A New Multideck Broadcast Audio Tape Cartridge Unit

A new system for handling magnetic tape is described. This system was developed over the past three years to answer problems of tape handling convenience and reliability. The result is a multiple cartridge tape recorder/player using reversible continuous loop cartridges. There are only two rotating parts in the mechanism and the electronics are solid-state and plug-in. This is the only multiple cartridge tape system which can operate as 6 complete tape recorders in one. This is also the first continuous loop which can be reversed as a reel-to-reel tape.     

Two-step, PCR-free telomerase detection by using exonuclease III-aided target recycling

We report the sensitive detection of telomerase activity by using exonuclease III-aided target recycling to amplify the signal produced by a chimeric LNA-DNA molecular beacon. We demonstrate the specific detection of as few as 30 telomerase-positive breast cancer cells in a single-measurement fluorescence assay that avoids the problematic PCR and gel analysis of the current "gold-standard" assay.     

Yearning to be the center of everything,when we are the center of nothing: The parallels and reversals in chaco,hubble, and facebook

Humans have long sought to map their place in the cosmos and then situate their selves at the center of the universe. These patterns are displayed at three radically different sites — the Sun Dagger in Chaco Canyon, the Hubble Space Telescope, and social media and Facebook. Drawing from Marshall McLuhan, this article will theorize the parallels and reversals in these sites, where cosmological discoveries of the expanding universe have been countered by technological innovations involving electronic screens, such that social media counters space telescopes, cyberspace counters outer space, and Facebook counters Hubble. Perhaps the “revolution” of social media merely parallels other cultural reversals, all of which seek to return humans to the center of the universe, when we are the center of nothing. And this desire and delusion to be at the center of everything lies at the heart of contemporary issues facing the global civilization.     

Core Histones Are Constituents of the Perinuclear Theca of Murid Spermatozoa: An Assessment of Their Synthesis and Assembly during Spermiogenesis and Function after Gametic Fusion

The perinuclear theca (PT) of the eutherian sperm head is a cytoskeletal-like structure that houses proteins involved in important cellular processes during spermiogenesis and fertilization. Building upon our novel discovery of non-nuclear histones in the bovine PT, we sought to investigate whether this PT localization was a conserved feature of eutherian sperm. Employing cell fractionation, immunodetection, mass spectrometry, qPCR, and intracytoplasmic sperm injections (ICSI), we examined the localization, developmental origin, and functional potential of histones from the murid PT. Immunodetection localized histones to the post-acrosomal sheath (PAS) and the perforatorium (PERF) of the PT but showed an absence in the sperm nucleus. MS/MS analysis of selectively extracted PT histones indicated that predominately core histones (i.e., H3, H3.3, H2B, H2A, H2AX, and H4) populate the murid PT. These core histones appear to be de novo-synthesized in round spermatids and assembled via the manchette during spermatid elongation. Mouse ICSI results suggest that early embryonic development is delayed in the absence of PT-derived core histones. Here, we provide evidence that core histones are de novo-synthesized prior to PT assembly and deposited in PT sub-compartments for subsequent involvement in chromatin remodeling of the male pronucleus post-fertilization.     

Enabling the benefits of Supply Chain Management Systems: an empirical study of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in manufacturing

Although informative, the literature related to Supply Chain Management Systems (SCMS) needs to be developed further to provide insight related to the realized benefits of adopting firms. Specifically, there is a need to analyse empirically and systematically the potential benefits and variables that explain the differences in benefit variation. To contribute to this need, the study analysed SCMS benefits in four steps. First, drawing from survey responses of a diverse group of manufacturing plants, the study sought evidence of the claimed benefits found in the literature. Second, the study built on the claims and findings of previous researchers to formulate and test hypotheses related to factors that help explain differences in benefits. Third, once the explanatory variables were analysed in isolation, they were then analysed for the incremental effects. Finally, based on the results of the first three steps, the study refined the results to produce a synthesized explanatory SCMS benefit model.     

A modified indirect ELISA procedure for raw meat speciation using crude anti-species antisera and stabilised immunoreagents

Indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for species identification of unheated meat materials has been modified to facilitate the use of non-specific (unpurified) anti-species antisera by integral assay inhibition of heterologous cross-reactivity. Effective ELISA treatments of three antisera (identifying beef, horse and pig) and four commercial products (identifying beef, horse, pig and sheep/goat) were determined using chequer-board microtitration assays against pure species antigens. Subsequent tests with aqueous meat extracts gave consistent absorbance differences between the homologous (high colour) and heterologous (low colour) responses and provided reliable, accurate species identification without the extensive prior purification of antisera (i.e. by affinity chromatography) previously required. This modified ELISA enabled efficient use of stabilised anti-species sera discs, prepared initially for application in a simplified agar-gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test; i.e. one disc (20 μl freeze-dried antiserum) for testing two meat samples by the prescribed AGID made sufficient treated solution to test 50 meat samples on microtitre plates. Authentic species meat extracts are also stabilised on discs for convenience (reference responses and routine controls). ELISA in this form is a practical alternative to AGID screening tests or can be used in parallel back-up tests providing sensitive results in less than 3 h on a large or small scale.     

Mutagenicity of Edible Palm Oil on the Ghanaian Market before and after Repeated Heating

Red palm oil produced in Ghana largely by village folks has never been tested for its mutagenic potential. The study aimed at determining the mutagenicity of high‐energy heated red palm oil (RRPO) and refined, bleached imported palm oil (PO) on the Ghanaian market. Samples of RRPO and PO were 1× and 5× heated for 10 min at 180 °C with a cooling period of 5 h in‐between. Unheated, together with heated samples, were tested for mutagenicity using Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and TA 100 tester stains. Unheated PO was negative for the Ames mutagenicity test with TA 98 strain. However, 1× and 5× heated PO were mutagenic (P = 0.05, each). Testing PO, using TA 100 strain was negative. RRPO was mutagenic with TA 98 strain for heated oils (P = 0.05, each). Assays with TA 100 strain showed highly significant mutations (P = 0.001, each) that increased with increasing heating frequency. PO 1× and 5× heated samples caused significant frameshift mutation in the S. typhimurium TA 98 strain. RRPO caused highly significant point and frameshift mutations in heated samples. Furthermore, unheated RRPO mutagenic potential has serious health implications.     

Field studies of habituation: IV. Sensitization as a function of the distribution and novelty of song playback to white-crowned sparrows.

Recorded song was played in the field to mated pairs of white-crowned sparrows that were in breeding condition, and an extensive sample of the behaviors elicited was recorded. An attempt was made to manipulate the level of responding and the amount of habituation by varying the pattern of song presentations and the novelty of the songs. No differences in rates of habituation were obtained, but the attempt to manipulate levels of responding was successful. For the males, greater spacing of the playback trials resulted in lower response levels, whereas changing the song type on each trial resulted in higher response levels. Results are discussed in terms of their meaning for habituation theory and their possible significance to the economy of the birds in adjusting to their environment. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading in dementia of the Alzheimer type: A preserved ability?

Assessed 45 patients with a probable diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), varying from minimal to moderate levels of dementia, on 3 tasks of reading aloud: (1) an extensive list of regular and exception words across a range of word frequencies, (2) the National Adult Reading Test (NART), and (3) a test of nonword reading. On the first test, the patients showed substantial effects of regularity, word frequency, and disease severity. Reading of less common words with atypical spelling-sound correspondences was significantly impaired in the moderately demented subgroup of patients and significantly correlated with measures of semantic memory for the patient group as a whole. This impaired exception word reading was attributed to the breakdown in semantic memory that occurs as the DAT disease process advances. A significant drop in performance on both the NART and nonword reading also accompanied increasing disease severity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some results on nonequilibrium thin-film superconductors using the kinetic equation approach

An attempt is made to find the density instability to a superconducting multigap state by using the kinetic equations. This approach is general enough to include both the possibility of anomalous diffusion and the purely kinetic instability proposed by Iguchi and Konno. No instability to small density fluctuations is found. The possibility of an instability involving a nucleation step cannot be ruled out, however. Results for the solutions of the distribution functions in the homogeneous case are also presented, illustrating the jump to the normal state, the extent to which the excited quasiparticles can be described by a few thermodynamic parameters, and the dependence upon the phonon escape time.