Abstract: A system and method that help to increase the likelihood of success in cultivating home gardens is described herein. The method includes the steps of receiving a customer's location data and a desired planting date, and accessing weather data for the customer's location and plant life cycle according to the desired planting date. For each plant in a plant collection, a computer server computes a success score for each growth phase in the life cycle of the plant, computes a total success score equal to a sum of success scores for all the growth phases, and ranks all plants in the plant collection according to the total success score. A recommendation of at least one high-ranking plant from the plant collection is then made to the customer.

Abstract: A twirling prop devoid of a gun barrel and for use by a marching band or the like is provided. The twirling prop includes a body having a top surface, a bottom surface, a base, a distal end, and a midline. The top surface, bottom surface, and base are non-colinear and are constructed such that at least a portion of each can be gripped. Openings extending laterally through the body of the twirling prop can be present and can, in certain instances, provide a means for gripping the twirling prop. Such openings can be positioned anywhere along the length of the body between the top surface and the bottom surface and can be of any size and shape desired.

Abstract: This invention relates to altered forms of members of the RNase A superfamily. An RNase A can be modified to be cytotoxic by altering its amino acid sequence so that it is not bound easily by the ribonuclease inhibitor while still retaining catalytic properties. While earlier work had identified some modifications to RNase A that would result in cytotoxicity, the use of the FADE algorithm for molecular interaction analysis has led to several other locations that were candidates for modification. Some of those modifications did result in RNase A variants with increase cytotoxicity.