The paper describes the selective breeding experiment which took place in the Bible Communist Oneida Community in New York State. The Community was founded in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes and grew to some three hundred members. It disbanded in 1880 and became a joint stock company, Oneida Ltd., which today is a multinational cutlery manufacturer. Between 1869 and 1880 there was a selective breeding programme (“stirpiculture”) with parents chosen for intellectual, physical and spiritual characteristics. Fifty‐eight children were born. The programme was inspired by Noyes' theology of Perfectionism, Plato's Republic, agricultural selective breeding and concerns about human heredity. It was later justified by Noyes with the writings of Darwin and Galton. The children were followed up and deemed to be superior in physique, intellect, health and other characteristics.Though it attracted attention in its day, the experiment had little influence on the later eugenic movements in the USA and the UK. It is argued that this was because the Community's system of “complex marriage” and the arranged matings were an unacceptably radical challenge to the conventional notions of love and marriage which dominated these later eugenics movements. The first generation of descendants' attempts to bury aspects of the history of the Community also contributed a lack of knowledge of the experiment and its outcome.
The high-temperature characteristics of the Modular Helium Reactor (MHR) make it a strong candidate for the production of hydrogen using either thermochemical or high-temperature electrolysis (HTE) processes. Using heat from the MHR to drive a Sulfur-Iodine (S-I) thermochemical hydrogen process has been the subject of a DOE sponsored Nuclear Engineering Research Initiative (NERI) project lead by General Atomics, with participation from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and Texas A&M University. While the focus of much of the initial work was on the S-I thermochemical production of hydrogen, recent activities have also included development of a preconceptual design for an integral HTE hydrogen production plant driven by the process heat and electricity produced by a 600 MWt MHR. This paper describes RELAP5-3D analyses performed to evaluate alternative primary system cooling configurations for the MHR to minimize peak reactor vessel and core temperatures while achieving core helium outlet temperatures in the range of 900 oC to 1000 oC, needed for the efficient production of hydrogen using either the S-I thermochemical or HTE process. The cooling schemes investigated are intended to ensure peak fuel temperatures do not exceed specified limits under normal or transient upset conditions, and that reactor vessel temperatures do not exceed ASME code limits for steady-state or transient conditions using standard LWR vessel materials. Preconceptual designs for both an S-I thermochemical and HTE hydrogen production plant driven by a 600 MWt MHR at helium outlet temperatures in the range of 900 oC to 1000 oC are described and compared. An initial SAPHIRE model to evaluate the reliability, maintainablility, and availability of the S-I hydrogen production plant is also discussed, and plans for future assessments of conceptual designs for both a S-I thermochemical and HTE hydrogen production plant coupled to a 600 MWt modular helium reactor are described.
A combined effect of functional constraints and random mutational events is responsible for the sequence evolution of the human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region. Most studies targeting this noncoding segment usually focus on its primary sequence information disregarding other informative levels such as secondary or tertiary DNA conformations. In this work, we combined the most recent developments in DNA folding calculations with a phylogenetic comparative approach in order to investigate the formation of intrastrand secondary structures in the human mtDNA control region. Our most striking results are those regarding a new cloverleaf-like secondary structure predicted for a 93-bp stretch of the control region 5′-peripheral domain. Randomized sequences indicated that this structure has a more negative folding energy than the average of random sequences with the same nucleotide composition. In addition, a sliding window scan across the complete mitochondrial genome revealed that it stands out as having one of the highest folding potential. Moreover, we detected several lines of evidence of both negative and positive selection on this structure with high levels of conservation at the structure-relevant stem regions and the occurrence of compensatory base changes in the primate lineage. In the light of previous data, we discuss the possible involvement of this structure in mtDNA replication and/or transcription. We conclude that maintenance of this structure is responsible for the observed heterogeneity in the rate of substitution among sites in part of the human hypervariable region I and that it is a hot spot for the 3′ end of human mtDNA deletions.
TRAMP is used to calculate the transport of metallic fission products along multiple parallel paths; the primary application is transport in and release from nuclear-grade graphite. The transport mechanisms are concentration-driven diffusion, thermal diffusion, and convection.
In recent years there has been growing discussion about the genetic testing of children. There have been reviews of ethical, legal and research issues. This chapter introduces the issues that have dominated this debate and then discusses two questions. The first concerns children's understanding of inheritance and genetics. If children are to be involved in decisions about genetic testing and are to understand the implications of genetic tests, they need to understand at least the basic principles of inheritance. The second question concerns public attitudes towards the testing of children for adult-onset genetic diseases. Diagnostic testing is the least controversial of the areas of genetic testing in childhood. For disorders that develop in childhood, genetic testing may be employed as one of the diagnostic procedures used to ensure that those affected receive appropriate care and treatment.
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23d' x='45.714'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23e' transform='matrix(-1 0 0 1 479.792 0)'/%3e%3cg id='f' fill='%23fff'%3e%3cpath fill='%23039' d='M232.636 202.406v.005c0 2.212.85 4.227 2.212 5.69 1.365 1.466 3.245 2.377 5.302 2.377 2.067 0 3.944-.905 5.303-2.365 1.358-1.459 2.202-3.472 2.202-5.693v-10.768l-14.992-.013-.028 10.766'/%3e%3ccircle cx='236.074' cy='195.735' r='1.486'/%3e%3ccircle cx='244.392' cy='195.742' r='1.486'/%3e%3ccircle cx='240.225' cy='199.735' r='1.486'/%3e%3ccircle cx='236.074' cy='203.916' r='1.486'/%3e%3ccircle cx='244.383' cy='203.905' r='1.486'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23f' y='-26.016'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23f' x='-20.799'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23f' x='20.745'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23f' y='25.784'/%3e%3c/svg%3e)
