Condition/damage monitoring methodologies.

COSMOS, in cooperation with the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS), is sponsoring an invited workshop entitled Strong-Motion Instrumentation of Buildings. The workshop is motivated by the need to obtain broad input from earthquake engineering professionals for the purpose of developing guidelines for strong motion instrumentation of buildings as part of the ANSS instrument installation effort. The ANSS has been authorized capital finding for 6,000 strong-motion instruments. It is expected that funding for purchase and installation of instruments will be appropriated over a period of several years. The instrument installations must meet multiple monitoring objectives including instrumentation of buildings of various types, urban reference stations, and emergency response and recovery actions. An important opportunity therefore, exists to comprehensively define strong-motion monitoring needs as an underpinning basis for developing guidelines for installation of this important monitoring system. This workshop will specifically address instrumentation of buildings

Generalized Gluon Currents and Applications in QCD

We consider the process containing two quark lines and an arbitrary number of gluons in a spinor helicity framework. A current with two off-shell gluons appears in the amplitude. We first study this modified gluon current using recursion relations. The recursion relation for the modified gluon current is solved for the case of like-helicity gluons. We apply the modified gluon current to compute the amplitude for $q \bar q \rightarrow q \bar q gg \cdots g$ in the like-helicity gluon case.Comment: 80 pages, 2 figures (appended in pictex), CLNS 91/112

Autonomous multi-platform observations during the Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 30, no. 2 (2017): 38–48, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2017.218.The Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study (SPURS) aims to understand the patterns and variability of sea surface salinity. In order to capture the wide range of spatial and temporal scales associated with processes controlling salinity in the upper ocean, research vessels delivered autonomous instruments to remote sites, one in the North Atlantic and one in the Eastern Pacific. Instruments sampled for one complete annual cycle at each of these two sites, which are subject to contrasting atmospheric forcing. The SPURS field programs coordinated sampling from many different platforms, using a mix of Lagrangian and Eulerian approaches. This article discusses the motivations, implementation, and first results of the SPURS-1 and SPURS-2 programs.SPURS is supported by multiple NASA grants, with important additional contributions from the US National Science Foundation, NOAA, and the Office of Naval Research, as well as international agencies. SVP drifters are deployed with support from NASA and the NOAA funded Global Drifter Program at the Lagrangian Drifter Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. SVP-S2 drifters are provided by NOAA-AOML and NASA. PRAWLER mooring development is supported by NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division, and by NOAA/PMEL

Plant Power:Opportunities and challenges for meeting sustainable energy needs from the plant and fungal kingdoms

Societal Impact Statement Bioenergy is a major component of the global transition to renewable energy technologies. The plant and fungal kingdoms offer great potential but remain mostly untapped. Their increased use could contribute to the renewable energy transition and addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” Current research focuses on species cultivated at scale in temperate regions, overlooking the wealth of potential new sources of small‐scale energy where they are most urgently needed. A shift towards diversified, accessible bioenergy technologies will help to mitigate and adapt to the threats of climate change, decrease energy poverty, improve human health by reducing indoor pollution, increase energy resilience of communities, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Summary Bioenergy derived from plants and fungi is a major component of the global transition to renewable energy technologies. There is rich untapped diversity in the plant and fungal kingdoms that offers potential to contribute to the shift away from fossil fuels and to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” Energy poverty—the lack of access to modern energy services—is most acute in the Global South where biodiversity is greatest and least investigated. Our systematic review of the literature over the last 5 years (2015–2020) indicates that research efforts have targeted a very small number of plant species cultivated at scale, mostly in temperate regions. The wealth of potential new sources of bioenergy in biodiverse regions, where the implementation of SDG7 is most urgently needed, has been largely overlooked. We recommend next steps for bioenergy stakeholders—research, industry, and government—to seize opportunities for innovation to alleviate energy poverty while protecting biodiversity. Small‐scale energy production using native plant species in bioenergy landscapes overcomes many pitfalls associated with bioenergy crop monocultures, such as biodiversity loss and conflict with food production. Targeted trait‐based screening of plant species and biological screening of fungi are required to characterize the potential of this resource. The benefits of diversified, accessible bioenergy go beyond the immediate urgency of energy poverty as more diverse agricultural landscapes are more resilient, store more carbon, and could also reduce the drivers of the climate and environmental emergencies

Spring 1959

Seed testing - A Service for You by Miss Jessie L. Anderson (page 1) Increased Interest in Two-Year Turf Course by Fred P. Jeffrey - Director of Stockbridge (4) From the Editor (4) Message From Winter School President of 1959 (5) Turf club News (6) Number One Graduate (8) Liquid Fertilization by A.B. Longo (9) Public School Grounds by James Woodhouse (12) Comments on the 1959 Winter School (14) Picture - Stockbridge Turf Majors (16) Picture - Honorary Members of Turf Management Club (17) Letter on Chemical Compatibility (18) The Most Outstanding Turf Senior for 1958 (19) What it Means to be a Turf Manager by R. Russell (20) 10 Steps to a Better Lawn by P. Pedrazzi (24) A Scene to Remember (25) I switched from Hots to Cools by J. Spodnik (26) Why Attend Turfgrass Conferences (27) Picture - Winter School for Turf Managers - 1959 (29) Picture - University of Masssachusetts Annual Turfgrass Conference (30) Organic Fertilizers by O.J. Noer (A-1) Inorganic Fertilizers by Charles Winchell (A-1) Urea Formaldehyde by G.F. Stewart (A-2) Phosphorus and Potash Fertilization by Raph Donaldson (A-3) Questions on Fertilization to the Panel (A-4) Cemetery Maintenance by S.E. Robbins (A-6) Lime by Anson Brewer (A-6) Limited Budgets by R.W. Sharkey (A-7) Fertilization of Park Turf by E.J. Pyle (A-7) Disease and Insect Control by Orlando Capizzi (A-8) Cost of Establishing Turf by Victor Taricano (A-9) Question and Answers (A-10) Control of Pests of Ornamentals and Turf Occuring on Golf Courses by John C. Schread (A-12) Behind the Scenes in Soil Testing and What it Means to You Bertram Gersten and Wm. G. Colby (A-19) Lessons Learned from the 1958 Season as Applied to Golf Course Maintenance by A.M. Radko (A-21) The Outlook in Chemical Weed Control on Fine Turf by John Gallagher (A-24) New Developments in Turfgrass Disease Diagnosis and Control by Frank Howard (A-26

Epigenetic Repression of RARRES1 Is Mediated by Methylation of a Proximal Promoter and a Loss of CTCF Binding

The cis-acting promoter element responsible for epigenetic silencing of retinoic acid receptor responder 1 (RARRES1) by methylation is unclear. Likewise, how aberrant methylation interplays effectors and thus affects breast neoplastic features remains largely unknown.We first compared methylation occurring at the sequences (-664~+420) flanking the RARRES1 promoter in primary breast carcinomas to that in adjacent benign tissues. Surprisingly, tumor cores displayed significantly elevated methylation occurring solely at the upstream region (-664~-86), while the downstream element (-85~+420) proximal to the transcriptional start site (+1) remained largely unchanged. Yet, hypermethylation at the former did not result in appreciable silencing effect. In contrast, the proximal sequence displayed full promoter activity and methylation of which remarkably silenced RARRES1 transcription. This phenomenon was recapitulated in breast cancer cell lines, in which methylation at the proximal region strikingly coincided with downregulation. We also discovered that CTCF occupancy was enriched at the unmethylayed promoter bound with transcription-active histone markings. Furthermore, knocking-down CTCF expression hampered RARRES1 expression, suggesting CTCF positively regulated RARRES1 transcription presumably by binding to unmethylated promoter poised at transcription-ready state. Moreover, RARRES1 restoration not only impeded cell invasion but also promoted death induced by chemotherapeutic agents, denoting its tumor suppressive effect. Its role of attenuating invasion agreed with data generated from clinical specimens revealing that RARRES1 was generally downregulated in metastatic lymph nodes compared to the tumor cores.This report delineated silencing of RARRES1 by hypermethylation is occurring at a proximal promoter element and is associated with a loss of binding to CTCF, an activator for RARRES1 expression. We also revealed the tumor suppressive roles exerted by RARRES1 in part by promoting breast epithelial cell death and by impeding cell invasion that is an important property for metastatic spread

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Localization of type 1 diabetes susceptibility to the MHC class I genes HLA-B and HLA-A

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6 is associated with susceptibility to more common diseases than any other region of the human genome, including almost all disorders classified as autoimmune. In type 1 diabetes the major genetic susceptibility determinants have been mapped to the MHC class II genes HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DRB1 (refs 1-3), but these genes cannot completely explain the association between type 1 diabetes and the MHC region. Owing to the region's extreme gene density, the multiplicity of disease-associated alleles, strong associations between alleles, limited genotyping capability, and inadequate statistical approaches and sample sizes, which, and how many, loci within the MHC determine susceptibility remains unclear. Here, in several large type 1 diabetes data sets, we analyse a combined total of 1,729 polymorphisms, and apply statistical methods - recursive partitioning and regression - to pinpoint disease susceptibility to the MHC class I genes HLA-B and HLA-A (risk ratios >1.5; Pcombined = 2.01 × 10-19 and 2.35 × 10-13, respectively) in addition to the established associations of the MHC class II genes. Other loci with smaller and/or rarer effects might also be involved, but to find these, future searches must take into account both the HLA class II and class I genes and use even larger samples. Taken together with previous studies, we conclude that MHC-class-I-mediated events, principally involving HLA-B*39, contribute to the aetiology of type 1 diabetes. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group