Fouling-release Coatings for Warships

The International Maritime Organisation, a unit of the United Nations, has approved a resolution to phase out and eventually prohibit the worldwide use of toxic organotin antifouling paints. Thus, there is a compelling need to develop, test, and market eco-friendly hull coatings, which effectively keep ships free of fouling. The replacement for tin coatings will likely be lowtoxicitycopper-based paints, and various toxin-free fouling-release coatings. This paper reviews the composition and mechanism of action of these coatings and gives the strengths and weaknesses of eacb coating, with the aim of clarifying the impact of these coatings on the operation of warships

Cosmic Censorship: As Strong As Ever

Spacetimes which have been considered counter-examples to strong cosmic censorship are revisited. We demonstrate the classical instability of the Cauchy horizon inside charged black holes embedded in de Sitter spacetime for all values of the physical parameters. The relevant modes which maintain the instability, in the regime which was previously considered stable, originate as outgoing modes near to the black hole event horizon. This same mechanism is also relevant for the instability of Cauchy horizons in other proposed counter-examples of strong cosmic censorship.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX style, 1 figure included using epsfi

RELEVANCE OF ORAL LANGUAGE SKILLSThe Relevance of Oral Language Skills to Performance on State Literacy Testing

Purpose: Investigated correspondences between performance on an array of literacy and oral language abilities with the proficiency ratings on the reading portion of the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP). Method: Tested 106 fifth-grade students on measures of word-level reading and oral language (i.e., vocabulary, syntax, discourse) near the time when students completed the NECAP assessment. Analyses of performance were conducted with three NECAP outcome groups (Above Proficient, Proficient, Nonproficient (combination of Partially Proficient and Substantially Below groups). Results: Large effect sizes were obtained for differences in oral language and word-level reading skills among the three groups. Decoding, syntax and discourse each accounted for significant variance in state reading scores and differentiated NECAP reading proficiency groupings. Notably, students at all levels varied in their patterns of skills. The majority of Nonproficient students had low scores on word-level reading skills; yet 100% had weaknesses in syntax and/or discourse. Similarly, many students ranked as Proficient had word-level deficits; even more had oral language weaknesses. Conclusions: Treatment of students’ reading weaknesses should be differentiated according to the specific needs of individual pupils. This practice should apply to all critical components of reading comprehension, including oral language skills in syntax and discourse

Job satisfaction for campus recreation professionals within NIRSA institutions

An international investigation was conducted to determine the overall job satisfaction of college campus recreation employees who are members of the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). Demographic information was gathered to provide statistical analysis based on (a) region; (b) size of school; (c) private versus public; (d) four-year versus two-year schools; (e) rural, suburban, and urban location; (f) years in the profession; and (g) reporting structure. The following work related areas were examined to determine if NIRSA members were satisfied with their job environment: (a) personal/individual satisfaction, (b) staffing and organizational structure, (c) financial support, (d) salary and professional development, (e) department and individual expectations, (f) campus recreation facilities, and (g) campus collaboration and communication. The study found that overall the respondents indicated they were satisfied with their job situation/ environment with greater satisfaction being shown by those with loftier job titles when compared with those with lesser job titles. Differences in job satisfaction were noted in terms of (a) supervisor’s expectations of them, salary, and hours worked (based on amount of experience); (b) salary (based on title held); (c) budget allocation (based on reporting structure); and (d) a desire to leave their present position/ job (in terms of job title held, experience/length of service and reporting structure)

Club Sport Legal Liability Practices at NIRSA Institutions

Current legal practices in collegiate club sport programs were studied. A 23-item questionnaire consisting primarily of close-ended questions was mailed to 563 campus recreation directors representing all six National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) regions. Data obtained showed that mean club sport budgets ranged from $51,657 in Region 4 to$135,657 in Region 6, with an overall mean of $69,138 across all regions. Signing a waiver before participating was required by 91 % of the directors. Lack of consistency in waiver language and font size was reported. Only 9% of campus recreation directors always require that an institutional employee travel with a club sport team. The most frequent modes of approved travel for club sport participants were students driving personal cars (94%), renting vans from outside vendors (95%), and the use of private transportation such as a chartered bus (70%). Paid coaches were used by 15% of the directors

Selected Risk Management Policies, Practices, and Procedures for Intramural Activities at NIRSA Institutions

A survey of all National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) campus recreation directors was conducted to determine the risk management policies, practices, and procedures relating to intramural activities and recreational sports at colleges and universities throughout North America. The survey instrument, in its final form, addressed practices, policies, and procedures of campus recreation directors through 44 questions relating to the following areas: (a) documentation, (b) medical factors, (c) rules and regulations, (d) physical supervision, (e) sportsmanship rating systems, (f) restrictive policies, (g) safety devices, (h) officials-tests-qualifications, and (i) background experiences and training of the respondents. Selected data are presented in terms of (a) the size of institutions (small, medium, and large), (b) location of the institution (rural, urban, and suburban), and (c) whether public or privately supported

Factors Affecting Risk Management of Indoor Campus Recreation Facilities

Factors affecting risk management of indoor campus recreation facilities were studied. Campus recreation directors of 4-year colleges/universities in North America who held memberships in the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) responded to a paper survey consisting of 32 dichotomous yes/no and closeended multiple-choice questions. Questions addressed staff certification requirements, use of waivers, number of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in the facility, communication and security devices, health screening of participants, and in-person supervision of the facility. Results showed that facilities are open to participants extensively throughout the 7-day week, thus requiring directors to ensure their risk management procedures are up to date—most notably staff members’ CPR and first aid certification, as well as AED training

Diffusion and flow in complex liquids

Thermal motion of particles and molecules in liquids underlies many chemical and biological processes. Liquids, especially in biology, are complex due to structure at multiple relevant length scales. While diffusion in homogeneous simple liquids is well understood through the Stokes–Einstein relation, this equation fails completely in describing diffusion in complex media. Modeling, understanding, engineering and controlling processes at the nanoscale, most importantly inside living cells, requires a theoretical framework for the description of viscous response to allow predictions of diffusion rates in complex fluids. Here we use a general framework with the viscosity η(k) described by a function of wave vector in reciprocal space. We introduce a formulation that allows one to relate the rotational and translational diffusion coefficients and determine the viscosity η(k) directly from experiments. We apply our theory to provide a database for rotational diffusion coefficients of proteins/protein complexes in the bacterium E. coli. We also provide a database for the diffusion coefficient of proteins sliding along major grooves of DNA in E. coli. These parameters allow predictions of rate constants for association of proteins. In addition to constituting a theoretical framework for description of diffusion of probes and viscosity in complex fluids, the formulation that we propose should decrease substantially the cost of numerical simulations of transport in complex media by replacing the simulation of individual crowding particles with a continuous medium characterized by a wave-length dependent viscosity η(k)

The NF2 tumor suppressor regulates microtubule-based vesicle trafficking via a novel Rac, MLK and p38SAPK pathway

© Macmillan Publishers, 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Oncogene 32 (2013): 1135–1143, doi:10.1038/onc.2012.135.Neurofibromatosis type 2 patients develop schwannomas, meningiomas and ependymomas resulting from mutations in the tumor suppressor gene, NF2, encoding a membrane-cytoskeleton adapter protein called merlin. Merlin regulates contact inhibition of growth and controls the availability of growth factor receptors at the cell surface. We tested if microtubule-based vesicular trafficking might be a mechanism by which merlin acts. We found that schwannoma cells, containing merlin mutations and constitutive activation of the Rho/Rac family of GTPases, had decreased intracellular vesicular trafficking relative to normal human Schwann cells. In Nf2−/− mouse Schwann (SC4) cells, re-expression of merlin as well as inhibition of Rac or its effector kinases, MLK and p38SAPK, each increased the velocity of Rab6 positive exocytic vesicles. Conversely, an activated Rac mutant decreased Rab6 vesicle velocity. Vesicle motility assays in isolated squid axoplasm further demonstrated that both mutant merlin and active Rac specifically reduce anterograde microtubule-based transport of vesicles dependent upon the activity of p38SAPK kinase. Taken together, our data suggest loss of merlin results in the Rac-dependent decrease of anterograde trafficking of exocytic vesicles, representing a possible mechanism controlling the concentration of growth factor receptors at the cell surface.This work was supported by NIH R01 CA118032 (to NR), and MBL research fellowships (to NR and GM), NIH R01 NS23868 (to STB)