Stretching from Punch Card/Programming to Business Data Processing to Business Information Systems

The world’s oldest undergraduate degree program in data processing and information systems at Mississippi State University turned fifty years old in 2013. In this paper, we review the pioneering activities of the program’s founder, Charles Moore, and provide insights into his foresight about the potential importance of information systems to business organizations. We explain how the program’s founding marked a shift in the epistemological view of information systems education in the mid-1960s. We show the course offerings of business data processing and information systems and the timeline at MSU over the past five decades. We also share how his efforts are instilled in the continuing development of the business information systems program at Mississippi State University to this day

Complete genome sequence of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Sequence type 1, SCC mec IV[2B], isolated in the 1990s from northern Western Australia

Sequence type 1 (ST1) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) SCCmec IV[2B] has become one of the most common community-associated MRSA clones in Australia. We report the complete genome sequence of one of the earliest isolated Australian S. aureus ST1-MRSA-IV strains, WBG8287, isolated from an Indigenous Australian patient living in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia

Complete genome sequences of three of the earliest community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated in remote Western Australia

Initially reported in Western Australia in the 1980s, community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has become a major cause of S. aureus infections globally. We report the complete genome sequences of three of the earliest CA-MRSA strains isolated from remote Australian Indigenous communities in the Kimberley region of Western Australia

Temperatures of Fragment Kinetic Energy Spectra

Multifragmentation reactions without large compression in the initial state (proton-induced reactions, reverse-kinematics, projectile fragmentation) are examined, and it is verified quantitatively that the high temperatures obtained from fragment kinetic energy spectra and lower temperatures obtained from observables such as level population or isotope ratios can be understood in a common framework.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, 2 figures available from autho

From gastric aspiration to airway inflammation

The airways are poorly protected from potentially damaging agents contained within gastric contents. While digestive factors are obvious damaging agents, gastric aspiration may also deliver microbial agents, cytokines or food antigens to airway tissues. Direct damage or the triggering of the inflammatory cascade by gastric aspiration is believed to drive airways disease onset and/or progression. Evidence exists from experimental models demonstrating direct instillation of damaging factors to a range of airways epithelia causes damage and/or an inflammatory response. Clinical longitudinal studies have also noted an association between the presence of biomarkers of reflux in airways samples and disease progression. A shared pathophysiology of many chronic airways diseases is a more negative intrathoracic pressure. Such changes would drive an increased abdominothoracic pressure gradient. These changes in respiratory mechanics mean that chronic lung disease patients may be predisposed to reflux and subsequent aspiration. Therefore, it appears that gastric aspiration and airways disease progression may be linked not solely as cause and effect, but seemingly within a vicious cycle. A range of physiological factors govern both occurrence of gastric reflux into the pharynx/larynx and could also increase the susceptibility of certain individuals to disease progression. A range of long-term surgical and pharmacological intervention studies are necessary to test the benefit of such therapies in reducing disease progression or driving symptom improvement. Such studies may be hampered by the reliability of available therapies in halting gastric aspiration and the difficulty in the clinical or biochemical assessment of gastric aspiration

Surface Incompressibility from Semiclassical Relativistic Mean Field Calculations

By using the scaling method and the Thomas-Fermi and Extended Thomas-Fermi approaches to Relativistic Mean Field Theory the surface contribution to the leptodermous expansion of the finite nuclei incompressibility has been self-consistently computed. The validity of the simplest expansion, which contains volume, volume-symmetry, surface and Coulomb terms, is examined by comparing it with self-consistent results of the finite nuclei incompressibility for some currently used non-linear sigma-omega parameter sets. A numerical estimate of higher-order contributions to the leptodermous expansion, namely the curvature and surface-symmetry terms, is made.Comment: 18 pages, REVTeX, 3 eps figures, changed conten

Transport of charged particles by adjusting rf voltage amplitudes

We propose a planar architecture for scalable quantum information processing (QIP) that includes X-junctions through which particles can move without micromotion. This is achieved by adjusting radio frequency (rf) amplitudes to move an rf null along the legs of the junction. We provide a proof-of-principle by transporting dust particles in three dimensions via adjustable rf potentials in a 3D trap. For the proposed planar architecture, we use regularization techniques to obtain amplitude settings that guarantee smooth transport through the X-junction.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Micro-computed tomographic analysis of the radial geometry of intrarenal artery-vein pairs in rats and rabbits: Comparison with light microscopy

We assessed the utility of synchrotron-radiation micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) for quantification of the radial geometry of the renal cortical vasculature. The kidneys of nine rats and six rabbits were perfusion fixed and the renal circulation filled with Microfil. In order to assess shrinkage of Microfil, rat kidneys were imaged at the Australian Synchrotron immediately upon tissue preparation and then post fixed in paraformaldehyde and reimaged 24 hours later. The Microfil shrank only 2-5% over the 24 hour period. All subsequent micro-CT imaging was completed within 24 hours of sample preparation. After micro-CT imaging, the kidneys were processed for histological analysis. In both rat and rabbit kidneys, vascular structures identified in histological sections could be identified in two-dimensional (2D) micro-CT images from the original kidney. Vascular morphology was similar in the two sets of images. Radial geometry quantified by manual analysis of 2D images from micro-CT was consistent with corresponding data generated by light microscopy. However, due to limited spatial resolution when imaging a whole organ using contrast-enhanced micro-CT, only arteries ≥100 and ≥60 μm in diameter, for the rat and rabbit respectively, could be assessed. We conclude that it is feasible and valid to use micro-CT to quantify vascular geometry of the renal cortical circulation in both the rat and rabbit. However, a combination of light microscopic and micro-CT approaches are required to evaluate the spatial relationships between intrarenal arteries and veins over an extensive range of vessel size

Density-functional embedding using a plane-wave basis

The constrained electron density method of embedding a Kohn-Sham system in a substrate system (first described by P. Cortona, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 44}, 8454 (1991) and T.A. Wesolowski and A. Warshel, J. Phys. Chem {\bf 97}, 8050 (1993)) is applied with a plane-wave basis and both local and non-local pseudopotentials. This method divides the electron density of the system into substrate and embedded electron densities, the sum of which is the electron density of the system of interest. Coupling between the substrate and embedded systems is achieved via approximate kinetic energy functionals. Bulk aluminium is examined as a test case for which there is a strong interaction between the substrate and embedded systems. A number of approximations to the kinetic-energy functional, both semi-local and non-local, are investigated. It is found that Kohn-Sham results can be well reproduced using a non-local kinetic energy functional, with the total energy accurate to better than 0.1 eV per atom and good agreement between the electron densities.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Long-Wavelength Instability in Surface-Tension-Driven Benard Convection

Laboratory studies reveal a deformational instability that leads to a drained region (dry spot) in an initially flat liquid layer (with a free upper surface) heated uniformly from below. This long-wavelength instability supplants hexagonal convection cells as the primary instability in viscous liquid layers that are sufficiently thin or are in microgravity. The instability occurs at a temperature gradient 34% smaller than predicted by linear stability theory. Numerical simulations show a drained region qualitatively similar to that seen in the experiment.Comment: 4 pages. The RevTeX file has a macro allowing various styles. The appropriate style is "mypprint" which is the defaul