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Size-exclusion chromatographic NMR of polymer mixtures

The use of chromatographic stationary phases or solvent modifiers to modulate diffusion properties in NMR experiments is now well established. Their use can be to improve resolution in the diffusion domain or to provide an insight into analyte–modifier interactions and, hence, the chromatography process. Here, we extend previous work using size-exclusion chromatographic sta- tionary phases to the investigation of polymer mixtures. We demonstrate that similar diffusion modulation behaviour is observed with a size-exclusion chromatographic stationary phase that can be understood in terms of size-exclusion behaviour

Density Conversion between 1-D and 3-D Stellar Models with 1D-MESA2HYDRO-3D

We present 1D-MESA2HYDRO-3D, an open source, Python-based software tool that provides an accessible means of generating physically motivated initial conditions (ICs) for hydrodynamical simulations from 1-D stellar structure models. We test 1D-MESA2HYDRO-3D on five stellar models generated with the MESA stellar evolution code and verify its capacity as an IC generator with the Phantom smoothed-particle hydrodynamics code \citep{MESAIV, Phantom}. Consistency between the input density profiles, the 1D-MESA2HYDRO-3D-rendered particle distributions, and the state of the distributions after evolution over $10$ dynamical timescales is found for model stars ranging in structure and density from a radially extended supergiant to a white dwarf.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; 14 pages, 13 figure

The role of alexithymia in the development of functional motor symptoms (conversion disorder).

BACKGROUND: The mechanisms leading to the development of functional motor symptoms (FMS) are of pathophysiological and clinical relevance, yet are poorly understood. AIM: The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether impaired emotional processing at the cognitive level (alexithymia) is present in patients affected by FMS. We conducted a cross-sectional study in a population of patients with FMS and in two control groups (patients with organic movement disorders (OMD) and healthy volunteers). METHODS: 55 patients with FMS, 33 patients affected by OMD and 34 healthy volunteers were recruited. The assessment included the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes' Test and the Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorders. RESULTS: Alexithymia was present in 34.5% of patients with FMS, 9.1% with OMD and 5.9% of the healthy volunteers, which was significantly higher in the FMS group (χ(2) (2)=14.129, p<0.001), even after controlling for the severity of symptoms of depression. Group differences in mean scores were observed on both the difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings dimensions of the TAS-20, whereas the externally orientated thinking subscale score was similar across the three groups. Regarding personality disorder, χ(2) analysis showed a significantly higher prominence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) in the FMS group (χ(2) (2)=16.217, p<0.001) and 71.4% of those with OCPD also reached threshold criteria for alexithymia. CONCLUSIONS: Because alexithymia is a mental state denoting the inability to identify emotions at a cognitive level, one hypothesis is that some patients misattribute autonomic symptoms of anxiety, for example, tremor, paraesthesiae, paralysis, to that of a physical illness. Further work is required to understand the contribution of OCPD to the development of FMS

Long-Range Periodic Patterns in Microbial Genomes Indicate Significant Multi-Scale Chromosomal Organization

Genome organization can be studied through analysis of chromosome position-dependent patterns in sequence-derived parameters. A comprehensive analysis of such patterns in prokaryotic sequences and genome-scale functional data has yet to be performed. We detected spatial patterns in sequence-derived parameters for 163 chromosomes occurring in 135 bacterial and 16 archaeal organisms using wavelet analysis. Pattern strength was found to correlate with organism-specific features such as genome size, overall GC content, and the occurrence of known motility and chromosomal binding proteins. Given additional functional data for Escherichia coli, we found significant correlations among chromosome position dependent patterns in numerous properties, some of which are consistent with previously experimentally identified chromosome macrodomains. These results demonstrate that the large-scale organization of most sequenced genomes is significantly nonrandom, and, moreover, that this organization is likely linked to genome size, nucleotide composition, and information transfer processes. Constraints on genome evolution and design are thus not solely dependent upon information content, but also upon an intricate multi-parameter, multi-length-scale organization of the chromosome

2005 Fine Art Graduation Exhibition Catalogue

KEEP CLEAR Graduation Exhibition 2005 Fanshawe College Fine Art Program McIntosh GalleryUniversity of Western Ontario April 14th to May 2nd 2005 Guest Speaker: David Liss, Director-Curator, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Arthttps://first.fanshawec.ca/famd_design_fineart_gradcatalogues/1021/thumbnail.jp

Matrix Formalism to Describe Functional States of Transcriptional Regulatory Systems

Complex regulatory networks control the transcription state of a genome. These transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) have been mathematically described using a Boolean formalism, in which the state of a gene is represented as either transcribed or not transcribed in response to regulatory signals. The Boolean formalism results in a series of regulatory rules for the individual genes of a TRN that in turn can be used to link environmental cues to the transcription state of a genome, thereby forming a complete transcriptional regulatory system (TRS). Herein, we develop a formalism that represents such a set of regulatory rules in a matrix form. Matrix formalism allows for the systemic characterization of the properties of a TRS and facilitates the computation of the transcriptional state of the genome under any given set of environmental conditions. Additionally, it provides a means to incorporate mechanistic detail of a TRS as it becomes available. In this study, the regulatory network matrix, R, for a prototypic TRS is characterized and the fundamental subspaces of this matrix are described. We illustrate how the matrix representation of a TRS coupled with its environment (R*) allows for a sampling of all possible expression states of a given network, and furthermore, how the fundamental subspaces of the matrix provide a way to study key TRS features and may assist in experimental design