Welfare dependence within and across generations

A central question in the debate about the effects of welfare programs is whether their intended positive results--providing needed resources to recipients and their children--outweigh any unintended negative results--for example, the breaking up of families, reduction in work effort, or the fostering of a welfare "culture" that is passed on from parent to child. Recent research shows that although work effort is affected adversely by the generosity of welfare programs, effects on family structure appear quite weak, most welfare experiences are relatively short, and the majority of women who grew up in homes heavily dependent on welfare do not rely on those programs when they are young adults.     

Farm crop waste as a promising resource for forming carbon nanotubes

It has been found that mechanical activation of amorphous carbon obtained from Katerina SV corn waste encourages formation of carbon nanotubes. At the same time, carbon tube output after 7 and 42 hours of mechanical activation is 11 and 42% by weight, respectively.     

Single-copy inverted repeats associated with regional genetic duplications in gamma fibrinogen and immunoglobulin genes

We have found that a portion (150 base pairs) of the seventh exon of the human gamma fibrinogen gene is duplicated in the preceding intron. This duplicated sequence, termed a "pseudoexon," is flanked on each side by a single-copy inverted repeat sequence consisting of 102 base pairs. Frequencies of point substitutions indicate that both the pseudoexon and the inverted repeat sequence arose approximately 10 to 20 million years ago. The generality of this type of duplication is suggested by the occurrence of a similar duplication in the mouse immunoglobulin mu-delta region. As in the fibrinogen pseudoexon, the portion of the immunoglobulin mu-delta region containing the duplication and the inverted repeat was reported to be single-copy in the mouse genome. Since both of the first two single-copy inverted repeats to be sequenced are associated with regional duplications, it is likely that many of the single-copy inverted repeat sequences, which make up 1 to 2 percent of the genome, are also associated with regional duplications.     

Moon: electrical properties of the uppermost layers

Presently available data on the electrical conductivity of the uppermost lunar surface layers are in accord with the presence of dry, powdered rocks in which the dielectric loss tangent is frequency-independent over several decades of frequency. These powders have typical direct-current conductivity values of about 10(-13) to 10(-16) mhos per meter and dielectric constants of about 3.0, depending on the packing. Thus the surface layers of the moon are likely to have an extremely low electrical conductivity. At high frequencies normal dielectric losses lead to much higher apparent conductivities that are frequency-dependent.     

Immunogenicity of glucagon: determinants responsible for antibody binding and lymphocyte stimulation

Bovine glucagon, a polypeptide of 29 amino acids, is immunogenic in rabbits and guinea pigs. The antigenic determinants of glucagon were investigated with isolated tryptic peptides of the hormone. Antibodies from virtually all of more than a dozen animals tested had specificity primarily for the aminoterminal heptadecapeptide. However, only intact glucagon and its carboxy-terminal dodecapeptide stimulated spleen or lymph node cells to synthesize DNA. It thus appears that glucagon was cleaved along functional lines into two parts, one of which contained the major antigenic determinant for serum antibody and the other of which was "recognized" by antigen-reactive cells.     

CLIMATE CHANGE: Enhanced: The Greenland Ice Sheet Reacts

The Greenland Ice Sheet holds a substantial part of Earth's fresh water, and melting of the sheet contributes to sea level rise. Dahl-Jensen discusses the reports by Krabill et al. and Thomas et al., which shed light on short- and long-term surface elevation changes of the ice sheet. Low-altitude areas are melting, but high-altitude areas show no net reduction over both the short and the long term.     

Polymerization-induced epitaxy: scanning tunneling microscopy of a hydrogen-bonded sheet of polyamide on graphite

A molecularly thin film of a two-dimensional polymer network formed by hydrogen bonding was synthesized and investigated with scanning tunneling microscopy. Poly(in-caprolactam) (nylon 6) was epitaxially grown on the basal plane of graphite and an ultrathin film of the polymer was obtained after the bulk materials had been washed away with solvents. The polymer chain has a planar, all-trans conformation and adjacent chains run in the antiparallel direction. This produces complete pairing of hydrogen bonding groups, with each amide group lying on a straight line perpendicular to the polymer backbone. This hydrogen-bonded sheet is oriented so that each polymer backbone lies in the (1010) direction on the graphite hexagonal lattice, as opposed to the (1120) direction taken by other paraffinic molecules studied so far. This experiment shows that hydrogen bonding can be used to control the orientation of macromolecules in two dimensions.     

Visual resolution and experience: acuity deficits in cats following early selective visual deprivation

Cats reared during the first 5 months of life in environments that contain contours of a single orientation show a diminished ability to resolve gratings of the orthogonal orientation in later life. It is argued that these perceptual deficits result from changes in the organization of the visual cortex induced by the selected early visual input.