Frequency stabilization for mobile satellite terminals via LORAN

Digital satellite communication systems require careful management of frequency stability. Historically, frequency stability has been accomplished by continuously powered, high cost, high performance reference oscillators. Today's low cost mobile satellite communication equipment must operate under wide ranging environmental conditions, stabilize quickly after application of power, and provide adequate performance margin to overcome RF link impairments unique to the land mobile environment. Methods for frequency stabilization in land mobile applications must meet these objectives without incurring excessive performance degradation. A frequency stabilization scheme utilizing the LORAN (Long Range Navigation) system is presented

A 3D searchable database of transgenic zebrafish gal4 and cre lines for functional neuroanatomy studies

Citation: Marquart, G. D., Tabor, K. M., Brown, M., Strykowski, J. L., Varshney, G. K., LaFave, M. C., . . . Burgess, H. A. (2015). A 3D searchable database of transgenic zebrafish gal4 and cre lines for functional neuroanatomy studies. Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 9(November), 1-17. doi:10.3389/fncir.2015.00078Transgenic methods enable the selective manipulation of neurons for functional mapping of neuronal circuits. Using confocal microscopy, we have imaged the cellular-level expression of 109 transgenic lines in live 6 day post fertilization larvae, including 80 Gal4 enhancer trap lines, 9 Cre enhancer trap lines and 20 transgenic lines that express fluorescent proteins in defined gene-specific patterns. Image stacks were acquired at single micron resolution, together with a broadly expressed neural marker, which we used to align enhancer trap reporter patterns into a common 3-dimensional reference space. To facilitate use of this resource, we have written software that enables searching for transgenic lines that label cells within a selectable 3-dimensional region of interest (ROI) or neuroanatomical area. This software also enables the intersectional expression of transgenes to be predicted, a feature which we validated by detecting cells with co-expression of Cre and Gal4. Many of the imaged enhancer trap lines show intrinsic brain-specific expression. However, to increase the utility of lines that also drive expression in non-neuronal tissue we have designed a novel UAS reporter, that suppresses expression in heart, muscle, and skin through the incorporation of microRNA binding sites in a synthetic 3? untranslated region. Finally, we mapped the site of transgene integration, thus providing molecular identification of the expression pattern for most lines. Cumulatively, this library of enhancer trap lines provides genetic access to 70% of the larval brain and is therefore a powerful and broadly accessible tool for the dissection of neural circuits in larval zebrafish. © 2015 Marquart, Tabor, Brown, Strykowski, Varshney, LaFave, Mueller, Burgess, Higashijima and Burgess

Efficacy of Online Training for Improving Camp Staff Competency

Preparing competent staff is a critical issue within the camp community. This quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of an online course for improving staff competency in camp healthcare practices among college-aged camp staff and a comparison group (N = 55). We hypothesized that working in camp would increase competency test scores due to opportunities for staff to experientially apply knowledge learned online. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyse the cross-level effects of a between-individuals factor (assignment to experimental or comparison group) and within-individual effects of time (pre-test, post-test #1, and post-test #2) on online course test scores. At post-test #2, the difference in average test scores between groups was ~30 points, with the treatment group scoring lower on average than the comparison group. Factors that may have influenced these findings are explored, including fatigue and the limited durability of online learning. Recommendations for research and practice are discussed

A Central Partition of Molecular Conformational Space. IV. Extracting information from the graph of cells

In previous works [physics/0204035, physics/0404052, physics/0509126] a procedure was described for dividing the $3 \times N$-dimensional conformational space of a molecular system into a number of discrete cells, this partition allowed the building of a combinatorial structure from data sampled in molecular dynamics trajectories: the graph of cells, that encodes the set of cells in conformational space that are visited by the system in its thermal wandering. Here we outline a set of procedures for extracting useful information from this structure: 1st) interesting regions in the volume occupied by the system in conformational space can be bounded by a polyhedral cone whose faces are determined empirically from a set of relations between the coordinates of the molecule, 2nd) it is also shown that this cone can be decomposed into a hierarchical set of smaller cones, 3rd) the set of cells in a cone can be encoded by a simple combinatorial sequence.Comment: added an intrduction and reference

Concept and optical design of the cross-disperser module for CRIRES

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Oliva, Ernesto, A. Tozzi, D. Ferruzzi, L. Origlia, A. Hatzes, R. Follert, T. Loewinger et al. "Concept and optical design of the cross-disperser module for CRIRES+." In SPIE Astronomical Telescopes+ Instrumentation, pp. 91477R-91477R. International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2014, which has been published in final form at 10.1117/12.2054381

Solute Concentrations Influence Microbial Methanogenesis in Coal-bearing Strata of the Cherokee Basin, USA

Microorganisms have contributed significantly to subsurface energy resources by converting organic matter in hydrocarbon reservoirs into methane, the main component of natural gas. In this study, we consider environmental controls on microbial populations in coal-bearing strata of the Cherokee basin, an unconventional natural gas resource in southeast Kansas, USA. Pennsylvanian-age strata in the basin contain numerous thin (0.4-1.1 m) coalbeds with marginal thermal maturities (0.5-0.7% Ro) that are interbedded with shale and sandstone. We collected gas, water, and microbe samples from 16 commercial coalbed methane wells for geochemical and microbiological analysis. The water samples were Na-Cl type with total dissolved solids (TDS) content ranging from 34.9 to 91.3 g L?1. Gas dryness values [C1/(C2 + C3)] averaged 2640 and carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios of methane differed from those of carbon dioxide and water, respectively, by an average of 65 and 183%. These values are thought to be consistent with gas that formed primarily by hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Results from cultivation assays and taxonomic analysis of 16S rRNA genes agree with the geochemical results. Cultivable methanogens were present in every sample tested, methanogen sequences dominate the archaeal community in each sample (avg 91%), and few archaeal sequences (avg 4.2%) were classified within Methanosarcinales, an order of methanogens known to contain methylotrophic methanogens. Although hydrogenotrophs appear dominant, geochemical and microbial analyses both indicate that the proportion of methane generated by acetoclastic methanogens increases with the solute content of formation water, a trend that is contrary to existing conceptual models. Consistent with this trend, beta diversity analyses show that archaeal diversity significantly correlates with formation water solute content. In contrast, bacterial diversity more strongly correlates with location than solute content, possibly as a result of spatial variation in the thermal maturity of the coalbeds.Citation: Kirk MF, Wilson BH, Marquart KA, Zeglin LH, Vinson DS and Flynn TM (2015) Solute Concentrations Influence Microbial Methanogenesis in Coal-bearing Strata of the Cherokee Basin, USA. Front. Microbiol. 6:1287. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.0128

Karlstadter Positionspapier zum Schutz der Ackerwildkräuter. Erarbeitet von den Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern der "Tagung zum Schutz der Ackerwildflora" am 25./26.6.2004 in Karlstadt am Main

Der Erhalt von Ackerwildkräutern, die historisch erst mit der Landbewirtschaftung in Mitteleuropa heimisch geworden sind, ist eine Kulturaufgabe, damit auch künftige Generationen die Arten- und Farbenvielfalt in der Kulturlandschaft erleben können