A Technical French Vocabulary Learning Resource for Electrical Engineers

This project is intended as a resource for French language learners seeking to expand their vocabulary to include electrical and computer engineering concepts. While not intended to be an exhaustive list, it is intended to contain the concepts necessary to allow a student to begin to communicate engineering concepts in French. The design of this resource is based on my research into second language acquisition (SLA). In order for SLA to be successful, the learner must be presented with comprehensible input in the language that they are trying to acquire. I accomplish this by presenting the vocabulary (in French) alongside one or several images depicting it. I found this approach particularly compelling since much of engineering vocabulary can be depicted with easily recognized symbols or diagrams. I began the design of this resource by listing the many concepts I would need to be able to express in order to communicate in a French-speaking engineering context. From that, I began to create a collection of images containing both the French work for the concept and one or several matching depictions. To present them, I created a web interface that presents the images grouped such that related concepts are presented together

The Effectiveness of a Primary School Based Badminton Intervention on Children’s Fundamental Movement Skills

This study examined the effects of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Shuttle Time program on fundamental movement skills (FMS) in English children. A total of 124 children; 66 in key stage 1 (ages 6–7 years) and 58 in key stage 2 (10–11 years) undertook the Shuttle Time program, once weekly for six weeks (n = 63) or acted as controls (n = 61). Pre, post and ten-weeks post, both process and product FMS were determined. Children in the intervention group, aged 6–7 years, had higher total process FMS (via test of gross motor development-2) compared to the control group at post and ten-weeks post intervention (both p = 0.0001, d = 0.6 and 0.7, respectively). There were no significant differences in process FMS scores for children aged 10–11 years. Ten-meter sprint speed decreased pre to post and was maintained at ten-weeks post for the intervention groups aged 6–7 years (p = 0.0001, d = 0.6) and 10–11 years (p = 0.001, d = 0.2) compared to control. Standing long jump distance increased pre to post (p = 0.0001, d = 0.8) and was maintained at ten-weeks post (p = 0.0001, d = 0.5) for the intervention group. Medicine ball throw performance increased pre to post (p = 0.0001, d = 0.3) for the intervention group. The BWF Shuttle Time program is beneficial in developing FMS for key stage 1 children (ages 6–7)

Comparison of the specificity of phosphorylase kinase and cAMP-dependent protein kinase

The specificity of phosphorylase kinase and cAMP-dependent protein kinase was studied by means of peptide and protein substrate analogs of phosphorylase. A peptide, leu-ser-tyr-arg-arg-tyr-ser-leu, which has a predicted (beta)-turn sequence, was synthesized. cAMP-dependent protein kinase was able to phosphorylate this peptide on the C-terminal serine, and phosphorylase kinase on the N-terminal serine. This supports earlier theories that cAMP-dependent protein kinase recognizes substrates with arginines N-terminal to the serine, while phosphorylase kinase has an opposite polarity in arginine recognition. A D-peptide analog of the above peptide was also synthesized in hopes of reversing the polarity. It failed to be a substrate for either kinase but was an inhibitor for both;Earlier work has shown that peptide analogs of the phosphorylation site of phosphorylase b are substrates for both kinases, so we were interested in examining the role of the organized structure of phosphorylase in regulating the specificity. By CNBr-digestion, we isolated an N-terminal fragment of phosphorylase and determined that it retained some organized structure. This fragment was a substrate for phosphorylase kinase, with a K(,m) value lower than those of synthetic peptide substrates, but was a very poor substrate for cAMP-dependent protein kinase, showing that the specificity elements for the two kinases are contained in the N-terminal region. We also synthesized a peptide analog, sequence 9-24 of phosphorylase, as earlier peptides had been analogs of the 5-18 sequence. We showed that this peptide was a much better substrate for phosphorylase kinase, and a worse one for cAMP-dependent protein kinase, showing that the region C-terminal to the phosphorylated serine is especially important in regulating kinase specificity;We have begun studies of the chemical role of arginyl residues in kinase specificity, with model studies of the reactivity of p-nitrophenyl-glyoxal with arginine analogs. We have shown that the reagent\u27s reactivity is related to the pK(,a) of the analog, and that the pKa\u27s of the analog can be altered by environmental effects, such as being incorporated into a detergent micelle. Thus, we can study how the protonation state and the environment of an arginine residue can effect its role in specificity

Does Monetary Policy Help Least Those Who Need It Most?

We estimate the impact of U.S. monetary policy on the cross-sectional distribution of state economic activity for a 35-year panel. Our results indicate that the effects of policy have a significant history dependence, in that relatively slow growth regions contract more following contractionarymonetary shocks. Moreover, policy is asymmetric, in that expansionary shocks have less of a beneficial impact upon relatively slow growth areas. As a result, we conclude that monetary policy on average widens the dispersion of growth rates among U.S. states, and those locations initially at the low end of the cross-sectional distribution benefit least from any given change inmonetary policy.Monetary policy, asymmetric effects, state dependence, regional business cycles

Field Troubleshooting Common Mechanical Seal Piping Plans

Tutoria

Short reads from honey bee (Apis sp.) sequencing projects reflect microbial associate diversity

High throughput (or ‘next generation’) sequencing has transformed most areas of biological research and is now a standard method that underpins empirical study of organismal biology, and (through comparison of genomes), reveals patterns of evolution. For projects focused on animals, these sequencing methods do not discriminate between the primary target of sequencing (the animal genome) and ‘contaminating’ material, such as associated microbes. A common first step is to filter out these contaminants to allow better assembly of the animal genome or transcriptome. Here, we aimed to assess if these ‘contaminations’ provide information with regard to biologically important microorganisms associated with the individual. To achieve this, we examined whether the short read data from Apis retrieved elements of its well established microbiome. To this end, we screened almost 1,000 short read libraries of honey bee (Apis sp.) DNA sequencing project for the presence of microbial sequences, and find sequences from known honey bee microbial associates in at least 11% of them. Further to this, we screened ∼500 Apis RNA sequencing libraries for evidence of viral infections, which were found to be present in about half of them. We then used the data to reconstruct draft genomes of three Apis associated bacteria, as well as several viral strains de novo. We conclude that ‘contamination’ in short read sequencing libraries can provide useful genomic information on microbial taxa known to be associated with the target organisms, and may even lead to the discovery of novel associations. Finally, we demonstrate that RNAseq samples from experiments commonly carry uneven viral loads across libraries. We note variation in viral presence and load may be a confounding feature of differential gene expression analyses, and as such it should be incorporated as a random factor in analyses