Wet weather highway accident analysis and skid resistance data management system. Volume 2: user's manual. Final report.

Louisiana Transportation Research Center, Baton Rouge

Passenger car spark ignition data base. Volume III: miscellaneous data, part I. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Research and Development, Washington, D.C.

Passenger car spark ignition data base. Volume III: miscellaneous data, part II. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Research and Development, Washington, D.C.

Transportation statistical data and information. Final report.

Transportation Department, Office of Transportation Systems Analysis and Information, Washington, D.C.

Applying an equity lens to tobacco-control policies and their uptake in six western-european countries

We identified policies that may be effective in reducing smoking among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, and examined trends in their level of application between 1985 and 2000 in six western-European countries (Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain). We located studies from literature searches in major databases, and acquired policy data from international data banks and questionnaires distributed to tobacco policy organisations/researchers. Advertising bans, smoking bans in workplaces, removing barriers to smoking cessation therapies, and increasing the cost of cigarettes have the potential to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in smoking. Between 1985 and 2000, tobacco control policies in most countries have become more targeted to decrease the smoking behaviour of low-socioeconomic groups. Despite this, many national tobacco-control strategies in western-European countries still fall short of a comprehensive policy approach to addressing smoking inequalities.

A view from the edge of the forest : recent progress in understanding the relationships of the insect orders

Research over the last two decades has significantly increased our understanding of the evolutionary position of the insects among other arthropods, and the relationships among the insect Orders. Many of these insights have been established through increasingly sophisticated analyses of DNA sequence data from a limited number of genes. Recent results have established the relationships of the Holometabola, but relationships among the hemimetabolous orders have been more difficult to elucidate. A strong consensus on the relationships among the Palaeoptera (Ephemeroptera and Odonata) and their relationship to the Neoptera has not emerged with all three possible resolutions supported by different data sets. While polyneopteran relationships generally have resisted significant resolution, it is now clear that termites, Isoptera, are nested within the cockroaches, Blattodea. The newly discovered order Mantophasmatodea is difficult to place with the balance of studies favouring Grylloblattodea as sister-group. While some studies have found the paraneopteran orders (Hemiptera, Thysanoptera, Phthiraptera and Psocoptera) monophyletic, evidence suggests that parasitic lice (Phthiraptera) have evolved from groups within the book and bark lice (Psocoptera), and may represent parallel evolutions of parasitism within two major louse groups. Within Holometabola, it is now clear that Hymenoptera are the sister to the other orders, that, in turn are divided into two clades, the Neuropteroidea (Coleoptera, Neuroptera and relatives) and the Mecopterida (Trichoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera and their relatives). The enigmatic order Strepsiptera, the twisted wing insects, have now been placed firmly near Coleoptera, rejecting their close relationship to Diptera that was proposed some 15years ago primarily based on ribosomal DNA data. Phylogenomic-scale analyses are just beginning to be focused on the relationships of the insect orders, and this is where we expect to see resolution of palaeopteran and polyneopteran relationships. Future research will benefit from greater coordination between intra and inter-ordinal analyses. This will maximise the opportunities for appropriate outgroup choice at the intraordinal level and provide the background knowledge for the interordinal analyses to span the maximum phylogenetic scope within groups.

Analysis of genome survey sequences and SSR marker development for Siamese Mud Carp, Henicorhynchus siamensis, using 454 Pyrosequencing

Siamese mud carp (Henichorynchus siamensis) is a freshwater teleost of high economic importance in the Mekong River Basin. However, genetic data relevant for delineating wild stocks for management purposes currently are limited for this species. Here, we used 454 pyrosequencing to generate a partial genome survey sequence (GSS) dataset to develop simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers from H. siamensis genomic DNA. Data generated included a total of 65,954 sequence reads with average length of 264 nucleotides, of which 2.79% contain SSR motifs. Based on GSS-BLASTx results, 10.5% of contigs and 8.1% singletons possessed significant similarity (E value < 10–5) with the majority matching well to reported fish sequences. KEGG analysis identified several metabolic pathways that provide insights into specific potential roles and functions of sequences involved in molecular processes in H. siamensis. Top protein domains detected included reverse transcriptase and the top putative functional transcript identified was an ORF2-encoded protein. One thousand eight hundred and thirty seven sequences containing SSR motifs were identified, of which 422 qualified for primer design and eight polymorphic loci have been tested with average observed and expected heterozygosity estimated at 0.75 and 0.83, respectively. Regardless of their relative levels of polymorphism and heterozygosity, microsatellite loci developed here are suitable for further population genetic studies in H. siamensis and may also be applicable to other related taxa.

Overview of the INEX 2011 snippet retrieval track

This paper gives an overview of the INEX 2011 Snippet Retrieval Track. The goal of the Snippet Retrieval Track is to provide a common forum for the evaluation of the effectiveness of snippets, and to investigate how best to generate snippets for search results, which should provide the user with sufficient information to determine whether the underlying document is relevant. We discuss the setup of the track, and the evaluation results.

Load frequency control in a microgrid : challenges and improvements

A microgrid can span over a large area, especially in rural townships. In such cases, the distributed generators (DGs) must be controlled in a decentralized fashion, based on the locally available measurements. The main concerns are control of system voltage magnitude and frequency, which can either lead to system instability or voltage collapse. In this chapter, the operational challenges of load frequency control in a microgrid are discussed and few methods are proposed to meet these challenges. In particular, issues of power sharing, power quality and system stability are addressed, when the system operates under decentralized control. The main focus of this chapter is to provide solutions to improve the system performance in different situations. The scenarios considered are (a) when the system stability margin is low, (b) when the line impedance has a high R to X ratio, (c) when the system contains unbalanced and/or distorted loads. Also a scheme is proposed in which a microgrid can be frequency isolated from a utility grid while being capable of bidirectional power transfer. In all these cases, the use of angle droop in converter interfaced DGs is adopted. It has been shown that this results in a more responsive control action compared to the traditional frequency based droop control.

Impacts of climatic factors on evolution of molecular diversity and the natural distribution of wild stocks of the giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii)

Natural distributions of most freshwater taxa are restricted geographically, a pattern that reflects dispersal limitation. Macrobrachium rosenbergii is unusual because it occurs naturally in rivers from near Pakistan in the west, across India and Bangladesh to the Malay Peninsula, and across the Sunda Shelf and Indonesian archipelago to western Java. Individuals cannot tolerate full marine conditions, so dispersal between river drainage basins must occur at limited geographical scales when ecological or climatic factors are favorable. We examined molecular diversity in wild populations of M. rosenbergii across its complete natural range to document patterns of diversity and to relate them to factors that have driven evolution of diversity in this species. We found 3 clades in the mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA) data set that corresponded geographically with eastern, central, and western sets of haplotypes that last shared a common ancestor 1 × 106 y ago. The eastern clade was closest to the common ancestor of all 3 clades and to the common ancestor with its congener, Macrobrachium spinipes, distributed east of Huxley's Line. Macrobrachium rosenbergii could have evolved in the western Indonesian archipelago and spread westward during the early to mid-Pleistocene to India and Sri Lanka. Additional groups identified in the nuclear DNA data set in the central and western clades probably indicate secondary contact via dispersal between regions and modern introductions that have mixed nuclear and mtDNA genes. Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations can explain dispersal across the Indonesian archipelago and parts of mainland southeastern Asia via changing river drainage connections in shallow seas on wide continental shelves. At the western end of the modern distribution where continental shelves are smaller, intermittent freshwater plumes from large rivers probably permitted larval dispersal across inshore areas of lowered salinity.

Effect of plasma environment on synthesis of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

We present a theoretical model describing a plasma-assisted growth of carbon nanofibers (CNFs), which involves two competing channels of carbon incorporation into stacked graphene sheets: via surface diffusion and through the bulk of the catalyst particle (on the top of the nanofiber), accounting for a range of ion- and radical-assisted processes on the catalyst surface. Using this model, it is found that at low surface temperatures, Ts, the CNF growth is indeed controlled by surface diffusion, thus quantifying the semiempirical conclusions of earlier experiments. On the other hand, both the surface and bulk diffusion channels provide a comparable supply of carbon atoms to the stacked graphene sheets at elevated synthesis temperatures. It is also shown that at low Ts, insufficient for effective catalytic precursor decomposition, the plasma ions play a key role in the production of carbon atoms on the catalyst surface. The model is used to compute the growth rates for the two extreme cases of thermal and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of CNFs. More importantly, these results quantify and explain a number of observations and semiempirical conclusions of earlier experiments.

Efetividade das dietas enriquecidas com imunonutrientes na redução de complicações e mortalidade em pacientes críticos: abordagem pela utilização de metanálise

Nutrientes específicos, denominados farmaconutrientes, demonstraram possuir a capacidade de modular a resposta imunológica e inflamatória de animais e seres humanos, em estudos clínicos e laboratoriais. Dentre os substratos conhecidos, os que têm maior relevância e ação imunomoduladora são a arginina, glutamina, ácido graxo n-3 e nucleotídeos. No entanto, revisões sistemáticas e meta-análises buscam consenso em relação aos vários e controversos resultados publicados sobre os possíveis benefícios da imunonutrição em pacientes críticos. Nossos objetivos foram avaliar a efetividade das dietas enriquecidas com Imunonutrientes na redução de complicações e mortalidade nos diferentes tipos de pacientes críticos. O presente estudo é uma revisão sistemática com metanálise onde foram inseridos ensaios clínicos randomizados avaliando o uso de nutrientes imunomoduladores em doente adulto de ambos os sexos, definido como crítico traumatizado, séptico, queimado ou cirúrgico; as dietas utilizadas deveriam conter um ou mais dos imunonutrientes, em qualquer dose, administradas por via enteral comparadas à dieta padrão pela mesma via em pelo menos um dos grupos de comparação. As bases de dados consultadas foram Pubmed e Cinhal, utilizando os termos: Immunonutrition, arginine, glutamine, n-3, nucleotides e criticall illness. De 206 artigos encontrados inicialmente, apenas 35 preencheram os critérios de elegibilidade estabelecidos. Destes 35 ensaios clínicos, 18 foram conduzidos em pacientes cirúrgicos, 6 em pacientes traumatizados, 5 em pacientes queimados, 5 em pacientes críticos em geral e 1 em pacientes sépticos. Para a população geral, não houve redução significativa do risco de morrer indicada pelo RR de 0,84 (IC de 0,68 a 1,05) e os queimados foram mais protegidos de morrer com RR de 0,25 (IC de 0,09 a 0,66); as complicações infecciosas foram reduzidas com RR de 0,56 (IC de 0,42 a 0,73); a incidência de sepse foi reduzida com RR de 0,45 (IC de 0,29 a 0,69), especialmente nos pacientes traumatizados com RR de 0,42 (IC de 0,26 a 0,68); a incidência de abscesso abdominal também foi reduzida com RR de 0,39 (IC de 0,21 a 0,72) e também de bacteremia com RR de 0,46 (IC de 0,31 a 0,66); o tempo de internação hospitalar diminuiu -3,9 dias (IC de -5,0 a -2,8). Para a população de pacientes cirúrgicos: o óbito não apresentou redução significativa do RR de 0,93 (IC de 0,44 a 1,95), as complicações infecciosas foram reduzidas com RR de 0,51 (IC de 0,41 a 0,63), o tempo de internação hospitalar foi reduzido - 3,41 dias (IC de -4,25 a -2,58) e o tempo de internação em UTI -1,72 dias (IC de -2,12 a -1,31). A utilização de dietas com nutrientes imunomoduladores não alterou a mortalidade em doentes críticos ou cirúrgicos. Indivíduos com mais de 60 anos são menos protegidos de morrer pela utilização de dietas com imunomoduladores. As complicações infecciosas são reduzidas em pacientes críticos com a utilização de imunonutrição, em especial a população de pacientes cirúrgicos. Dietas com mais de 10g/l de arginina protegem mais os pacientes críticos da incidência de complicações infecciosas. Pacientes traumatizados são protegidos da incidência de sepse pela utilização da imunonutrição. O tempo de internação hospitalar e o tempo de internação em UTI foram reduzidos em críticos e cirúrgicos com imunonutrição. A execução de ensaios clínicos explanatórios nos diferentes tipos de doentes críticos com um nutriente imunomodulador isolado, seguida de ensaios pragmáticos de acordo com os resultados dos anteriores, é um fato a ser considerado em futuras pesquisas.

Systematics of the North American menhadens: molecular evolutionary reconstructions in the genus Brevoortia (Clupeiformes: Clupeidae)

Evolutionary associations among the four North American species of menhadens (Brevoortia spp.) have not been thoroughly investigated. In the present study, classifications separating the four species into small-scaled and large-scaled groups were evaluated by using DNA data, and genetic associations within these groups were explored. Specifically, data from the nuclear genome (microsatellites) and the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA sequences) were used to elicit patterns of recent and historical evolutionary associations. Nuclear DNA data indicated limited contemporary gene flow among the species, and also indicated higher relatedness within the small-scaled and large-scaled menhadens than between these groups. Mitochondrial DNA sequences of the large-scaled menhadens indicated the presence of two ancestral lineages, one of which contained members of both species. This result may indicate genetic diver-gence (reproductive isolation) followed by secondary contact (hybridization) between these species. In contrast, a single ancestral lineage indicated incomplete genetic divergence between the small-scaled menhaden. These results are discussed in the context of the biology and demographics of each species.

药用野生稻复合体（稻属）的分子系统发育与进化研究

稻属（Oryza L.）隶属于禾本科（Gramineae）Ehrhartoideae亚科的稻族（Oryzeae），包括两个栽培种（亚洲栽培稻O. sativa和非洲栽培稻O. glaberrima）和大约20多个野生种，广布于热带亚洲、非洲、大洋洲、中美洲和南美洲。药用野生稻复合体（O. officinalis complex）是稻属中最大、也是最复杂的一个复合体，共包括9个种，含有5种染色体组类型（B、C、BC、CD 和E）。作为栽培稻品质改良的重要基因库，药用野生稻复合体在稻属中具有重要的地位。但是，相似的形态和重叠的地理分布使部分物种的分类和鉴定一直较为困难;种内染色体组构成和倍性的不同更增加了分类鉴定的复杂性。这种情况阻碍了对这些野生稻遗传优势的有效利用。另外，由于物种间断分布和缺乏明确的二倍体亲本等原因，药用野生稻复合体内的异源多倍体起源一直存在争议。本文通过细胞核乙醇脱氢酶基因（Adh）和nrDNA的内转录间隔区（ITS）限制性片段长度多态性（RFLP）分析;叶绿体matK 基因、trnL 内含子和trnL-trnF 基因间隔区、核基因Adh和GPA1以及核糖体DNA ITS片段等序列比较的方法，对药用野生稻复合体中染色体组和物种的鉴定、种间系统发育关系，以及异源多倍体CCDD物种的起源和多倍体ITS的分子进化等进行了研究。主要研究结果如下： 1． 利用核Adh 基因限制性片段长度多态性，检测了来自国际水稻研究所基因库的64份药用野生稻复合体的样品。结果证明，所有O. rhizomatis样品都是含C染色体组的二倍体，所有O. minuta样品都是含BC 染色体组的四倍体。但是，种子库中鉴定为O. officinalis、O. punctata和O. eichingeri的样品中，同时都发现了含C染色体组的二倍体和含BC染色体组的四倍体。四倍体的O. officinalis只在印度分布，而且曾被描述为另一个种O. malampuzhaensis。 四倍体的O. punctata，也被一些学者称为O. schweinfurthiana，被发现和其二倍体一样分布广泛。值得注意的是，有两个曾被作为O. officinalis 四倍体的样品实际上是含有CD染色体组的物种O. latifolia。我们的结果增进了对国际水稻研究所种子库中部分野生稻样品染色体组构成的理解, 纠正了以往对药用野生稻复合体样品的错误鉴定，为今后进一步研究和利用这部分资源提供了种质编目的重要基础。 2． 对稻属中代表不同地理分布区的、含CD染色体组的11个样品（包括77个克隆）的ITS片段进行了测序。基于这些ITS序列的限制性片段长度多态性，提出一个快速而可靠的区分稻属CD 染色体组物种的方法。这个方法的具体步骤是：（1）利用通用引物扩增ITS 片段;（2）利用限制性内切酶FokI和/或DraⅢ消化PCR扩增产物;（3）用1%的琼脂糖胶电泳并根据消化产物的片段长度多态性来区分不同物种。 3． 利用包括两个叶绿体片段（matK和 trnL-trnF）、nrDNA内转录间隔区（ITS）和三个核基因（Adh1、Adh2和GPA1）的同源序列分析，探讨了药用野生稻复合体中二倍体物种和它们所代表的染色体组之间的系统发育关系。独立和合并的基因系统发育树都显示了一致的结果，即C染色体组和B染色体组的亲缘关系要比它们和E染色体组的近。三个含C染色体组的二倍体中，O. officinalis 和O. rhizomatis表现出较近的亲缘关系。值得注意的是，在O. eichingeri种内，尽管基于多基因的数据支持来自斯里兰卡的样品和来自非洲的样品聚成一个分支，但是较低的支持率表明, 两个地区的样品之间存在着较高的遗传分化。 4． 稻属中含CD染色体组的物种特产于拉丁美洲，包括O. alta、 O. grandiglumis 和O. latifolia。由于具有相同的染色体组类型、相似的形态特征和重叠的地理分布，这3个物种间的系统发育关系一直存在争论。另外，因为美洲大陆上没有含C和D染色体组的二倍体物种存在，对这些含CD染色体组物种的可能起源也有不同的假设被提出。使这个问题更具挑战性的是，尽管开展了世界范围的收集，至今仍没有找到含D 染色体组的二倍体物种。在本研究中，代表含C、CD和E染色体组以及含G染色体组的外类群共7个物种，共15份样品的2个叶绿体片段（matK和trnL-trnF）和3个核基因（Adh1，Adh2 和 GPA1）部分片段被测序。基于简约法、距离法和最大似然法的系统发育分析都充分支持含CD染色体组的物种起源于一次杂交事件的推论，并且显示，在物种形成时，含C染色体组的物种（O. officinalis 或O. rhizomatis 而非O. eichingeri）可能承担了母本，而含E染色体组的物种（O. australiensis）则可能承担了父本。另外，CCDD物种间非常一致的系统发育关系表明，非常大的分歧存在于 O. latifolia 和其它两个种（O. alta和O. grandiglumis）之间，这个结果倾向于将后两个种处理为同种或同种下不同分类群。 5． 基于178个克隆序列比较，探讨了ITS在稻属多倍体中的致同进化及其系统学意义。研究发现稻属异源四倍体的ITS存在不同形式的进化方式：首先，非洲BBCC四倍体O. eichingeri和O. punctata 的ITS片段同时保留了双亲拷贝，而且系统发育研究表明，二倍体的O. eichingeri和O. punctata 可能是这两个四倍体的直接祖先;其次，亚洲四倍体O. malampuzhaensis和O. minuta 的ITS仅定向保留母本ITS拷贝;另外，美洲CCDD四倍体的ITS序列发生了双向致同进化，即O. alta和O. grandiglumis的ITS位点一致化成C染色体组类型，而O. latifolia一致化成 D/E 染色体组类型。我们的研究进一步表明在利用ITS片段进行系统发育分析时，特别是涉及异源多倍体时必须慎重。 6． 利用栽培稻的微卫星引物，对含B/C染色体组的6个物种，157个体的SSR位点进行扩增。结果在这些亲缘关系稍远的野生稻中得到7个SSR位点，其中5个位点表现出多态性。比较BB、CC和BBCC物种SSR位点的每位点平均等位基因数A、多态位点百分率P和期望杂合度He ，3项指标发现，四倍体物种的遗传多样性，总体上要高于二倍体物种;二倍体物种内部，O. officnalis的遗传变异最大。另外，以遗传相关性为标准，讨论了B/C染色体组物种间的系统发育关系，同时推测了现存二倍体物种和4个BBCC四倍体物种的遗传关系。

UNUSUAL CHROMOSOME-NUMBER OF GRACILARIA-VERRUCOSA (GRACILARIALES, RHODOPHYTA) IN THE CAPE-GRIS-NEZ AREA, NORTHERN FRANCE

The chromosome number of Gracilaria verrucosa (Hudson) Papenfuss was estimated in numerous individuals from different populations of the Cape Gris-Nez area of Northern France. To optimize estimates and to minimize counting errors, several counts were made on the same nucleus and in different nuclei of the same individual. The haploid chromosome number was estimated in vegetative gametophytic cells and tetrasporocytic cells; the diploid number was estimated from tetrasporophytic vegetative cells. The basic haploid number was n = 17 +/- 1, whereas all other Gracilaria species for which chromosome numbers are available are reported to have n = 24. These include populations of G. verrucosa from Norway and Wales that have previously been shown to be conspecific with the Cape Gris-Nez populations by comparison of plastid DNA data. G. verrucosa is therefore one of the few red algae for which populations with different chromosome numbers are known.