IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC MARKETING OF SLAUGHTER CATTLE IN VIRGINIA: REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Strategies to Target the Bone Morphogenetic Protein Signalling Pathway in Lung Disease

Lung disease and lung injury are responsible for 20% of deaths of the Irish population every year, and the country has the 2nd highest death rate in Europe for respiratory diseases. Conditions related to the respiratory system are the second largest long term illness by young adults. Lung cancer is the largest cause of cancer related death in Europe as a whole. New and refined mechanisms of drug delivery for the prevention, cure or delayed progression of disease, represents a pathway for the delivery of novel style therapies and for the targeted delivery of different of more toxic drugs to the airways in order to increase efficiency of both the delivery mechanism and of the drug utilised. Here we looked at the use of a number of different mechanisms, which can be used as stand-alone devices/delivery agents and/or in conjunction with other devices and delivery agents to optimise targeted delivery to the lung, and to the specific areas required. We examined the use of a direct delivery mechanism, particle bombardment, for the delivery of various molecules to human and murine cells lines, and to mouse primary cell isolates, MAECs, to examine the potential of the mechanism for adaption to a clinical mechanism for delivery. An aerosol delivery system was developed to utilise a current aerosol generator for the delivery of aerosol to mice in vivo. This was done with the aim of creating a more efficacious and ergonomic mechanism for the delivery of aerosols to mice in vivo and also to investigate the effects of aerosolistation on various drug compound molecules. We also looked for BMP4 disregulation in a number of different animal models to help ascertain the role of the pathway in the progression of disease and damage in the lung. BMP4 has been shown to have a role in the induction of EMT in MAECS (E.Molloy) and to play a role in both lung cancer and allergic Rhinitis. Here we looked at its role in a number of different models. It was firstly examined in vitro in mouse cell lines and primary cell isolates and the effect of pathway stimulation and deregulation examined. The role of the pathway was then examined in both a murine Elastase model of emphysema, where it was determined to be inactive, and a murine OVA model of asthma where deregulation of the active pathway was evident. The pathway was also shown to be activated in a deregulated fashion in an Ozone/HDMA model of allergic asthma in Rhesus Macaques. In vitro models of mouse, human and primate cells lines were used to examine the role of BMP4 in more detail. Mouse cell lines and primary isolates were used both in normal culture and in an air liquid interface (ALI), stimulated with BMP4 and examined. An air liquid interface enables the culturing of cells in a system consistent with that of the in vivo environment, where the nutrition is provided through the basal surface of the cells and the dorsal surfaces of the cells are exposed to air. Murine model of OVA induced asthma in vivo was also stimulated with exogenous BMP4 and the effects monitored. Human primary cells and primate primary cell isolates were also grown in ALI and were treated with either BMP4 or EGTA and BMP4 in order to help determine more information about the cells involved in the pathway and the other pathways that are recruited by BMP activation

COSTS OF OPERATING A COMPUTERIZED TRADING SYSTEM FOR SLAUGHTER LAMBS

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The Dark Disk of the Milky Way

Massive satellite accretions onto early galactic disks can lead to the deposition of dark matter in disk-like configurations that co-rotate with the galaxy. This phenomenon has potentially dramatic consequences for dark matter detection experiments. We utilize focused, high-resolution simulations of accretion events onto disks designed to be Galaxy analogues, and compare the resultant disks to the morphological and kinematic properties of the Milky Way's thick disk in order to bracket the range of co-rotating accreted dark matter. We find that the Milky Way's merger history must have been unusually quiescent compared to median LCDM expectations and therefore its dark disk must be relatively small: the fraction of accreted dark disk material near the Sun is about 20% of the host halo density or smaller and the co-rotating dark matter fraction near the Sun, defined as particles moving with a rotational velocity lag less than 50 km/s, is enhanced by about 30% or less compared to a standard halo model. Such a dark disk could contribute dominantly to the low energy (of order keV for a dark matter particle with mass 100 GeV) nuclear recoil event rate of direct dectection experiments, but it will not change the likelihood of detection significantly. These dark disks provide testable predictions of weakly-interacting massive particle dark matter models and should be considered in detailed comparisons to experimental data. Our findings suggest that the dark disk of the Milky Way may provide a detectable signal for indirect detection experiments, contributing up to about 25% of the dark matter self-annihilation signal in the direction of the center of the Galaxy, lending the signal a noticeably oblate morphology.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; submitted to Ap

Economic Equality and Victory in War: An Empirical Investigation

This paper tests a simple hypothesis: that given the occurrence of war between two countries, the country that is more egalitarian at the moment of military decision is likely to emerge the victor. First, we examine cases where comparative economic inequality can be measured directly, using the nearly comprehensive global data-sets of the University of Texas Inequality Project for the years 1963-1999. Second, we examine cases where reasonable inferences about comparative economic inequality may be drawn by analogy to UTIP measurements or from other political and economic evidence, including both bi-national wars and larger wars where there existed clear pair-wise fronts. Third, we discuss selected cases where inferences may be drawn from literary or historical sources. We find, all in all, that the evidence for an egalitarian victory proposition is remarkably strong.