Ключевые показатели

Tuberculosis, an emerging infectious disease, steals thousands of lives each year while latently infecting millions of individuals. Adding to the death toll, dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) reactivates when the immune system is suppressed. Current drugs and therapies only treat active tuberculosis disease and thus far no antibiotic against dormant Mtb has been found. Recent studies have shown that fatty acids are an energy source for the latent pathogen. However, the means by which fatty acids are transported into the mycobacterial cell remains unknown. We have identified an Mtb adenosine triphosphate binding-cassette (ABC) transport protein that potentially transports fatty acids based on its amino acid sequence identity with a known fatty acid transporter in another bacterium and designate this protein as mycobacterial ABC transporter (mABCT). We have cloned the mABCT gene from the genome of Mtb and expressed the protein in Escherichia coli cells. In this study, we examine the ability of the mABCT protein to enhance fatty acid transport and affect lipid metabolism in the heterologous host cells. Our research on understanding the role of this mycobacterial protein is expected to aid the development of novel antibiotics to treat latent tuberculosis disease.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1051/thumbnail.jp

Background: The brain generates signals in a wide frequency range (∼2840 Hz). Existing magnetoen-cephalography (MEG) methods typically detect brain activity in a median-frequency range (1–70 Hz).The objective of the present study was to develop a new method to utilize the frequency signatures forsource imaging.New method: Morlet wavelet transform and two-step beamforming were integrated into a systematicapproach to estimate magnetic sources in time–frequency domains. A grid-frequency kernel (GFK) wasdeveloped to decode the correlation between each time–frequency representation and grid voxel. Brainactivity was reconstructed by accumulating spatial- and frequency-locked signals in the full spectraldata for all grid voxels. To test the new method, MEG data were recorded from 20 healthy subjects and3 patients with verified epileptic foci.Results: The experimental results showed that the new method could accurately localize brain activationin auditory cortices. The epileptic foci localized with the new method were spatially concordant withinvasive recordings.Comparison with existing methods: Compared with well-known existing methods, the new method isobjective because it scans the entire brain without making any assumption about the number of sources.The novel feature of the new method is its ability to localize high-frequency sources.Conclusions: The new method could accurately localize both low- and high-frequency brain activities.The detection of high-frequency MEG signals can open a new avenue in the study of the human brainfunction as well as a variety of brain disorders

The lipid bilayer membrane technology is vastly useful in explaining structural function of channel proteins, in the development of nanopore sensing technology as well as ultrafast DNA sequencing technology. In 2009, the portal protein, GP10, from bacteriophage phi29 was reported to be reconstituted into the planar bilayer membrane, which indicates the possibility of using the powerful technology to explore new applications of a large family of channel proteins from bacteriophages (Nature Nanotechnology, 2009, 4, 765-772). However, this utility comes at a great cost: For example, the portal protein reconstitution was time-consuming, unpredictable, and sporadic. Furthermore, the previously reported method was only limited to several hydrophilic mutant portal proteins and impossibly used as universal method to insert the portal proteins from other bacteriophages which are hydrophobic. In order to answer the questions, we proposed a method to form fusible vesicles reconstituted with portal proteins in the research. Using the vesicles, we were able to rapidly reconstitute portal proteins into planar bilayer membranes for the ionic channel current measurement. The time elapsed for 1st protein insertion was decreased by 14 folds. Furthermore, we could apply the methods to prepare vesicles reconstituted with hydrophobic proteins. Compared to previous methods, the new method proposed by our lab significantly extended the shelf-life of the proteoliposomes

This paper will describe the approach of Collective System Design, a methodology used by the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Center of Excellence in Systems Engineering to facilitate the design and implementation of sustainable enterprises. This paper will also describe how Collective System Design is being used to enhance the educational curricula at IPFW in Systems Engineering and growth in Northeast Indiana

MCMICHAEL, Kaitlin N., Geosciences, Indiana University-Purdue University Ft. Wayne (IPFW), Fort Wayne, IN 46805 and ISIORHO, K. Solomon, Geosciences, Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1499, mcmikn1110@gmail.com As part of my upper level environmental class, I chose to examine the impact of the increasing Canadian geese population on water quality. Within the last 40 years, Indiana has seen a substantial growth in its population of Canadian Geese. This rise in population may mean that a larger amount of fecal matter is being produced, and may be detrimental to the water quality and other pond inhabitants. To test this hypothesis, water samples were taken from a pond in a city zoo, in the Midwest where a substantial growth in goose population has been observed, and compared to a retention pond of roughly the same shape and size with a much lower waterfowl population. The water samples, for the zoo pond and the residential pond were tested using the most probable number test (MPN), and both samples were then tested for E. coli using eosin methylene blue (EMB) agar. The water from the pond in the zoo had a very high bacterial count (240/100ml) and tested positive for E. coli. The water from the residential pond with a substantially smaller waterfowl population had a very low bacteria count (43/100ml) and the E. coli test was negative. Although it is an ongoing project, the current results seem to point to the fact that larger populations of waterfowl may have a negative effect on the water quality of the ponds they frequent

It is widely accepted that plant defense responses vary with insect host plant specialization and feeding guilds. Generalists are thought to be more susceptible to a given plant defense compound compared to specialists that may use these same defensive compounds to their own advantage. Feeding guilds are also a strong indicator of differential induction of plant responses. Insect herbivores can be classified into several feeding guilds. Example- leaf chewers, phloem feeders, xylem feeders, leaf miners, fruit and flower chewers, gall-inducing, and root chewers. Studies examining the mechanisms underlying plant defense responses to insect herbivore attack have identified the role of two major phytohormones- salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA). We investigated how soybean plants tailor their defense against insect herbivores from two feeding guilds: phloem feeding aphids and cell content feeding thrips. Gene expression analyses indicated that SA pathway was induced in response to aphids whereas JA was activated against thrips feeding. Exogenous application of SA and JA confirmed gene expression results in that SA application lowered aphid numbers and JA application reduced thrips population. In the short-term, results of this study will shed light on the ecological and molecular interactions of plant and insects, and in the long-term this research can be applied to ecologically based management programs of the insect herbivores.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1064/thumbnail.jp

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata (M. Bieb.) Cavara u26 Grande) is a non-native plant that commonly invades hardwood forest understory plant communities. Such invasions have the potential of restructuring forest communities and influencing community function. Litter dwelling arthropods were collected from areas with and without garlic mustard, and were identified to family. Forest characteristics, including canopy cover, forest basal area, litter depth, and soil moisture, were also measured. Plot locations with and without garlic mustard did not differ in the forest characteristics. However, arthropod richness was significantly reduced in areas with garlic mustard compared to areas without. Arthropod richness and diversity were positively related to leaf litter species diversity. In nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination, mature garlic mustard density influenced a few arthropod taxonomic groups. However, it is likely that forest characteristics that facilitate the intensity of garlic mustard colonization (i.e., canopy cover, moisture) may be part of that influence. Additionally, leaf litter species richness provided a strong relationship with the majority of taxonomic groups. While garlic mustard presence may have a minor influence on the litter dwelling arthropod community, leaf litter richness and diversity play a major role in defining the arthropod community diversity and individual taxonomic group abundances. Management to control garlic mustard in forests may have little impact on leaf litter dwelling arthropods, especially if the litter layer remains intact

We derive universal lower bounds for the potential energy of spherical codes, that are optimal in the framework of Delsarte-Yudin linear programming method. Our bounds are universal in the sense of both Levenshtein and Cohn-Kumar; i.e., they are valid for any choice of dimension and code cardinality and they apply to any absolutely monotone potential. We further discuss a characterization on when the lower bounds are LP-optimal, that is they are the best possible in terms of the linear programming approach. Finally, we present the analogous results for codes in projective spaces

For the past two decades more and more universities have adopted embedded microprocessors in their Electrical and Computer Engineering Curriculum. The reasons are twofold. First nowadays embedded microprocessors become more and more popular and can be found in almost everybody’s daily lives. Second embedded microprocessors allow more flexibility in low level port accessing and interfacing with other external chips. This paper presents the redevelopment of a junior level introductory microprocessor/microcontroller course, ECE 362 – Microprocessor Systems and Interfacing. The course development transforms the current Intel x86 family processors to the ARM Cortex microprocessors. The course development includes both the lecture and the laboratory experiments. This transformation is aiming at enhancing the students’ learning objectives with more hands-on experience on interfacing the microprocessor with various peripherals. The learning objectives are mapped into course outcomes for assessment. Students’ course outcome assessment was conducted in the end of the Fall 2014 semester. The assessment results showed that the outcomes were all achieve

A move toward care of residents in nursing homes where they are respected and heard is finally emerging. Common strategies used in nursing homes to improve quality of care for residents are integration of person-centered care and assessing care using satisfaction surveys. Although approaches of integrating person-centered care and satisfaction surveys have been valuable in improving nursing home quality, these strategies may exclude things that residents describe for themselves matter to them while living in nursing homes. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe things that residents age 65 and older state matter to them while living in the long-term care sections of nursing homes. A qualitative mode of inquiry using purposeful sampling led to a natural unfolding of data that revealed things that mattered to residents. Content analysis was used to reduce the data in a manner that kept the data close to the context, yet moved the data toward new ideas about including things that mattered to residents in nursing homes. The findings revealed residents positive and negative experiences and addressed the question: How can nurses manage residents’ positive and negative aspects of care in nursing homes? This study substantiated the importance of developing nursing care strategies derived from residents’ descriptions of care. Finding ways to promote nurses’ investment in attitudes about a person-centered care philosophy is essential for successful person-centered care implementation. Enhancing nurses’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes with an investment in person-centeredness will be more likely to put nurses in a position to provide care that is person-centered from residents’ perspectives. Objectives for this Presentation: After the presentation, the attendees will be able to: describe four clusters of data that reflect positive and negative things that matter to ten residents who live in the long-term care sections of nursing homes. discuss four suggestions for how nurses may manage residents’ positive and negative aspects of care in nursing homes. describe four ways to enhance nurses’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes for improving person-centered care in nursing homes

Soybean vein necrosis virus (SVNV) is a new viral disease infecting soybean crops in the United States. Since its discovery in 2008, it has since spread to infect many states in the US and has also been detected in Ontario, Canada. SVNV has been identified as being a new virus in the genus Tospovirus, which are typically transmitted or vectored by thrips. Thrips species make up a large proportion of arthropods found in soybean fields, sometimes accounting for up to half of the arthropods collected. So far, only soybean thrips have been confirmed to transmit SVNV. However, eight other species of thrips are found in soybean fields, including eastern flower thrips and tobacco thrips. The goal of my thesis project is to improve our understanding of the plant pathogen, SVNV, and the thrips vectors of SVNV. There were two main objectives of the project. The first objective was to determine SVNV incidence and seasonal patterns of thrips abundance in soybean fields, and to determine the effects of weather on these two factors. SVNV was quite widespread during the 2013 and 2014 growing seasons in Indiana. Virus incidence as well as thrips abundance showed seasonal patterns, with SVNV symptoms being detected in August, coinciding with the highest incidence of thrips. Weather parameters, such as degree day and rainfall index varied in their ability to predict the abundance of different species in the field. Cumulative degree day was the most useful parameter in predicting soybean, eastern flower, and tobacco thrips abundance using short term weather data. However, the rainfall index became more important in determining thrips abundance over the long term for soybean thrips. The second objective was to determine the life history traits of infected and uninfected soybean thrips as well as the life history traits of different species of thrips on soybean. Total fecundity was the only life history trait studied that showed a significant difference between SVNV-infected and –uninfected soybean thrips. However, this is the first report that shows that SVNV infection has a direct negative impact on soybean thrips vectors. Soybean thrips also showed the highest fecundity on soybean out of the three species studied. Outcomes of this study will increase the known information and understanding of population dynamics of SVNV and thrips vectors in the field, as well as the life history traits of known and potential vectors of SVNV, all of which will be beneficial in implementing management strategies to control the spread of SVNV

This paper is concerned with the connection between Jurgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action and critical literacy. The term “literacy” in critical literacy is multiple in nature and encompasses print and non-print texts. Before the texts are analyzed critically, one has to understand them. And to understand the texts is to examine their underlying validity claims. This paper proposes that Habermas’s criteria for evaluating validity claims in communicative action can be appropriated to analyze the texts in critical literacy. Examples of critical text analysis based on Habermas’s criteria as well as their implications for reading assessment will be discussed

This study examined the role of Facebook friends lists in identifying potential sexual and committed relationship alternatives and the effects this had on relationship investment in a sample of 371 young adult undergraduates. A Facebook versus memory experimental protocol was developed to test whether Facebook friends lists act as primers for recognition of potential sexual and committed relationship partners and whether identifying these potential partners (either from Facebook or from memory) caused lower relationship investment. Facebook friends lists did act as memory primers for potential partners, but only for sexual partners, and the effect was stronger for men than it was for women. However, identifying potential partners through Facebook actually lowered a personu27s perceptions of the quality of their alternatives. In contrast, merely thinking about potential alternatives from oneu27s social sphere lowered relationship satisfaction and commitment with oneu27s current committed partner. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to current work on the negative effects of Facebook use on relationship outcomes

The importance of end-user participation in the design process of building and construction projects has been recognized and addressed by a number of researchers and practitioners. The main goal is to ensure that the project outcome meets the facility usersu27 needs. In order to understand their needs, a variety of approaches (e.g. focus groups, workshops, and questionnaires) for the building end-users participation in the design process have been presented in the literature. Despite the contributions and practical features of these methods, they require a significant amount of time and effort to conduct and interpret the participantsu27 responses. To overcome this limitation, this paper investigates the use of eye-tracking technology to measure and analyze end-user satisfaction. This study is carried out to test the hypothesis that the usersu27 satisfaction of design variations is related to their visual attention. In other words, design alternatives with high level of usersu27 satisfaction attract more attention. An experiment using four alternatives for the design of a façade is performed to test the effectiveness of eye-tracking technology. The design alternatives are developed and displayed in a virtual 3D environment. Participants are asked to rate their level of satisfaction with each alternative, while their interaction with the virtual models is recorded using eye-tracking. The results of the experiment are also demonstrated to domain experts to get a better understanding of the technologyu27s potential and challenges

The IPFW Department of Music welcomes Dr. Melanie Bookout and her early music ensemble to the Rhinehart Recital Hall. The recital will feature lute, voice, and string instruments of the 16th and 17th century. Pieces will include musis composed by William Byrd, John Jenkins, John Dowland and many more. Joinging Dr. Bookout will be Russell Bookout and Anne Martin, with special guests Dr. Phillip Serna, viola da gamba and Elizabeth Piercy Putt, soprano

Abstract Robots are increasingly being used in settings deemed too hazardous for humans. The communications link used in conjunction with these robots poses unique challenges, particularly in streaming video, which requires high bandwidth, typically found above 900 MHz. In the reported literature, use of UHF below 2 GHz for wireless operation on a robot platform is scarce, especially for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) applications and in addressing the feasibility of transmitting images or video. Furthermore, due to its superior ability to eliminate multipath-induced intersymbol interference (ISI), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is considered to be the best waveform available today for wireless local area network (WLAN) applications. The documented use of OFDM combined with UHF below 2 GHz is also sparse in the current literature. The objective of the research reported here is to demonstrate the performance of OFDM waveforms on a robot platform at two different UHF frequencies (900 MHz and 2.4 GHz)

23 and 7/8u22 x 27 and 3/4u22.Transparent positive film, paper, Plexiglas, hex bolts and washers, mounted on Gatorfoam. German silver frame.http://opus.ipfw.edu/haecceities_facgallery/1076/thumbnail.jp

Green’s Theorem in multivariable calculus is usually stated with a hypothesis that the partial derivatives are continuous. I will present an example of a function where the partial derivatives exist but are discontinuous, to which a stronger version of Green’s Theorem applies