Evaluation of Sampling Strategies on Load Estimation For Illinois River at Highway 59

This study investigated the precision and accuracy of the two load calculation techniques. The study compared total phosphorus loads calculated by integration of Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC) intensive sampling data to loads calculated by a regression technique (rating curve) using fewer data. The 1998 AWRC dataset from the Illinois River at Arkansas Highway 59 was sub-sampled in a manner to simulate fixed period monitoring schemes supplemented with storm sampling. The ESTIMATOR software program was used to calculate loads. These loads were compared to the integrated load. The error of the integrated load when the variation in concentration between samples is not linear and the sensitivity of the integrated load to sampling interval were also investigated. The results show that the central tendency of the ESTIMATOR loads is accurate when storm data are included, but that the 95% confidence interval represents up to +/- 30-40% difference from the integrated load for individual estimates. More frequent sampling and more samples lead to more accurate loads. The results indicate that the central tendency of load estimates would be accurate for a method that uses a regression model with 32 or more samples including storm samples

Derailing individualized ovarian stimulation

No abstract available

Additions to the Checklist of the Illinois Spiders

Five families and 140 species of spiders not included in former Illinois checklists are recorded. Two of these families, Antrodiaetidae and Scytodidae, and 40 of the species have been cited in earlier revisionary or other literature. The families Oonopidae, Symphytognathidae (slat.) and Ctenidae, and the remaining 100 species of spiders are recorded from Illinois for the first time. Locality data are given as counties only, and months of capture of mature specimens are presented. The total known spider fauna of Illinois now stands at 500 species in 27 families

Patterned Geometries and Hydrodynamics at the Vortex Bose Glass Transition

Patterned irradiation of cuprate superconductors with columnar defects allows a new generation of experiments which can probe the properties of vortex liquids by confining them to controlled geometries. Here we show that an analysis of such experiments that combines an inhomogeneous Bose glass scaling theory with the hydrodynamic description of viscous flow of vortex liquids can be used to infer the critical behavior near the Bose glass transition. The shear viscosity is predicted to diverge as $|T-T_{BG}|^{-z}$ at the Bose glass transition, with $z\simeq 6$ the dynamical critical exponent.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Phenomenology of loop quantum cosmology

After introducing the basic ingredients of Loop Quantum Cosmology, I will briefly discuss some of its phenomenological aspects. Those can give some useful insight about the full Loop Quantum Gravity theory and provide an answer to some long-standing questions in early universe cosmology.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; Invited talk in the First Mediterranean Conference on Classical and Quantum Gravity (Crete, Greece

Compositions of near-Earth asteroids

The goal is to determine whether any of the near-earth asteroids contain water-bearing phyllosilicate (clay) minerals. If these minerals are present, they would provide a readily available source of water for propellant generation and use in life support systems. Telescopic detection of water on the near-earth asteroids is complicated because thermal emission from the asteroid itself masks the diagnostic absorption features for objects this close to the sun. Sophisticated thermal models are necessary to determine whether the absorption features are present. This year, development of these models was continued and more telescopic data to test the models was obtained

Lattice Refining Loop Quantum Cosmology and Inflation

We study the importance of lattice refinement in achieving a successful inflationary era. We solve, in the continuum limit, the second order difference equation governing the quantum evolution in loop quantun cosmology, assuming both a fixed and a dynamically varying lattice in a suitable refinement model. We thus impose a constraint on the potential of a scalar field, so that the continuum approximation is not broken. Considering that such a scalar field could play the role of the inflaton, we obtain a second constraint on the inflationary potential so that there is consistency with the CMB data on large angular scales. For a $m^2\phi^2/2$ inflationary model, we combine the two constraints on the inflaton potential to impose an upper limit on $m$, which is severely fine-tuned in the case of a fixed lattice. We thus conclude that lattice refinement is necessary to achieve a natural inflationary model.Comment: 12 pages, RevTex Two minor changes to match version to appear in Physical Review

Non-Universal Gaugino Masses, CDMS, and the LHC

We consider the possibility that the recently reported events at the CDMS-II direct dark matter detection experiment are the result of coherent scattering of supersymmetric neutralinos. In such a scenario we argue that non-universal soft supersymmetry breaking gaugino masses are favored with a resulting lightest neutralino with significant Higgsino and wino components. We discuss the accompanying signals which must be seen at liquid-xenon direct detection experiments and indirect detection experiments if such a supersymmetric interpretation is to be maintained. We illustrate the possible consequences for early discovery channels at the LHC via a set of benchmark points designed to give rise to an observed event rate comparable to the reported CDMS-II data.Comment: Typos corrected and references adde

Critical parameters for efficient sonication and improved chromatin immunoprecipitation of high molecular weight proteins

Solubilization of cross-linked cells followed by chromatin shearing is essential for successful chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). However, this task, typically accomplished by ultrasound treatment, may often become a pitfall of the process, due to inconsistent results obtained between different experiments under seemingly identical conditions. To address this issue we systematically studied ultrasound-mediated cell lysis and chromatin shearing, identified critical parameters of the process and formulated a generic strategy for rational optimization of ultrasound treatment. We also demonstrated that whereas ultrasound treatment required to shear chromatin to within a range of 100–400 bp typically degrades large proteins, a combination of brief sonication and benzonase digestion allows for the generation of similarly sized chromatin fragments while preserving the integrity of associated proteins. This approach should drastically improve ChIP efficiency for this class of proteins