CCMB Seminar Series
Abstract: Microbes are found in such varied environments, from hot springs to the gastrointestinal tract, and have important roles in various natural processes. However, most of our knowledge on microbes is based on those few (estimated to be <1%) that we have been able to cultivate in the laboratory. Thus, we are far from a full understanding of microbial diversity. The rapidly emerging field of metagenomics seeks to understand the roles and interactions of organisms in an ecosystem by examining their genomic content. Shotgun sequencing of microbial communities offers a cultivation independent approach to studying the different players in these communities. We present our findings on shotgun sequence data generated from samples taken by the Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) Expedition. These data reveal the incredible diversity and heterogeneity in naturally occurring marine microbial populations. Over 6 million proteins are predicted in the GOS data. Besides nearly doubling the number of current proteins, the GOS proteins add a great amount of diversity to known protein families and shed light on their evolution. The GOS proteins cover nearly all known prokaryotic protein families. In addition, a large number of novel protein families are also predicted from these data. Several protein domains that were previously categorized as kingdom-specific, have GOS examples in other kingdoms. Our analysis indicates that we are still far from discovering all protein families that exist in nature.
Brown Analysis Seminar
CENTER FOR FLUID MECHANICS ANDTHE FLUIDS, THERMAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES GROUP OF THE DIVISION OF ENGINEERING SEMINAR SERIES
Abstract: Wind energy is a mature technology, one that can provide clean air and clean water, electric lights at night, and cheaper electric bills. But in the past six years, only a few megawatts of wind have been built in New England. Why? Who is keeping the region from entering the 21st century? BIO: Wendy Williams is a well-known author of the book "Cape Wind", which was named one of the 10 best environmental books of 2007 by Booklist. Her writing, which has received many awards, has appeared in a wide array of publications, from Scientific American to Parade Magazine, including several op-ed pieces in major newspapers. She has been a fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, at Duke University, at the Hastings Center for Medical Ethics and at the University of Colorado Center for Environmental Journalism.
Department of Mathematics Colloquium
PDE Seminar
Abstract: Elliptic and parabolic equations with coefficients measurable in one spatial variable and VMO (vanishing mean oscillation) in the other spatial variables will be presented. For parabolic equations, coefficients are further allowed to be measurable in time. Equations are of non-divergence form and solutions are found in Sobolev spaces (with mixed norms). Equations in the whole space are first considered. Then using this result, Dirichlet and Neumann boundary value problems in a half-space are solved without having any boundary a priori L_p estimates. This allows us to deal with, for example, parabolic equations in a bounded domain with coefficients measurable in time and VMO in spatial variables.
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