Business in Nebraska #267- December 1966

Manufacturing in Nebraska (E. L. Hauswald) This article is based on data from the last complete census of manufacturing taken in 1963. Developments subsequent to 1963 have been sufficient to modify the situation described herein. The efforts of the Nebraska Division of Resources have produced results not recorded in the 1963 census. Recent reactivation\u27s of operations related to the national security and expansions of industries in several of the state\u27s communities could not be incorporated in this analysis. The aggregate impact of these developments will not be ascertainable until the next census of manufacturing. Business Summary (E. L. Burgess) In September, Nebraska\u27s dollar volume of business was 8.2% above September, 1965. Physical volume of business was 5.4% above last year. The U.S. indexes were up 7.3% and 4.5% respectively. In both the U.S. and Nebraska, dollar volume decreased 0.1% from August, 1966. The physical volume in Nebraska decreased 1.5% while that of the U.S. increased 0.1% from August. Cash farm marketing\u27s was the only Nebraska indicator lower than the previous year. In the U.S., cash farm marketing\u27s, construction activity, and life insurance sales were down from the previous year\u27s level

Business in Nebraska # 270 - March 1967

Nebraska\u27s Agricultural Exports (Dorothy Switzer) Importance of Nebraska as the 9th ranking state in the nation and 4th in the top-ranking region, the West North Central, in value of agricultural commodity shipments in fiscal 1965-66 has been revealed in a new study by the Economic Research Service of the I.S. Department of Agriculture. Because Nebraska is one of the ten leading states in farm exports in this country, which is in turn the world\u27s largest exporter of such commodities, explicit world market information pertaining to the state has long been sought. The significance of such information is considerable both to Nebraska farmers and to that part of the business community dependent, to whatever extent, upon the agricultural sector of the economy. Business Summary (E. L. Burgess) December\u27s dollar volume of business in Nebraska increased 2.2% over last year compared with a 4.0% increase for the U.S. Nebraska\u27s physical volume changes from last month +4.9% and +1.1% respectively. construction activity in Nebraska remained down from the previous year (-16.1%). The only other indicator showing a decline from a year ago for Nebraska was electricity produced (-1.6%)

Business in Nebraska #283 - April 1968

Nebraska Educational Expenditures (Dorothy Switzer) In terms of expenditure, education is by far the leading function of state and local government. In terms of socio-economic progress in the modern world, attainment of high educational standards is obligatory. Educational expenditures in Nebraska in comparison to other states, therefore, become a matter of extreme urgency as we attempt to build a climate conducive to economic and business growth. Business Summary (E. L. Burgess) January\u27s dollar volume of business in Nebraska (Table I) rose 10.5% from January, 1967. Nebraska\u27s physical volume for the same period rose 6.3%. This indicates a significant rise in prices during this period. The U.S. dollar volume increased 8.8% and the physical volume increased 5.2%. Nebraska\u27s December, 1967, to January, 1968, changes in dollar volume and physical volume were +4.7% and +0.9%. January, 1967, to January, 1968, changes in the individual business indicators ranged from +1.0% for construction activity to +11.2% for life insurance sales and electricity produced. How Does Your City Grow? (E. D. Solberg

Swift and Fermi observations of X-ray flares: the case of Late Internal Shock

Simultaneous Swift and Fermi observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) offer a unique broadband view of their afterglow emission, spanning more than ten decades in energy. We present the sample of X-ray flares observed by both Swift and Fermi during the first three years of Fermi operations. While bright in the X-ray band, X-ray flares are often undetected at lower (optical), and higher (MeV to GeV) energies. We show that this disfavors synchrotron self-Compton processes as origin of the observed X-ray emission. We compare the broadband properties of X-ray flares with the standard late internal shock model, and find that, in this scenario, X-ray flares can be produced by a late-time relativistic (Gamma>50) outflow at radii R~10^13-10^14 cm. This conclusion holds only if the variability timescale is significantly shorter than the observed flare duration, and implies that X-ray flares can directly probe the activity of the GRB central engine.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Dominant Negative Effects by Inactive Spa47 Mutants Inhibit T3SS Function and Shigella Virulence

Type three secretion systems (T3SS) are complex nano-machines that evolved to inject bacterial effector proteins directly into the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. Many high-priority human pathogens rely on one or more T3SSs to cause disease and evade host immune responses, underscoring the need to better understand the mechanisms through which T3SSs function and their role(s) in supporting pathogen virulence. We recently identified the Shigella protein Spa47 as an oligomerization-activated T3SS ATPase that fuels the T3SS and supports overall Shigella virulence. Here, we provide both in vitro and in vivo characterization of Spa47 oligomerization and activation in the presence and absence of engineered ATPase-inactive Spa47 mutants. The findings describe mechanistic details of Spa47-catalyzed ATP hydrolysis and uncover critical distinctions between oligomerization mechanisms capable of supporting ATP hydrolysis in vitro and those that support T3SS function in vivo. Concentration-dependent ATPase kinetics and experiments combining wild-type and engineered ATPase inactive Spa47 mutants found that monomeric Spa47 species isolated from recombinant preparations exhibit low-level ATPase activity by forming short-lived oligomers with active site contributions from at least two protomers. In contrast, isolated Spa47 oligomers exhibit enhanced ATP hydrolysis rates that likely result from multiple preformed active sites within the oligomeric complex, as is predicted to occur within the context of the type three secretion system injectisome. High-resolution fluorescence microscopy, T3SS activity, and virulence phenotype analyses of Shigella strains co-expressing wild-type Spa47 and the ATPase inactive Spa47 mutants demonstrate that the N-terminus of Spa47, not ATPase activity, is responsible for incorporation into the injectisome where the mutant strains exhibit a dominant negative effect on T3SS function and Shigella virulence. Together, the findings presented here help to close a significant gap in our understanding of how T3SS ATPases are activated and define restraints with respect to how ATP hydrolysis is ultimately coupled to T3SS function in vivo

Business in Nebraska # 278 - November 1967

The Nebraska Department of Economic Development (James W. Monroe) After 100 years of growth and prosperity based firmly upon a nearly self-sufficient agricultural economy, why has Nebraska seen fit to depart from its rural image and increase its efforts in the highly competitive business of attracting industry? Business Summary (E. L. Burgess) August\u27s dollar volume of business in Nebraska increased 3.3% from August, 1966 and the physical volume increased 2.7%. The U.S. dollar volume rose 5.3% from August, 1966. The U.S. construction activity index increased over year-ago levels for the first time since May, 1966. Nebraska\u27s construction index, having last shown an increase over year-ago levels in September, 1966, remained down with a 14.3% decline from August, 1966. Life insurance sales (-1.1%) was the only other Nebraska indicator declining from year-ago levels. Review (E. S. Wallace

Hairy Leukoplakia

Oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL) is a disease of the mucosa first described in 1984. This pathology is associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and occurs mostly in people with HIV infection, both immunocompromised and immunocompetent, and can affect patients who are HIV negative. [1, 2] The first case in an HIV-negative patient was reported in 1999 in a 56-year-old patient with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Later, many cases were reported in heart, kidney, and bone marrow transplant recipients and patients with hematological malignancies. [3, 4

Control of Leaf-Feeding Insects on Yellow-Poplar

Yellow-poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera L., also known as the tulip-poplar, is an important source of pulpwood and saw timber, and it is widely used as a shade tree. Numerous insect species attack the foliage of yellow-poplar. In 1965, Odontopus calceatus (Say) was first observed seriously damaging yellow-poplar in Tennessee (Russell and Stanley 1967). Defoliation was so severe at the University of Tennessee Oak Ridge Forest Experiment Station that growth reduction was attributed to this pest (Buckner 1972). In 1967, observations by one of us (E.A.H.) indicated that several other insects attack yellow-poplar leaves during the spring. Infestations of the aphid Macrosiphum liriodendri (Monell) and gall midges, Cecidomyia sp. and Thecodiplosis liriodendri Osten Sachen, were common. Cecidomyia sp. was called tulip vein gall, and T. liriodendri tulip spot gall, by Felt (1940), who described their damage. Since no measures had been determined for their control, a series of tests was conducted to determine the efficacy of various insecticide treatments

Bioremediation of trace organic compounds found in precious metals refineries wastewaters: A review of potential options

Platinum group metal (PGM) refining processes produce large quantities of wastewater, which is contaminated with the compounds that make up the solvents/extractants mixtures used in the process. These compounds often include solvesso, β-hydroxyxime, amines, amides and methyl isobutyl ketone. A process to clean up PGM refinery wastewaters so that they could be re-used in the refining process would greatly contribute to continual water storage problems and to cost reduction for the industry. Based on the concept that organic compounds that are produced biologically can be destroyed biologically, the use of biological processes for the treatment of organic compounds in other types of waste stream has been favoured in recent years, owing to their low cost and environmental acceptability. This review examines the available biotechnologies and their effectiveness for treating compounds likely to be contained in precious metal extraction process wastewaters. The processes examined include: biofilters, fluidized bed reactors, trickle-bed bioreactors, bioscrubbers, two-phase partitioning bioreactors, membrane bioreactors and activated sludge. Although all processes examined showed adequate to excellent removal of organic compounds from various gaseous and fewer liquid waste streams, there was a variation in their effectiveness. Variations in performance of laboratory-scale biological processes are probably due to the inherent change in the microbial population composition due to selection pressure, environmental conditions and the time allowed for adaptation to the organic compounds. However, if these factors are disregarded, it can be established that activated sludge and membrane bioreactors are the most promising processes for use in the treatment of PGM refinery wastewaters

Bulk Axions, Brane Back-reaction and Fluxes

Extra-dimensional models can involve bulk pseudo-Goldstone bosons (pGBs) whose shift symmetry is explicitly broken only by physics localized on branes. Reliable calculation of their low-energy potential is often difficult because it requires details of the stabilization of the extra dimensions. In rugby ball solutions, for which two compact extra dimensions are stabilized in the presence of only positive-tension brane sources, the effects of brane back-reaction can be computed explicitly. This allows the calculation of the shape of the low-energy pGB potential and response of the extra dimensional geometry as a function of the perturbing brane properties. If the pGB-dependence is a small part of the total brane tension a very general analysis is possible, permitting an exploration of how the system responds to frustration when the two branes disagree on what the proper scalar vacuum should be. We show how the low-energy potential is given by the sum of brane tensions (in agreement with common lore) when only the brane tensions couple to the pGB. We also show how a direct brane coupling to the flux stabilizing the extra dimensions corrects this result in a way that does not simply amount to the contribution of the flux to the brane tensions. We calculate the mass of the would-be zero mode, and briefly describe several potential applications, including a brane realization of `natural inflation,' and a dynamical mechanism for suppressing the couplings of the pGB to matter localized on the branes. Since the scalar can be light enough to be relevant to precision tests of gravity (in a technically natural way) this mechanism can be relevant to evading phenomenological bounds.Comment: 36 pages, JHEP styl