Note and Comment

Courts--Jurisdiction of Circuit Court--Enjoining Writ of Error; Criminal Law--Arraignment--Waiver; Damages--Personal Injuries--Expense of Nursing; Deeds--Boundaries--Navigable Waters; Deeds--Variance Between Granting Clause and Habendum--Construction; Eminent Domain--Use of Urban Street Car Lines by Interurban Cars; Evidence--Admissibility of Statement of One Partner to a Commercial Agency as to Asset and Liabilities; Evidence--Admission of a Carbon Copy of a Contract as a Duplicate Original; Federal Courts--jurisdiction--Action Against State Officers; Foreign Corporations--Liability to be Sued; Homicide--Self-Defense--Provoking Difficulty; Insurance--Certificate Silent as to Suicide; Joint Stock Associations--have they at Common law Powers and Privileges of a Corporation not Possessed by Individuals or Partnerships?; Municipal corporations--Protecting Against Fraud by Ordinance--Sale of Jewelry by Auctioneers; Parent and Child--Obligation of Father to Support After Divorce; Public Officers--Resignation--Necessity of Acceptance; Sales--good Will--Solicitation of Old Customers--Professional and Trading Partnerships; Trial--Appeal to Prejudice in Argument; Wills--Construction--Testamentary Trusts--Gifts to Trustee; Wills--distinguished from Deeds--Future Interes

Capturing genetic gains in productivity with heterosis

The National Swine Registry (NSR) has two long term goals: 1) to register purebred pigs and thus assure breed purity and 2) encourage genetic progress through performance testing - genetic selection programs. The continued production of purebred lines assures that a number of breeds are available to produce females and terminal cross pigs with high levels of heterosis. Purebred breeders, whose customers are commercial swine producers, have produced substantial rates of genetic progress by use of the STAGES program

Genetic improvement of meat quality and fertility using the national nucleus

Knowledge is power and the National Swine Registry (NSR) is the only source of complete, publicly available, genetic records on nucleus populations. NSR has offered STAGES \u27, a BLUP genetic improvement program with bio-economic indexes for over 17 years. NSR members submit information on 3 sow productivity traits and 3 postweaning performance traits and in return receive across-herd Expected Progeny Deviations (EPDs) for these traits along with indexes for Sow Productivity, Maternal Line (sow productivity and postweaning performance) and Terminal (postweaning traits only) to be used in genetic selection. Not only is this genetic information available to members but genetic values and trends for these traits are also available to any commercial producer or genetic advisor. This program has led NSR members to make substantial genetic improvement for these traits within all four breeds. In addition, this transparent system allows commercial producers to design programs and select animals that allow them the greatest potential for their situation. As the pork industry continues ro change, multiple pork chains are forming to meets distinct specifications desired by subsets of consumers. To continue to meet the demand of these dissimilar pork chains, differentiated genetic lines are necessary to provide products that match their specifications. In addition, as profit per pig continues to decline pork producers must be able to increase product sold per unit of investment. To facilitate this key profitability indicator, the fertility of breeding females must improve. To address these two key drivers in today\u27s pork industry, the NSR has updated their genetic improvement program in these two areas

Towards a Tetravalent Chemistry of Colloids

We propose coating spherical particles or droplets with anisotropic nano-sized objects to allow micron-scale colloids to link or functionalize with a four-fold valence, similar to the sp3 hybridized chemical bonds associated with, e.g., carbon, silicon and germanium. Candidates for such coatings include triblock copolymers, gemini lipids, metallic or semiconducting nanorods and conventional liquid crystal compounds. We estimate the size of the relevant nematic Frank constants, discuss how to obtain other valences and analyze the thermal distortions of ground state configurations of defects on the sphere.Comment: Replaced to improve figures. 4 figures Nano Letter

Real-time PCR for diagnosing and quantifying co-infection by two globally distributed fungal pathogens of wheat

Co-infections – invasions of a host-plant by multiple pathogen species or strains – are common, and are thought to have consequences for pathogen ecology and evolution. Despite their apparent significance, co-infections have received limited attention; in part due to lack of suitable quantitative tools for monitoring of co-infecting pathogens. Here, we report on a duplex real-time PCR assay that simultaneously distinguishes and quantifies co-infections by two globally important fungal pathogens of wheat: Pyrenophora tritici-repentis and Parastagonospora nodorum. These fungi share common characteristics and host species, creating a challenge for conventional disease diagnosis and subsequent management strategies. The assay uses uniquely assigned fluorogenic probes to quantify fungal biomass as nucleic acid equivalents. The probes provide highly specific target quantification with accurate discrimination against non-target closely related fungal species and host genes. Quantification of the fungal targets is linear over a wide range (5000–0.5 pg DNA µl-1) with high reproducibility (RSD = 10%). In the presence of host DNA in the assay matrix, fungal biomass can be quantified up to a fungal to wheat DNA ratio of 1 to 200. The utility of the method was demonstrated using field samples of a cultivar sensitive to both pathogens. While visual and culture diagnosis suggested the presence of only one of the pathogen species, the assay revealed not only presence of both co-infecting pathogens (hence enabling asymptomatic detection) but also allowed quantification of relative abundances of the pathogens as a function of disease severity. Thus, the assay provides for accurate diagnosis; it is suitable for high-throughput screening of co-infections in epidemiological studies, and for exploring pathogen–pathogen interactions and dynamics, none of which would be possible with conventional approaches

Multi-Center non-BPS Black Holes - the Solution

We construct multi-center, non-supersymmetric four-dimensional solutions describing a rotating anti-D6-D2 black hole and an arbitrary number of D4-D2-D0 black holes in a line. These solutions correspond to an arbitrary number of extremal non-BPS black rings in a Taub-NUT space with a rotating three-charge black hole in the middle. The positions of the centers are determined by solving a set of "bubble" or "integrability" equations that contain cubic polynomials of the inter-center distance, and that allow scaling solutions even when the total four-dimensional angular momentum of the scaling centers is non-zero.Comment: 16 pages, LaTe

Diblock copolymers at a homopolymer-homopolymer-interface: a Monte Carlo simulation

The properties of diluted symmetric A-B diblock copolymers at the interface between A and B homopolymer phases are studied by means of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the bond fluctuation model. We calculate segment density profiles as well as orientational properties of segments, of A and B blocks, and of the whole chain. Our data support the picture of oriented ``dumbbells'', which consist of mildly perturbed A and B Gaussian coils. The results are compared to a self consistent field theory (SCFT) for single copolymer chains at a homopolymer interface. We also discuss the number of interaction contacts between monomers, which provide a measure for the ``active surface'' of copolymers or homopolymers close to the interface

Supersymmetry and the relationship between a class of singular potentials in arbitrary dimensions

The eigenvalues of the potentials $V_{1}(r)=\frac{A_{1}}{r}+\frac{A_{2}}{r^{2}}+\frac{A_{3}}{r^{3}}+\frac{A_{4 }}{r^{4}}$ and $V_{2}(r)=B_{1}r^{2}+\frac{B_{2}}{r^{2}}+\frac{B_{3}}{r^{4}}+\frac{B_{4}}{r^ {6}}$, and of the special cases of these potentials such as the Kratzer and Goldman-Krivchenkov potentials, are obtained in N-dimensional space. The explicit dependence of these potentials in higher-dimensional space is discussed, which have not been previously covered.Comment: 13 pages article in LaTEX (uses standard article.sty). Please check "http://www1.gantep.edu.tr/~ozer" for other studies of Nuclear Physics Group at University of Gaziante

Quantifying the natural history of post-radical prostatectomy incontinence using objective pad test data

BACKGROUND: Urinary incontinence (UI) following radical prostatectomy is a well-recognized risk of the surgery. In most patients post-operative UI improves over time. To date, there is limited objective, quantitative data on the natural history of the resolution of post-prostatectomy UI. The purpose of this study was to define the natural history of post radical prostatectomy incontinence using an objective quantitative tool, the 1-hour standard pad test. METHODS: 203 consecutive patients underwent radical prostatectomy by a single surgeon between 03/98 & 08/03. A standardized 1-hour pad test was administered at subsequent postoperative clinic visits. The gram weight of urine loss was recorded and subdivided into four groups defined according to the grams of urine loss: minimal (<1 g), mild (>1, <10 g), moderate (10–50 g) and severe (>50 g). Patients were evaluated: at 2 weeks (catheter removal), 6 weeks, 18 weeks, 30 weeks, 42 weeks and 54 weeks. The data set was analyzed for average urine loss as well as grams of urine loss at each time point, the percentage of patients and the distribution of patients in each category. RESULTS: Mean follow up was 118 weeks. The majority of patients experienced incontinence immediately after catheter removal at 2 weeks that gradually improved with time. While continued improvement was noted to 1 year, most patients who achieved continence did so by 18 weeks post-op. CONCLUSION: While the majority of patients experience mild to severe UI immediately following catheter removal, there is a rapid decrease in leaked weight during the first 18 weeks following RRP. Patients continue to improve out to 1 year with greater than 90% having minimal leakage by International Continence Society criteria