Drawing in Time: Processes of Design and Fabrication

Drawing embeds time within itself, notating changes in space and duration. For Babak Bryan and Henry Grosman , founding partners of BanG studio in Long Island City, New York: ‘The drawing is a result of process, but it also describes process.’ It is only through this temporal practice that an essential connection is developed between drawing and building. With the widespread adoption of building information modelling (BIM), linear graphic representation finds itself in crisis, challenged by the static inertia of the model. As Bryan and Grosman describe, the well-crafted drawing remains essential to their studio's approach informing the method of ‘making and remaking’.     

DNA-binding properties of the yeast transcriptional activator,Gcr1p

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the GCR1 gene product is required for high-level expression of genes encoding glycolytic enzymes. In this communication, we extend our analysis of the DNA binding properties of Gcr1p. The DNA-binding domain of Gcr1p binds DNA with high affinity. The apparent dissociation constant of the Gcr1p DNA-binding domain for one of its specific binding sites (TTTCAGCTTCCTCTAT) is 2·9×10⁻¹⁰ M. However, competition experiments showed that Gcr1p binds this site in vitro with a low degree of specificity. We measured a 33-fold difference between the ability of specific competitor and DNA of random sequence to inhibit the formation of nucleoprotein complexes between Gcr1p and a radiolabeled DNA probe containing its binding site. DNA band-shift experiments, utilizing probes of constant length in which the positions of Gcr1p-binding sites are varied relative to the ends, indicated that Gcr1p–DNA nucleoprotein complexes contain bent DNA. The implications of these findings in terms of the combinatorial interactions that occur at the upstream activating sequence elements of genes encoding glycolytic enzymes are discussed.     

Industrial applications of formulation computations: Is the computer the enemy?

The basis of modern computations of colorant formulations is a 1931 article by Kubelka and Munk. Virtually all the subsequent important contributions to the problem were published in the following four decades; if it were the practice for software instructions to include a comprehensive list of published references, it is unlikely that many, if any, would be dated later than the advent of the modern computer. This implies either that no major problems remain unsolved, or that some factor is discouraging further improvements or is inhibiting their publication. This leads to the hypothesis that the accepted practice, in the dissemination of computer documentation, of failing to provide references to relevant published work is a significant basis of stultifying new development. It is accordingly urged that promulgators of software accept the responsibility, universally observed in scientific and technological publication, of disclosing prior work by supplying appropriate lists of relevant published material. The failure to disclose prior published work should be deemed a form of plagiarism. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Advances in optical engineering for future telescopes

Significant optical engineering advances at the University of Arizona are being made for design,fabrication,and con-struction of next generation astronomical te...     

Visible Spectra of Standard Navy Colored Flares

The visible spectra, color data and output powers from standard U.S. Navy red, green and yellow signal flares are presented. The spectra were taken under essentially identical conditions on actual inservice U.S. Navy devices. The dominant emissions accounting for the output power in the flares are from the molecular bands of the alkaline earth oxides, hydroxides and chlorides in the red and green flares and from atomic sodium in the yellow flare.     

Analysis of electricity consumption: a study in the wood products industry

This paper evaluates the effect of industry segment, year, and US region on electricity consumption per employee, per dollar sales, and per square foot of plant area for wood products industries. Data was extracted from the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) database and imported into MS Excel. The extracted dataset was examined for outliers and abnormalities with outliers outside the quantile range 0.5–99.5 dropped from the analysis. A logarithmic transformation was applied to eliminate the skewness of the original data distributions. Correlation measurements indicated a moderate association between the response variables; therefore, a multivariate analysis of variance test was performed to measure the impact of the three factors: industry type, year, and region, simultaneously on all response variables. The results indicated some effect associated with all three factors on the three measures of electricity consumption. Subsequently, univariate ANOVA tests were conducted to determine the levels of the factors that were different. Most levels of industry type were associated with significantly different energy consumption, an expected result since some of the industries are more energy intensive than others. The industries in Standard Industry Code (SIC) 2493 (reconstituted wood products) are the groups with the highest electricity consumption with means of 38,096.28 kWh/employee, 0.86 kWh/sales, and 154.14 kWh/plant area while industries grouped in SIC 2451 (mobile homes) have the smallest consumption with means of 6811.01 kWh/employee, 0.05 kWh/sales, and 9.45 kWh/plant area. Interestingly, differences in regional consumption were found to be linked to the proportion of industry types by region. Data analysis also indicated differences in electricity consumption per employee for the factor year, but for the other response variables, no differences were found. These main results indicate that industries in the wood products sector have different electricity consumption rates depending on the type of manufacturing processes they use. Therefore, industries in this sector can use these comparisons and metrics to benchmark their electricity consumption as well to understand better how electricity costs might vary depending on the region they are located.     

Luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) neurons maintained in nasal explants decrease LHRH messenger ribonucleic acid levels after activation of GABA(A) receptors

Inhibition of the LHRH system appears to play an important role in preventing precocious activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Evidence points to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as the major negative regulator of postnatal LHRH neuronal activity. Changes in LHRH messenger RNA (mRNA) levels after alterations of GABAergic activity have been reported in vivo. However, the extent to which GABA acts directly on LHRH neurons to effect LHRH mRNA levels has been difficult to ascertain. The present work evaluates the effect of GABAergic activity, via GABA(A) receptors, on LHRH neuropeptide gene expression in LHRH neurons maintained in olfactory explants generated from E11.5 mouse embryos. These explants maintain large numbers of primary LHRH neurons that migrate from bilateral olfactory pits in a directed manner. Using in situ hybridization histochemistry and single cell analysis, we report dramatic alterations in LHRH mRNA levels. Inhibition of spontaneous synaptic activity by GABA(A) antagonists, bicuculline (10(-5) M) or picrotoxin (10(-4) M), or of electrical activity by tetrodotoxin (TTX, 10(-6) M) significantly increased LHRH mRNA levels. In contrast, LHRH mRNA levels decreased in explants cultured with the GABA(A) receptor agonist, muscimol (10(-4) M), or KCl (50 mM). The observed responses suggest that LHRH neurons possess functional pathways linking GABA(A) receptors to repression of neuropeptide gene expression and indicate that gene expression in embryonic LHRH neurons, outside the CNS, is highly responsive to alterations in neuronal activity.