Identification Of A Regionally Coherent Subseasonal Signal Of Stable Isotopes In Tropical Andean Precipitation

Limited observations and the lack of comprehensive understanding of the controls on the isotopic content of precipitation severely limit paleoclimate reconstructions in the outer tropical Andes. This study examines four years of daily observations of stable isotopes in precipitation from ten sites in southern Peru and northern Bolivia and focuses on understanding the controls on the subseasonal spatiotemporal variability in isotopes during the wet season. These data provide new insights into modern isotope variability at high spatial and temporal scales. We identify a robust, regionally coherent subseasonal signal of isotopes in precipitation that occurs each year with a periodicity of around 15 days. This signal reflects variability in precipitation delivery driven by synoptic conditions, and closely relates to variations in the strength and direction of the South American Low Level Jet and moisture availability directly to the east of the Altiplano. Annual layer snowpacks on high Andean glaciers retain this subseasonal signal, allowing the development of snow-pit age models based on precipitation isotope measurements and demonstrating that region-wide synoptic signals are recorded in the snow. This result has implications for improving paleoclimate reconstructions from tropical Andean ice cores and other paleoclimate records

The Development Of Sensing Systems To Measure Hydrolysis Of ß-lactam Antibiotics

Antibiotic resistance is a prevalent problem in modern society, with almost three million cases of antibiotic resistant infections occurring yearly in the U.S.1 When antibiotics were developed as a treatment for disease and infection, most bacteria were susceptible to their antibiotic properties. However, over time, as a result of over-prescription and misuse of the drugs, bacteria have developed resistance to the medications. ß-lactam antibiotics are a common and effective class of antibiotics, but they too are losing potency as more bacteria develop resistance to them in the form of ß-lactam hydrolysis caused by ß-lactamase. ß-lactamase is an enzyme that catalyzes the cleavage of the ß-lactam ring of penicillin antibiotics, rendering them ineffective. The goal of this project is to create sensing systems that can monitor the hydrolysis of ß- lactam antibiotics. The systems will utilize a fusion protein of ß-lactamase and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). ß-lactamase, an enzyme responsible for conferring antibiotic resistance, is encoded in the ampicillin resistance (ampr) gene of many plasmids. The ß-lactam ring of penicillins gives the antibiotics their effectiveness by inhibiting cell wall synthesis during bacterial replication. When ß-lactamase catalyzes the cleavage the ß-lactam ring, a proton is released, decreasing the local pH. EGFP, a variant of green fluorescent protein (GFP), is a pH-sensitive fluorescent protein that will be used as the reporter protein to monitor the hydrolysis of the ß-lactam ring. EGFP has two key mutations in the chromophore region that result in its fluorescence being more intense than that of GFP when excited at 488 nm and allows it to respond to changes in pH. In the assays being developed, the EGFP domain of the fusion protein will respond to the drop in local pH resulting from the ß-lactam hydrolysis, leading to a decrease in fluorescence over time

Functional electrical stimulation recumbent bicycle for stroke rehabilitation

Stroke is a severe condition that is one of the leading causes to both disabilities and death in the United States. A stroke occurs when blood stops flowing to the brain. It only takes minutes without blood before the brain cells begin to be damaged and even die. Up to 90 percent of people who survive a stroke suffer from some form of paralysis. It is common among stroke patients to experience hemiparesis which paralyses on one side of the body. Functional remodeling of the brain can improve sensation and motor control. However, muscles and nerves degrade (atrophy) over time with disuse. The more a muscle atrophies the longer it takes to rehabilitate that muscle and the degree of recovery is reduced. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) can artificially stimulate these muscles and nerves. FES has been proven to be a viable tool for the rehabilitation of atrophied muscles and nerves. The purpose of this thesis project was to design, build and test a Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) recumbent bicycle that can be used for stroke rehabilitation. An off the shelf FES device was researched and analyzed to determine its capabilities. A circuit was then designed using a recumbent bicycle as the test bed and a Labview program was written as the control mechanism for the FES device. The data collection was done by an optical encoder mounted onto the recumbent bicycle. The system was programmed using Labview for both control and data collection. After the completion of the recumbent bicycle, the protocol and methods were created to provide guidelines for the testing and data analysis. With these guidelines in place, human subject testing could be conducted. The twelve subjects were tested. Electrodes were attached to their thighs and stimulated using the FES device which was controlled by the Labview program. Each participant performed six trials, three with the FES device operating and three with the FES device switched off. The results showed that there were no statistical difference between the test groups, except for the females only group. The female test group pedalled slower with the FES device switched on then with the FES device off. This research showed that the quality of movement was sufficient to allow cycling assisted by FES on the recumbent bicycle. These results may be encouraging for stroke patients with partial hemiparesis and other forms of paralysis to assist them during rehabilitation. The future for FES systems are continuing to progress in a positive direction. This research in conjunction with other research in the biomedical engineering field are enabling new therapy methods that have the potential to improve the quality of life for stroke patients. The FES research completed for the recumbent bicycle showed that the device was capable of properly controlling the leg and propelling it forward with enough power to push the pedal. The experimental study showed that the quality of movement was sufficient to allow cycling assisted by FES on a Recumbent Bicycle. In fact, no statistical differences were found between normal cycling and FES assisted cycling for most groups studied. Initial testing seems suitable for future studies that assist with stroke patients during rehabilitation

Review of Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy by William Echard.

The success and longevity of Neil Young’s forty-year recording career rests largely on his musical eclecticism. As a solo artist, as a member of such bands as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and in a highly touted collaboration with Pearl Jam in 1995, Young has had a recorded output ranging from plaintive singer/songwriter material, to 1980s techno-pop, to the music that garnered him the title “Godfather of Grunge.” This is no mean feat, and one approaches Echard’s book in the hope that he will shed light on Young’s achievement

Neo-Riemannian Theory and the Analysis of Pop-Rock Music.

This article outlines the use of neo-Riemannian operations (NROs) for the analysis of certain pop-rock chord progressions whose features invite a transformational approach. After presenting the NROs used in the paper, I delineate the general features of the progressions under discussion, distinguish the progressions from the late-Romantic progressions analyzed with NROs by Richard Cohn, Brian Hyer, Henry Klumpenhouwer, and David Lewin, and contrast pc parsimony (one or two pcs shared by two triads) with p parsimony (one or two pitches shared by two triads). I then offer a series of analyses, which fall into three categories: sequences, progressions with chromatic lines from 8ˆ or 5ˆ, and a song that combines triads and seventh chords. I close with an analysis of a complete song

Elliott Carter’s Shard.

EIliott Carter is most commonly known to guitarists for his composition Changes, inarguably one the most important pieces of 20th century guitar repertoire. But his piece Shard is an equally crystalline example of the composer's work, and a true prize of the repertoire. Shard was premiered on June 11, 1997 by David Starobin in Humlebæk, Denmark.1 Many guitarists will find Shard more approachable than Carter's, Changes (1983). Seventy-one measures long and barely three minutes in duration, Shard is more compact than Changes. On first hearing, one is struck by the extended passages of unbroken triplets and sixteenths—hardly rhythms that we associate with Carter. And while Shard is by no means a beginner's piece, it lacks many of the formidable technical challenges of Changes. Despite these differences, Shard shares much with Changes, a point I shall return to

Pat Martino’s The Nature of the Guitar: An Intersection of Jazz Theory and Neo-Riemannian Theory

This paper studies a set of instructional materials by the renowned jazz guitarist and pedagogue Pat Martino, winner of Downbeat Magazine's 2004 reader's poll for jazz guitarist of the year. The materials, titled The Nature of the Guitar, represent an ongoing project of Martino's begun in 1972. The Nature of Guitar is remarkable in its degree of overlap with Neo-Riemannian ideas. After discussing excerpts from The Nature of Guitar that engage parsimonious voice-leading, I compare Martino's analysis of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" to that of Matthew Santa

Sectional Tonality and Sectional Centricity in Rock Music.

Describing a subset of the rock repertory, Walter Everett writes: Some songs alternate between unrelated key areas, each expanded in entire sections, creating a nontonal whole . . . [Other] songs are structurally diatonic and depend on normal tonal chord progressions, and yet no single overriding tonal center can be appointed conclusively because the song’s various formal sections revolve around separate tonics . . . and closure is not provided by any overall directed voice leading (Everett 2008, 144–45; emphasis added). I have italicized the words “unrelated” and “nontonal” to raise two issues. First, Everett does not mean “unrelated” in the sense of a pair of keys being related. Pairs of keys in these songs are often related—even closely related. Second, as is evident from the last sentence of the quote, Everett’s gauge of tonality is Schenkerian. Scholars including Everett routinely apply other gauges of tonality to the analysis of rock music, such as directional or progressive tonality, so it is reasonable to ask if the songs Everett refers to might be deemed tonal by some other measure (Everett 2004, §14–15; Harrison 2004; Ricci 2000). However, directional tonality accommodates two keys at most and only models songs that start and end in different keys, while the songs Everett describes often feature three or more keys. Further, the two key songs sometimes start and end in the same key. While scholars such as Richard Middleton have noted the tendency of rock songs to pair sections with distinct harmonic languages, and Lori Burns’s analysis of a Tori Amos song proceeds from the premise that “each section of the song explores a different harmonic idiom,” which prompts her to “avoid an ultimate Ursatz interpretation,” the need for a gauge more precise than the catchall category “nontonal” becomes clear (Middleton 1990, 195–96; Burns 2008, 68)

The correlation between a Hullian constant and intelligence

In his Principles of Behavior. Hull ( 1943 ) discusses the nature of theories, particularly of his own mathematico-deductive theory of learning. A theory, to Hull, means, "A systematic deductive derivation of the secondary principles of observable phenomena from a relatively small number of primary principles or postulates" ( Hull, 1943, p. 2 ). Empirical observation and theory-building are seen as going hand and hand. One takes a few fundamental postulates, based either on general empirical findings or on indirect verification, and tests their validity with further empirical observation. More specifically, Hull himself postulates certain intervening variables (unobservable entities) which are to account for observable behavior. These variables are linked either logically or mathematically both to observable antecedent conditions and to observable responses. From these relationships are deduced theorems and corollaries, from which testable predictions are made

Maximally Alpha-Like Operations.

Any two Z-related set-classes will map onto one another under 1) TnM or TnMI, or 2) TnM or TnMI in tandem with Morris‘s alpha operations, or 3) maximally alpha-like operations, the original contribution of the present paper. This brief ?research notes? paper explores the theoretical formulation and analytical application of maximally alpha-like operations