Wesley College Term paper

Term paper about Wesley College, a Methodist school first located at Wahpeton, N.D. and named Red River Valley University, later moved to University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks, N.D. Includes explanation of the agreement between Wesley College and University of North Dakota, the College's emphasis on music and religion classes, alumni gifts, merging Wesley College classes into university curriculum, and the 1965 sale of Wesley College's buildings to the University of North Dakota

Exploring the genetic redundancy of Zea mays fatty acid elongase (FAE)

Very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) consist of greater than 18 carbon atoms and have diverse biological functions including energy storage, protection from biotic and abiotic stresses, signaling, and are components of the plasma membrane. The biosynthesis of VLCFAs occurs by the iterative extension of fatty acyl-CoAs through a series of reactions catalyzed by four enzyme components known as fatty acid elongase (FAE). The FAE enzyme 3-ketoacyl CoA synthase (KCS) is hypothesized to be responsible for the substrate specificity of FAE, controlling the amount and identity of VLCFAs produced in specific cell types and tissues. The KCS gene family consists of multiple homologs in plant species, including 21 paralogs in Arabidopsis thaliana. This manuscript details the identification and analysis of KCS condensing enzymes from Zea mays. The genetic redundancy within FAE along with the membrane-bound nature of KCS and other FAE enzymes are challenges when studying this enzyme system. Because of these obstacles, heterologous expression in yeast was employed for the characterization of maize KCS enzymes. The fatty acid composition of yeast strains was determined using GC-MS, revealing KCS-dependent differences in VLCFAs and uncovering new questions about the synthesis of VLCFAs in maize

Detecting ditches using supervised learning on high-resolution digital elevation models

Drained wetlands can constitute a large source of greenhouse gas emissions, but the drainage networks in these wetlands are largely unmapped, and better maps are needed to aid in forest production and to better understand the climate consequences. We develop a method for detecting ditches in high resolution digital elevation models derived from LiDAR scans. Thresholding methods using digital terrain indices can be used to detect ditches. However, a single threshold generally does not capture the variability in the landscape, and generates many false positives and negatives. We hypothesise that, by combining the digital terrain indices using supervised learning, we can improve ditch detection at a landscape-scale. In addition to digital terrain indices, additional features are generated by transforming the data to include neighbouring cells for better ditch predictions. A Random Forests classifier is used to locate the ditches, and its probability output is processed to remove noise, and binarised to produce the final ditch prediction. The confidence interval for the Cohen’s Kappa index ranges [0.655 , 0.781] between the evaluation plots with a confidence level of 95%. The study demonstrates that combining information from a suite of digital terrain indices using machine learning provides an effective technique for automatic ditch detection at a landscape-scale, aiding in both practical forest management and in combatting climate change

A single-cell platform for reconstituting and characterizing fatty acid elongase component enzymes

Fatty acids of more than 18-carbons, generally known as very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) are essential for eukaryotic cell viability, and uniquely in terrestrial plants they are the precursors of the cuticular lipids that form the organism’s outer barrier to the environment. VLCFAs are synthesized by fatty acid elongase (FAE), which is an integral membrane enzyme system with multiple components. The genetic complexity of the FAE system, and its membrane association has hampered the biochemical characterization of FAE. In this study we computationally identified Zea mays genetic sequences that encode the enzymatic components of FAE and developed a heterologous expression system to evaluate their functionality. The ability of the maize components to genetically complement Saccharomyces cerevisiae lethal mutants confirmed the functionality of ZmKCS4, ZmELO1, ZmKCR1, ZmKCR2, ZmHCD and ZmECR, and the VLCFA profiles of the resulting strains were used to infer the ability of each enzyme component to determine the product profile of FAE. These characterizations indicate that the product profile of the FAE system is an attribute shared among the KCS, ELO, and KCR components of FAE

Solving the subset-sum problem with a light-based device

We propose a special computational device which uses light rays for solving the subset-sum problem. The device has a graph-like representation and the light is traversing it by following the routes given by the connections between nodes. The nodes are connected by arcs in a special way which lets us to generate all possible subsets of the given set. To each arc we assign either a number from the given set or a predefined constant. When the light is passing through an arc it is delayed by the amount of time indicated by the number placed in that arc. At the destination node we will check if there is a ray whose total delay is equal to the target value of the subset sum problem (plus some constants).Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, Natural Computing, 200

Comparison of Long-Term Fertility and Bleeding Outcomes after Robotic-Assisted, Laparoscopic, and Abdominal Myomectomy

Background/Aims. To compare long-term fertility and bleeding outcomes of women who underwent robotic-assisted, laparoscopic, and abdominal myomectomy at our institution over a 15-year period. Methods. This was a retrospective cohort study of myomectomy patients 18–39 years old that had surgery between January 1995 and December 2009 at our institution. Long-term follow-up on fertility and bleeding outcomes was collected from the patient directly. The uterine fibroid symptom and quality of life survey was also administered to assess current bleeding patterns. Baseline characteristics were compared across groups. Univariable comparisons of fertility and bleeding outcomes based on surgical approach were made using analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis analysis of ranks, and Chi-square tests as appropriate. Results. 134/374 (36%) subjects agreed to participate in the study. 81 subjects underwent an open procedure versus 28 and 25 subjects in the laparoscopic and robotic groups, respectively. Median follow-up after surgery was 8 years. 50% of patients desired pregnancy following surgery and, of those, 60% achieved spontaneous pregnancy; the spontaneous pregnancy rate did not differ between groups. Additionally, UFS-QOL scores and/or subscores did not differ between groups. Conclusion. There is no significant difference in long-term bleeding or fertility outcomes in robotic-assisted, laparoscopic, or abdominal myomectomy

Exact Cover with light

We suggest a new optical solution for solving the YES/NO version of the Exact Cover problem by using the massive parallelism of light. The idea is to build an optical device which can generate all possible solutions of the problem and then to pick the correct one. In our case the device has a graph-like representation and the light is traversing it by following the routes given by the connections between nodes. The nodes are connected by arcs in a special way which lets us to generate all possible covers (exact or not) of the given set. For selecting the correct solution we assign to each item, from the set to be covered, a special integer number. These numbers will actually represent delays induced to light when it passes through arcs. The solution is represented as a subray arriving at a certain moment in the destination node. This will tell us if an exact cover does exist or not.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, New Generation Computing, accepted, 200