Assay of the Reverse Osmosis Purified Water in the Life Science Building at Bowling Green State University, Ohio

Contaminated water sources can cause problems for scientific research and result in costly delays and failures of experiments. At Bowling Green State University, the reverse osmosis supply circulating in the Life Sciences Building has been measurably contaminated for nearly three years, corresponding to a change in servicing of the system. While servicing has been accelerated, the contamination in the system remains. The focus of this research was to identify the species of bacteria and fungi growing inside of the water system so that it might alert those servicing the system, and to begin to eliminate the contamination. Reverse osmosis water samples were collected from various floors of the building and spread onto LB (Luria-Bertani) and MEA (Malt Extract) culture plates. Microbial growth was evident on 93% of the plates. Each separate colony was isolated, followed by DNA extraction and sequencing. Genus and species were determined and the information was presented to the firm that services the reverse osmosis system in order to determine a plan to decontaminate or replace the current plumbing system, and to determine the best way to assure the delivery of water that can be used in scientific research projects

Georgia Aquarium Design Space Analysis and Optimization

AbstractThe Ocean Voyager exhibit residing at the Georgia Aquarium Inc. (GAI) is one of the largest reef gallon aquariums in the world, with a capacity greater than 6.2M gallons. Reef aquariums are closed systems and must compensate by ‘turning over’ their complete volume of water many times a day through biological, chemical, and mechanical filtration. Due to the Georgia Aquarium being a non-profit organization, GAI sought to investigate ways to maximize efficiency and lower operating costs. This paper will focus on using low-cost software solutions to perform trade space analyses and optimization directed towards the Ocean Voyager exhibit and related GA Aquarium life support and energy systems.The software solution herein demonstrates a top-down System of Systems (SoS) to subsystem modeling approach that provides decision makers with interdisciplinary dashboard-level tools to visualize system design. The goal of the analysis is to provide executive level decision-making support for designing or enhancing existing complex systems and SoS. The analysis was performed as a capstone project by Georgia Tech graduate students progressing from cradle to finish in just 9 weeks to show the benefits of systems engineering to Georgia Aquarium staff. Integrating software SE tools into a single, aggregate model enables project engineers and decision makers to direct design directions with confidence

Investor Psychology and Security Market Under- and Overreactions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73431/1/0022-1082.00077.pd

Multi-tissue integrative analysis of personal epigenomes

Evaluating the impact of genetic variants on transcriptional regulation is a central goal in biological science that has been constrained by reliance on a single reference genome. To address this, we constructed phased, diploid genomes for four cadaveric donors (using long-read sequencing) and systematically charted noncoding regulatory elements and transcriptional activity across more than 25 tissues from these donors. Integrative analysis revealed over a million variants with allele-specific activity, coordinated, locus-scale allelic imbalances, and structural variants impacting proximal chromatin structure. We relate the personal genome analysis to the ENCODE encyclopedia, annotating allele- and tissue-specific elements that are strongly enriched for variants impacting expression and disease phenotypes. These experimental and statistical approaches, and the corresponding EN-TEx resource, provide a framework for personalized functional genomics