Cosmid Cloning of Five \u3cem\u3eZymomonas trp\u3c/em\u3e Genes by Complementation of \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3ePseudomonas putida trp\u3c/em\u3e Mutants

A library of Zymomonas mobilis genomic DNA was constructed in the broad-host-range cosmid pLAFR1. The library was mobilized into a variety of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida trp mutants by using the helper plasmid pRK2013. Five Z. mobilis trp genes were identified by the ability to complement the trp mutants. The trpF, trpB, and trpA genes were on one cosmid, while the trpD and trpC genes were on two separate cosmids. The organization of the Z. mobilis trp genes seems to be similar to the organization found in Rhizobium spp., Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, and Pseudomonas acidovorans. The trpF, trpB, and trpA genes appeared to be linked, but they were not closely associated with trpD or trpC genes

Justice For All

Fourteen years into her career at a top U.S. law firm, no one would have imagined that Patricia K. Oliver would walk away from her private practice to return to the world of her poverty-filled childhood in Compton. But in 2011, she left her practice to serve as the President and Executive Director of Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles (CLA-LA). This is the story of her journey, which she was honored to share at the Pepperdine Law Review\u27s The Lawyer of the Future symposium

Characterization Of Permafrost Development By Isotopic And Chemical Analysis Of Soil Cores Taken From The Copper River Basin And An Upland Loess Deposit In Interior Alaska

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012Chemical and isotopic analyses of pore water from permafrost cores taken from the dry lake bed of ancient Lake Atna in the Copper River Basin and from an upland loess deposit northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska reveal information about the local past environments not available by other means. Thawed core samples from both sites were analyzed for delta18O and deltaD values using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer. Water content was determined as well, and subsamples of the cores were analyzed for nitrogen and carbon content. Water extracts of the core samples were analyzed for cations (Ca, Mg, K and Fe), as well as pH, electrical conductivity, and bicarbonate. Magnetic susceptibility was determined on samples from the Fairbanks site. Data from samples taken from the Lake Atna site revealed a sequence of events that occurred in the basin after the lake drained about 10,000 years ago. At one location, oxygen isotopes show that permafrost formed continuously down through the lakebed. At the other location, 400 m distant, oxygen isotopes show that after permafrost formed, a thaw lake was produced on top of the permafrost. After the thaw lake had drained at least one wildfire passed through the area, large enough to thaw the surface permafrost to a depth of over 2 m at both core sites. The surface permafrost refroze, and currently the permafrost at the research site extends from 1 m depth to between 45 and 55 m depth. At the Fairbanks site chemical analyses showed indications of pedogenesis at several depths in the loess profile of the permafrost core. Water isotope data from a site where the permafrost table is at less than 1 m depth show repeated episodes of thawing and refreezing. Charcoal and ash in several layers of soil in the area and from the sample core suggest that fire may be the cause for the thawing events. The primary core water isotope analyses also show several thawing and refreezing events, but the depths of the signatures in the core indicate that these episodes happened thousands of years ago when the ground surface was much lower than it is today

Articulating Value and Impact Through Outcome-Centred Service Delivery: the Student and Learning Support Experience at the University of Sunderland.

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to share the ways in which Student and Learning Support at the University of Sunderland have embedded and matured a new outcome-centred performance model - our Quality Model - in order to create an agile evidence-base of value, outcome and impact evidence. We will also share how, having established the fundamental principles regarding value and impact capture in our library setting, the concepts and approaches have also been developed and applied successfully within the context of multi-converged service delivery across our wider Student and Learning Support Service, using the AMOSSHE Value and Impact Toolkit. Our approach will be illustrated with two case studies, the first focusing on University Library Services and the second upon the Student Counselling Service. Originality/Value - As a performance approach the The Quality Model is an original concept in that it is self-formed model designed to meet the strategic needs of the University of Sunderland. It differs from many performance models in that it is founded on a holistic approach to service culture and customer-relationship management and is based upon strategic marketing principles. The Quality Model and AMOSSHE Toolkit are of particular relevance as many Higher Education services are increasingly challenged to demonstrate their value and impact and the outcomes their services deliver. This calls for a strategic approach to managing qualitative evidence. Therefore, although bespoke, our approach is transferable to the strategic priorities of other HE settings. Key words – Academic Libraries, Student Services, Counselling, Higher Education, performance management, organizational culture, customer relationship, strategic marketing, impact, value, value for money, outcome, AMOSSH

Heavy quark free energies for three quark systems at finite temperature

We study the free energy of static three quark systems in singlet, octet, decuplet and average color channels in the quenched approximation and in 2-flavor QCD at finite temperature. We show that in the high temperature phase singlet and decuplet free energies of three quark systems are well described by the sum of the free energies of three diquark systems plus self energy contributions of the three quarks. In the confining low temperature phase we find evidence for a Y-shaped flux tube in SU(3) pure gauge theory, which is less evident in 2-flavor QCD due to the onset of string breaking. We also compare the short distance behavior of octet and decuplet free energies to the free energies of single static quarks in the corresponding color representations.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure

HMM-based synthesis of child speech

The synthesis of child speech presents challenges both in the collection of data and in the building of a synthesiser from that data. Because only limited data can be collected, and the domain of that data is constrained, it is difficult to obtain the type of phonetically-balanced corpus usually used in speech synthesis. As a consequence, building a synthesiser from this data is difficult. Concatenative synthesisers are not robust to corpora with many missing units (as is likely when the corpus content is not carefully designed), so we chose to build a statistical parametric synthesiser using the HMM-based system HTS. This technique has previously been shown to perform well for limited amounts of data, and for data collected under imperfect conditions. We compared 6 different configurations of the synthesiser, using both speaker-dependent and speaker-adaptive modelling techniques, and using varying amounts of data. The output from these systems was evaluated alongside natural and vocoded speech, in a Blizzard-style listening test

An Analysis of the Work of Pestalozzi in Education and His Philosophy Concerning Practical Arts

The purpose of this study was to ascertain and analyze the following: What was Pestalozzi's philosophy concerning practical arts? What effect did his method of teaching have on the education of Europe during his time? How did his experiment at Neuhof influence education of his time? How did his experiment at Stanz influence education? How did his experiment at Burgdorf influence the method of education? How did his experiment at Yverdon influence education? What was his method of teaching elementary education? Why did educators come from other countries to study the methods of Pestalozzi? How did his object lessons change the methods of education? Why did he think that work should be correlated with school subjects? Why did he believe that sense impressions were the foundation for instruction

Re-shaping models of E.coli population dynamics in livestock faeces: Increased bacterial risk to humans?

Dung-pats excreted directly on pasture from grazing animals can contribute a significant burden of faecal microbes to agricultural land. The aim of this study was to use a combined field and modelling approach to determine the importance of Escherichia coli growth in dung-pats when predicting faecal bacteria accumulation on grazed grassland. To do this an empirical model was developed to predict the dynamics of an E. coli reservoir within 1 ha plots each grazed by four beef steers for six months. Published first-order die-off coefficients were used within the model to describe the expected decline of E. coli in dung-pats. Modelled estimates using first-order kinetics led to an underestimation of the observed E. coli land reservoir, when using site-specific die-off coefficients. A simultaneous experiment determined the die-off profiles of E. coli within fresh faeces of beef cattle under field relevant conditions and suggested that faecal bacteria may experience growth and re-growth in the period post defecation when exposed to a complex interaction of environmental drivers such as variable temperature, UV radiation and moisture levels. This growth phase in dung-pats is not accounted for in models based on first-order die-off coefficients. When the model was amended to incorporate the growth of E. coli, equivalent to that observed in the field study, the prediction of the E. coli reservoir was improved with respect to the observed data and produced a previously unquantified step-change improvement in model predictions of the accumulation of these faecal bacteria on grasslands. Results from this study suggest that the use of first-order kinetic equations for determining land-based reservoirs of faecal bacteria should be approached with caution and greater emphasis placed on accounting for actual survival patterns observed under field relevant conditions

Exploring the Relationship between Forest Canopy Height and Canopy Density from Spaceborne LiDAR Observations

Forest structure is a useful proxy for carbon stocks, ecosystem function and species diversity, but it is not well characterised globally. However, Earth observing sensors, operating in various modes, can provide information on different components of forests enabling improved understanding of their structure and variations thereof. The Ice, Cloud and Elevation Satellite (ICESat) Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), providing LiDAR footprints from 2003 to 2009 with close to global coverage, can be used to capture elements of forest structure. Here, we evaluate a simple allometric model that relates global forest canopy height (RH100) and canopy density measurements to explain spatial patterns of forest structural properties. The GLA14 data product (version 34) was applied across subdivisions of the World Wildlife Federation ecoregions and their statistical properties were investigated. The allometric model was found to correspond to the ICESat GLAS metrics (median mean squared error, MSE: 0.028; inter-quartile range of MSE: 0.022–0.035). The relationship between canopy height and density was found to vary across biomes, realms and ecoregions, with denser forest regions displaying a greater increase in canopy density values with canopy height, compared to sparser or temperate forests. Furthermore, the single parameter of the allometric model corresponded with the maximum canopy density and maximum height values across the globe. The combination of the single parameter of the allometric model, maximum canopy density and maximum canopy height values have potential application in frameworks that target the retrieval of above-ground biomass and can inform on both species and niche diversity, highlighting areas for conservation, and potentially enabling the characterisation of biophysical drivers of forest structure

Clinician-targeted interventions to reduce antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections in primary care:An overview of systematic reviews

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To systematically review the literature and appraise the existing evidence from systematic reviews regarding the effects of interventions, aimed at changing clinician behaviour, to reduce antibiotic prescribing for ARIs in primary care