Method for generating ultra-precise angles Patent

Optical device containing rotatable prism and reflecting mirror for generating precise angle

Creating a Livable Region through Sustainable Development Practices: Reorienting Development in Windsor-Essex through the Implementation of Light Rail Transit

Windsor-Essex County lacks proper regional transportation, a major sustainability issue compounded by poor land use strategies, resulting in low-density suburban communities defined by extensive sprawl and heavy dependence on private automobile use. The current development direction of Windsor-Essex County is unsustainable on multiple levels, turning the region into space in which residents have limited options for how they can efficiently travel within their own municipality and to other municipalities. The downtown core of Windsor needs serious regeneration and the communities that make up the larger metropolitan region need an effective means of travel that is both environmentally sustainable and affordable. In order for Windsor-Essex County to be competitive in a global market place, the local governments within the region need to work on a regional development plan which will create strong economic clusters that are accessible by various means of transit

Green algae as protein source for Oreochromis Niloticus and Tilapia Zillii.

The potential of the unicellular green algae ChI orella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliguus and the filamentous green algae Cladophora glomerata and Hydrodictyon reticulatum as protein sources in Oreochromis niloticus and Tilapia zillii diets was investigated. When Q. niloticus and !. zillii were fed with fresh C. vulgaris and £. obliguus, a high percentage of the ingested algae was found to be undigested. Heat treatment of the algae at 40°, 60°, 80° and 100°C produced increased growth and protein utilizations in the fishes compared to those fed the untreated algae. Feeding Q. vulgaris treated at 1000C for 30 minutes and S. obliguus treated at 1000C for 15 minutes was found to have produced the best growth responses in.Q. niloticus and!. zillii. Q. glomerata meal and E. reticulatum meal were each fed separately as fishmeal substitutes in pelleted rations formulated to contain 30% protein with varying proportions of this supplied by the fishmeal and the algal meal. A diet containing 25% protein supplied by the algal meal alone was also fed. When 5% of the fishmeal protein was replaced with algal protein (both Q. glomerata and lie reticulatum) and fed to !. zillii, the growth and protein utilization values recorded were superior to those 'obtained for the control 30% fishmeal protein diet. Higher levels of algal protein substitution were, however, found to produce poorer growth and protein utilization values in both fish species. Diets containing only algal protein (both Q. glomerata and H. reticulatum) produced the poorest growth responses in both fish species. Hydrodictyon reticulatum was found to be limiting in methionine and histidine. Supplementation of these essential amino acids produced improved growth in both Q. niloticus and T. zillii. It was concluded from these studies that the green algae evaluated may be suitable partial dietary protein sources for tilapias

Embodied Astronomies: Performances of Telescopes and Other Detection Devices

Embodied performance is essential to scientific practice. Using methods from cognitive theory, performance studies, and close readings of plays and other performance texts, I propose that theatre provides a popular space in which people who are not science experts might participate in the production of science ideas. This process is particularly apparent when science machines are represented on the theatrical stage. This dissertation focuses on plays and performances that feature the telescope as central to the action of plays that explicitly deal with questions about the pursuit of the unknown. The first chapter, “History: Telescopic (mis)Information on the Early Modern Stage,” examines the doubled narratives in Thomas Tomkis’s Albumazar (1614) and Aphra Behn’s The Emperor of the Moon (1687). Both of these plays enact verbal narratives that are skeptical of the usefulness of the telescope as applied to the practice of astronomy. Close readings of the scenes that do feature telescopes reveal that the machines enact their own narratives within the metaenvironment of the theatre. Radio-telescopes take the stage in the second chapter, “Criticism: Credit and Authority in the Performance of Trustworthy Astronomy.” In this chapter, telescopes feature in plays and performances that stage social criticisms of the institutional practices of late twentieth century astronomy and its related, theoretical sibling, cosmology. Lauren Gunderson’s play, Background (2003) and the film, Contact (1997), based on the novel by Carl Sagan, are performances that dramatize inequalities of access and authority that plague the performance of science in the domain of the laboratory. The final chapter, “Praxis: Towards an Accessible Performance of Astronomy,” examines performances from scientific and theatrical domains that explicitly endeavor to stage equitable science practice. The American Astronomer Vera Rubin broke boundaries of access within her astronomy career, and publicly advocated for the inclusion of women and other minorities in the field of astronomy. Performance artist Laurie Anderson blurs the art-science divide with her one-woman show, The End of the Moon (2005) whereby she further articulates the networked system of contemporary culture in which politics, science, and the arts all share the stage

XTEN as Biological Alternative to PEGylation Allows Complete Expression of a Protease-Activatable Killin-Based Cytostatic

Increased effectiveness and reduced side effects are general goals in drug research, especially important in cancer therapy. The aim of this study was to design a long-circulating, activatable cytostatic drug that is completely producible in E. coli. Crucial for this goal was the novel unstructured polypeptide XTEN, which acts like polyethylene glycol (PEG) but has many important advantages. Most importantly, it can be produced in E. coli, is less immunogenic, and is biodegradable. We tested constructs containing a fragment of Killin as cytostatic/cytotoxic element, a cell-penetrating peptide, an MMP-2 cleavage site for specific activation, and XTEN for long blood circulation and deactivation of Killin. One of three sequence variants was efficiently expressed in E. coli. As typical for XTEN, it allowed efficient purification of the E. coli lysate by a heat step (10 min 75°C) and subsequent anion exchange chromatography using XTEN as purification tag. After 24 h XTEN- Killin reduced the number of viable cells of HT-1080 tumor cell line to 3.8 ±2.0% (p<0.001) compared to untreated controls. In contrast, liver derived non-tumor cells (BRL3A) did not show significant changes in viability. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of completely producing a complex protease-activatable, potentially long-circulating cytostatic/cytotoxic prodrug in E. coli—a concept that could lead to efficient production of highly multifunctional drugs in the future

A Gata3–Mafb transcriptional network directs post-synaptic differentiation in synapses specialized for hearing

Information flow through neural circuits is determined by the nature of the synapses linking the subtypes of neurons. How neurons acquire features distinct to each synapse remains unknown. We show that the transcription factor Mafb drives the formation of auditory ribbon synapses, which are specialized for rapid transmission from hair cells to spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). Mafb acts in SGNs to drive differentiation of the large postsynaptic density (PSD) characteristic of the ribbon synapse. In Mafb mutant mice, SGNs fail to develop normal PSDs, leading to reduced synapse number and impaired auditory responses. Conversely, increased Mafb accelerates synaptogenesis. Moreover, Mafb is responsible for executing one branch of the SGN differentiation program orchestrated by the Gata3 transcriptional network. Remarkably, restoration of Mafb rescues the synapse defect in Gata3 mutants. Hence, Mafb is a powerful regulator of cell-type specific features of auditory synaptogenesis that offers a new entry point for treating hearing loss. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01341.00

MAS-NMR Studies of Carbonate Retention in a Very Wide Range of Na2O-SiO2 Glasses

Glasses that contain carbon are of geological interest, and the form of that carbon can be probed by Magic-Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MAS-NMR) spectroscopy. Previous studies of the Na2O-SiO2 glass system could only reach 56 mol% Na2O. Here we reproduce and extend those studies to cover a very wide compositional range, from 20 to 70 mol% Na2O, by using a combination of conventional melt-quench and twin roller quenching technologies on natural and 99% 13C-enriched sodium silicate glasses. 13C MAS-NMR reveals that measurable levels of carbon retention occur above at least 40 mol% Na2O,and takes the form of CO32- ions incorporated in the glass structure. These CO32- anions are surrounded by Na+ cations, forming nanoscale domains in a sodium silicate glass network. 23Na MAS-NMR showed a linear decrease in mean Na—O bond length with increasing Na2O content, up to 60 mol% Na2O, above which the mean Na—O bond length increased. Elemental analysis detected significant (>5%) carbonate by mass in the 65 and 70 mol% Na2O glasses. For the 70 mol% Na2O glass, 13C and 23Na MAS-NMR detected ordered nanoscale domains composed of only Na2O and CO2. These results have shown the quantity and nature of carbon retention in the archetypal sodium silicate glass system, which will better inform structural models and carbonate solubility limits