Foundation Expenses and Compensation: Interim Report 2005

Examines the 10,000 largest foundations and identifies characteristics and operating styles that affect levels of expenses and compensation, including foundation type, size, staffing, scope of activity, and direct charitable activities

What Drives Foundation Expenses & Compensation? Results of a Three-Year Study, Highlights

This brief presents key findings from the latest report of the Foundation Expenses and Compensation Project—the first large-scale, longterm, systematic study of independent, corporate, and community foundations' expense and compensation patterns and the factors behind them. Documenting the varying characteristics of the 10,000 largest U.S. grantmaking foundations, the study finds these differences—including foundation type, size, and operating activities—essential for understanding foundation finances. Not surprisingly, hiring staff and taking on staff-intensive activities raise charitable administrative expenditures relative to charitable distributions, while relying on unpaid board and family members and engaging in less-staff-intensive activities lower them. Most foundation operations, however, are somewhere between these poles

The Midnight Flyer : March - Two Step

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/2931/thumbnail.jp

An Efficient Hybrid Algorithm for the Separable Convex Quadratic Knapsack Problem

This article considers the problem of minimizing a convex, separable quadratic function subject to a knapsack constraint and a box constraint. An algorithm called NAPHEAP has been developed to solve this problem. The algorithm solves the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker system using a starting guess to the optimal Lagrange multiplier and updating the guess monotonically in the direction of the solution. The starting guess is computed using the variable fixing method or is supplied by the user. A key innovation in our algorithm is the implementation of a heap data structure for storing the break points of the dual function and computing the solution of the dual problem. Also, a new version of the variable fixing algorithm is developed that is convergent even when the objective Hessian is not strictly positive definite. The hybrid algorithm NAPHEAP that uses a Newton-type method (variable fixing method, secant method, or Newton's method) to bracket a root, followed by a heap-based monotone break point search, can be faster than a Newton-type method by itself, as demonstrated in the numerical experiments

Metastable anions of dinitrobenzene: resonances for electron attachment and kinetic energy release

Attachment of free, low-energy electrons to dinitrobenzene (DNB) in the gas phase leads to DNB as well as several fragment anions. DNB, (DNB-H), (DNB-NO), (DNB-2NO), and (DNB-NO(2)) are found to undergo metastable (unimolecular) dissociation. A rich pattern of resonances in the yield of these metastable reactions versus electron energy is observed; some resonances are highly isomer-specific. Most metastable reactions are accompanied by large average kinetic energy releases (KER) that range from 0.5 to 1.32 eV, typical of complex rearrangement reactions, but (1,3-DNB-H)(-) features a resonance with a KER of only 0.06 eV for loss of NO. (1,3-DNB-NO)(-) offers a rare example of a sequential metastable reaction, namely, loss of NO followed by loss of CO to yield C(5)H(4)O(-) with a large KER of 1.32 eV. The G4(MP2) method is applied to compute adiabatic electron affinities and reaction energies for several of the observed metastable channels. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3514931

Sex chromosome positions in human interphase nuclei as studied by in situ hybridization with chromosome specific DNA probes

Two cloned repetitive DNA probes, pXBR and CY1, which bind preferentially to specific regions of the human X and Y chromosome, respectively, were used to study the distribution of the sex chromosomes in human lymphocyte nuclei by in situ hybridization experiments. Our data indicate a large variability of the distances between the sex chromosomes in male and female interphase nuclei. However, the mean distance observed between the X and Y chromosome was significantly smaller than the mean distance observed between the two X-chromosomes. The distribution of distances determined experimentally is compared with three model distributions of distances, and the question of a non-random distribution of sex chromosomes is discussed. Mathematical details of these model distributions are provided in an Appendix to this paper. In the case of a human translocation chromosome (XqterXp22.2::Yq11Y qter) contained in the Chinese hamster x human hybrid cell line 445 x 393, the binding sites of pXBR and CY1 were found close to each other in most interphase nuclei. These data demonstrate the potential use of chromosome-specific repetitive DNA probes to study the problem of interphase chromosome topography

Electrochemical synthesis, characterisation, and preliminary biological evaluation of an anodic aluminium oxide membrane with a pore size of 100 nanometres for a Potential Cell Culture Substrate

In this study we investigate the electrochemical synthesis and characterisation of a nanometre scale porous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membranes with a mean pore diameter of 100 nm. The membranes exhibit interesting properties such as controllable pore diameters, periodicity and density distribution. These properties can be preselected by adjusting the controlling parameters of a temperature controlled two-step anodization process. The surface features of the nanometre scale membrane such as pore density, pore diameter and inter-pore distance were quantified using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A preliminary biological evaluation of the membranes was carried out to determine cell adhesion and morphology using the Cercopithecus aethiops[African green monkey – (Vero)] kidney epithelial cell line. Optical microscopy, FESEM and AFM investigations revealed the presence of focal adhesion sites over the surface of the porous membranes. The positive outcomes of the study, indicates that AAO membranes can be used as a viable tissue scaffold for potential tissue engineering applications in the future