EFFICIENT FAULT LOCATION IN UNDERGROUND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS THROUGH OPTIMUM-PATH FOREST

In this article we propose an efficient and accurate method for fault location in underground distribution systems by means of an Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifier. We applied the time domains reflectometry method for signal acquisition, which was further analyzed by OPF and several other well-known pattern recognition techniques. The results indicated that OPF and support vector machines outperformed artificial neural networks and a Bayesian classifier, but OPF was much more efficient than all classifiers for training, and the second fastest for classification.

The tale of a person and a peptide: Wylie W. Vale Jr. and the role of corticotropin- releasing factor in the stress response

The studies reviewed in this article certainly do not constitute the entire body of research conducted by Wylie Vale's group and his collaborators, they might constitute turning points in CRF research. In addition, the studies reviewed here show that, over the course of 31 years (from 1981 to 2012), Wylie tirelessly pursued the answers to fundamental questions regarding CRF. He was a man whose drive never seemed to falter

Identification of Aspergillus flavus isolates as potential biocontrol agents of aflatoxin contamination in crops

Aspergillus flavus, a haploid organism found worldwide in a variety of crops, including maize, cottonseed, almond, pistachio, and peanut, causes substantial and recurrent worldwide economic liabilities. This filamentous fungus produces aflatoxins (AFLs) B1 and B2, which are among the most carcinogenic compounds from nature, acutely hepatotoxic and immunosuppressive. Recent efforts to reduce AFL contamination in crops have focused on the use of nonaflatoxigenic A. flavus strains as biological control agents. Such agents are applied to soil to competitively exclude native AFL strains from crops and thereby reduce AFL contamination. Because the possibility of genetic recombination in A. flavus could influence the stability of biocontrol strains with the production of novel AFL phenotypes, this article assesses the diversity of vegetative compatibility reactions in isolates of A. flavus to identify heterokaryon self-incompatible (HSI) strains among nonaflatoxigenic isolates, which would be used as biological controls of AFL contamination in crops. Nitrate nonutilizing (nit) mutants were recovered from 25 A. flavus isolates, and based on vegetative complementation between nit mutants and on the microscopic examination of the number of hyphal fusions, five nonaflatoxigenic (6, 7, 9 to 11) and two nontoxigenic (8 and 12) isolates of A. flavus were phenotypically characterized as HSI. Because the number of hyphal fusions is reduced in HSI strains, impairing both heterokaryon formation and the genetic exchanges with aflatoxigenic strains, the HSI isolates characterized here, especially isolates 8 and 12, are potential agents for reducing AFL contamination in crops

Andreas Osianders Schrift über die Blutbeschuldigung (Ob es war und glaublich sey, dass die Juden der Christen kinder heimlich erwürgen und jr blut gebrauchen)

wiederaufgefunden u. im Neudruck hrsg. von Moritz Stern

In Memoriam: Herbert E Wright Jr 1917-2015

Herbert E Wright Jr was one of the foremost Quaternary scientists of the last century. He made wide ranging contributions to our understanding of the late-Quaternary of North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. This was based largely on reconstructing palaeoenvironments from lake sediments and included the important implications for glacial, vegetational, fire and climatic history, geoarchaeology and conservation. Many of his inter-disciplinary research projects involved fieldwork with his graduate students and co-workers from the University of Minnesota where he created and led the renowned Limnological Research Center. Perhaps his most outstanding contribution was as an instigator of the Co-operative Holocene Mapping Project (COHMAP). This triggered a paradigm shift in Holocene climatic research involving the comparison of climate-model simulations of past climates with palaeoclimatic data.

Ludwig Hatvany: Bondy jr. [Rezension]

S. S.

José Julián Prado: Voluntad y naturaleza. La antropología filosófica de Máximo El Confesor. Ediciones de la Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Río Cuarto. Córdoba. 1974 .

Fil: Prada, Gloria.