The installation of the Aft Shroud Cooling System (ASCS) on the next HST servicing mission will increase the scientific productivity of STIS by reducing the dark current in the MAMA detectors. The “dark glow” now observed in the FUV-MAMA detector is expected to go away at the ~24 ο C nominal operating temperature after SM3. For the NUV-MAMA, typical dark currents will range from 800 to 1100 cts...

MamA is a highly conserved protein found in magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), a diverse group of prokaryotes capable of navigating according to magnetic fields - an ability known as magnetotaxis. Questions surround the acquisition of this magnetic navigation ability; namely, whether it arose through horizontal or vertical gene transfer. Though its exact function is unknown, MamA surrounds the magne...

Magnetotactic bacteria comprise a diverse group of aquatic microorganisms that are able to orientate themselves along geomagnetic fields. This behavior is believed to aid their search for suitable environments (1). This capability is conferred by the magnetosome, a subcellular organelle that consists of a linear-chain assembly of lipid vesicles each able to biomineralize and enclose a ~50-nm cr...

A pre-flight uncertainty for STIS was the extent to which the MAMA detectors would support high signal-to-noise observations given inherently low count rates, limitations on available flat fields, and the possibility of evolution in pixel-to-pixel response stability. This ISR reports on results from STIS/SMOV-7091 Pixel-to-pixel Response Stability in which spectra were acquired at high count le...

Iriomotejima. This species is usually rare and collected in riversides of southern Japan. D. lacteicornis and D. formosana were collected only in wild forests of Ishigakigjima and Iriomotejima although they were not dominant in the islands. The collection of D. bocki in Ishigakijima, Iriomotejima, Haterumajima and Y onagunijima is a new record of the distribution in Japan. D. bocki is a closely...

The absolute flux calibration of STIS MAMA imaging modes is tested by comparison of observed and predicted count rates. As part of this work, we have derived new, wavelength-dependent aperture corrections for MAMA imaging, and have revised the NUVMAMA imaging throughput at short wavelengths. FUV-MAMA imaging modes clearly show a time dependent sensitivity loss that is consistent with the time d...

Using the newly designed mismatch amplification mutation assay (MAMA) PCR, we demonstrated the high frequency of amantadine-resistant influenza A (H3N2) viruses isolated during the 2005-2006 season by detecting the mutation at amino acid position 31 of the M2 protein (S31N). Further, phylogenetic analyses of the HA1 sequences of the S31N viruses revealed that they comprised a clonal lineage tha...

The development of new treatments has improved survival and quality of life among cancer patients. Nurses are expected to answer questions and to provide orientation regarding patients’ sexuality since it is an important aspect of life. The main objective of this paper is to understand the representations of sexuality among nurses working with women who survive breast cancer after diagnosis and...

An on-orbit flat-field monitoring program was initiated for the MAMA detectors with the goals of comparing the pre-launch flat-field characteristics with those observed on-orbit, measuring the stability of the FUVand NUV-flats, and creating updates to the reference flats. We found that the NUV-MAMA flat-field images at nominal (1024x1024) resolution are well corrected with pre-launch flats. Tha...

Correctly synchronizing the parallel execution of tasks remains one of the most difficult aspects of parallel programming. Without proper synchronization, many kinds of subtle concurrency errors can arise and cause a program to produce intermittently wrong results. The long-term goal of this work is to design a system that automatically synchronizes a set of programmer-specified, partiallyindep...