Editor's message: the sunk cost fallacy of deep drilling

At the beginning of 2008, I visited a watershed, located in Karkinatam village in the state of Karnataka, South India, where crops are intensively irrigated using groundwater. The water table had been depleted from a depth of 5 to 50 m in a large part of the area. Presently, 42% of a total of 158 water wells in the watershed are dry. Speaking with the farmers, I have been amazed to learn that they were drilling down to 500 m to tap water. This case is, of course, not isolated.

Kinetic proofreading at single molecular level: aminoacylation of tRNA(Ile) and the role of water as an editor

Proofreading/editing in protein synthesis is essential for accurate translation of information from the genetic code. In this article we present a theoretical investigation of efficiency of a kinetic proofreading mechanism that employs hydrolysis of the wrong substrate as the discriminatory step in enzyme catalytic reactions. We consider aminoacylation of tRNA(Ile) which is a crucial step in protein synthesis and for which experimental results are now available. We present an augmented kinetic scheme and then employ methods of stochastic simulation algorithm to obtain time dependent concentrations of different substances involved in the reaction and their rates of formation. We obtain the rates of product formation and ATP hydrolysis for both correct and wrong substrates (isoleucine and valine in our case, respectively), in single molecular enzyme as well as ensemble enzyme kinetics. The present theoretical scheme correctly reproduces (i) the amplitude of the discrimination factor in the overall rates between isoleucine and valine which is obtained as (1.8x10(2)).(4.33x10(2)) = 7.8x10(4), (ii) the rates of ATP hydrolysis for both Ile and Val at different substrate concentrations in the aminoacylation of tRNA(Ile). The present study shows a non-michaelis type dependence of rate of reaction on tRNA(Ile) concentration in case of valine. The overall editing in steady state is found to be independent of amino acid concentration. Interestingly, the computed ATP hydrolysis rate for valine at high substrate concentration is same as the rate of formation of Ile-tRNA(Ile) whereas at intermediate substrate concentration the ATP hydrolysis rate is relatively low. We find that the presence of additional editing domain in class I editing enzyme makes the kinetic proofreading more efficient through enhanced hydrolysis of wrong product at the editing CP1 domain.

Letter from the Editor: special issue of papers on “The Use of Native Insect Herbivores for the Management of Eurasian Watermilfoil," presented at a special session of the Annual Meeting, Aquatic Plant Management Society, July 1998, Memphis, TN

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Editor de textos con corrector ortográfico para textos médicos

El principal objetivo de este proyecto es el desarrollo de un software capaz de detectar errores ortográficos y sugerir una lista de posibles soluciones. Dicha lista no deberá ser muy extensa y mostrará las palabras que presenten una mayor probabilidad de ser la palabra correcta deseada por el usuario. Este corrector se ubicará dentro de una aplicación comúnmente conocida como editor de textos que permitirá al usuario la creación, corrección, impresión y guardado de archivos de texto plano. En esencia, se trata de la clásica herramienta de edición y manipulación de texto plano en la que prima la funcionalidad sobre la apariencia. Algunas de las funciones por las que se conoce a estos editores son: marcar región, búsqueda y reemplazo, copiar, cortar y pegar, deshacer y rehacer, importar… El aspecto más importante de la aplicación es el desarrollo de un corrector específico para lenguaje perteneciente al área médica y sanitaria. Incluyendo un vocabulario confeccionado especialmente para la herramienta, así como un sistema de detección y corrección de errores implementado únicamente para este proyecto. Para el desarrollo de este proyecto se utilizará una arquitectura Modelo-Vista-Controlador. La herramienta desarrollada se trata de una aplicación de escritorio, la cual hace uso de una parte gráfica que es la denominada Vista. Esta parte visual es aquella que el usuario visualiza y manipula. La parte gráfica necesita de una parte lógica, denominada Modelo, la cual se encarga de realizar los procesos necesarios para la corrección y creación de sugerencias de las palabras erróneas, así como la corrección automática de textos. Para poder coordinar el funcionamiento de ambas partes es necesaria la creación de un tercer componente encargado de mantener la vista y el controlador independientes entre sí actuando él como intermediario entre ambas. De esta manera la parte visual permanece en todo momento separada de la parte lógica.

Monteiro Lobato: editor gráfico (1918-1925)

O objetivo desta dissertação é mostrar como se deu o envolvimento de Monteiro Lobato com o design gráfico enquanto editor e gestor de suas editoras: a Edições da Revista do Brasil, a Monteiro Lobato e Cia. e a Cia. Graphico-Editora Monteiro Lobato, no período de 1918 a 1925. A análise gráfica das publicações editadas por Lobato, neste intervalo, serviu como fio condutor da pesquisa. Por fim, foi feita uma descrição gráfica dos exemplares coletados, que foram produzidos no mesmo período.

TEMPEST: A Template Editor for Structured Text

TEMPEST is a full-screen text editor that incorporates a structural paradigm in addition to the more traditional textual paradigm provided by most editors. While the textual paradigm treats the text as a sequence of characters, the structural paradigm treats it as a collection of named blocks which the user can define, group, and manipulate. Blocks can be defined to correspond to the structural features of he text, thereby providing more meaningful objects to operate on than characters of lines. The structural representation of the text is kept in the background, giving TEMPEST the appearance of a typical text editor. The structural and textual interfaces coexist equally, however, so one can always operate on the text from wither point of view. TEMPEST's representation scheme provides no semantic understanding of structure. This approach sacrifices depth, but affords a broad range of applicability and requires very little computational overhead. A prototype has been implemented to illustrate the feasibility and potential areas of application of the central ideas. It was developed and runs on an IBM Personal Computer.

The world mission of the Christian religion, by Wade Crawford Barclay; C.A. Bowen, D.D., general editor.

http://www.archive.org/details/worldmissionofth012478mbp

Camera Canvas: Image Editor for People with Severe Disabilities

Camera Canvas is an image editing software package for users with severe disabilities that limit their mobility. It is specially designed for Camera Mouse, a camera-based mouse-substitute input system. Users can manipulate images through various head movements, tracked by Camera Mouse. The system is also fully usable with traditional mouse or touch-pad input. Designing the system, we studied the requirements and solutions for image editing and content creation using Camera Mouse. Experiments with 20 subjects, each testing Camera Canvas with Camera Mouse as the input mechanism, showed that users found the software easy to understand and operate. User feedback was taken into account to make the software more usable and the interface more intuitive. We suggest that the Camera Canvas software makes important progress in providing a new medium of utility and creativity in computing for users with severe disabilities.