Differential protein labeling with thiol-reactive infrared DY-680 and DY-780 maleimides and analysis by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis.

Differential protein labeling with 2-DE separation is an effective method for distinguishing differences in the protein composition of two or more protein samples. Here, we report on a sensitive infrared-based labeling procedure, adding a novel tool to the many labeling possibilities. Defined amounts of newborn and adult mouse brain proteins and tubulin were exposed to maleimide-conjugated infrared dyes DY-680 and DY-780 followed by 1- and 2-DE. The procedure allows amounts of less than 5 microg of cysteine-labeled protein mixtures to be detected (together with unlabeled proteins) in a single 2-DE step with an LOD of individual proteins in the femtogram range; however, co-migration of unlabeled proteins and subsequent general protein stains are necessary for a precise comparison. Nevertheless, the most abundant thiol-labeled proteins, such as tubulin, were identified by MS, with cysteine-containing peptides influencing the accuracy of the identification score. Unfortunately, some infrared-labeled proteins were no longer detectable by Western blots. In conclusion, differential thiol labeling with infrared dyes provides an additional tool for detection of low-abundant cysteine-containing proteins and for rapid identification of differences in the protein composition of two sets of protein samples.

Iowa Historic Property Study: Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge Carrying I-74 and U.S. 6 over Mississippi River between Bettendorf, Scott County, Iowa and Moline, Rock Island County, Illinois, 2012

The 1935 Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge is being documented at this time to fulfill the requirements of the Memorandum of Agreement regarding the removal of the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge and the Iowana Farms Milk Company Building for the proposed improvements to Interstate 7 4 in Bettendorf, Iowa, and Moline, Illinois.1 The 1959 twin suspension bridge will be removed as well, but it was determined to be ineligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Discussion of the history of the 1959 twin span is included, however, in the current report as part of the overall history of the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge. Fieldwork for the documentation occurred in November 2009 and October 2010 (Fig. 1). Limitations on photography included limited shoreline access on the Illinois side, making good views of the bridge from the south somewhat challenging. Also, photographs on the bridge deck were not possible because of interstate traffic and prohibitions on pedestrian traffic. Within the last few years, online primary sources have proliferated, along with historical materials regarding the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge. Sources available online for this report included numerous historical photographs, as well as historical Davenport, Iowa, and U.S. newspapers that document the bridge planning and construction. Additional primary source material was found at the University of Iowa Libraries, the State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City, the Bettendorf Public Library, the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center at the Davenport Public Library, and the Iowa State University Special Collections in Ames.

Intraneuronal angiotensinergic system in rat and human dorsal root ganglia.

To elucidate the local formation of angiotensin II (Ang II) in the neurons of sensory dorsal root ganglia (DRG), we studied the expression of angiotensinogen (Ang-N)-, renin-, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)- and cathepsin D-mRNA, and the presence of protein renin, Ang II, Substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the rat and human thoracic DRG. Quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) studies revealed that rat DRG expressed substantial amounts of Ang-N- and ACE mRNA, while renin mRNA as well as the protein renin were untraceable. Cathepsin D-mRNA and cathepsin D-protein were detected in the rat DRG indicating the possibility of existence of pathways alternative to renin for Ang I formation. Angiotensin peptides were successfully detected with high performance liquid chromatography and radioimmunoassay in human DRG extracts. In situ hybridization in rat DRG confirmed additionally expression of Ang-N mRNA in the cytoplasm of numerous neurons. Intracellular Ang II staining could be shown in number of neurons and their processes in both the rat and human DRG. Interestingly we observed neuronal processes with angiotensinergic synapses en passant, colocalized with synaptophysin, within the DRG. In the DRG, we also identified by qRT-PCR, expression of Ang II receptor AT(1A) and AT(2)-mRNA while AT(1B)-mRNA was not traceable. In some neurons Substance P and CGRP were found colocalized with Ang II. The intracellular localization and colocalization of Ang II with Substance P and CGRP in the DRG neurons may indicate a participation and function of Ang II in the regulation of nociception. In conclusion, these results suggest that Ang II may be produced locally in the neurons of rat and human DRG and act as a neurotransmitter.

Iowa’s Bridge and Highway Climate Change and Extreme Weather Vulnerability Assessment Pilot, HEPN-707, 2015

The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is responsible for approximately 4,100 bridges and structures that are a part of the state’s primary highway system, which includes the Interstate, US, and Iowa highway routes. A pilot study was conducted for six bridges in two Iowa river basins—the Cedar River Basin and the South Skunk River Basin—to develop a methodology to evaluate their vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather. The six bridges had been either closed or severely stressed by record streamflow within the past seven years. An innovative methodology was developed to generate streamflow scenarios given climate change projections. The methodology selected appropriate rainfall projection data to feed into a streamflow model that generated continuous peak annual streamflow series for 1960 through 2100, which were used as input to PeakFQ to estimate return intervals for floods. The methodology evaluated the plausibility of rainfall projections and credibility of streamflow simulation while remaining consistent with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) protocol for estimating the return interval for floods. The results were conveyed in an innovative graph that combined historical and scenario-based design metrics for use in bridge vulnerability analysis and engineering design. The pilot results determined the annual peak streamflow response to climate change likely will be basin-size dependent, four of the six pilot study bridges would be exposed to increased frequency of extreme streamflow and would have higher frequency of overtopping, the proposed design for replacing the Interstate 35 bridges over the South Skunk River south of Ames, Iowa is resilient to climate change, and some Iowa DOT bridge design policies could be reviewed to consider incorporating climate change information.

Theonis, Alexandrini, commentarius in Claudii Ptolemaei almagestum, è graeca lingua in latinam à Joanne Baptista Theophilo, Urbinate, anno 1571. conversus ; quod exemplar ipsius interpretis manu videtur exaratum.

a D. Vincentio Viviano, magni Etruriae Ducis Mathematico, Ludovico XIV. anno 1686. oblatus

Evaluation of Lightweight Profilers for Construction Smoothness Evaluation, MLR-02-02, 2004

High-speed non-contact laser profilers have become the standard testing equipment for pavement management ride quality testing. The same technology used in the high-speed profilers is now being used in lightweight profilers for construction smoothness testing. The lightweight profilers have many advantages over the California 25-ft profilograph. Despite the many advantages of the lightweight profilers, there is resistance from the contracting industry toward eliminating the 25-ft profilograph for construction ride testing. One way to reduce or overcome the resistance is to evaluate and demonstrate the advantages/disadvantages of the lightweight profiler in actual field use in Iowa. The objective of the study was to purchase a lightweight profiler and to evaluate its suitability for construction smoothness quality verification and quality acceptance on Iowa projects. A lightweight profiler, an Ames Engineering, Inc. LISA single laser unit, was received in February 2003 for the study. Based on the work done during the 2003 construction season, the following conclusions can be made: (1) For hot mix asphalt surfaces, the LISA correlated well with the contractors' profilographs; (2) LISA results are significantly affected by longitudinal tining on portland cement concrete pavements, requiring a laser system upgrade to give accurate results; (3) A significant timesaving was realized by using the LISA; (4) Increasing visibility and reducing time in the construction zone improved safety; (5) One person with limited lifting capabilities could set up and operate the LISA; and (6) With the current Iowa Department of Transportation specification, the LISA cannot totally replace the profilograph, since bridges and short segments with no adjoining pavement would still require a profilograph.

Field Instrumentation, Testing, and Long-Term Monitoring of High-Mast Lighting Towers in the State of Iowa, TR-518, 2006

As a result of the collapse of a 140 foot high-mast lighting tower in Sioux City, Iowa in November of 2003, a thorough investigation into the behavior and design of these tall, yet relatively flexible structures was undertaken. Extensive work regarding the root cause of this failure was carried out by Robert Dexter of The University of Minnesota. Furthermore, a statewide inspection of all the high-mast towers in Iowa revealed fatigue cracks and loose anchor bolts on other existing structures. The current study was proposed to examine the static and dynamic behavior of a variety of towers in the State of Iowa utilizing field testing, specifically long-term monitoring and load testing. This report presents the results and conclusions from this project. The field work for this project was divided into two phases. Phase 1 of the project was conducted in October 2004 and focused on the dynamic properties of ten different towers in Clear Lake, Ames, and Des Moines, Iowa. Of those ten, two were also instrumented to obtain stress distributions at various details and were included in a 12 month long-term monitoring study. Phase 2 of this investigation was conducted in May of 2005, in Sioux City, Iowa, and focused on determining the static and dynamic behavior of a tower similar to the one that collapsed in November 2003. Identical tests were performed on a similar tower which was retrofitted with a more substantial replacement bottom section in order to assess the effect of the retrofit. A third tower with different details was dynamically load tested to determine its dynamic characteristics, similar to the Phase 1 testing. Based on the dynamic load tests, the modal frequencies of the towers fall within the same range. Also, the damping ratios are significantly lower in the higher modes than the values suggested in the AASHTO and CAN/CSA specifications. The comparatively higher damping ratios in the first mode may be due to aerodynamic damping. These low damping ratios in combination with poor fatigue details contribute to the accumulation of a large number of damage-causing cycles. As predicted, the stresses in the original Sioux City tower are much greater than the stresses in the retrofitted towers at Sioux City. Additionally, it was found that poor installation practices which often lead to loose anchor bolts and out-of-level leveling nuts can cause high localized stresses in the towers, which can accelerate fatigue damage.

The branch-site test of positive selection is surprisingly robust but lacks power under synonymous substitution saturation and variation in GC

Positive selection is widely estimated from protein coding sequence alignments by the nonsynonymous-to-synonymous ratio omega. Increasingly elaborate codon models are used in a likelihood framework for this estimation. Although there is widespread concern about the robustness of the estimation of the omega ratio, more efforts are needed to estimate this robustness, especially in the context of complex models. Here, we focused on the branch-site codon model. We investigated its robustness on a large set of simulated data. First, we investigated the impact of sequence divergence. We found evidence of underestimation of the synonymous substitution rate for values as small as 0.5, with a slight increase in false positives for the branch-site test. When dS increases further, underestimation of dS is worse, but false positives decrease. Interestingly, the detection of true positives follows a similar distribution, with a maximum for intermediary values of dS. Thus, high dS is more of a concern for a loss of power (false negatives) than for false positives of the test. Second, we investigated the impact of GC content. We showed that there is no significant difference of false positives between high GC (up to similar to 80%) and low GC (similar to 30%) genes. Moreover, neither shifts of GC content on a specific branch nor major shifts in GC along the gene sequence generate many false positives. Our results confirm that the branch-site is a very conservative test.

Rapport sur les honneurs et récompenses militaires : le 28 janvier 1792 ([Reprod.]) / fait à l'Assemblée nationale, au nom du Comité d'instruction publique ; par M. Viennot,... ; impr. par ordre de l'Assemblée nationale

Collection : Les archives de la Révolution française ; 11.1a.449