Illinois Government Research no. 47 1978: Illinois Municipalities: Where have all the voters gone?

Politicians often lament the declining importance of local government in the United States. They point to an ever-growing, more inclusive federal government as evidence of the passing of government at the grassroots level. But judging by statistics from the last twenty years, Illinois municipalities, at least, can hardly be considered dead or even slightly ill. Thanks to the home rule provisions of the new constitution and to increased revenue from sources such as the state income tax and the federal revenue sharing programs, city governments are more active than ever before.published or submitted for publicatio

Effect of Tryptophan Analogs on Derepression of the \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e Tryptophan Operon by Indole-3-Propionic Acid

The abilities of 14 tryptophan analogs to repress the tryptophan (trp) operon have been studied in Escherichia coli cells derepressed by incubation with 0.25 mM indole-3-propionic acid (IPA). trp operon expression was monitored by measuring the specific activities of anthranilate synthase (EC 4.1.3.27) and the tryptophan synthase (EC 4.2.1.20) β subunit. Analogs characterized by modification or removal of the α-amino group or the α-carboxyl group did not repress the trp operon. The only analogs among this group that appeared to interact with the trp aporepressor were IPA, which derepressed the trp operon, and d-tryptophan. Analogs with modifications of the indole ring repressed the trp operon to various degrees. 7-Methyl-tryptophan inhibited anthranilate synthase activity and consequently derepressed the trp operon. Additionally, 7-methyltryptophan prevented IPA-mediated derepression but, unlike tryptophan, did so in a non-coordinate manner, with the later enzymes of the operon being relatively more repressed than the early enzymes. The effect of 7-methyltryptophan on IPA-mediated derepression was likely not due to the interaction of IPA with the allosteric site of anthranilate synthase, even though feedback-resistant mutants of anthranilate synthase were partially resistant to derepression by IPA. The effect of 7-methyltryptophan on derepression by IPA was probably due to the effect of the analog-aporepressor complex on trp operon expression

Cooperative education : strengthening and expansion

Issued as Performance report, Project no. N-54-80

Long wave expansions for water waves over random topography

In this paper, we study the motion of the free surface of a body of fluid over a variable bottom, in a long wave asymptotic regime. We assume that the bottom of the fluid region can be described by a stationary random process $\beta(x, \omega)$ whose variations take place on short length scales and which are decorrelated on the length scale of the long waves. This is a question of homogenization theory in the scaling regime for the Boussinesq and KdV equations. The analysis is performed from the point of view of perturbation theory for Hamiltonian PDEs with a small parameter, in the context of which we perform a careful analysis of the distributional convergence of stationary mixing random processes. We show in particular that the problem does not fully homogenize, and that the random effects are as important as dispersive and nonlinear phenomena in the scaling regime that is studied. Our principal result is the derivation of effective equations for surface water waves in the long wave small amplitude regime, and a consistency analysis of these equations, which are not necessarily Hamiltonian PDEs. In this analysis we compute the effects of random modulation of solutions, and give an explicit expression for the scattered component of the solution due to waves interacting with the random bottom. We show that the resulting influence of the random topography is expressed in terms of a canonical process, which is equivalent to a white noise through Donsker's invariance principle, with one free parameter being the variance of the random process $\beta$. This work is a reappraisal of the paper by Rosales & Papanicolaou \cite{RP83} and its extension to general stationary mixing processes

Renormalization group flows into phases with broken symmetry

We describe a way to continue the fermionic renormalization group flow into phases with broken global symmetry. The method does not require a Hubbard-Stratonovich decoupling of the interaction. Instead an infinitesimally small symmetry-breaking component is inserted in the initial action, as an initial condition for the flow of the selfenergy. Its flow is driven by the interaction and at low scales it saturates at a nonzero value if there is a tendency for spontaneous symmetry breaking in the corresponding channel. For the reduced BCS model we show how a small initial gap amplitude flows to the value given by the exact solution of the model. We also discuss the emergence of the Goldstone boson in this approach.Comment: 30 pages, LaTeX, 8 figure

Investigation of characteristic spider communities of biotope types taking the northwest German coastal area as an example

A classification method for ascertaining characteristical spider communities of different biotope types is presented. Based on a current list of biotope types all data available from a certain area about the spatial distribution of spiders were fed into a data bank and analysed. A largely standardized method has been developed which allows to classify the spider community of each biotope type. The classification is based on a presence/absence matrix and a comparison between the grades of presence in different biotope types

Interventional Treatment of a Symptomatic Neonatal Hepatic Cavernous Hemangioma Using the Amplatzer Vascular Plug

Percutaneous intervention is one treatment option for symptomatic hepatic hemangioma in infants. We report the case of a newborn (birth weight 4060 g) with a large hepatic cavernous hemangioma, which presented early with high cardiac output failure due to arteriovenous shunting and signs of incipient Kasabach-Merritt syndrome. We performed a successful superselective transcatheter coil embolization of three feeding arteries on the seventh day of life. Because of remaining diffuse very small arteries causing a relevant residual shunt, additional occlusion of the three main draining veins was necessary with three Amplatzer vascular plugs. Cardiac failure resolved immediately. Without any additional therapy the large venous cavities disappeared within the following months. The tumor continues to regress in size 8 months after the interventio

Analysis of Actors and Activities at Dagoretti Livestock Market in Nairobi City, Kenya

Pastoralism is the main economic activity in the massive drylands of Kenya, consisting over 70% of the countries’ livestock population. It employs 90% of communities living the arid and semi-arid parts of the country. Although few small-scale livestock markets exist in rural pastoral areas, most of the animals end up in the urban markets with peak demand of livestock-based commodities. Dagoretti livestock market, located in Nairobi City (the capital of Kenya) is the largest and terminal market for pastoralist communities countrywide as well as a source of income to various market actors and government revenue. Despite this immense contribution, there is limited scientific information on the market actors, opportunities and challenges encountered at the market, to guide planning, decisions and interventions for sustainable livestock trade in the city of Nairobi. This study was the aim of this study. Data was collected using semi-structured Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (KIIs). A total of 41 KIIs and 4 FGDs were conducted with various market actors. Results show that Dagoretti livestock market is dominated by pastoralists, suppliers of animals for trade; whereby cattle consisted 63.5% of total animals sold, sheep (28.7%) and goats (7.8%). Majority of the animals came from Southern and Northern rangelands of Kenya, 43.02% and 21.68% respectively, with only 9.33% from Uganda and Tanzania. The market attracted a myriad of income opportunities including traders in live animals, brokers, transporters, trekkers, loaders and off-loaders, herders of unsold animals, forage-sellers, veterinary officers, revenue officers, food vendors, cleaners, security guards, branders, butchers, and slaughtered animal value-chains. Main challenges included high taxation barriers, poor infrastructure, lack of incentives, and animal-congestion. There is need for regulatory frameworks supporting livestock trade and incentives to empower market actors, improve efficiency in market operations, and returns to the government and individual actors

Control of jitter buffer size using machine learning

Determining the size of a jitter buffer for calls conducted over the network involves a trade-off between the probability of buffer under-runs and user-perceived delay, which impedes communication. Techniques of this disclosure perform data-driven optimization of the jitter buffer of audio and/or video calls conducted over the internet. Event logs that contain data about network conditions experienced during completed calls are used to calculate optimal jitter buffer size using an optimizer. The output of the optimizer is used as a target for offline training of a machine-learning model to calculate optimal jitter buffer size. The trained model is employed to control jitter buffer size during a call. Control of jitter buffer size using the techniques can reduce buffer under-runs without increasing average delay. Alternatively, depending on the weights in the optimization criterion, the techniques of this disclosure can reduce average delay with the same chance of buffer underrun