"No" to Foreign Telecoms Equals "No" to the New Economy!

Within a few weeks, the United States will make a pivotal decision--whether to prohibit foreign telecommunications firms that are partly owned by foreign governments from competing in the US market. The decisive case is Deutsche Telecom's bid to acquire the US mobile telephone operator VoiceStream (and VoiceStream's own new acquisition, PowerTel).

Mariachi Programs at the University Level: Investigating Eurocentric Stereotypes

The number of mariachi programs at the high school level continues to grow in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond. However, degree-granting mariachi programs are virtually nonexistent at the university level. The established university music education system and its implementation of classical techniques and styles encourages mariachi violinists to adapt to classical violin teachings. Because mariachi violinists may lack what is considered “formal” training prior to attending a university, they may experience a disadvantage in relationship to classically trained violinists. In this research, I will investigate the perceived attitudes that exist towards mariachi violinists, and the conditions under which they learn, to better understand the current state of educational equity in the music education system. I argue that the established music education system has encouraged the development of Eurocentric views of violin technique and styles, thereby undermining the success of mariachi and other folk music instruction in collegiate level institutions

Neogongorismo and Gongora in Contemporary Spanish-American Poetry

My purpose in this paper is twofold. In the first place, I wish to clarify somewhat the meaning and scope of the term neogongorismo and to show in what respects it resembles and in what respects it differs from gongorism. Secondly, I desire to show the attitude manifested towards Gongora by the contemporary Spanish-American literatos. I shall substantiate my deductions wherever possible with actual critical and poetic references

Organic cathode for a secondary battery

A liquid catholyte for a battery based on liquid metal such as sodium anode and a solid, ceramic separator such as beta alumina (BASE) comprises a mixture of a Group I-III metal salt such as sodium tetrachloroaluminate and a minor amount of an organic carbonitrile depolarizer having at least one adjacent ethylenic band such as 1 to 40 percent by weight of tetracyanoethylene. The tetracyanoethylene forms an adduct with the molten metal salt

Bayesian model search and multilevel inference for SNP association studies

Technological advances in genotyping have given rise to hypothesis-based association studies of increasing scope. As a result, the scientific hypotheses addressed by these studies have become more complex and more difficult to address using existing analytic methodologies. Obstacles to analysis include inference in the face of multiple comparisons, complications arising from correlations among the SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), choice of their genetic parametrization and missing data. In this paper we present an efficient Bayesian model search strategy that searches over the space of genetic markers and their genetic parametrization. The resulting method for Multilevel Inference of SNP Associations, MISA, allows computation of multilevel posterior probabilities and Bayes factors at the global, gene and SNP level, with the prior distribution on SNP inclusion in the model providing an intrinsic multiplicity correction. We use simulated data sets to characterize MISA's statistical power, and show that MISA has higher power to detect association than standard procedures. Using data from the North Carolina Ovarian Cancer Study (NCOCS), MISA identifies variants that were not identified by standard methods and have been externally ``validated'' in independent studies. We examine sensitivity of the NCOCS results to prior choice and method for imputing missing data. MISA is available in an R package on CRAN.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS322 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Adaptive data acquisition multiplexing system and method

A reconfigurable telemetry multiplexer is described which includes a monitor-terminal and a plurality of remote terminals. The remote terminals each include signal conditioning for a plurality of sensors for measuring parameters which are converted by an analog to digital converter. CPU's in the remote terminals store instructions for prompting system configuration and reconfiguration commands. The measurements, instructions, and the terminal's present configuration and status data are transmitted to the monitor-terminal and displayed. In response to menu-driven prompts generated and displayed at the monitor-terminal, data generation request commands, status and health commands, and the like are input at the monitor-terminal and transmitted to the remote terminals. The CPU in each remote terminal receives the various commands, stores them in electrically alterable memory, and reacts in accordance with the commands to reconfigure a plurality of aspects of the system. The CPU in each terminal also generates parameter measurements, status and health signals, and transmits these signals of the respective terminals to the monitor-terminal for low data rate operator viewing and to higher rate external transmission/monitor equipment. Reconfiguration may be in real time during the general period of parameter measurement acquisition, and may include alteration of the gain, automatic gain rescaling, bias, and or sampling rates associated with one or more of the parameter measurements made by the remote terminals

Stoichiometry and Change of the mRNA Closed-Loop Factors as Translating Ribosomes Transit from Initiation to Elongation

Protein synthesis is a highly efficient process and is under exacting control. Yet, the actual abundance of translation factors present in translating complexes and how these abundances change during the transit of a ribosome across an mRNA remains unknown. Using analytical ultracentrifugation with fluorescent detection we have determined the stoichiometry of the closed-loop translation factors for translating ribosomes. A variety of pools of translating polysomes and monosomes were identified, each containing different abundances of the closed-loop factors eIF4E, eIF4G, and PAB1 and that of the translational repressor, SBP1. We establish that closed-loop factors eIF4E/eIF4G dissociated both as ribosomes transited polyadenylated mRNA from initiation to elongation and as translation changed from the polysomal to monosomal state prior to cessation of translation. eIF4G was found to particularly dissociate from polyadenylated mRNA as polysomes moved to the monosomal state, suggesting an active role for translational repressors in this process. Consistent with this suggestion, translating complexes generally did not simultaneously contain eIF4E/eIF4G and SBP1, implying mutual exclusivity in such complexes. For substantially deadenylated mRNA, however, a second type of closed-loop structure was identified that contained just eIF4E and eIF4G. More than one eIF4G molecule per polysome appeared to be present in these complexes, supporting the importance of eIF4G interactions with the mRNA independent of PAB1. These latter closed-loop structures, which were particularly stable in polysomes, may be playing specific roles in both normal and disease states for specific mRNA that are deadenylated and/or lacking PAB1. These analyses establish a dynamic snapshot of molecular abundance changes during ribosomal transit across an mRNA in what are likely to be critical targets of regulation

An Analysis Of The Determinants Of MIS Faculty Salary Offers

Much research has been published related to compensation in academic fields such as finance, accounting and economics; however, little attention has been paid to Management Information Systems (MIS).  Conspicuously absent from the literature are in-depth studies of faculty compensation and its relationship to research productivity for MIS faculty.  This study examines compensation, rank, and publication data collected from the Association for Information Systems (AIS) 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 MIS Salary Surveys.  MIS faculty who were newly employed or changed positions filled out the online survey at the AIS Web site on a self-selected basis.  The relationships between compensation and its possible determinants such as research productivity and institutional teaching load are reported as well as analyzed.  We find that compensation is significantly correlated with professors’ profiles as well as with the school profile at which the professor received a job offer