Functional complementation by electroporation of human BACs into mammalian fibroblast cells

Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes (BACs) have been used to complement a metabolic defect and to transfer a drug resistance marker into mammalian cells by electroporation. The selectable markers are stable and the recipient cells have BAC DNA integrated into the chromosomes as shown by fluorescent in situ hybridization, PCR and Southern hybridization.     

An Overview of Progress in the Design And Implementation of Landsat-D Systems

Landsat-D will be launched in late 1981 or early 1982 into a Sun-synchronous orbit near 700 km. Landsat-D systems and the principal observing instrument, the Thematic Mapper, are being designed and implemented to provide a significantly improved Earth-resources monitoring capability. The Thematic Mapper will have seven spectral bands (0.45-0.52, 0.52-0.60, 0.63-0.69, 0.76-0.90, 1.55-1.75, 2.08-2.35, and 10.5-12.5 ?m), with an instantaneous field of view at nadir of 30 m except for the thermal band (120 m). The data from the Thematic Mapper and other Landsat-D flight segment systems will be relayed to the Landsat-D ground data processing system using a direct readout capability or the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and communications satellites. The ground systems will process the data as it arrives at rates up to 100 Mbit/s and a total volume of 2.6 × 1011 bit/day into standard digital and photographic products within 48 hours of data acquisition. This includes 200 Multispectral Scanner Subsystem and 100 Thematic Mapper scenes per day. The Thematic Mapper increased spatial, spectral, and radiometric resolution should be of primary benefit in agricultural and vegetation surveys, but substantial improvements in resource and land cover observations for geology, land use, and water resources applications are also to be anticipated.     

Low-threshold, transversely excited NdP5O14laser

We have measured the room-temperature lasing behavior of NdP5OI4(NdPP) transverselypumped at 058-wm wavelength by a CW dye laser in an excitation geometrysimulatingthat of an LED or laser diode. For acrystal 760 Nm long, the lowest transversethreshold was 4 mW. From thisthresholdandatheoreticalrelationshipbetween excitation efficiency andpump wavelength, we predict that a threshold of approximately 8.5 mW should be possible for excitation by an edge-emitting 0.8-wm wavelength LED. Usingthin NdP P samples with reflecting back surfaces for better excitation efficiency should lower this threshold by -60 percent, andgiveminimumoptical-to-optical con- version efficiencies of - 3.5 percent.     

The exotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis: a new C-mitotic agent

Thuringiensin A, an exotoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis, a constituent of the microbial insectide thuricide has been found to inhibit mitotic spindle, condense and scatter chromosomes. It may therefore be a promizing tool in future cell biological studies.     

Calcium-phytate complex formation studies

A calcium-phytate complex has been prepared. The chemical composition indicates that five calciums combine per phytate molecule. The solubility product of this calcium-phytate is about 10^?22 in 0.2 M KCl.     

Field screening of waterborne petroleum hydrocarbons by thickness shear-mode resonator measurements

An inexpensive, field-portable sensor for direct, aggregate determination of aqueous petroleum hydrocarbons (PH) down to sub-ppm levels was developed. The basis of this sensor was an unusual, highly nongravimetric frequency response of 10 MHz (series fundamental) AT-cut quartz crystals when coated with rubbery silicone films. The response depended linearly and reliably on the total concentration of dissolved hydrocarbons over a range of 0.01-100 mg x L(-1) or up to aqueous solubility limits. Calibration sensitivities were measured individually for laboratory-prepared solutions of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene isomers) and C6-C8 aliphatic components. Each component demonstrated a method detection limit (MDL) in the low-to sub-ppm range (benzene 10 mg x L(-1), n-hexane 0.54 mg x L(-1)) for light coatings of a commercially available poly-(dimethylsiloxane) gum (OV-1, > 10(6) g x mol(-1)) and lower MDLs for heavier coatings. Pairwise responses for the aliphatic and benzenoid standards were additive, indicating that aggregate determinations of mixtures (especially light fuels) were possible. Natural matrix interferences caused by sample turbidity and ionic strength were overcome by simple preparative methods. Fuel-spiked natural waters were determined with respect to standards and verified by gas chromatography. A 0.19 mg x L(-1) MDL for gasoline was obtained for heavy OV-1 films. Field determinations of groundwater surrounding a leaking underground fuel tank demonstrated that the sensor and method were useful for on-site PH screening. Large differences between the equilibration times of aliphatic and benzenoid components also indicated one avenue for BTEX speciation with the device.     

From devices to tasks: automatic task prediction for personalized appliance control

One of the driving applications of ubiquitous computing is universal appliance interaction: the ability to use arbitrary mobile devices to interact with arbitrary appliances, such as TVs, printers, and lights. Because of limited screen real estate and the plethora of devices and commands available to the user, a central problem in achieving this vision is predicting which appliances and devices the user wishes to use next in order to make interfaces for those devices available. We believe that universal appliance interaction is best supported through the deployment of appliance user interfaces (UIs) that are personalized to a users habits and information needs. In this paper, we suggest that, in a truly ubiquitous computing environment, the user will not necessarily think of devices as separate entities; therefore, rather than focus on which device the user may want to use next, we present a method for automatically discovering the users common tasks (e.g., watching a movie, or surfing TV channels), predicting the task that the user wishes to engage in, and generating an appropriate interface that spans multiple devices. We have several results. We show that it is possible to discover and cluster collections of commands that represent tasks and to use history to predict the next task reliably. In fact, we show that moving from devices to tasks is not only a useful way of representing our core problem, but that it is, in fact, an easier problem to solve. Finally, we show that tasks can vary from user to user.