Previous studies have indicated the level of total sulfur amino acids (TSAA) (methionine + cystine) is most limiting in practical diet formulations for hybrid striped bass (HSB), especially if animal feedstuffs are replaced with plant feedstuffs. Reduction of costly animal feedstuffs such as fish meal while maintaining adequate dietary levels of TSAA may enhance cost effectiveness of production. Therefore, this study, consisting of four separate feeding trials, investigated three different aspects of sulfur amino acid nutrition of HSB including: (1) the efficacy of crystalline methionine hydroxy analog (MHA) and liquid MHA (AlimetTM) relative to L-methionine in meeting the requirement for TSAA; (2) the cystine sparing value for methionine; and, (3) the influence of various sulfur amino acid supplements on ammonia excretion. During the feeding trials, juvenile HSB were fed various diets including a basal diet deficient in TSAA (0.33 or 0.51% of diet), and experimental diets supplemented on an equalsulfur basis with different levels of either L-methionine, AlimetTM or crystalline MHA. Diets containing TSAA at 1% of diet and different ratios of cystine to methionine (60:40, 55:45, 50:50, and 45:55) also were fed to re-evaluate sparing effects of cystine on methionine. During the ammonia excretion trial, HSB were fed diets containing either L-methionine,AlimetTM or crystalline MHA after which total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) excretion was determined 4 h postprandial. In trial 1, AlimetTM was 73% as effective in promoting growth as L-methionine at the same concentration while MHA was 83% as effective. In trial 3, fish fed AlimetTM at 1.25% of diet displayed similar growth performance as those fed TSAA at 1.0% of diet while weight gain of fish fed AlimetTM at 1% was only 58% of that displayed by fish fed TSAA at 1.0%. No significant differences in weight gain, feed utilization or survival were observed among fish fed diets containing various ratios of cystine to methionine although the diet with 60:40 cystine to methionine supported the lowest responses. Inclusion of MHA or AlimetTM did not affect TAN excretion of HSB. These findings will aid in refining diet formulations for HSB to ensure adequate sulfur amino acid nutrition.

To characterize low-pressure, brittle deformation in porous, granular rock, notchcut cylinders (30 mm neck diameter) of Berea Sandstone were extended in a triaxial apparatus from 10 to 160 MPa confining pressure at strain rates of 10-4 s-1 and 10-5 s-1. Acoustic emission counts were monitored when extending samples at a slow strain rate. Stress at fracture is characterized by the least compressive principal stress, ??3, and maximum compressive principal stress, ??1 (??1 = Pc). A change in strength dependence on pressure at Pc = 50 MPa corresponds to a change from pure macroscopic extension fracture to mixed-mode opening and shear fracture, and likely reflects the increase in mean stress that suppresses the propagation of extension fractures and the interaction between closely-spaced stepped cracks. Within the extension fracture regime (Pc < 50 MPa), ??3 at failure becomes slightly more tensile with an increase in Pc. At Pc > 50 MPa, ??3 at failure becomes more compressive with an increase in Pc and follows Coulomb behavior; however, the angle between the fracture surface and ??1 increases continuously with Pc. Fracture surfaces characteristic of the extension to shear fracture transition appear as linked, stepped extension fractures; the length of extensional segments decreases with increasing pressure. The onset of acoustic emissions and inelastic strain at fracture occurs at earlier points in the strain history with pressure, consistent with the Griffith prediction of the beginning of fracture growth.

Triaxial extension experiments on Carrara Marble demonstrate that there is a continuous transition from extension to shear fracture on the basis of mechanical behavior, macroscopic fracture orientation and fracture morphology where hybrid fractures with extension and shear fracture characteristics are formed at the intermediate stress conditions. Extension fracture surfaces display discrete, highly reflective cleavage planes and shear fracture surfaces are covered with calcite gouge and display grooves and striations that are aligned parallel to slip. This study uses the fractured samples that were formed under triaxial extension experiments to characterize 1) microscopic surface features using scanning electron microscopy, 2) fracture surface morphology using laser profilometry, and 3) off-fracture damage using optical microscopy. These data are used to test the step-crack model of fracture development for the formation of hybrid fractures. Spectral analysis of the profiles demonstrates that microscopic roughness decreases gradually across the extension-to-shear fracture transition in both the orientations parallel and perpendicular to slip. However, macroscopic roughness gradually increases then decreases across the transition in the direction parallel to slip. The greatest macroscopic roughness occurs at the transition from extension fractures to tensile-hybrid fractures and is attributed to the presence of macroscopic steps in hybrid fractures surfaces. The treads of the steps in the hybrid fracture surfaces have characteristics of extension fracture surfaces and the risers have characteristics of shear fracture surfaces. The treads have a right-stepping left lateral geometry that is consistent with the step-crack model. Thin sections of hybrid fractures display systematically spaced, pinnate, microfractures that emanate from both sides of the macroscopic fracture surface. The pinnate fractures on both sides correlate across the macroscopic fracture, suggesting that they are precursory to the formation of the macroscopic fracture surface. The spacing to length ratio of the pinnate fractures and the macroscopic orientation of the fracture surface are also consistent the relationship dictated by the step-crack model of fault formation.

Rotavirus (RV) is an etiologic agent of viral gastroenteritis in children and infants worldwide, accounting for an estimated 500,000 deaths annually. NSP4, the first described viral enterotoxin, contributes to RV pathogenesis by mobilizing intracellular calcium through multiple mechanisms that promote abnormal ion transport and subsequent secretory diarrhea. NSP4 and the enterotoxic peptide 114-135 preferentially interact with model membranes mimicking caveolae in lipid composition and radius of curvature. Our laboratory has recently reported the colocalization and coimmunoprecipitation of NSP4 with caveolin-1, the structural protein of caveolae. Moreover, the caveolin-1 binding domain of NSP4 has been localized to the enterotoxic peptide. We now report that caveolin-1 binds NSP4 via the N- and C-termini and one terminus is sufficient for binding. A panel of caveolin-1 deletion mutants was expressed in a yeast two-hybrid assay against an NSP4 bait. Caveolin-1 mutants retaining at least one terminus were capable of binding the NSP4 bait. An in vitro binding assay confirmed the two-hybrid results and localized the NSP4 binding domains to caveolin-1 residues 2-22 and 161-178. These data support the hypothesis that caveolin-1 mediates NSP4 signaling and/or intracellular trafficking.

Telecommunication networks form an integral part of life. Avoiding failures on these networks is always not possible. Designing network structures that survive these failures have become important in ensuring the reliability of these network structures. With the introduction of SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) technology, rings have become the preferred survivable network structure. This network configuration has a set of disjoint rings (each node being a part of single ring), and these disjoint rings are connected via another main ring. In this research, we present a mathematical model for the design of such disjoint rings with node number balance criterion among the rings. When, given a set of nodes and distances between them, the Balanced Disjoint Rings (BDR) problem is the minimum total link length clustering of nodes into a given number of disjoint rings in such a way that there is almost the same number of nodes in each ring. The BDR problem is a class of the standard Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). It is clear from this observation that the BDR problem becomes a TSP when the number of rings required is set to one. Hence BDR is NP-Hard, and we do not expect to obtain a polynomial time algorithm for its solution. To overcome this problem, we developed a set of construction heuristics (Break-MST, Distance Method, Hybrid Method, GRASP-Based Distance Method) and improvement heuristics (Multi-Exchange, Single Move). Different combinations of construction and improvement heuristics were implemented and the quality of solution thus obtained was compared to the standard Branch and Cut Technique. It was found that the algorithm with GRASP-Based Distance Method as the construction heuristic and multi-exchange - single-move combination as the improvement heuristic performed better than other combinations. All combinations performed better in general than the standard Branch and Cut technique in terms of solution time.

High-resolution physically ordered gene maps for the horse (Equus caballus, ECA) are essential to the identification of genes associated with hereditary diseases and traits of interest like fertility, coat color, and disease resistance or susceptibility. Such maps also serve as foundations for genome comparisons across species and form the basis to study chromosome evolution. In this study seven equine chromosomes (ECA6, 7, 10, 15, 18, 21 and X) corresponding to human chromosomes (HSA) 2, 19 and X were selected for high-resolution mapping on the basis of their potential involvement in diseases and conditions of importance to horses. To accomplish this, gene- and sequence-specific markers were generated and genotyped on the TAMU 5000rad horse x hamster RH panel. Additionally, screening of a BAC library by overgoes and subsequent STS content mapping and fingerprinting approaches were used to assemble and verify a BAC contig along a ~5 Mb span on ECA21. Dense gene maps were generated for each of the seven equine chromosomes by adding 408 new markers (285 type I and 123 type II) to the current maps of these chromosomes, thereby greatly improving overall map resolution to one mapped marker every 960kb on average (range: 700 kb – 1.3 Mb). Moreover, the contig on ECA21 contained 47 markers (42 genes and 5 microsatellites) as well as 106 STS markers distributed along 207 BAC clones. Comparisons of these maps with other species revealed a remarkably high level of horse-human X chromosome conservation, as well as two evolutionary breakpoints unique to Perissodactyls or Equids for the equine homologues of HSA19 and HSA2, one of which has been more precisely localized by the ECA21 contig. Thus, high resolution maps developed for these chromosomes i) provide a basis to map traits of interest rapidly to specific chromosomal regions, ii) facilitate searches for candidate genes for these traits by fine comparisons of the equine regions with corresponding segments in other species, and iii) enable understanding the evolution of the chromosomes. Expansion of this work to the entire equine genome will be important for developing novel strategies for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of equine diseases.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2009. / Typescript. "Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Mechanical Engineering." Bibliography: leaves 203-209.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p.68-71). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This study evaluates the performance difference between hybrid and native mobile applica-tions when accessing the low level API. The purpose of this study is to find out the differ-ence in performance between the different methods for developing applications due to an increasing market for platform independent applications. Several benchmarks were created to measure the performance on the following criteria, execution time, memory allocation and storage space. The benchmarks were developed with a similar behaviour to match the functionality. The Titanium benchmarks were around 8.5 times larger in storage space and used 26-28% larger heap when it came to memory than the equivalent Android benchmarks. Android generally has a lower execution time than Titanium, however there are cases such as the math library where Titanium has a lower execution time.

During the decade of 1950s, the intensive rural to urban migration, in search for new job opportunities, created a high housing demand that was partially solved by the dictatorial government of Marcos Perez Jimenez. However, in the absence of effective public policy and failed housing projects, the population started to create solutions of their own to satisfy their housing needs, settling themselves in an improvised way around the urbanized areas and constituting what we know today as informal settlements or barrios. By 1957, around 35% of the population of Caracas lived in barrios. During the past decade, Venezuela has experienced a series of changes that have modified the economic, political and social model that governed the country. During Chavez's government, there have been many policy changes regarding property, land, economic and social organization, in search for solutions to the housing problem that integrate the marginalized sector of the population. However, a different pattern of informal settlements has emerged. Some organized communities have started to invade not only vacant land in the city peripheries; they are now invading buildings that are inserted in the center of the city, contrasting to the formal systems already existing in the city. There is now a new interpretation of what is legal and what is not. We are experiencing the changes and understanding the consequences of their implementation. The purpose of this research is to understand the current processes of housing production and acquisition in formal and informal communities in Caracas through a review of existing literature and qualitative studies of the relationships between stakeholders. I analyze the new policies and the current housing production organization system and contrast it to what is actually happening in practice. I also investigated how incremental changes in existing practices can contribute to the development of safe and legible housing production processes. My recommendations are the result of hybrid systems that consider different actors and perspectives of the same reality in order to find a healthier and more sustainable building culture in Caracas. / text