Caenorhabditis elegans nfi-1 belongs to the Nuclear Factor I (NFI) family of transcription factors known to regulate metazoan gene expression and development. We showed previously that loss of nfi-1 in worms results in multiple behavioral defects; slower pharyngeal pumping rate, impaired egg laying, defective motility, and a shortened life span. Here, we generated cell-type specific transgenic ...

This research develops an optimal planning model for pump-treatinject based groundwater remediation systems. Optimizing the design of the pump-treat-inject system is a nonlinear, dynamic and discrete optimization problem. This study integrates the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP) to solve this highly complex problem. The proposed model considers both the cost of...

The hypothesis that the lungless salamander Desmognathus fuscus responds actively to hypoxia was tested. Patterns of buccal movements [apneic period duration, the duration (min h(-)(1)) of buccal pumping and buccal pumping frequency], heart rate and metabolic rate (rates of oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide output) were determined during a control period (21 % oxygen), a hypoxic period (2, 5, 6....

Animals integrate physiological and environmental signals to modulate their food uptake. The nematode C. elegans, whose food uptake consists of pumping bacteria from the environment into the gut, provides excellent opportunities for discovering principles of conserved regulatory mechanisms. Here we show that worms implement a graded feeding response to the concentration of environmental bacteri...

A hybrid in situ bioremediation/pulsed pumping strategy has been developed to cost effectively remediate a carbon tetrachloride plume in Schoolcraft, Michigan. The pulsed pumping system uses a line of alternating injection and extraction wells perpendicular to the direction of natural groundwater flow. The wells pump periodically to clean the recirculation zone between adjacent wells. During th...

Microfluidic field-effect flow control (FEFC) modifies the zeta potential of electroosmotic flow using a transverse electric field applied through the microchannel wall. Previously demonstrated in silicon-based and glass microsystems, FEFC is presented here as an elegant method for flow control in polymer-based microfluidics with a simple and low-cost fabrication process. In addition to direct ...

Spatial variations of the laser mode and pumping rate are incorporated into the theory of conventionally pumped lasers that produce squeezed light. Both a quantum-mechanical theory and a heuristic statistical model are used. While variations in the laser mode are found to have a negligible effect on squeezing, variations in the pumping rate are significant. The maximum attainable squeezing is a...

Impedance pump is a simple valveless pumping mechanism, where an elastic tube is joined to a more rigid one; a periodic asymmetrical pinching on the elastic tube will produce a unidirectional flow. This pumping concept offers a low energy, low noise alternative at both micro and macro scales. This paper describes an experimental investigation of the performance of a two-stage, open loop impedan...

The pharynx of Caenorhabditis elegans is a neuromuscular organ responsible for feeding, concentrating food by its pumping movement. A class of mutants, the eat mutants, are defective in this behavior. We have identified a novel eat gene, eat-20, encoding a unique transmembrane protein with three EGF motifs. Staining with a specific polyclonal antibody reveals that EAT-20 is expressed predominan...

The structure of momentum and concentration boundary layers developing over a bed of Potamocorbula amurensis clam mimics was studied. Laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) probes were used to quantify velocity and concentration profiles in a laboratory flume containing 3969 model clams. Model clams incorporated passive roughness, active siphon pumping, and the abi...