Liminal

My porcelain sculptural work explores the passage from life to death in the form of boat imagery. Many cultures and belief systems have water and boat references in their mythoi surrounding the passage of the soul or spirit to the afterlife. I combine many disparate boat elements into each piece in order to allude to an archetypal form. The black and white tones refer to mourning rituals of various cultures as well as the traditional practice of scrimshaw, in which sailors once made carvings on whale bone or walrus tusks and then inked the lines. My boats are intended as metaphors for passage into the afterlife and symbols of human commonality. They hold their place in both the physical and the spiritual realms

Investment Analysis of Alternative Dairy Systems under MILC

Three dairy systems, 120-cow grazing, 120-cow conventional, and 600-cow concentrated, were evaluated by internal rate of return (IRR) accounting for the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC). With MILC, the grazing and conventional systems had higher IRRs. Without MILC, the 600-cow dairy had the highest IRR. Results were sensitive to assumptions.Concentrated feeding, conventional, grazing, internal rate of return, Livestock Production/Industries,

VIRTUAL LABORATORY OF INDUSTRIAL SCENARIOS FOR TRAINING IN THE AREAS OF AUTOMATION AND CONTROL

The incorporation of new technologies and technological developments in the area of automation and control requires constant training of the personnel involved in such area. The majority of this training begins in the laboratories of educational institutions and training centers for automation personnel. These laboratories are where theoretical knowledge gained in the classroom is applied. Unfortunately, being limited in infrastructure, the use of those laboratories, in the best case scenarios, are restricted to only some actuators and sensors. Industry training is another source in which individual companies have their own internal training programs led by experts in the field. However, this method of training is not always successful since any error in programming of the controllers may lead into putting personnel at risk or financial losses for the company

Effect of a reduction in glomerular filtration rate after nephrectomy on arterial stiffness and central hemodynamics: rationale and design of the EARNEST study

Background: There is strong evidence of an association between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease. To date, however, proof that a reduction in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is a causative factor in cardiovascular disease is lacking. Kidney donors comprise a highly screened population without risk factors such as diabetes and inflammation, which invariably confound the association between CKD and cardiovascular disease. There is strong evidence that increased arterial stiffness and left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis, rather than atherosclerotic disease, mediate the adverse cardiovascular effects of CKD. The expanding practice of live kidney donation provides a unique opportunity to study the cardiovascular effects of an isolated reduction in GFR in a prospective fashion. At the same time, the proposed study will address ongoing safety concerns that persist because most longitudinal outcome studies have been undertaken at single centers and compared donor cohorts with an inappropriately selected control group.<p></p> Hypotheses: The reduction in GFR accompanying uninephrectomy causes (1) a pressure-independent increase in aortic stiffness (aortic pulse wave velocity) and (2) an increase in peripheral and central blood pressure.<p></p> Methods: This is a prospective, multicenter, longitudinal, parallel group study of 440 living kidney donors and 440 healthy controls. All controls will be eligible for living kidney donation using current UK transplant criteria. Investigations will be performed at baseline and repeated at 12 months in the first instance. These include measurement of arterial stiffness using applanation tonometry to determine pulse wave velocity and pulse wave analysis, office blood pressure, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and a series of biomarkers for cardiovascular and bone mineral disease.<p></p> Conclusions: These data will prove valuable by characterizing the direction of causality between cardiovascular and renal disease. This should help inform whether targeting reduced GFR alongside more traditional cardiovascular risk factors is warranted. In addition, this study will contribute important safety data on living kidney donors by providing a longitudinal assessment of well-validated surrogate markers of cardiovascular disease, namely, blood pressure and arterial stiffness. If any adverse effects are detected, these may be potentially reversed with the early introduction of targeted therapy. This should ensure that kidney donors do not come to long-term harm and thereby preserve the ongoing expansion of the living donor transplant program.<p></p&gt

Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 10

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Shelf Inputs and Lateral Transport of Mn, Co, and Ce in the Western North Pacific Ocean

The margin of the western North Pacific Ocean releases redox-active elements like Mn, Co, and Ce into the water column to undergo further transformation through oxide formation, scavenging, and reductive dissolution. Near the margin, the upper ocean waters enriched in these elements are characterized by high dissolved oxygen, low salinity, and low temperature, and are a source of the North Pacific Intermediate Water. High dissolved concentrations are observed across the Western Subarctic Gyre, with a rapid decrease in concentrations away from the margin and across the subarctic-subtropical front. The particulate concentrations of Mn, Co, and Ce are also high in the subarctic surface ocean and enriched relative to Ti and trivalent rare earth elements. Furthermore, the particles enriched in Mn, Co, and Ce coincide at the same depth range, suggesting that these elemental cycles are coupled through microbial oxidation in the subarctic gyre as the waters travel along the margin before being subducted at the subarctic-subtropical front. Away from the margin, the Mn, Co, and Ce cycles decouple, as Mn and Ce settle out as particles while dissolved Co is preserved and transported within the North Pacific Intermediate Water into the central North Pacific Ocean

Ozone depletion events observed in the high latitude surface layer during the TOPSE aircraft program

During the Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) aircraft program, ozone depletion events (ODEs) in the high latitude surface layer were investigated using lidar and in situ instruments. Flight legs of 100 km or longer distance were flown 32 times at 30 m altitude over a variety of regions north of 58° between early February and late May 2000. ODEs were found on each flight over the Arctic Ocean but their occurrence was rare at more southern latitudes. However, large area events with depletion to over 2 km altitude in one case were found as far south as Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay and as late as 22 May. There is good evidence that these more southern events did not form in situ but were the result of export of ozone-depleted air from the surface layer of the Arctic Ocean. Surprisingly, relatively intact transport of ODEs occurred over distances of 900–2000 km and in some cases over rough terrain. Accumulation of constituents in the frozen surface over the dark winter period cannot be a strong prerequisite of ozone depletion since latitudes south of the Arctic Ocean would also experience a long dark period. Some process unique to the Arctic Ocean surface or its coastal regions remains unidentified for the release of ozone-depleting halogens. There was no correspondence between coarse surface features such as solid ice/snow, open leads, or polynyas with the occurrence of or intensity of ozone depletion over the Arctic or subarctic regions. Depletion events also occurred in the absence of long-range transport of relatively fresh “pollution” within the high latitude surface layer, at least in spring 2000. Direct measurements of halogen radicals were not made. However, the flights do provide detailed information on the vertical structure of the surface layer and, during the constant 30 m altitude legs, measurements of a variety of constituents including hydroxyl and peroxy radicals. A summary of the behavior of these constituents is made. The measurements were consistent with a source of formaldehyde from the snow/ice surface. Median NOx in the surface layer was 15 pptv or less, suggesting that surface emissions were substantially converted to reservoir constituents by 30 m altitude and that ozone production rates were small (0.15–1.5 ppbv/d) at this altitude. Peroxyacetylnitrate (PAN) was by far the major constituent of NOy in the surface layer independent of the ozone mixing ratio

Mycobacterium tuberculosis pks12 Produces a Novel Polyketide Presented by CD1c to T Cells

CD1c-mediated T cells are activated by a mycobacterial phospholipid antigen whose carbohydrate structure precisely corresponds to mammalian mannosyl β-1-phosphodolichol (MPD), but contains an unusual lipid moiety. Here, we show that this T cell antigen is a member of a family of branched, alkane lipids that vary in length (C30-34) and are produced by medically important mycobacteria such as M. tuberculosis and M. bovis Bacille-Calmette-Guerin. The alkane moiety distinguished these mycobacterial lipid antigens from mammalian MPDs and was necessary for activation of CD1c-restricted T cells, but could not be accounted for by any known lipid biosynthetic pathway. Metabolic labeling and mass spectrometric analyses suggested a mechanism for elongating lipids using alternating C2 and C3 units, rather than C5 isopentenyl pyrophosphate. Inspection of the M. tuberculosis genome identified one candidate gene, pks12, which was predicted to encode the largest protein in M. tuberculosis, consisting of 12 catalytic domains that correspond to key steps in the proposed pathway. Genetic deletion and complementation showed that Pks12 was necessary for antigen production, but did not affect synthesis of true isoprenols. These studies establish the genetic and enzymatic basis for a previously unknown type of polyketide, designated mycoketide, which contains a lipidic pathogen-associated molecular pattern

Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 12

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University’s main alumni publication