Protein Import Into Chloroplasts: An Ever-Evolving Story

Chloroplasts are but one type of a diverse group of essential organelles that distinguish plant cells and house many critical biochemical pathways, including photosynthesis. The biogenesis of plastids is essential to plant growth and development and relies on the targeting and import of thousands of nuclear-encoded proteins from the cytoplasm. The import of the vast majority of these proteins is dependent on translocons located in the outer and inner envelope membranes of the chloroplast, termed the Toc and Tic complexes, respectively. The core components of the Toc and Tic complexes have been identified within the last 12 years; however, the precise functions of many components are still being elucidated, and new components are still being identified. In Arabidopsis thaliana (and other species), many of the components are encoded by more than one gene, and it apperas that the isoforms differentially associate with structurally distinct import complexes. Furthermore, it appears that these complexes represent functionally distinct targeting pathways, and the regulation of import by these separate pathways may play a role in the differentiation and specific functions of distinct plastid types during plant growth and development. This review summarizes these recent discoveries and emphasizes the mechanisms of differential Toc complex assembly and substrate recognition

A Multi-Layer Three Dimensional Superconducting Nanowire Photon Detector

Here we propose a new design paradigm for a superconducting nanowire single photon detector that uses a multi-layer architecture that places the electric leads beneath the nanowires. This allows for a very large number of detector elements, which we will call pixels in analogy to a conventional CCD camera, to be placed in close proximity. This leads to significantly better photon number resolution than current single and multi-nanowire meanders, while maintaining similar detection areas. We discuss the reset time of the pixels and how the design can be modified to avoid the latching failure seen in extremely short superconducting nanowires. These advantages give a multi-layer superconducting number-resolving photon detector significant advantages over the current design paradigm of long superconducting nanowire meanders. Such advantages are desirable in a wide array of photonics applications.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Pursuing the Peak of Excellence: Wiki as a Knowledge Base

The pursuit of excellent communication is a path not easily navigated. Challenges arise at every turn, and the greatest obstacle of all is ensuring availability and accuracy of information. Help Desk representatives are the first point of contact for customers placing technology requests and they must have a broad range of knowledge about services provided by the department. A large amount of time is spent in training staff members to achieve the desired level of expertise. At Valparaiso University these staff members are students, adding to the complexity of information sharing as these staff members are only employed for a few years before graduating and entering “the real world.” Having a knowledge base is one way to reduce the amount of time needed to train staff members, as information is easily accessible. The Valparaiso University IT Help Desk has been on an ongoing journey to find a knowledge base and after investigating different solutions we have settled on a wiki. At SIGUCCS’07 we described the process of selecting our solution and our anticipated use of the wiki. By October 2008 we will have had over one year of using the wiki, including populating data, keeping it up-to-date, and training staff on its use. Come and look at the journey we have traveled thus far and explore with us the growing potential of this tool as the map of the terrain grows larger with each passing week

INSTITUTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS IN TARGETING SOIL CONSERVATION EFFORTS

This paper will outline an approach to targeting soil conservation efforts that rests upon an analysis of physical, economic, and institutional parameters. Within this context, the literature on the relationship between soil erosion and some common arrangements of land ownership and control will be examined to provide insights useful in the formulation of public policy and to suggest further opportunities for research.Land Economics/Use,

Raising the Bar on Training at Valparaiso University

We have recently overhauled our IT training program that we offer our students, faculty and staff. In the past, the training program consisted of sessions about changes to campus systems or sessions related to very specific software uses such as mail merge or tables. Users can now expect that training will be more than software use and how-to’s. We have started looking at ways to enhance our clients overall use of campus technology. As we examined ways to better serve our campus community, we engaged in qualitative observations in many areas. We examined how our graduate students were using technology to collaborate. The faculty were observed by our training staff to see how they were employing campus technology in courses and integrating technology into their assignments given to students. We interviewed our Help Desk Student Consultants to see what they observed as major training goals throughout the campus based on their interactions with clients. Upon completion of our observations, we outline our course development plans for increasing technology integration and full use of our campus technology offerings to further our mission of enhancing learning, teaching and job function through technology. Our goal is to reach beyond the software functionality and take our clients to the apex of relevance and application