Vehicle test report: South Coast technology electric conversion of a Volkswagen Rabbit

The South Coast Technology Volkswagen Rabbit, was tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) dynamometer facility and at JPL's Edwards Test Station (ETS). The tests were performed to characterize certain parameters of the South Coast Rabbit and to provide baseline data that will be used for the comparison of near term batteries that are to be incorporated into the vehicle. The vehicle tests were concentrated on the electrical drive system; i.e., the batteries, controller, and motor. The tests included coastdowns to characterize the road load, maximum effort acceleration, and range evaluation for both cyclic and constant speed conditions. A qualitative evaluation of the vehicle was made by comparing its constant speed range performance with those vehicles described in the document 'state of the Art assessment of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles'. The Rabbit performance was near to the best of the 1977 vehicles

Comparison of Satellite Imagery and Conventional Aerial Photography in Evaluating a Large Forest Fire

The 1976 Horry County forest fire consumed approximately 37,000 acres of woodlands. The burned area was located in the northeastern coastal plain of South Carolina with the boundary being generally based on a triangle where the northern boundary is S. C. Highway 90, the southern boundary is the intracoastal waterway, and the western boundary is Highway 501. It burned for a total of six days before being pronounced out on April 15, 1976. A trail of smoke could be seen at one time rising to the northeast for 40 miles over North Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean. This area was dominated by forests even though there were very few high-quality timbered areas. Included in this area are three distinct forest types, the Carolina Bays, with their evergreen shrub bogs or \u27pine pocosins\u27, the -cypress-tupelo gum, and the old beach sandy ridges that would probably naturally climax to oak-hickory, but currently are being managed for southern pines. The day after the fire was declared out, color infrared aerial photographs were taken of this area. From these aerial photos, a planimetric map was made and an overlay was constructed classifying the area into unburned, slightly burned, moderately burned, and intensively burned, based on image color and density. Intensively burned areas were found to be totally charred and had very little reflectance. They appeared blue to black in the color infrared photographs. Moderately burned areas contained some mortality and considerable scorched vegetation when appeared blue to green on the photographs. Slightly burned areas had no mortality but had some signs of scorching in the crown and burned understory material. It appeared green with shades of red throughout, while unburned areas appeared red

A Glutamine-Rich Factor Affects Stem Cell Genesis in Leech

Leech embryogenesis is a model for investigating cellular and molecular processes of development. Due to the unusually large size of embryonic stem cells (teloblasts: 50–300 μm) in the glossiphoniid leech, Theromyzon tessulatum, and the presence of identifiable stem cell precursors (proteloblasts), we previously isolated a group of genes upregulated upon stem cell birth. In the current study, we show that one of these genes, designated Theromyzon proliferation (Tpr), is required for normal stem cell genesis; specifically, transient Tpr knockdown experiments conducted with antisense oligonucleotides and monitored by semiquantitative RT-PCR, caused abnormal proteloblast proliferation leading to embryonic death, but did not overtly affect neuroectodermal or mesodermal stem cell development once these cells were born. Tpr encodes a large glutamine-rich (∼34%) domain that shares compositional similarity with strong transcriptional enhancers many of which have been linked with trinucleotide repeat disorders (e.g., Huntington's)

Complex impedance spectroscopy for monitoring tissue responses to inserted neural implants

A series of animal experiments was conducted to characterize changes in the complex impedance of chronically implanted electrodes in neural tissue. Consistent trends in impedance changes were observed across all animals, characterized as a general increase in the measured impedance magnitude at 1 kHz. Impedance changes reach a peak approximately 7 days post-implant. Reactive responses around individual electrodes were described using immuno- and histo-chemistry and confocal microscopy. These observations were compared to measured impedance changes. Several features of impedance changes were able to differentiate between confined and extensive histological reactions. In general, impedance magnitude at 1 kHz was significantly increased in extensive reactions, starting about 4 days post-implant. Electrodes with extensive reactions also displayed impedance spectra with a characteristic change at high frequencies. This change was manifested in the formation of a semi-circular arc in the Nyquist space, suggestive of increased cellular density in close proximity to the electrode site. These results suggest that changes in impedance spectra are directly influenced by cellular distributions around implanted electrodes over time and that impedance measurements may provide an online assessment of cellular reactions to implanted devices.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58178/2/jne7_4_007.pd

Androgen Receptor Content of the Normal and Hyperplastic Canine Prostate

A B S -R A C T A procedure was developed for rneeasurement of androgeni receptors in cytoplasmic extracts of prostates froms intact dogs. The protocol utilized exchange saturatioin analysis at 15°C employing the synthetic androgen R1881 (17,8-hydroxy-17an-methylestra-4,9, 1 1-trien-3-one) as the ligand probe anid quantitatively dletected total cytoplasmic androgeni receptor (R, anidrogen-free receptor, and R,.A, androgenoccupied receptor) present at the initiation of the assay. This protocol was employed in conjunctioni with a tissue mince saturation anialysis procedure (for (uantitation of nuclear androgen receptor) to (quanititate total androgeni receptor content of normal and hyperplastic prostates obtained fromi young (2.5-or 4.6-yr old) and aged (12.5-yr old) purebred dogs of known birth date. The total cytoplasmic androgeni receptor content (piconmoles per prostate) of hyperplastic prostates was 4.6-fold greater than that of normal prostates. The total nuclear androgen receptor content of hyperplastic prostates (piconmoles per prostate meassured in crude nuclear preparations) was either 5.0-(4.6-yr-old dogs) or 7.8-fold (2.5-yr-old dogs) greater than that of normnal prostates. However, androgen receptor content per cell was identical for hyperplastic and normal canine prostates, with the exception that nuclear androgeni receptor was diminished in prostates fromii 2.5-yr-old dogs. The the molecular mlechanismiis of hornmone action have led to an increasing number of investigations of hormonal regulationi of caniine prostate functioni (4-10). Although histologic features (11) and hormone sensitivity Current concepts of the mechanism of steroid hormone regulationi of cell function envisions a process whereby effector steroid initially interacts with cytoplasmic receptor proteins. The highly steroid specific b)inding of effector to cytoplasmic receptor protein promotes translocationi of the receptor-steroid complex into the nuclear compartment canidrostanediol, 5a-androstane-3a, 17, (-diol, 3a, 17,8-dihydroxyandrostane; M4-androstenedione, 4-androsten

Requirement for PBAF in transcriptional repression and repair at DNA breaks in actively transcribed regions of chromatin

Actively transcribed regions of the genome are vulnerable to genomic instability. Recently, it was discovered that transcription is repressed in response to neighboring DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). It is not known whether a failure to silence transcription flanking DSBs has any impact on DNA repair efficiency or whether chromatin remodelers contribute to the process. Here, we show that the PBAF remodeling complex is important for DSB-induced transcriptional silencing and promotes repair of a subset of DNA DSBs at early time points, which can be rescued by inhibiting transcription globally. An ATM phosphorylation site on BAF180, a PBAF subunit, is required for both processes. Furthermore, we find that subunits of the PRC1 and PRC2 polycomb group complexes are similarly required for DSB-induced silencing and promoting repair. Cancer-associated BAF180 mutants are unable to restore these functions, suggesting PBAF's role in repressing transcription near DSBs may contribute to its tumor suppressor activity

All-sky Galactic radiation at 45 MHz and spectral index between 45 and 408 MHz

Aims: We study the Galactic large-scale synchrotron emission by generating a reliable all-sky spectral index map and temperature map at 45 MHz. Methods: We use our observations, the published all-sky map at 408 MHz, and a bibliographical compilation to produce a map corrected for zero-level offset and extragalactic contribution. Results: We present full sky maps of the Galactic emission at 45 MHz and the Galactic spectral index between 45 and 408 MHz with an angular resolution of 5\degs. The spectral index varies between 2.1 and 2.7, reaching values below 2.5 at low latitude because of thermal free-free absorption and its maximum in the zone next to the Northern Spur.Comment: A&A accepte

Multilingual gendered identities: female undergraduate students in London talk about heritage languages

In this paper I explore how a group of female university students, mostly British Asian and in their late teens and early twenties, perform femininities in talk about heritage languages. I argue that analysis of this talk reveals ways in which the participants enact ‘culturally intelligible’ gendered subject positions. This frequently involves negotiating the norms of ‘heteronormativity’, constituting femininity in terms of marriage, motherhood and maintenance of heritage culture and language, and ‘girl power’, constituting femininity in terms of youth, sassiness, glamour and individualism. For these young women, I ask whether higher education can become a site in which they have the opportunities to explore these identifications and examine other ways of imagining the self and what their stories suggest about ‘doing being’ a young British Asian woman in London