APPLICATION OF MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE INFLUENCE OF RESOURCE BASE ON CHANGES IN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 1960-70

Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

COST OF REQUIRED WATER POLLUTION ABATEMENT ON POULTRY PROCESSING PLANTS

Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Relationship of Anthropometric Measures to Vertical Jump Height.

The capability to perform your best is an important aspect in the sport of soccer. The relationship between anthropometric measures to vertical jump height among NCAA Division I Women’s soccer players is a subject lacking sufficient scientific research. Purpose: To analyze this relationship, body mass and %body fat was correlated with un-weighted countermovement jump height to determine the strength of this relationship in NCAA DI female soccer players. Methods: Data from an ongoing athlete monitoring program from fourteen NCAA D1 female soccer players in the year 2007 was analyzed. Air Displacement Plethysmography (ADP) via a BOD POD (Life Measurement, Inc., Concord, CA) measured body composition. Height and weight were measured using BOD POD Scale (Life Measurement Inc., Concord, CA) and a stadiometer (Detecto Scale Program, Webb City, MO). To measure the strength characteristics, a Countermovement Jump was utilized. Those jumps were measured using force plates (Rice Lake Weighing Systems, Rice Lake, WI). Results: There was an inverse and moderate correlation (r = -0.371) between 0kg CMJ and %BF, and an inverse and trivial correlation (r = -0.034) between the 0kg CMJ and BM. Conclusion: The relationship between %BF and jump height has a larger impact on this particular group compared to the BM relationship with jump height, but they both however play a significant role in DI women’s soccer

Radiation-induced insulator discharge pulses in the CRRES internal discharge monitor satellite experiment

The Internal Discharge Monitor (IDM) was designed to observe electrical pulses from common electrical insulators in space service. The sixteen insulator samples included twelve planar printed circuit boards and four cables. The samples were fully enclosed, mutually isolated, and space radiation penetrated 0.02 cm of aluminum before striking the samples. Pulsing began on the seventh orbit, the maximum pulse rate occurred on the seventeenth orbit when 13 pulses occurred, and the pulses slowly diminished to about one per 3 orbits six months later. After 8 months, the radiation belts abruptly increased and the pulse rates attained a new high. These pulse rates were in agreement with laboratory experience on shorter time scales. Several of the samples never pulsed. If the pulses were not confined within IDM, the physical processes could spread to become a full spacecraft anomaly. The IDM results indicate the rate at which small insulator pulses occur. Small pulses are the seeds of larger satellite electrical anomalies. The pulse rates are compared with space radiation intensities, L shell location, and spectral distributions from the radiation spectrometers on the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite

The Impact of Classification of Interest on Predictive Toxicogenomics

The era of toxicogenomics has introduced a new way of monitoring the effect of environmental stressors and toxicants on biological systems via quantification of changes in gene expression. Because the liver is one of the major organs for synthesis and secretion of substances which metabolize endogenous and exogenous materials, there has been a great deal of interest in elucidating predictive and mechanistic genomic markers of hepatotoxicity. This mini-review will bring context to a limited number of toxicogenomics studies which used genomics to evaluate the transcriptional changes in blood and liver in response to acetaminophen (APAP) or other liver toxicants, but differed according to the classification of interest (COI), i.e., the partitioning of the samples a priori according to a common toxicological characteristic. The toxicogenomics studies highlighted are characterized by a classification of either no/low vs. high APAP dose exposure, none vs. observed necrosis, and severity of necrosis. The overlap or lack thereof between the gene classifiers and the modulated biological processes that are elucidated will be discussed to enhance the understanding of the effect of the particular COI model and experimental design used for prediction

Characterization of Optically Stimulated Luminescent Detectors in Photon & Proton Beams for Use in Anthropomorphic Phantoms

This study investigated characteristics of optically stimulated luminescent detectors (OSLDs) in protons, allowing comparison to thermoluminescent detectors, and to be implemented into the Radiological Physics Center’s (RPC) remote audit quality assurance program for protons, and for remote anthropomorphic phantom irradiations. The OSLDs used were aluminum oxide (Al2O3:C) nanoDots from Landauer, Inc. (Glenwood, Ill.) measuring 10x10x2 mm3. A square, 20(L)x20(W)x0.5(H) cm3 piece of solid water was fabricated with pockets to allow OSLDs and TLDs to be irradiated simultaneously and perpendicular to the beam. Irradiations were performed at 5cm depth in photons, and in the center of a 10 cm SOBP in a 200MeV proton beam. Additionally, the Radiological Physics Center’s anthropomorphic pelvic phantom was used to test the angular dependence of OSLDs in photons and protons. A cylindrical insert in the phantom allows the dosimeters to be rotated to any angle with a fixed gantry angle. OSLDs were irradiated at 12 angles between 0 and 360 degrees. The OSLDs were read out with a MicroStar reader from Landauer, Inc. Dose response indicates that at angles where the dosimeter is near parallel with the radiation beam response is reduced slightly. Measurements in proton beams do not show significant angular dependence. Post-irradiation fading of OSLDs was studied in proton beams to determine if the fading was different than that of photons. The fading results showed no significant difference from results in photon beams. OSLDs and TLDs are comparable within 3% in photon beams and a correction factor can be posited for proton beams. With angular dependence characteristics defined, OSLDs can be implemented into multiple-field treatment plans in photons and protons and used in the RPC’s quality assurance program

Sperm depletion and sperm competition in the red-sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis

Sperm competition is the post-copulatory analog of male-male combat, wherein sperm from more than one male coincide in a female’s reproductive tract and compete with one another for fertilization of a limited number of ova. Post-copulatory sexual selection, such as sperm competition, can be a powerful driving force for the evolution of many reproductive traits that can lead to rapid divergence. I investigated the effect of sperm depletion on sperm competition in a model polygynandrous mating system of the Redsided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis. The difference in P1 (the proportion of offspring sired by the first male to mate) between a male’s first and second matings was not statistically significant (P = 0.314). However, pooling the data to compare P1, P2, and PSS did show a statistically significant difference between PSS and P1 (P < 0.05), but not between P1 and P2 or P2 and PSS (P > 0.05). Female and male copulation durations, male masses, and interval between matings did not have any significant affect on the paternity of the offspring (All P > 0.05). Genetic bet hedging, sexual conflict, and sperm degradation/extrusions are all ideas that may help to explain our results

The Interaction of Photoactivators with Proteins during Microfabrication

Micron-scale protein cross-linking or microfabrication has been carried out using an Nd3+–YAG laser as the excitation source. Fabrication is carried out by the excitation of photoactivators (Rose Bengal, methylene blue and 9-fluorenone-2-carboxylic acid) with the ultimate goal of creating stable structures that will serve as models for various applications (drug delivery and tissue engineering). Experimental parameters have been adjusted to minimize photodamage and maximize cross-linking efficiency. The higher than ideal photon flux and peak power necessitates the use of high protein concentrations to minimize photodamage. Rose Bengal and methylene blue are binding to proteins with high association constants (Ka ≈ 106 M−1) and both Rose Bengal and both 9-fluorenone-2-carboxylic acid are showing changes to their excited states in presence of proteins at cross-linking concentrations. Molecular docking studies show that Rose Bengal binds close to the tryptophan with ΔG = −6.15 kcal/mol

Bone mineral health is sensitively related to environmental cadmium exposure- experimental and human data

Exposure to cadmium (Cd) is recognised as one of the risk factors for osteoporosis, although critical exposure levels and exact mechanisms are still unknown. Here, we first confirmed that in male Wistar rats challenged orally with 6 different levels of Cd (0.3–10 mg/kg b.w.), over 28 days, there was a direct dose relationship to bone Cd concentration. Moreover, bone mineral content was significantly diminished by ∼15% (p < 0.0001) plateauing already at the lowest exposure level. For the other essential bone elements zinc (Zn) loss was most marked. Having established the sensitive metrics (measures of Cd exposure), we then applied them to 20 randomly selected human femoral head bone samples from 16 independent subjects. Bone Cd concentration was inversely proportional to trabecular bone mineral density and mineral (calcium) content and Zn content of bone, but not the donor's age. Our findings, through direct bone analyses, support the emerging epidemiological view that bone health, adjudged by mineral density, is extremely sensitive to even background levels of environmental Cd. Importantly, however, our data also suggest that Cd may play an even greater role in compromised bone health than prior indirect estimates of exposure could reveal. Environmental Cd may be a substantially determining factor in osteoporosis and large cohort studies with direct bone analyses are now merited