Whole body cleaning agent containing N-acyltaurate

The subject invention relates to a human cleansing agent particularly suitable for use in long duration spaceflight and to a method of bathing with the agent. The agent of the subject invention is in the form of a paste having a pH of 5.0 to 7.9 which comprises an acyltaurate, a skin conditioner, a hair conditioner, and a preservative. More specifically, it includes sodium N-coconut acid-N-methyl taurate, in combination with soybean lecithin, polyquaternium 16, and formalin. This particular combination satisfies the following objectives: (1) that it be usable with a minimum amount of water per shower (approximately 1 gallon); (2) that it be easily separated from the water for purposes of water reclamation; (3) that it be pH compatible with skin and hair; (4) that it rinse well in deionized water; (5) that it be mild to skin and eyes; (6) that it effectively clean both skin and hair; (7) that it be suitable for use in zero gravity; and (8) that it provide ease of combing of wet and dry hair. The method of the invention includes the steps of wetting the skin and hair with a small quantity of water, lathering the skin with the paste, rinsing the lather from the skin and hair with a small quantity of water to produce a rinse water containing the cleansing agent, defoaming the rinse water, and supplying the defoamed rinse water to a water reclamation unit for recycling the water. The novelty of the invention appears to lie in the particular formulation of the cleansing agent and its method of use which provide optimal results under the given constraints and objectives

Bounds on Portfolio Quality

The signal-noise ratio of a portfolio of p assets, its expected return divided by its risk, is couched as an estimation problem on the sphere. When the portfolio is built using noisy data, the expected value of the signal-noise ratio is bounded from above via a Cramer-Rao bound, for the case of Gaussian returns. The bound holds for `biased' estimators, thus there appears to be no bias-variance tradeoff for the problem of maximizing the signal-noise ratio. An approximate distribution of the signal-noise ratio for the Markowitz portfolio is given, and shown to be fairly accurate via Monte Carlo simulations, for Gaussian returns as well as more exotic returns distributions. These findings imply that if the maximal population signal-noise ratio grows slower than the universe size to the 1/4 power, there may be no diversification benefit, rather expected signal-noise ratio can decrease with additional assets. As a practical matter, this may explain why the Markowitz portfolio is typically applied to small asset universes. Finally, the theorem is expanded to cover more general models of returns and trading schemes, including the conditional expectation case where mean returns are linear in some observable features, subspace constraints (i.e., dimensionality reduction), and hedging constraints

Tidal Estuary Morphodynamics of the Knik Arm

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF CIVIL ENGINEERINGA three-dimensional unsteady flow numerical model was developed to study sediment transport due to tidal circulation within Knik Arm, a dynamic well mixed macro-tidal sub-estuary of Cook Inlet in Alaska. The model was developed to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that are creating the Point MacKenzie Shoal, located approximately 4 kilometers south of Port MacKenzie. Hydrodynamic conditions within the estuary are very complex in that ebb-and-flood tides, freshwater mixing, and wetting/drying of tidal mud flats significantly effects sediment transport within the estuary. A Mike 3 numerical model was applied to simulate the sediment transport within the estuary under the action of tidal currents in the vicinity of the shoal. The computational domain of this simulation includes four sediment laden freshwater sources; Matanuska, Knik, Susitna, and Twenty-Mile Rivers as well as an open ocean boundary. The spatial resolution of the triangulated flexible mesh model is 0.00045 degrees2 with a coupled fine resolution model of 0.000045 degrees2. The results of the numerical model are in agreement with previously collected field data. Simulation results indicate the shoal formation is the result of turbid tidal flows and deposition is occurring naturally.Signature Page / Title Page / Abstract / Table of Contents / List of Figures / List of Tables / Background / Introduction / Physical Setting / Sediment / Freshwater Sources / Water Properties / Tidal Datum / Numerical Model / Model Selection / Methodology / Model Domain / Hydrodynamics / Sediment Transport / Summary of Model Input / Results and Discussion / Conclusion / Acknowledgments Reference

Gravitational radiation reaction and second order perturbation theory

A point particle of small mass m moves in free fall through a background vacuum spacetime metric g_ab and creates a first-order metric perturbation h^1ret_ab that diverges at the particle. Elementary expressions are known for the singular m/r part of h^1ret_ab and for its tidal distortion determined by the Riemann tensor in a neighborhood of m. Subtracting this singular part h^1S_ab from h^1ret_ab leaves a regular remainder h^1R_ab. The self-force on the particle from its own gravitational field adjusts the world line at O(m) to be a geodesic of g_ab+h^1R_ab. The generalization of this description to second-order perturbations is developed and results in a wave equation governing the second-order h^2ret_ab with a source that has an O(m^2) contribution from the stress-energy tensor of m added to a term quadratic in h^1ret_ab. Second-order self-force analysis is similar to that at first order: The second-order singular field h^2S_ab subtracted from h^2ret_ab yields the regular remainder h^2R_ab, and the second-order self-force is then revealed as geodesic motion of m in the metric g_ab+h^1R+h^2R.Comment: 7 pages, conforms to the version submitted to PR

The CLAVATA and SHOOT MERISTEMLESS loci competitively regulate meristem activity in Arabidopsis

The CLAVATA (CLV1 and CLV3) and SHOOT MERISTEMLESS (STM) genes specifically regulate shoot meristem development in Arabidopsis. CLV and STH appear to have opposite functions: c1v1 and Clv3 mutants accumulate excess undifferentiated cells in the shoot and floral meristem, while stm mutants fail to form the undifferentiated cells of the shoot meristem during embryonic development. We have identified a weak allele of stm (stm-2) that reveals STM is not only required for the establish- ment of the shoot meristem, but is also required for the continued maintenance of undifferentiated cells in the shoot meristem and for proper proliferation of cells in the floral meristem. We have found evidence of genetic interactions between the CLV and STM loci. clv1 and c1v3 mutations partially suppressed the stm-1 and stm-2 phenotypes, and were capable of suppression in a dominant fashion. clv stm double mutants and plants homozygous for stm but heterozygous for clv, while still lacking an embryonic shoot meristem, exhibited greatly enhanced postembryonic shoot and floral meristem development. Although stm phenotypes are recessive, stm mutations dominantly suppressed clv homozygous and heterozygous phenotypes. These results indicate that the stm phenotype is sensitive to the levels of CLV activity, while the clv phenotype is sensitive to the level of STM activity. We propose that these genes play related but opposing roles in the regulation of cell division and/or cell differentiation in shoot and floral meristems

Protein secondary structure: Entropy, correlations and prediction

Is protein secondary structure primarily determined by local interactions between residues closely spaced along the amino acid backbone, or by non-local tertiary interactions? To answer this question we have measured the entropy densities of primary structure and secondary structure sequences, and the local inter-sequence mutual information density. We find that the important inter-sequence interactions are short ranged, that correlations between neighboring amino acids are essentially uninformative, and that only 1/4 of the total information needed to determine the secondary structure is available from local inter-sequence correlations. Since the remaining information must come from non-local interactions, this observation supports the view that the majority of most proteins fold via a cooperative process where secondary and tertiary structure form concurrently. To provide a more direct comparison to existing secondary structure prediction methods, we construct a simple hidden Markov model (HMM) of the sequences. This HMM achieves a prediction accuracy comparable to other single sequence secondary structure prediction algorithms, and can extract almost all of the inter-sequence mutual information. This suggests that these algorithms are almost optimal, and that we should not expect a dramatic improvement in prediction accuracy. However, local correlations between secondary and primary structure are probably of under-appreciated importance in many tertiary structure prediction methods, such as threading.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Partial Horn logic and cartesian categories

A logic is developed in which function symbols are allowed to represent partial functions. It has the usual rules of logic (in the form of a sequent calculus) except that the substitution rule has to be modified. It is developed here in its minimal form, with equality and conjunction, as “partial Horn logic”. Various kinds of logical theory are equivalent: partial Horn theories, “quasi-equational” theories (partial Horn theories without predicate symbols), cartesian theories and essentially algebraic theories. The logic is sound and complete with respect to models in , and sound with respect to models in any cartesian (finite limit) category. The simplicity of the quasi-equational form allows an easy predicative constructive proof of the free partial model theorem for cartesian theories: that if a theory morphism is given from one cartesian theory to another, then the forgetful (reduct) functor from one model category to the other has a left adjoint. Various examples of quasi-equational theory are studied, including those of cartesian categories and of other classes of categories. For each quasi-equational theory another, , is constructed, whose models are cartesian categories equipped with models of . Its initial model, the “classifying category” for , has properties similar to those of the syntactic category, but more precise with respect to strict cartesian functors