Interview with Dorothy Bloom, May 28, 1993

Dorothy Bloom, wife of Robert Bloom, a professor of history at Gettysburg College, was interviewed on May 28, 1993 by Michael Birkner about her experience as a spouse of a faculty member from 1949 to 1981. She discusses other faculty members and administrators at the time, her husband\u27s work and the events they participated in on campus. Length of Interview: 91 minutes Collection Note: This oral history was selected from the Oral History Collection maintained by Special Collections & College Archives. Transcripts are available for browsing in the Special Collections Reading Room, 4th floor, Musselman Library. GettDigital contains the complete listing of oral histories done from 1978 to the present. To view this list and to access selected digital versions please visit -- http://gettysburg.cdmhost.com/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16274coll

Role of the specialized reading teacher in in-service education

The purpose of this investigation was to familiarize the writer with concise information and then necessary background to initiate an in-service reading program in the diocese of St. Louis. Last year the diocese adopted two revised basal series. In order for the teachers to utilize the material and learn various techniques for more effective teaching, this study was undertaken. The importance of providing good reading instruction in our schools is undisputed. Therefore, using in-service programs for teacher preparation and efficiency may not only enrich the teacher but may be a challenge to meet the abilities and potentialities of today\u27s children

Application of Alternative Nucleic Acid Extraction Protocols to ProGastro SSCS Assay for Detection of Bacterial Enteric Pathogens

As an alternative to automated extraction, fecal specimens were processed by investigational lysis/heating (i.e., manual) and by chromatography/centrifugation (i.e., column) methods. ProGastro SSC and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (i.e., STEC) indeterminate rates for 101 specimens were 1.0% to 3.0% for automated, 11.9% for manual, and 24.8% to 37.6% for column methods. Following freeze-thaw of 247 specimens, indeterminate rates were 1.6% to 2.4% for manual and 0.8 to 5.3% for column methods. Mean processing times for manual and column methods were 30.5 and 69.2 min, respectively. Concordance of investigational methods with automated extraction was ≥98.8%

Biologic activity in a fragment of recombinant human interferon α

To attempt to locate functionally important regions of the interferon (IFN) molecule, recombinant human IFN-α2 was subjected to proteolytic digestion. The bacterial proteinase thermolysin produced two major complementary fragments, HuIFN-α2-(1-110) and HuIFN-α2-(111-153). After reduction with 2-mercaptoethanol and separation of the two major fragments on NaDodSO4/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, antiviral activity persisted in the larger, Mr 12,000, fragment consisting of the amino-terminal 110 amino acids

Switched systems with multiple invariant sets

This paper explores dwell time constraints on switched systems with multiple, possibly disparate invariant limit sets. We show that, under suitable conditions, trajectories globally converge to a superset of the limit sets and then remain in a second, larger superset. We show the effectiveness of the dwell-time conditions by using examples of switching limit cycles commonly found in robotic locomotion and flapping flight

Novel Distances for Dollo Data

We investigate distances on binary (presence/absence) data in the context of a Dollo process, where a trait can only arise once on a phylogenetic tree but may be lost many times. We introduce a novel distance, the Additive Dollo Distance (ADD), which is consistent for data generated under a Dollo model, and show that it has some useful theoretical properties including an intriguing link to the LogDet distance. Simulations of Dollo data are used to compare a number of binary distances including ADD, LogDet, Nei Li and some simple, but to our knowledge previously unstudied, variations on common binary distances. The simulations suggest that ADD outperforms other distances on Dollo data. Interestingly, we found that the LogDet distance performs poorly in the context of a Dollo process, which may have implications for its use in connection with conditioned genome reconstruction. We apply the ADD to two Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) datasets, one that broadly covers Eucalyptus species and one that focuses on the Eucalyptus series Adnataria. We also reanalyse gene family presence/absence data on bacteria from the COG database and compare the results to previous phylogenies estimated using the conditioned genome reconstruction approach

RoboBat: Dynamics and Control of a Robotic Bat Flapping Flying Testbed

This paper investigates the control of the phase difference in between three different motions of bat flight: pitching, mapping, and lead-lag. For active control, a robotic bat test bed capable of simulating different wing motions is used to test the control of these wing motions and the phase differences using central pattern generators (CPG's). Previous work with the robotic bat is expanded upon by modifying the robotic bat test bed to allow for three dimensional motions of the entire bat, instead of only the wings. This is done by mounting the robotic bat onto a 3D pendulum. Experiments analyzing the steady state behavior of the bat's flight with varying phase differences showed a change of pitch while elevation and forward velocity remains constant. This shows promising results regarding the relation between phase differences of wing motions and longitudinal stability

Molecular Action of Lidocaine on the Voltage Sensors of Sodium Channels

Block of sodium ionic current by lidocaine is associated with alteration of the gating charge-voltage (Q-V) relationship characterized by a 38% reduction in maximal gating charge (Qmax) and by the appearance of additional gating charge at negative test potentials. We investigated the molecular basis of the lidocaine-induced reduction in cardiac Na channel–gating charge by sequentially neutralizing basic residues in each of the voltage sensors (S4 segments) in the four domains of the human heart Na channel (hH1a). By determining the relative reduction in the Qmax of each mutant channel modified by lidocaine we identified those S4 segments that contributed to a reduction in gating charge. No interaction of lidocaine was found with the voltage sensors in domains I or II. The largest inhibition of charge movement was found for the S4 of domain III consistent with lidocaine completely inhibiting its movement. Protection experiments with intracellular MTSET (a charged sulfhydryl reagent) in a Na channel with the fourth outermost arginine in the S4 of domain III mutated to a cysteine demonstrated that lidocaine stabilized the S4 in domain III in a depolarized configuration. Lidocaine also partially inhibited movement of the S4 in domain IV, but lidocaine's most dramatic effect was to alter the voltage-dependent charge movement of the S4 in domain IV such that it accounted for the appearance of additional gating charge at potentials near −100 mV. These findings suggest that lidocaine's actions on Na channel gating charge result from allosteric coupling of the binding site(s) of lidocaine to the voltage sensors formed by the S4 segments in domains III and IV