Chloroplast genome structure, gene order and content arehighly conserved in land plants. We sequenced the complete chloroplastgenome sequence of Trachelium caeruleum (Campanulaceae) a member of anangiosperm family known for highly rearranged chloroplast genomes. Thetotal genome size is 162,321 bp with an IR of 27,273 bp, LSC of 100,113bp and SSC of 7,661 bp. The genome encodes 115 unique genes, with 19duplicated in the IR, a tRNA (trnI-CAU) duplicated once in the LSC and aprotein coding gene (psbJ) duplicated twice, for a total of 137 genes.Four genes (ycf15, rpl23, infA and accD) are truncated and likelynonfunctional; three others (clpP, ycf1 and ycf2) are so highly divergedthat they may now be pseudogenes. The most conspicuous feature of theTrachelium genome is the presence of eighteen internally unrearrangedblocks of genes that have been inverted or relocated within the genome,relative to the typical gene order of most angiosperm chloroplastgenomes. Recombination between repeats or tRNAs has been suggested as twomeans of chloroplast genome rearrangements. We compared the relativenumber of repeats in Trachelium to eight other angiosperm chloroplastgenomes, and evaluated the location of repeats and tRNAs in relation torearrangements. Trachelium has the highest number and largest repeats,which are concentrated near inversion endpoints or other rearrangements.tRNAs occur at …

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Mitochondria and plastids (collectively called organelles)descended from prokaryotes that adopted an intracellular, endosymbioticlifestyle within early eukaryotes. Comparisons of their remnant genomesaddress a wide variety of biological questions, especially when includingthe genomes of their prokaryotic relatives and the many genes transferredto the eukaryotic nucleus during the transitions from endosymbiont toorganelle. The pace of producing complete organellar genome sequences nowmakes it unfeasible to do broad comparisons using the primary literatureand, even if it were feasible, it is now becoming uncommon for journalsto accept detailed descriptions of genome-level features. Unfortunatelyno database is currently useful for this task, since they have littlestandardization and are riddled with error. Here I outline what iscurrently wrong and what must be done to make this data useful to thescientific community.

Cathepsin B (CTSB) and cathepsin L (CTSL) are two widelyexpressed cysteine proteases thought to predominantly reside withinlysosomes. Functional analysis of CTSL in humans is complicated by theexistence of two CTSL-like homologues (CTSL and CTSL2), in contrast tomice which contain only one CTSL enzyme. Thus transgenic expression ofhuman CTSL in CTSL deficient mice provides an opportunity to study the invivo functions of this human protease without interference by its highlyrelated homologue. While mice with single gene deficiencies for murineCTSB or CTSL survive without apparent neuromuscular impairment, murineCTSB/CTSL double deficient mice display degeneration of cerebellarPurkinje cells and neurons of the cerebral cortex, resulting in severehypotrophy, motility defects, and lethality during their third to fourthweek of life. Here we show that expression of human CTSL through agenomic transgene results in widespread expression of human CTSL in themouse which is capable of rescuing the lethality found in CTSB/CTSLdouble-deficient animals. Human CTSL is expressed in the brain of thesecompound mutants predominantly in neurons of the cerebral cortex and inPurkinje cells of the cerebellum, where it appears to prevent neuronalcell death.

The bonding of hexanethiols to gold nanoparticles of 1.5, 2.0 and 3 nm was studied using X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy (XANES) and Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS). The XANES spectra revealed that a substantial fraction of hexanethiol molecules were weakly bound, in addition to the molecules forming covalent bonds with Au surface atoms. The weakly bound molecules could be easily removed by washing in dichloromethane. After removal of the weakly bound molecules the S K-edge XANES spectrum reveals peaks due to S-Au and S-C bonds with intensities that change as a function of particle size. We explain this as the result of distortions occurring in the molecules adsorbed on the smaller particles. The distortions arise from the poor packing due to the high curvature of the particles. In addition, EXAFS results show that the smaller particles bind more molecules per Au atom than the larger ones, which is again interpreted as a result of the curved nature of the surface.

Email from Carol Hamilton to Darcy Kulesha and Mary Lou Schroeder discussing plans for the WASP Dedication Ceremony at the Highground in Wisconsin.

This is a report on the gangs in Central America.

This report discusses the organization, funding, and goals of the Freedom CAR and Fuel partnerships, and discusses legislation relevant to the partnerships.

High throughput genome sequencing centers that were originally built for the Human Genome Project (Lander et al., 2001; Venter et al., 2001) have now become an engine for comparative genomics. The six largest centers alone are now producing over 150 billion nucleotides per year, more than 50 times the amount of DNA in the human genome, and nearly all of this is directed at projects that promise great insights into the pattern and processes of evolution. Unfortunately, this data is being produced at a pace far exceeding the capacity of the scientific community to provide insightful analysis, and few scientists with training and experience in evolutionary biology have played prominent roles to date. One of the consequences is that poor quality analyses are typical; for example, orthology among genes is generally determined by simple measures of sequence similarity, when this has been discredited by molecular evolutionary biologists decades ago. Here we discuss the how genomes are chosen for sequencing and how the scientific community can have input. We describe the PhIGs database and web tools (Dehal and Boore 2005a; http://PhIGs.org), which provide phylogenetic analysis of all gene families for all completely sequenced genomes and the associated 'Synteny Viewer', which allows …

This report discusses the difficulty of assessing the impact of environmental requirements on military readiness, broader exemptions for military activities that Congress has enacted, and DOD's request for additional exemptions.

We examine procedures for detecting the point-group symmetryof macromolecular datasets and propose enhancements. To validate apoint-group, it is sufficient to compare pairs of Bragg reflections thatare related by each of the group's component symmetry operators.Correlation is commonly expressed in the form of a single statisticalquantity (such as Rmerge) that incorporates information from all of theobserved reflections. However, the usual practice of weighting all pairsof symmetry-related intensities equally can obscure the fact that thevarious symmetry operators of the point-group contribute differingfractions of the total set. In some cases where particular symmetryelements are significantly under-represented, statistics calculatedglobally over all observations do not permit conclusions about thepoint-group and Patterson symmetry. The problem can be avoided byrepartitioning the data in a way that explicitly takes note of individualoperators. The new analysis methods, incorporated into the programLABELIT (cci.lbl.gov/labelit), can be performed early enough during dataacquisition, and are quick enough, that it is feasible to pause tooptimize the data collection strategy.

Historically, large items of TRU Waste, which were too large to be packaged in drums for disposal have been packaged in various sizes of custom made plywood boxes at the Savannah River Site (SRS), for many years. These boxes were subsequently packaged into large steel ''Black Boxes'' for storage at SRS, pending availability of Characterization and Certification capability, to facilitate disposal of larger items of TRU Waste. There are approximately 107 Black Boxes in inventory at SRS, each measuring some 18' x 12' x 7', and weighing up to 45,000 lbs. These Black Boxes have been stored since the early 1980s. The project to repackage this waste into Standard Large Boxes (SLBs), Standard Waste Boxes (SWB) and Ten Drum Overpacks (TDOP), for subsequent characterization and WIPP disposal, commenced in FY04. To date, 10 Black Boxes have been repackaged, resulting in 40 SLB-2's, and 37 B25 overpack boxes, these B25's will be overpacked in SLB-2's prior to shipping to WIPP. This paper will describe experience to date from this project.

This study developed novel hydrides for hydrogen storage through a novel synthesis technique utilizing high hydrogen overpressure at elevated temperatures denoted as Molten State Processing, MSP. The ultimate goal is to produce materials that have high hydrogen capacity, are stable after cycling and possess favorable thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics compatible with onboard hydrogen storage for automotive applications. In order to achieve these goals the MSP Process was developed and used to modify and form new complex hydride compounds with desired characteristics. This synthesis technique holds the potential of fusing different known complex hydrides at elevated temperatures and pressures to form new complexes having different sorption and thermodynamic properties. The new complex hydrides produced by this method were identified through structural determination and thermodynamic characterization in order to achieve a more fundamental understanding of their formation and dissociation mechanisms.

The Purgatorio code [Wilson et al., JQSRT 99, 658-679 (2006)] is a new implementation of the Inferno model describing a spherically symmetric average atom embedded in a uniform plasma. Bound and continuum electrons are treated using a fully relativistic quantum mechanical description, giving the electron-thermal contribution to the equation of state (EOS). The free-electron density of states can also be used to calculate scattering cross sections for electron transport. Using the extended Ziman formulation, electrical conductivities are then obtained by convolving these transport cross sections with externally-imposed ion-ion structure factors.

The basis of surveillance, event detection, and tracking applications is the detection of moving objects in complex scenes. Complex scenes are difficult to analyze because of camera noise and lighting conditions. Currently, moving objects are detected primarily using background subtraction. We analyze block matching as an alternative for detecting moving objects. Block matching has been extensively utilized in compression algorithms for motion estimation. Besides detection of moving objects, block matching also provides motion vectors (location of motion) which can aide in tracking objects. Block matching techniques consist of three main components: block determination, search methods, and matching criteria. We compare various options for each of the components with moving object detection as the performance goal. Publicly available sequences of several different traffic and weather conditions are used to evaluate the techniques. A coherence metric and the average magnitude of object motion vector error are used to evaluate block determination approaches and search methods. To compare the matching criteria we use precision-recall curves to evaluate the performance of motion detection. We present an empirical study of the block matching techniques using these metrics of performance as well as process timing. We found the hierarchical block determination approach has an overall higher …

The St Mary West Barker Sand Unit (SMWBSU or Unit) located in Lafayette County, Arkansas was unitized for secondary recovery operations in 2002 followed by installation of a pilot injection system in the fall of 2003. A second downdip water injection well was added to the pilot project in 2005 and 450,000 barrels of saltwater has been injected into the reservoir sand to date. Daily injection rates have been improved over initial volumes by hydraulic fracture stimulation of the reservoir sand in the injection wells. Modifications to the injection facilities are currently being designed to increase water injection rates for the pilot flood. A fracture treatment on one of the production wells resulted in a seven-fold increase of oil production. Recent water production and increased oil production in a producer closest to the pilot project indicates possible response to the water injection. The reservoir and wellbore injection performance data obtained during the pilot project will be important to the secondary recovery optimization study for which the DOE grant was awarded. The reservoir characterization portion of the modeling and simulation study is in progress by Strand Energy project staff under the guidance of University of Houston Department of Geosciences professor Dr. …

P'P' (PKPPKP) are P waves that travel from a hypocenter through the Earth's core, reflect from the free surface and travel back through the core to a recording station on the surface. Here we report the observations of hitherto unobserved near-podal P'P' waves (at epicentral distance < 10{sup o}) and very prominent precursors preceding the main energy by as much as 60 s. We interpret these precursors as a back-scattered energy from previously undocumented horizontally connected small-scale heterogeneity in the upper mantle beneath the oceans in a zone between 150 and 220 km depth beneath the Earth's surface. From these observations, we identify a frequency dependence of attenuation quality factor Q in the lithosphere through forward modeling of the observed amplitude spectra of the main and back-scattered P'P' waves. In addition, we did not find that travel times corresponding to very polar paths through the centermost inner core with respect to the rotation axis of Earth are anomalously advanced, which argues for isotropic or at best --weakly-anisotropic center of Earth in the direction parallel with the rotation axis. More systematic sampling near Earth's center and characterization of anisotropy in Earth's center will be a subject of future research efforts.

We use Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) to image and classify individual cells based on their characteristic mass spectra. Using statistical data reduction on the large data sets generated during TOF-SIMS analysis, similar biological materials can be differentiated based on a combination of small changes in protein expression, metabolic activity and cell structure. We apply this powerful technique to image and differentiate three carcinoma-derived human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, T47D and MDA-MB-231). In homogenized cells, we show the ability to differentiate the cell types as well as cellular compartments (cytosol, nuclear and membrane). These studies illustrate the capacity of TOF-SIMS to characterize individual cells by chemical composition, which could ultimately be applied to detect and identify single aberrant cells within a normal cell population. Ultimately, we anticipate characterizing rare chemical changes that may provide clues to single cell progression within carcinogenic and metastatic pathways.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates a nursing home program that provides or pays for veterans' care in three nursing home settings: VA-operated nursing homes, community nursing homes, and state veterans' nursing homes. In addition, veterans needing nursing home care may also receive it from non-VA providers that are not funded by VA. VA is faced with a large elderly veteran population, many of whom may be in need of nursing home care. In 2004, 38 percent of the nation's veteran population was over the age of 65, compared with 12 percent of the general population. The Veterans Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act (Millennium Act) of 1999 and VA policy require that VA provide nursing home care to certain veterans. This statement focuses on VA's nursing home program and trends in nursing home expenditures, trends in the number of patients served, or "patient workload," and key challenges VA faces in planning for nursing home care for veterans. To examine these trends, GAO updated information from prior work with spending and patient workload data for fiscal year 2005 that VA provided. In a November 2004 report, GAO …

José Legaspi is president of The Legaspi Company, an Hispanic retail consulting firm and a partner in Hispanic Retail Group. In this photo, he stands in front of a building with a sign that reads "Fort Worth Mercado".

José Legaspi is president of The Legaspi Company, an Hispanic retail consulting firm and a partner in Hispanic Retail Group.

José Legaspi is president of The Legaspi Company, an Hispanic retail consulting firm and a partner in Hispanic Retail Group.

José Legaspi is president of The Legaspi Company, an Hispanic retail consulting firm and a partner in Hispanic Retail Group.

José Legaspi is president of The Legaspi Company, an Hispanic retail consulting firm and a partner in Hispanic Retail Group.