN-gamma by CD56(+) T cells was associated with the increased plasma HCV viral loads in the HCV-infected heroin users. Investigation of the mechanisms showed that although heroin use or heroin use plus HCV infection had little impact on the expression of the key positive regulators (IL-12 receptors, STAT-1, 3, 4, 5, JAK-2, and TYK-2) in IL-12 pathway, heroin use or heroin use plus HCV infection induced the expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling protein-3 (SOCS-3) and protein inhibitors of activated STAT-3 (PIAS-3), two key inhibitors of IL-12 pathway.These findings provide compelling in vivo evidence that heroin use or heroin use plus HCV infection impairs CD56(+) T cell-mediated innate immune function, which may account for HCV infection and persistence in liver

Different Poses for Ligand and Chaperone in Inhibitor Bound Hsp90 and GRP94: Implications for Paralog-specific Drug Design

Hsp90 chaperones contain an N-terminal ATP binding site that has been effectively targeted by competitive inhibitors. Despite the myriad of inhibitors, none to date have been designed to bind specifically to just one of the four mammalian hsp90 paralogs, which are cytoplasmic Hsp90α and β, ER GRP94, and mitochondrial Trap-1. Given that each of the hsp90 paralogs is responsible for chaperoning a distinct set of client proteins, specific targeting of one hsp90 paralog may result in higher efficacy and therapeutic control. Specific inhibitors may also help elucidate the biochemical roles of each hsp90 paralog. Here we present side by side comparisons of the structures of yeast Hsp90 and mammalian GRP94, bound to the pan-hsp90 inhibitors Geldanamycin and Radamide. These structures reveal paralog specific differences in the Hsp90 and GRP94 conformations in response to Geldanamycin binding. We also report significant variation in the pose and disparate binding affinities for the Geldanamycin-Radicicol chimera Radamide when bound to the two paralogs, which may be exploited in the design of paralog-specific inhibitors