The Influence of pH Variation on CooA Activity

CooA, a CO-sensing heme protein, acts as a transcriptional activator of CO-metabolizing proteins in bacteria such as Rhodospirillum rubrum and Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans through sequence-specific DNA binding. Previous research indicated a reduced iron center and CO gas were necessary for CooA to achieve its active conformation and bind DNA. To determine if other reaction conditions facilitate CooA activation, the role of pH on CooA function was tested. Specifically, a fluorescence anisotropy assay was employed to measure possible Fe(III) CooA DNA binding from pH 3 - 12. Interestingly, CooA was observed to bind DNA without CO at acidic conditions, with optimal binding observed at pH ~3. These results are discussed in light of the normal CO-dependent activation mechanism of CooA proteins

The Orbital Calibration 2 (OrCa2) CubeSat Mission

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), has developed the Orbital Calibration 2 (OrCa2) mission in an effort to improve space domain awareness. OrCa2’s external panels have precise and well-characterized reflective properties that will permit various calibration activities from ground-based optical sensors, with the goal of improving the tracking and detection of resident space objects (RSOs). OrCa2 is a 12U CubeSat designed, fabricated, assembled, and tested almost entirely in-house using GT/GTRI facilities. It will be regularly observed using Georgia Tech’s Space Object Research Telescope (GT-SORT). A number of experiments can be conducted with these measurements, such as pose estimation, validation of RSO trajectory propagations with complementary ground-based laser ranging data, multi-spectral analysis, low-light detection algorithms, and validation of atmospheric scattering models. An onboard imager will serve as both a low-accuracy star camera, as well as an on-orbit optical tracking system capable of RSO streak detection, with a mission goal of gathering simultaneous ground-based and space-borne tracking data of one or more RSOs. Additionally, the OrCa2 spacecraft will host an experimental radiation dosimeter, an experimental software defined radio (SDR) receiver, and an experimental power system. OrCa2 is currently manifested to launch in Q1 2024. An overview of the design, concept of operations, and expected outcomes of the mission will be presented

GMA Instrumentation of the Athena Framework using NetLogger

Grid applications are, by their nature, wide-area distributed applications. This WAN aspect of Grid applications makes the use of conventional monitoring and instrumentation tools (such as top, gprof, LSF Monitor, etc) impractical for verification that the application is running correctly and efficiently. To be effective, monitoring data must be "end-to-end", meaning that all components between the Grid application endpoints must be monitored. Instrumented applications can generate a large amount of monitoring data, so typically the instrumentation is off by default. For jobs running on a Grid, there needs to be a general mechanism to remotely activate the instrumentation in running jobs. The NetLogger Toolkit Activation Service provides this mechanism. To demonstrate this, we have instrumented the ATLAS Athena Framework with NetLogger to generate monitoring events. We then use a GMA-based activation service to control NetLogger's trigger mechanism. The NetLogger trigger mechanism allows one to easily start, stop, or change the logging level of a running program by modifying a trigger file. We present here details of the design of the NetLogger implementation of the GMA-based activation service and the instrumentation service for Athena. We also describe how this activation service allows us to non-intrusively collect and visualize the ATLAS Athena Framework monitoring data

Kinetic roughening of magnetic flux penetration in MgB2 thin films

Time-resolved magneto-optical studies are performed on MgB2 thin film samples grown by in situ pulsed laser deposition and in situ reactive deposition technique. The latter reveal dendritic avalanche-free flux penetration. The kinetic roughening of magnetic flux penetration is studied for applied ac current. Dynamic scaling laws determined for both static field and ac current are consistent with the directed percolation depinning model, placing the vortex dynamics in MgB2 in the same universality class as YBCO and Nb

Virologic response to efavirenz-based first-line antiretroviral therapy in children with previous exposure to antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission

Efavirenz-based first-line regimens have been widely used for children ≥3 years of age starting antiretroviral therapy, despite possible resistance with prior exposure to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). We used logistic regression to examine the association between PMTCT exposure and viral failure (VF) defined as two consecutive viral loads (VL)>1000 copies/ml between 6–18 months on ART. Children with previous nevirapine exposure for PMTCT were not at higher risk of VF compared to unexposed children (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR): 0.79; 95% CI:0.56, 1.11)

Review: The Newsletter of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, volume 14, issue 1

Contents include: Far From Inundated, A Word form the President, BHAGS Words of Welcome, Remarks from Conference Co-Chair Ed Sobel, Keynote Speech Given by Chuck Smith Introduced by Michele Volansky, The Telephone Monologues: Five Monologues Written for the 2003 LMDA Conference introduced by Janet Allard, Telephone, Billy, The Visitors, A Drag Queen, Choice, Don\u27t Know Much About Holly-turgy Outline, Reflections on Conference 2003, Elect Better Actors, Neo-Romantic Manifesto, Pullet Surprise-Call for Nominations, and Regional News-Know Your Regional Vice Presidents. Issue editors: D.J. Hopkins, Shelley Orr, Liz Engelman, Madeleine Oldham, Jacob Zimmerhttps://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdareview/1028/thumbnail.jp

Free-moving Quantitative Gamma-ray Imaging

The ability to map and estimate the activity of radiological source distributions in unknown three-dimensional environments has applications in the prevention and response to radiological accidents or threats as well as the enforcement and verification of international nuclear non-proliferation agreements. Such a capability requires well-characterized detector response functions, accurate time-dependent detector position and orientation data, an algorithmic understanding of the surrounding 3D environment, and appropriate image reconstruction and uncertainty quantification methods. We have previously demonstrated 3D mapping of gamma-ray emitters with free-moving detector systems on a relative intensity scale using a technique called Scene Data Fusion (SDF). Here we characterize the detector response of a multi-element gamma-ray imaging system using experimentally benchmarked Monte Carlo simulations and perform 3D mapping on an absolute intensity scale. We present experimental reconstruction results from hand-carried and airborne measurements with point-like and distributed sources in known configurations, demonstrating quantitative SDF in complex 3D environments.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 4 supplementary figures, submitted to Scientific Reports - Natur

Sustainability Strategies for Digital Humanities Systems

Now that the Digital Humanities (DH) are becoming a well-established research field, producing seminal publications in print as well as digital formats, the time for consolidation has come. It is noteworthy that digital tools and methods from the pioneering days of the DH are degrading and some have already vanished. Therefore, it is urgent to take action and to prevent further losses. While the necessity of high quality research data management (RDM) is encouraged or even required by funding agencies and there is an increasing awareness for long-term archiving (LTA), when it comes to primary research data, the fact that the DH exhibit a structural deficit regarding maintaining and preserving research software is at the least underestimated. In this panel, we will focus on infrastructure and institutional support. Beginning with an overview of existing strategies from the DH and beyond, we highlight selected strategies to compare how they are implemented at different institutions in terms of infrastructure, expert knowledge and also funding. We also want to evaluate the extent of institutional support that is needed to successfully sustain and archive DH projects and the software they use. We will discuss currently implemented solutions to maintain and preserve research projects and software, all of which approach the outlined problem from a different angle

Blunted ventral striatal responses to anticipated rewards foreshadow problematic drug use in novelty-seeking adolescents.

Novelty-seeking tendencies in adolescents may promote innovation as well as problematic impulsive behaviour, including drug abuse. Previous research has not clarified whether neural hyper- or hypo-responsiveness to anticipated rewards promotes vulnerability in these individuals. Here we use a longitudinal design to track 144 novelty-seeking adolescents at age 14 and 16 to determine whether neural activity in response to anticipated rewards predicts problematic drug use. We find that diminished BOLD activity in mesolimbic (ventral striatal and midbrain) and prefrontal cortical (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) regions during reward anticipation at age 14 predicts problematic drug use at age 16. Lower psychometric conscientiousness and steeper discounting of future rewards at age 14 also predicts problematic drug use at age 16, but the neural responses independently predict more variance than psychometric measures. Together, these findings suggest that diminished neural responses to anticipated rewards in novelty-seeking adolescents may increase vulnerability to future problematic drug use