Search

The article presents the archaeology of Illinois. It explores the richness of states history and culture since the Paleoindian period of Clovis culture and Dalton culture during the Ice Age, and the Mississipian period until the coming of European settlers. It highlights the transformation and development of the Native American culture in the region, until their disappearance in 1450 A.D.

Conversational recommender systems adapt the sets of products they recommend in light of user feedback. Our contribution here is to devise and compare four different mechanisms for enhancing the diversity of the recommendations made by collaborative recommenders. Significantly, we increase diversity using collaborative data only. We find that measuring the distance between products using Hamming Distance is more effective than using Inverse Pearson Correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genome sequencing of Campylobacter jejuni NCTC11168 identified an abundance of carbohydrate biosynthetic clusters comprising a large proportion of the genome. Many of these pathways were already under investigation including the lipooligosaccharide, flagellar O-linked protein glycosylation, and general N-linked protein glycosylation systems. Genome sequencing also identified a novel cluster of genes, which was subsequently shown to be involved in capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis. In order to fully understand the C. jejuni glycome, sophisticated analytical techniques were employed for functional characterization. We will describe these four important carbohydrate pathways highlighting the methods used to characterize these systems, the biological relevance the sugars play in campylobacter survival and pathogenesis, and the potential exploitation of the glycome for novel therapeutics against this common food-borne pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring proper selection of COTS components is key to the success of component-based software development approaches. Although several approaches and criteria have been proposed for component selection, we lack techniques that can be used to systematically evaluate components against selection criteria for functionality, security, fault tolerance, and quality attributes. We propose a comprehensive approach for enabling the selection of COTS components by employing component understanding and fault injection testing techniques that aid in building an integrated comprehension model of the components. This model accumulates information regarding how each candidate component fared with respect to each criterion. This model can be used not only to aid in the final decision making process, but also serve as a guide during the component comprehension and evaluation stages. Keywords: COTS, components, comprehension model, fault injection testing, fault tolerance, selection, security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of glycoproteins as intact molecules or as smaller fragments generated by chemical or enzymatic digestion is well suited to the technique of capillary zone electrophoresis-electrospray mass spectrometry (CZE-ESMS). Separation of glycoform populations of intact glycoproteins or protein digests is possible using buffers compatible with mass spectrometric detection (1-8). CZE-ESMS analysis of intact proteins can provide semiquantitative information about the degree of heterogeneity of the glycoprotein (1,6,7). Enzymatic or chemical digestion of the glycoprotein, followed by CZE-ESMS, gives a direct measure of individual sites of heterogeneity (1-5). Combined CZE-collision induced dissociation (CID) mass spectrometric experiments (CZE-MS-MS) of digests enables the characterization of oligosaccharide structures (1-5). In particular, CID of glycopeptides is characterized by fragment ions corresponding to cleavage at each glycosidic bond. The occurrence of specific carbohydrate residues such as hexose (Man, Glc, Gal), N-acetylhexosamine (GlcNAc, GalNAc), or N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuNAc) can be monitored by the observation of characteristic oxonium ions at m/z 163, 204, and 292, respectively. More recently, CZE-front-end CID-MS-MS has been shown to be a powerful tool for peptide sequencing of glycopeptides using subpicomole quantities of injected glycoprotein (3-5). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monosaccharides comprise a number of isomers and homologues having very similar structures, basically composed of hydroxymethyl or hydroxymethine groups linked to each other. In reducing monosaccharides the hemiacetal group is at the reducing ends in addition to these polyhydroxylated basal structures. There are other series of monosaccharides with the ketal or carboxyl group instead of or in addition to the hemiacetal group. Substitution of the hydroxyl group by the hydrogen atom or the amino group produces the deoxy sugar or the amino sugar, respectively. All these functional groups give monosaccharides hydrophilic properties. With the exception of monosaccharide residues containing a carboxyl group, detection of these compounds following chromatographic and electrophoretic separation is rendered difficult owing to their inherent lack of chromophores in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible spectrum regions. Obviously, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides composed of these monosaccharide units have a similar shortcoming with respect to their detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Leishmania includes species that are the causative agents of visceral, cutaneous, and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. Infections caused by these organisms are common in both the Old and New Worlds, where they represent a major public health problem. As a result, Leishmania species have been the focus of much research effort aimed at the development of vaccines and novel chemotherapeutic and diagnostic reagents. The application of recombinant DNA techniques is now widespread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different analyses of stone for cleaning, repair and treatment that relate to articles published in the book "Conservation of Building & Decorative Stone" are discussed.

This chapter focuses on transition from employment to retirement. The chapter considers that unemployment and retirement overlap in meaning and that changing economic structures of production and markets are encouraging corporations to buy out workers once considered in mid-careers or even forcing them out of the workforce and that at the same time in the first three decades of the twenty-first century the number of those in traditional retirement age will nearly double. The chapter also notes that for most people retirement is one more phase in the self-propelled journey of life in which they have had to cope with a series of transitions and traumas. Their values and routines reflect their histories despite some reorientations related to preparation for retirement. Furthermore, the section sees the basic requirements for satisfactory retirement as functional health and economic viability, coupled with social and leisure activity. While with increasing age there may be a constriction of activities, meaningful integration of sharing and interaction remain central. And lastly, the chapter notes that in the balance of a leisure style there needs to be relaxation and low-intensity engagements, but argues that it is the highlights that produce extraordinary enjoyment in the routines of leisure.

The protozoan genus Trypanosoma contains several pathogenic parasites of major medical and veterinary importance. These include Trypanosoma brucei subspecies, the causative agents of African trypanosomiasis, and Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of American trypanosomiasis or Chagas' disease. The development of transformation procedures for these organisms has been a major technical advance. Applications include investigation of the molecular determinants of virulence, functional analysis of potential chemotherapeutic targets, and studies on the mechanisms of gene expression, drug resistance, and developmental regulation. Electroporation is the predominant method used to transfect trypanosomes. The protocols described here are in routine use in our respective laboratories in Amsterdam (T. brucei) and London (T. cruzi), and have proven to be straightforward and reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]