The human Arp2/3 complex is composed of evolutionarily conserved subunits and is localized to cellular regions of dynamic actin filament assembly

People with epilepsy often encounter discrimination. Some cultures have established prohibitive laws limiting access to employment, restricting marriage, and denying driving privileges. It is not enough to repeal such laws. Legislation, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is needed to provide protections against discriminatory practices. The definitions and standards of the law provide clear guidance to employers and workers with disabilities regarding their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. The ADA is proving to be an effective means of addressing allegations of employment discrimination brought forward by people with seizure disorders, although it has not increased the number of people with disabilities who are employed. However, in combination with rehabilitation counseling and employer education, legislative protection can assist people with epilepsy to be more successful in their pursuit of employment opportunities.     

Field feedback computation of scattering by 2-D penetrable objects

The field feedback formulation is applied to the solution of time-harmonic plane wave scattering by 2-D penetrable objects of arbitrary shape and composition. A conformal mesh, finite element algorithm is employed in the forward operator construction while a near-field Green's function integration is used in forming the feedback operator. Scattering validations for midresonance sized objects include a circular cylinder, a two-region bisected cylinder, a half-circular cylinder, a semiconductor shell and a thin lossy planar strip     

Net-zero buildings: incorporating embodied impacts

The design and assessment of net-zero buildings commonly focus exclusively on the operational phase, ignoring the embodied environmental impacts over the building life cycle. An analysis is presented on the consequences of integrating embodied impacts into the assessment of the environmental advantageousness of net-zero concepts. Fundamental issues needing consideration in the design process – based on the evaluation of primary energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions – are examined by comparing three net-zero building design and assessment cases: (1) no embodied impacts included, net balance limited to the operation stage only; (2) embodied impacts included but evaluated separately from the operation stage; and (3) embodied impacts included with the operation stage in a life cycle approach. A review of recent developments in research, standardization activities and design practice and the presentation of a case study of a residential building in Norway highlight the critical importance of performance indicator definitions and system boundaries. A practical checklist is presented to guide the process of incorporating embodied impacts across the building life cycle phases in net-zero design. Its implications are considered on overall environmental impact assessment of buildings. Research and development challenges, as well as recommendations for designers and other stakeholders, are identified.     

2015 Roadmap to Natural Gas and Electric Coordination

December 2014 will end the year with a completely new set of comments and concerns by anyone who has been following the natural gas-electric power industry coordination situation. Comments should all be in by then regarding the Notice of Public Rulemaking (NOPR) through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) Docket Nos. RM14-2-000 and others.     

A Highly Sensitive Multi-element HgCdTe e-APD Detector for IPDA Lidar Applications

An HgCdTe electron avalanche photodiode (e-APD) detector has been developed for lidar receivers, one application of which is integrated path differential absorption lidar measurements of such atmospheric trace gases as CO₂ and CH₄. The HgCdTe APD has a wide, visible to mid-wave-infrared, spectral response, high dynamic range, substantially improved sensitivity, and an expected improvement in operational lifetime. A demonstration sensor-chip assembly consisting of a 4.3 μm cutoff HgCdTe 4 × 4 APD detector array with 80 μm pitch pixels and a custom complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor readout integrated circuit was developed. For one typical array the APD gain was 654 at 12 V with corresponding gain normalized dark currents ranging from 1.2 fA to 3.2 fA. The 4 × 4 detector system was characterized at 77 K with a 1.55 μm wavelength, 1 μs wide, laser pulse. The measured unit gain detector photon conversion efficiency was 91.1%. At 11 V bias the mean measured APD gain at 77 K was 307.8 with σ/mean uniformity of 1.23%. The average, noise-bandwidth normalized, system noise-equivalent power (NEP) was 1.04 fW/Hz^1/2 with a σ/mean of 3.8%. The measured, electronics-limited, bandwidth of 6.8 MHz was more than adequate for 1 μs pulse detection. The system had an NEP (3 MHz) of 0.4 fW/Hz^1/2 at 12 V APD bias and a linear dynamic range close to 1000. A gain-independent quantum-limited SNR of 80% of full theoretical was indicative of a gain-independent excess noise factor very close to 1.0 and the expected APD mode quantum efficiency.     

Characteristics of discrete transfinite time Turing machine models: Halting times,stabilization times,and Normal Form theorems

We give an acount of the basic determinants of the courses of computation of the Infinite Time Turing Machine model of Hamkins and Kidder, a model of computation which allows for transfinitely many steps of computation, and therefore may accept and output infinite strings of bits. We provide, inter alia, a Normal form Theorem, and a characterisation of which ordinals start gaps in halting times of such machines.     

How GPUs Work

GPUs have moved away from the traditional fixed-function 3D graphics pipeline toward a flexible general-purpose computational engine. Today, GPUs can implement many parallel algorithms directly using graphics hardware. Well-suited algorithms that leverage all the underlying computational horsepower often achieve tremendous speedups. Truly, the GPU is the first widely deployed commodity desktop parallel computer     

MSCML协议:下一代多媒体SIP业务的关键

多媒体通信正促使着传统电路交换网络向下一代IP 基础架构转变,网络拓扑的这一转变使得业务提供商推出 下一代基于IP通信技术的全新多媒体业务成为可能,而这 些新业务成功的关键在于控制和信令协议。作为两项基本 的控制和信令协议,MSCML和NETANN规范最初都是由     

Validation of New Instrumentation for Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometric Determination of Organic Serum Analytes

A major activity in the 20 year collaboration between the Analytical Chemistry Division at NIST and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) has been the development of highly accurate and precise “definitive” methods for important clinical analytes in human serum. Definitive methods for organic analytes use isotope dilution/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and require a mass spectrometer capable of making highly precise measurements of the ratio between the ion intensities of a characteristic ion from the analyte of interest and its stable-isotope-labeled analog. Recently, the mass spectrometer used for 20 years for definitive method development and measurements was replaced with a modern instrument capable of automated operation, with accompanying gains in convenience and sample throughput. Switching to the new instrument required modifications of measurement protocols, acceptance criteria, and ratio calculations with background corrections to go along with automated instrument operation. Results demonstrated that the two instruments gave comparable results for measurements of both urea and cholesterol in samples from various serum-based Standard Reference Materials [SRMs] and College of American Pathologists materials.