The Retention of Chicago's Arts Students in Comparative Perspective

Highlights:* 58 percent of Chicago arts-school alumni took up residence in the city within 5 years of the date of their last attendance. Of the regions compared in this report, only New York City has a greater portion of its arts-school alumni taking up residence in the city within 5 years, at 66 percent.* 51 percent of Chicago arts-school alumni were out-of-state applicants who came to Chicago and were still living in the city within five years of their last date of attendance. This is the second highest portion of out-of-state applicants taking up residence in the city of their alma mater. New York City's rate was highest at 54 percent.* Of arts-school alumni who searched for work, 38 percent of those attending school in Chicago obtained work prior to leaving their institution; 85 percent obtained work within a year. Alumni from other regions had similar experiences.*50 percent of Chicago's alumni reported that their first job or work experience was "closely related" to their arts-school training. However, alumni from institutions in Los Angeles County, Cleveland/Columbus and New York City reported higher rates of their first work experience being closely related to their arts training

Public Funding for Art: Chicago Compared with 12 Peer Regions

Supported in part by Arts Alliance Illinois, and with the cooperation of several local arts agencies, including Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special events, and of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.This study compares the direct public dollars received by organizations and artists in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland (OR), San Diego, and San Francisco from 2002-2012.Often, studies of public funding for the arts look at appropriations made on the national and state levels and estimates of local expenditures, but this report delves more deeply using grant-level data to examine the dollars received by organizations and artists resident in each city or region.Key findings:In 2012, Chicago arts organizations received $7.3 million in public dollars via competitive grants from local, state, and national public arts agencies combined. Only three of the 13 regions studied received more total dollars in 2012.Though Chicago arts organizations receive among the greatest amounts of public funding in total, a relatively small portion comes from the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Of the competitive arts grants dollars received in Chicago in 2012, 59$1.2 million in grants, which is $0.44 per capita. Of the 13 local agencies analyzed, only Phoenix, Boston, and Baltimore spent less in total dollar or per capita terms in 2012.Over the past decade, DCASE annually awarded among the highest total number of grants compared with other regions' local agencies. In 2012, DCASE awarded 520 grants in total -- 305 to organizations and 215 to individuals. In 2012, it awarded competitive grants to approximately 31% of the arts and cultural organizations in the city.Aside from competitive grants, five of the 13 cities/metro regions included in this study provide support to select arts and cultural organizations through line-items, which serve as significant sources of general operating funds

Feed Intake, Feed Efficiency, and Growth of Pigs Selected for Divergent RFI Fed High Versus Low Energy Diets

With the price of corn on the rise, producers are looking for alternative feedstuffs that would allow them to finish pigs at a cheaper price. However, this would result in feeding pigs a low energy, high fiber (LEHF) diet while pigs were selected for efficiency and growth on a high energy, low fiber (HELF) diet. The objective of this experiment was to determine if pigs from a line selected for low RFI (more efficient) on a HELF diet maintained their superiority in feed intake and efficiency to pigs selected for high RFI when fed LEHF diet. The results of this study showed that pigs from the low RFI line have greater feed efficiency than pigs from the high RFI line when fed a standard HELF diet, but this difference disappeared when they were fed a LEHF diet. Diet did not affect feed intake of the low RFI pigs but resulted in a reduction in feed intake of the high RFI linewhich resulted in both lines consuming the same amount of feed on the LEHF diet. Pigs grow slower on the LEHF diet but there was no difference between lines for either diet. The results of this study suggest that, as feed costs rise and producers look more and more towards alternative feedstuffs, selection may need to be based on performance on such diets, rather than a traditional corn-soy diet

Effect of Low Energy, High Fiber Diets on Pigs Selected for Residual Feed Intake

The ever high feed costs in swine production contribute to the largest variable expense for today’s producers. Due to this fact, research has focused on increasing feed efficiency. In this study, residual feed intake (RFI) was utilized as a measure of feed efficiency in lines of purebred Yorkshire pigs that were selected for increased and decreased feed efficiency on a standard corn-soybean diet that was high in energy and low in fiber (control diet). The low RFI (LRFI) line was selected for increased feed efficiency while the high RFI (HRFI) line was selected for reduced feed efficiency. In generations 8 and 9, the low and high RFI lines were challenged with a low energy, high fiber diet (LEHF). This diet reflects the addition of alternative feed stuffs to swine diets in commercial settings in order to decrease feed costs. Results indicate that the difference in feed efficiency between the two lines was substantially lower when fed the LEHF diet compared to the control diet. Thus, when pigs are fed diets with substantial byproducts, it is important that pigs are also selected for efficiency under such diets

Reproductive Performance of Yorkshire Sows Selected for Residual Feed Intake

Sow reproductive performance traits were evaluated in Yorkshire sows from the ISU residual feed intake (RFI) selection experiment. Compared to the randomly selected control line, sows from the line selected for reduced RFI had more piglets born and born alive and the piglets weighed more at birth, had greater pre-weaning growth rates, and weighed more at weaning. However, sows from the select line lost more weight and body condition during lactation than did sows from the control line

Diet by Genotype Interaction in Yorkshire Pigs Divergently Selected for Feed Efficiency

For ten generations, purebred Yorkshire pigs were divergently selected for increased and decreased feed efficiency based on residual feed intake when fed a standard corn and soybean-meal based diet. In this study, gilts and barrows bornin generations 8, 9, and 10were fed either a standard diet or an alternative diet that incorporated by-products while reducing corn and soybean-meal, resultingina lower energy, higher fiber diet. Genotypeby diet interactions were investigatedby estimating heritabilities, genetic correlations, response to selection,and genome wide associations for six traits based on thesetwo diets. Results indicate that feed efficiency is a genetically complex trait that appears to be genetically different depending on the diet fed. Thus, genetic gains made by selection on standard diets may not be fully expressed in swine production systems that use alternative diets, particularly those incorporating by-products

A search for passive protoplanetary disks in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region

We conducted a 12-month monitoring campaign of 33 T Tauri stars (TTS) in Taurus. Our goal was to monitor objects that possess a disk but have a weak Halpha line, a common accretion tracer for young stars, to determine whether they host a passive circumstellar disk. We used medium-resolution optical spectroscopy to assess the objects' accretion status and to measure the Halpha line. We found no convincing example of passive disks; only transition disk and debris disk systems in our sample are non-accreting. Among accretors, we find no example of flickering accretion, leading to an upper limit of 2.2% on the duty cycle of accretion gaps assuming that all accreting TTS experience such events. Combining literature results with our observations, we find that the reliability of traditional Halpha-based criteria to test for accretion is high but imperfect, particularly for low-mass TTS. We find a significant correlation between stellar mass and the full width at 10 per cent of the peak (W10%) of the Halpha line that does not seem to be related to variations in free-fall velocity. Finally, our data reveal a positive correlation between the Halpha equivalent width and its W10%, indicative of a systematic modulation in the line profile whereby the high-velocity wings of the line are proportionally more enhanced than its core when the line luminosity increases. We argue that this supports the hypothesis that the mass accretion rate on the central star is correlated with the Halpha W10% through a common physical mechanism.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS; 26 pages, 9 figures, 3 table

Enzymes with biocatalytic potential from Sorghum bicolor

Sorghum is a staple food in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa, sustaining the lives of the poorest rural people. This project set out to improve the potential economic value of Sorghum bicolor as a crop. The task was undertaken by screening for selected enzymes in the plant that would have a potential market for use in industrial applications and in biotransformations, specifically proteases, polyphenol oxidases and peroxidases. Asurveywas conducted using standard enzyme assays and crude plant extracts, to determine whether the selected enzymes were present. Grain tissue did not appear to have significant protease or polyphenoloxidase activity, but high levels of peroxidases were detected, withthe young grain extracts showing more activity(4.63U/mL)thanripegrain extracts (0.62 U/mL). Leaf tissue extracts contained low levels of protease activity, a considerable amount of polyphenol oxidase (0.127 U/mL), and peroxidase (4.7 U/mL) activities comparable with that found in grain tissue. Root tissue extract was found to contain the highest levels of peroxidase activity (7.8 U/mL) compared to the other extracts. Therefore, sorghum peroxidase from the root was isolated, purified, characterized and applied to biotransformation reactions. Different sorghum strains,withvaryinggraincolour, (Zimbabwe - bronze, Seredo - brown and Epurpur - cream/white) were investigated for the presence of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase activities. Results of spectrophotometric analysis showed that the enzymes did not appear to be strain specific. However, gel electrophoresis analysis revealed differences in band patterns among the strains. Partial purification of sorghum root peroxidase was achieved after centrifugation, extraction with polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP), ultrafiltration, and hydrophobic chromatography with phenyl Sepharose, followed by polyacrylamidegelelectrophoresis (PAGE). The specific activity of the 5-fold purified enzyme was found to be 122.3 U/mg. After PAGE analysis, two bands with molecular weights of approximately 30 000 and 40 000 were detected, which compares well with horse radish peroxidase (HRP) which has a molecular weight of approximately 44 000. The colour intensity of the bands in the activity gels indicated that sorghum root peroxidase had apparently higher levels of peroxidase activity than commercial horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Characterizationexperiments revealed that sorghumroot peroxidase is active over a broad temperature range and remains active at temperatures up to 100°C. It also has a broad substrate range. The optimum pH of the enzyme was found to be pH 5 - 6. Under standardized assay conditions, the optimal substrate concentration, using o-dianisidine as substrate, was 50 mM, and the optimal H2O2 concentration under these conditions was found to be 100 mM. Sorghum root peroxidase was applied in a preliminary investigation into the oxidative biotransformationof a number of aromatic compounds. The products obtained were comparable withthose whenthe compounds are reacted with HRP which is the most commonly used commercial peroxidase and has been extensively studied. However, HRP is relatively costly, and the use of peroxidase from sorghum roots as an alternative source, appears to be promising. A patent has been provisionally registered, covering application of sorghum root peroxidase for biotransformations