Macomb\u27s Mission to the Seminoles: John T. Sprague\u27s Journal

On March 22, 1839, Major General Alexander Macomb left Washington to go to Florida in an unsuccessful attempt to end the expensive and futile war which had already lasted four years against the Seminole Indians. On his staff, accompanying him as aid-de-camp, was Lieutenant John T. Sprague of the 8th Infantry, who maintained the official diary of the expedition. This journal which has not been published in its entirety previously, contains the chronicle of the great council which assembled in May of that year to try to establish peace once more. Although General Macomb’s peace mission failed, Lieutenant Sprague’s diary is of great interest because it contains an acount of the conduct of the negotiations which supplements his own history of the Florida War in which the record of this particular episode is short and extremely sketchy

A Scouting Expedition along Lake Panasoffkee

By the early spring of 1842 the Second Seminole War was drawing to its close. Since the noteworthy engagement at Lake Okeechobee on December 25, 1837, when the Indians had been defeated and had fled into inaccessible hiding-places, few pitched battles had been fought. Consequently, for several years the troops had engaged in a series of scouting expeditions which were designed to ferret out the numerous small bands of Indians and capture them

Disease Resistance and Susceptibility Genes to Bacterial Blight of Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a valuable resource for understanding the complex processes controlling yield and value-added traits. Bacterial blight (BB) is a vascular disease of rice, caused by strains of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and provides insight, both practical and basic, into the concepts of susceptibility and resistance. Basic knowledge has been empirically and, more recently, intentionally exploited for broad and durable resistance to the disease. Bacterial blight involves representatives of most classes of resistance genes (R genes) and pathways for basal plant immunity. The study of BB also revealed novelties not observed in other models, possibly due to the long history of rice cultivation and the constant disease pressure. Conspicuous are the recessive R genes that target the notorious type III Transcription Activator-like effectors (TALes) of Xoo. Results indicate that pathogen and host are currently in a battle over a small patch of ground involving TALes function. At the same time, analyses of rice disease physiology are adding to a growing body of knowledge for plant disease processes and to how these processes are intertwined with disease susceptibility. The basic processes of BB present rich targets for the rapid advances in genome editing

Video Altimeter and Obstruction Detector for an Aircraft

Video-based altimetric and obstruction detection systems for aircraft have been partially developed. The hardware of a system of this type includes a downward-looking video camera, a video digitizer, a Global Positioning System receiver or other means of measuring the aircraft velocity relative to the ground, a gyroscope based or other attitude-determination subsystem, and a computer running altimetric and/or obstruction-detection software. From the digitized video data, the altimetric software computes the pixel velocity in an appropriate part of the video image and the corresponding angular relative motion of the ground within the field of view of the camera. Then by use of trigonometric relationships among the aircraft velocity, the attitude of the camera, the angular relative motion, and the altitude, the software computes the altitude. The obstruction-detection software performs somewhat similar calculations as part of a larger task in which it uses the pixel velocity data from the entire video image to compute a depth map, which can be correlated with a terrain map, showing locations of potential obstructions. The depth map can be used as real-time hazard display and/or to update an obstruction database

What is the prevalence, and what are the clinical correlates, of insulin resistance in young people presenting for mental health care? A cross-sectional study

Objectives: To report the distribution and predictors of insulin resistance (IR) in young people presenting to primary care-based mental health services. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Headspace-linked clinics operated by the Brain and Mind Centre of the University of Sydney. Participants: 768 young people (66% female, mean age 19.7±3.5, range 12–30 years). Main outcome measures: IR was estimated using the updated homeostatic model assessment (HOMA2-IR). Height and weight were collected from direct measurement or self-report for body mass index (BMI). Results: For BMI, 20.6% of the cohort were overweight and 10.2% were obese. However,6.9 mmol/L). By contrast, 9.9% had a HOMA2-IR score \u3e2.0 (suggesting development of IR) and 11.7% (n=90) had a score between 1.5 and 2. Further, there was a positive correlation between BMI and HOMA2-IR (r=0.44, p Conclusions: Emerging IR is evident in a significant subgroup of young people presenting to primary care based mental health services. While the major modifiable risk factor is BMI, a large proportion of the variance is not accounted for by other demographic, clinical or treatment factors. Given the early emergence of IR, secondary prevention interventions may need to commence prior to the development of full-threshold or major mood or psychotic disorders

Imaginary chemical potential and finite fermion density on the lattice

Standard lattice fermion algorithms run into the well-known sign problem at real chemical potential. In this paper we investigate the possibility of using imaginary chemical potential, and argue that it has advantages over other methods, particularly for probing the physics at finite temperature as well as density. As a feasibility study, we present numerical results for the partition function of the two-dimensional Hubbard model with imaginary chemical potential. We also note that systems with a net imbalance of isospin may be simulated using a real chemical potential that couples to I_3 without suffering from the sign problem.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

Duration of shedding of respiratory syncytial virus in a community study of Kenyan children

Background: Our understanding of the transmission dynamics of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection will be better informed with improved data on the patterns of shedding in cases not limited only to hospital admissions. Methods: In a household study, children testing RSV positive by direct immunofluorescent antibody test (DFA) were enrolled. Nasal washings were scheduled right away, then every three days until day 14, every 7 days until day 28 and every 2 weeks until a maximum of 16 weeks, or until the first DFA negative RSV specimen. The relationship between host factors, illness severity and viral shedding was investigated using Cox regression methods. Results: From 151 families a total of 193 children were enrolled with a median age of 21 months (range 1-164 months), 10% infants and 46% male. The rate of recovery from infection was 0.22/person/day (95% CI 0.19-0.25) equivalent to a mean duration of shedding of 4.5 days (95%CI 4.0-5.3), with a median duration of shedding of 4 days (IQR 2-6, range 1-14). Children with a history of RSV infection had a 40% increased rate of recovery i.e. shorter duration of viral shedding (hazard ratio 1.4, 95% CI 1.01-1.86). The rate of cessation of shedding did not differ significantly between males and females, by severity of infection or by age. Conclusion: We provide evidence of a relationship between the duration of shedding and history of infection, which may have a bearing on the relative role of primary versus re-infections in RSV transmission in the community

Sample deposition onto cryo-EM grids: from sprays to jets and back

Despite the great strides made in the field of single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) in microscope design, direct electron detectors and new processing suites, the area of sample preparation is still far from ideal. Traditionally, sample preparation involves blotting, which has been used to achieve high resolution, particularly for well behaved samples such as apoferritin. However, this approach is flawed since the blotting process can have adverse effects on some proteins and protein complexes, and the long blot time increases exposure to the damaging air-water interface. To overcome these problems, new blotless approaches have been designed for the direct deposition of the sample on the grid. Here, different methods of producing droplets for sample deposition are compared. Using gas dynamic virtual nozzles, small and high-velocity droplets were deposited on cryo-EM grids, which spread sufficiently for high-resolution cryo-EM imaging. For those wishing to pursue a similar approach, an overview is given of the current use of spray technology for cryo-EM grid preparation and areas for enhancement are pointed out. It is further shown how the broad aspects of sprayer design and operation conditions can be utilized to improve grid quality reproducibly

Redox-engineering enhances maize thermotolerance and grain yield in the field

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