Rockets’ RedGlare: Missile Defenses and the Future of World Politics

When President George W. Bush made his remark about the “axis of evil” in his 2002 State of the Union address, he publicly exposed the ballistic missile threat Iran, Iraq, and North Korea pose to the United States and its allies. So far, media concern has concentrated only on his name-calling. Rockets’ Red Glare explores the missile defenses designed to counteract the threat from these countries

Performance of Serial, Matched-Filter Packet Acquisition Algorithms with a Preamble-Sequence Acceptance Criterion

In this thesis, we consider two methods to improve the acquisition performance of a packet radio system that uses serial, matched-filter acquisition: an adaptive acquisition threshold, and an acceptance criterion for the system\u27s preamble sequences. Each packet transmission includes a fixed-length acquisition preamble, and the preamble sequence used in packet transmissions is changed at predetermined times based on a sequence-generation algorithm. It is shown that acquisition performance depends largely on the sidelobe energy of the preamble sequence, the acquisition threshold, and the signal-to-noise ratio. The first method uses a threshold-scaling technique to account for the variation in the signal-to-noise ratio. The second method employs preamble sequence-selection based on the preamble\u27s sidelobe energy to reject sequences which are predicted to yield poor acquisition performance. The two techniques are considered individually and in combination, and the range of system parameters for which each is beneficial is investigated. Performance is examined for an additive white Gaussian noise channel and a signal-to-noise ratio that is unknown a priori at the receiver

Identification of a Novel Self-Sufficient Styrene Monooxygenase from Rhodococcus opacus 1CP.

Sequence analysis of a 9-kb genomic fragment of the actinobacterium Rhodococcus opacus 1CP led to identification of an open reading frame encoding a novel fusion protein, StyA2B, with a putative function in styrene metabolism via styrene oxide and phenylacetic acid. Gene cluster analysis indicated that the highly related fusion proteins of Nocardia farcinica IFM10152 and Arthrobacter aurescens TC1 are involved in a similar physiological process. Whereas 413 amino acids of the N terminus of StyA2B are highly similar to those of the oxygenases of two-component styrene monooxygenases (SMOs) from pseudomonads, the residual 160 amino acids of the C terminus show significant homology to the flavin reductases of these systems. Cloning and functional expression of His10-StyA2B revealed for the first time that the fusion protein does in fact catalyze two separate reactions. Strictly NADH-dependent reduction of flavins and highly enantioselective oxygenation of styrene to (S)-styrene oxide were shown. Inhibition studies and photometric analysis of recombinant StyA2B indicated the absence of tightly bound heme and flavin cofactors in this self-sufficient monooxygenase. StyA2B oxygenates a spectrum of aromatic compounds similar to those of two-component SMOs. However, the specific activities of the flavin-reducing and styrene-oxidizing functions of StyA2B are one to two orders of magnitude lower than those of StyA/StyB from Pseudomonas sp. strain VLB120

Evaluation of Strawberry Sap Beetle (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) Use of Habitats Surrounding Strawberry Plantings as Food Resources and Overwintering Sites

The matrix of strawberry and alternate host crops, wooded areas, and uncultivated sections that comprises a farm landscape provides not only food resources but also habitat in both a spatial and temporal context. Reports of the strawberry sap beetle as a pest in strawberry in the northeastern United States have increased along with a trend to produce a wider diversity of fruit crops on individual farms. The three objectives of this study focused on determining which, if any, habitats outside strawberry plantings are important to consider when developing control strategies for strawberry sap beetles. First, sampling of wooded areas and multiple crops showed that strawberry sap beetles overwinter not only in wooded areas but also in blueberry and raspberry. No overwintering beetles were found in strawberry. Second, up to a 70-fold increase in mean number of strawberry sap beetles in a no-choice food source experiment indicated that considerable reproduction can occur on blueberry, cherry, raspberry, and strawberry. Third, sampling summer-bearing raspberry, peach, blueberry, and cherry in 2004 and 2005 confirmed that beetles were present, often in high densities (0.1-108.5 strawberry sap beetles/m2), in commercial fields with fruit or vegetable material on the ground. In summary, the beetles are able to feed, complete development, and overwinter in habitats other than strawberry. An effective integrated pest management program to control strawberry sap beetles will need to consider the type of habitat surrounding strawberry field

Bibliography of factory layout : 1940 through 1958

"December 1, 1959.""The purpose of this bibliography is to assemble under one binding all available references dealing with factory layout and its immediate sub-topics. The bibliography contains approximately six hundred titles of articles, books, reports, proceedings, etc., published from 1940 through 1958. It was felt that the value of publications earlier than 1940 would not be commensurable with the time involved in exposition. An attempt was made to include all references dealing directly with factory layout and to include those of material handling which seemed to emphasize layout principles rather than design features of equipment."--Forwar