Preserving the garden :

The first Americans in Oregon came mostly from the Midwest where their ancestors had settled after leaving New England. Oregon represented a place where people could live surrounded by a pleasant setting which was protected by great distance from the problems facing Eastern society resulting from industrialization, ethnic and racil diversity and urbanization. Historically, any attempt to change the Oregonian's life and feeling of freedom was responded to swiftly. The Progressive era was no different. Its purpose and ultimate goal was to protect the tradition of individual freedom which seemed threatened. The response was a series of laws, such as the direct lection of senators, referendum, recall, direct primary, workman's compensation, and woman's suffrage, which were passed with bi-partisan unity. The reforms allowed Oregon to be insulated from change whether racial, political, or cultural. Thus Oregon Progressives allowed the people to preserve the society of the past by creating tools of a democratic government.The conclusions reached found a movement motivated by the importance of personal independence, reverence for land and nature, and a desire to maintain a way of life. Oregonians believed their society was special and their efforts which were labeled as Progressive or forward looking were actually preservationist. The legislation passed between 1900-1910 and labeled the "Oregon System, " as an attempt to protect and perpetuate the established society.This study was concerned with the motivation and direction of Progressivism in Oregon. The major problem which confronted me was why such a conservative state with its homogeneous W.A.S.P. population, isolated geographic location, rural lifestyle, and lacking problems faced by other states would become the leader in implementing Progressive reforms

The Architecture of Coupon-Based, Semi-off-Line, Anonymous Micropayment System for Internet of Things

Part 6: Computational Systems ApplicationsInternational audienceIn the Internet of Things a lot of business opportunities may be identified. The devices in IoT may create ad-hoc temporary networks to provide services or share some resources. Such services are characterized by a great economical potential, especially while provided at mass-scale and for incidental users. However, the development of paid services or resources in IoT is hampered by relatively big transaction costs of payment operations. To deal with this problem, we propose a novel architecture of coupon based, semi off line, anonymous micropayment system to enable transactions in the scope of Internet of Things. User anonymity and security is assured by the usage of standard cryptographic techniques together with novel architectural design of the payment processes. Utilization of a hash function allows generating and verifying electronic coins in computationally efficient way, so as to be executed even in hardware- and software-restricted environment such as Internet of Things

The onset of homologous chromosome pairing during Drosophila melanogaster embryogenesis.

We have determined the position within the nucleus of homologous sites of the histone gene cluster in Drosophila melanogaster using in situ hybridization and high-resolution, three-dimensional wide field fluorescence microscopy. A 4.8-kb biotinylated probe for the histone gene repeat, located approximately midway along the short arm of chromosome 2, was hybridized to whole-mount embryos in late syncytial and early cellular blastoderm stages. Our results show that the two homologous histone loci are distinct and separate through all stages of the cell cycle up to nuclear cycle 13. By dramatic contrast, the two homologous clusters were found to colocalize with high frequency during interphase of cycle 14. Concomitant with homolog pairing at cycle 14, both histone loci were also found to move from their position near the midline of the nucleus toward the apical side. This result suggests that coincident with the initiation of zygotic transcription, there is dramatic chromosome and nuclear reorganization between nuclear cycles 13 and 14

Direct evidence for interphase chromosome movement during the mid-blastula transition in Drosophila

AbstractIn Drosophila, several genetic phenomena are most easily explained by a model in which homologous chromosomes pair, at least transiently, and use regulatory information present on only one homolog to pattern expression from both homologs [1–3]. To accomplish pairing of sites on different chromosomes, there must be a mechanism by which communication between homologs is facilitated. However, except in the case of meiotic prophase, directed, rapid chromosomal movement has not yet been observed. Some studies suggest that chromosomes are relatively immobile during interphase [4,5], while others suggest that chromatin can reposition during interphase [6–8] and may be free to undergo substantial Brownian motion [9]. Using high-resolution, three-dimensional imaging techniques, we determined directly the structure and nuclear location of eleven different loci, both active and inactive, in embryos at cycle 14, the mid-blastula transition. We show that during a single interphase, portions of chromosomes moved in a cell-cycle-specific, directed fashion, independently and over long distances. All eleven regions showed movement, although the genes closer to the centromere moved faster (0.7 μm/minute) and over long distances (5–10 μm), whereas those nearer the telomere expanded in the same place and became oriented along the nuclear axis. Gene motion was independent of replication, transcription and changes in nuclear shape. Because individual genes on the same chromosome move independently, the movement is unlikely to be mediated by centromeres, Brownian motion or random drift and must be caused by an active mechanism

Proposal for the Initiation of General and Military Specific Benchmarking of Robotic Convoys

This paper identifies the need for a standard method of benchmarking emerging robotic systems with a focus on military, multi-robot convoys. Benchmarking is commonly used throughout academia and industry as a method of evaluating and comparing products. In this paper we propose a generic form that these benchmarks may take in the future. Classification categories, such as, obstacle avoidance, area mapping, and convoy coherence are all possible elements of this benchmark. The goal is a standard benchmark that can be used to evaluate military multi-robot convoy systems

Pose Estimation With Low-Resolution Bearing-Only Sensors

Pose estimation of neighboring robots is a key requirement for configuration control behaviors in multi-robot systems. Estimating pose is difficult without system constraints, it is even more challenging when using minimalistic sensing alongside limited bandwidth. Minimal sensing models are a well studied field in robotics and are relevant to our particular hardware platform, the r-one, which has sensors that only measure a low-resolution bearing to neighboring robots. These bearing-only sensors are simpler to design with and cheaper to deploy in large numbers. In this thesis, I focus on the r-one multi-robot system which is capable of coarsely measuring the bearing, but not the distance, to neighbors. These sensors have a angular resolution of only 22.5 degrees due to the construction of the infrared system. I develop a particle filter algorithm that allows the r-one robot to estimate the pose of a neighbor using the infrared communication system and odometry measurements. This algorithm relies on the fusion of a coarse bearing measurement and neighbor velocities and is optimized to use the smallest communications bandwidth possible. I tested this algorithm with a simulation to demonstrate its effectiveness across varying sensor setups, neighbor update periods, and number of particles

2-(3-Chloro-5,6-diphenyl-2,5-dihydro-1,2,4-triazin-5-yl)-2-methyl­propane­nitrile

The title compound, C19H17ClN4, was obtained from the reaction of 3-chloro-5,6-diphenyl-1,2,4-triazine with isobutyronitrile in the presence of lithium diisopropyl­amide as an unexpected product of covalent addition of isobutyronitrile carbanion to the C-5 atom of the 1,2,4-triazine ring. The 2,5-dihydro-1,2,4-triazine ring is essentially planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0059 Å) and the 5- and 6-phenyl substituents are inclined to its mean plane with dihedral angles of 89.97 (4) and 55.52 (5)°, respectively. Intra­molecular C—H⋯N inter­actions occur. In the crystal, mol­ecules related by a c-glide plane are linked into zigzag chains along [001] by N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds

1,3-Dimethyl-5-methyl­sulfonyl-1H-pyrazolo­[4,3-e][1,2,4]triazine

In the title compound, C7H9N5O2S, the pyrazolo­[4,3-e][1,2,4]triazine fused-ring system is essentially planar [maximum deviation = 0.0420 (3) Å]. In the crystal, mol­ecules related by twofold axes are linked into a mol­ecular net via inter­molecular C—H⋯O and C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds. π–π inter­actions are observed between the triazine and pyrazole rings of mol­ecules related by the the twofold axis and inversion symmetry with centroid–centroid distances of 3.778 (3) and 3.416 (3) Å, respectively

Vicarious nucleophilic substitution of hydrogen vs. ANRORC-type ring transformation in reactions of 1,2,4-triazines with alpha-halocarbanions. Novel route to functionalized pyrazoles

A novel route to pyrazole derivatives bearing sulfonyl, aminosulfonyl, alkoxy- and aryloxysulfonyl groups at C-3 by ring transformation of 3-chloro-6-aryl-1,2,4-triazines 1a-c with alpha-halocarbanions 2a-h is described