Field Evaluation of Electro-Reflective Measuring Apparatus (ERMA), MLR-81-01, 1981

The Electro-Reflective Measuring Apparatus (ERMA) was developed by the Minnesota Department of Highways in 1974 to measure the retro-reflective characteristics of pavement marking materials. Minnesota researchers recommended that due to the increased cost of pavement marking materials and reduced availability of these materials, ERMA can and should be used as a maintenance management tool to determine when painting is necessary rather than according to a fixed time schedule. The Iowa DOT Office of Materials built an ERMA device patterned after Minnesota's design in 1976. Subsequent efforts to calibrate and correlate this ERMA device to District Paint Foremen ratings proved unsuccessful, and ERMA modification or abandonment was recommended in 1979. Lyman Moothart, Materials Lab. Tech. 4, modified the ERMA device in 1980 and correlation attempts to District Paint Foremen ratings conducted in November 1980 have been moderately successful. A Paint/No Paint ERMA value has been established which will identify about 90% of the painting needs but will also include about 40% of the marking lines not needing repainting. The Office of Maintenance should establish a trial ERMA program to study the accuracy and potential cost savings of using ERMA to identify pavement marking needs.

New prognostic factors and calculators for outcome prediction in patients with recurrent glioblastoma: A pooled analysis of EORTC Brain Tumour Group phase I and II clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Prognostic models have been developed to predict survival of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM). To improve predictions, models should be updated with information at the recurrence. We performed a pooled analysis of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) trials on recurrent glioblastoma to validate existing clinical prognostic factors, identify new markers, and derive new predictions for overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS).¦METHODS: Data from 300 patients with recurrent GBM recruited in eight phase I or II trials conducted by the EORTC Brain Tumour Group were used to evaluate patient's age, sex, World Health Organisation (WHO) performance status (PS), presence of neurological deficits, disease history, use of steroids or anti-epileptics and disease characteristics to predict PFS and OS. Prognostic calculators were developed in patients initially treated by chemoradiation with temozolomide.¦RESULTS: Poor PS and more than one target lesion had a significant negative prognostic impact for both PFS and OS. Patients with large tumours measured by the maximum diameter of the largest lesion (⩾42mm) and treated with steroids at baseline had shorter OS. Tumours with predominant frontal location had better survival. Age and sex did not show independent prognostic values for PFS or OS.¦CONCLUSIONS: This analysis confirms performance status but not age as a major prognostic factor for PFS and OS in recurrent GBM. Patients with multiple and large lesions have an increased risk of death. With these data prognostic calculators with confidence intervals for both medians and fixed time probabilities of survival were derived.

The use of insulin to improve fertility of timed-inseminated postpartum suckled beef cows

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of insulin alone or in association with equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) on the fertility of postpartum beef cows subjected to synchronization. A total of 340 cows was subjected to fixed time artificial insemination. In the trial 1, the cows were subjected to temporary weaning (TW), while in the trial 2 the same protocol was tested without TW. The addition of an insulin injection to a progesterone/eCG-based protocol without TW increased the pregnancy rate of beef cows with body condition score (BCS) equal to or lower than 2.5. Insulin had no effect on cows submitted to TW or with BCS equal to or higher than 3.0.

A novel indicator reaction for the catalytic determination of V(V) at ppb levels by the kinetic spectrophotometric method

A novel sensitive and relatively selective kinetic method is presented for the determination of V(V), based on its catalytic effect on the oxidation reaction of Ponceau Xylydine by potassium bromate in presence of 5-sulfosalicylic acid (SSA) as activator. The reaction was monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease in absorbance of Ponceau Xylydine at 640 nm between 0.5 to 7 min (the fixed time method) in H3PO4 medium at 25ºC. The effect of various parameters such as concentrations of H3PO4, SSA, bromate and Ponceau Xylydine, temperature and ionic strength on the rate of net reaction were studied. The method is free from most interferences, especially from large amounts of V(IV). The decrease in absorbance is proportional to the concentration of V(V) over the entire concentration range tested (1-15 ng mL−1) with a detection limit of 0.46 ng mL-1 (according to statistical 3Sblank/k criterion) and a coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.8% (for ten replicate measurement at 95% confidence level). The proposed method suffers few interferences such as Cr(VI) and Hg(II) ions. The method was successfully applied to the determination of V(V) in tap water, drinking water, bottled mineral water samples and a certified standard reference material such as SRM-1640 with satisfactory results. The vanadium contents of water samples were also determined by FAAS for a comparison. The recovery of spiked vanadium(V) was found to be quantitative and the reproducibility was satisfactory. It was observed that the results of the SRM 1640 were in good agreement with the certified value.

Ionic liquid mediated biomass deconstruction: from analysis challenges to fermentable sugars

Ionic liquids, ILs, have recently been studied with accelerating interest to be used for a deconstruction/fractionation, dissolution or pretreatment processing method of lignocellulosic biomass. ILs are usually utilized combined with heat. Regarding lignocellulosic recalcitrance toward fractionation and IL utilization, most of the studies concern IL utilization in the biomass fermentation process prior to the enzymatic hydrolysis step. It has been demonstrated that IL-pretreatment gives more efficient hydrolysis of the biomass polysaccharides than enzymatic hydrolysis alone. Both cellulose (especially cellulose) and lignin are very resistant towards fractionation and even dissolution methods. As an example, it can be mentioned that softwood, hardwood and grass-type plant species have different types of lignin structures leading to the fact that softwood lignin (guaiacyl lignin dominates) is the most difficult to solubilize or chemically disrupt. In addition to the known conventional biomass processing methods, several ILs have also been found to efficiently dissolve either cellulose and/or wood samples – different ILs are suitable for different purposes. An IL treatment of wood usually results in non-fibrous pulp, where lignin is not efficiently separated and wood components are selectively precipitated, as cellulose is not soluble or degradable in ionic liquids under mild conditions. Nevertheless, new ILs capable of rather good fractionation performance have recently emerged. The capability of the IL to dissolve or deconstruct wood or cellulose depends on several factors, (e.g. sample origin, the particle size of the biomass, mechanical treatments as pulverization, initial biomassto-IL ratio, water content of the biomass, possible impurities of IL, reaction conditions, temperature etc). The aim of this study was to obtain (fermentable) saccharides and other valuable chemicals from wood by a combined heat and IL-treatment. Thermal treatments alone contribute to the degradation of polysaccharides (e.g. 150 °C alone is said to cause the degradation of polysaccharides), thus temperatures below that should be used, if the research interest lies on the IL effectiveness. On the other hand, the efficiency of the IL-treatment can also be enhanced to combine other treatment methods, (e.g. microwave heating). The samples of spruce, pine and birch sawdust were treated with either 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, Emim Cl, or 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, Emim Ac, (or with ionized water for comparison) at various temperatures (where focus was between 80 and 120 °C). The samples were withdrawn at fixed time intervals (the main interest treatment time area lied between 0 and 100 hours). Double experiments were executed. The selected mono- and disaccharides, as well as their known degradation products, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, 5-HMF, and furfural were analyzed with capillary electrophoresis, CE, and high-performance liquid chromatography, HPLC. Initially, even GC and GC-MS were utilized. Galactose, glucose, mannose and xylose were the main monosaccharides that were present in the wood samples exposed to ILs at elevated temperatures; in addition, furfural and 5-HMF were detected; moreover, the quantitative amount of the two latter ones were naturally increasing in line with the heating time or the IL:wood ratio.

Évaluation de l’endométrite clinique chez la vache laitière et efficacité d’un traitement de céfapirine sous forme d’une infusion intra-utérine.

Cette étude valide l’efficacité du traitement de céfapirine intra-utérin sur les vaches diagnostiquées comme positives à l’endométrite clinique (PVD+) par vaginoscopie. Un seuil diagnostic des PVD+ a, d’abord, été déterminé selon les effets néfastes significatifs des écoulements vaginaux sur le statut de gestation à 120 jours post-partum. Les observations de 1247 vaches de 18 troupeaux, faites à 34 ± 7 jours post-partum, ont mené à considérer la présence de mucus vaginal trouble avec ou sans flocons de pus comme seuil pour les PVD+. La prévalence de PVD+ était de 21.6%. La chance d’être gestante à la première insémination effectuée à temps fixe sur un protocole de synchronisation était 1.89 fois moindre chez les vaches PVD+. Le traitement de céfapirine a été administré aléatoirement lors de la première visite. Même en absence d’effets significatifs sur la guérison clinique évaluée après 2 semaines, le traitement améliore significativement les performances en reproduction des PDV+. Les PVD+ ayant reçu le traitement avaient 1.85 fois plus de chance d’être gestantes à la première insémination que les PVD+ du groupe contrôle. Elles présentaient aussi une amélioration du jour ouvert médian de 38 jours.

The Systematics, Distribution and Bionomics of Deep sea fishes beyond depth 200m along the South west coast of India

Reducing fishing pressure in coastal waters is the need of the day in the Indian marine fisheries sector of the country which is fast changing from a mere vocational activity to a capital intensive industry. It requires continuous monitoring of the resource exploitation through a scientifically acceptable methodology, data on production of each species stock, the number and characteristics of the fishing gears of the fleet, various biological characteristics of each stock, the impact of fishing on the environment and the role of fishery—independent on availability and abundance. Besides this, there are issues relating to capabilities in stock assessment, taxonomy research, biodiversity, conservation and fisheries management. Generation of reliable data base over a fixed time frame, their analysis and interpretation are necessary before drawing conclusions on the stock size, maximum sustainable yield, maximum economic yield and to further implement various fishing regulatory measures. India being a signatory to several treaties and conventions, is obliged to carry out assessments of the exploited stocks and manage them at sustainable levels. Besides, the nation is bound by its obligation of protein food security to people and livelihood security to those engaged in marine fishing related activities. Also, there are regional variabilities in fishing technology and fishery resources. All these make it mandatory for India to continue and strengthen its marine capture fisheries research in general and deep sea fisheries in particular. Against this background, an attempt is made to strengthen the deep sea fish biodiversity and also to generate data on the distribution, abundance, catch per unit effort of fishery resources available beyond 200 m in the EEZ of southwest coast ofIndia and also unravel some of the aspects of life history traits of potentially important non conventional fish species inhabiting in the depth beyond 200 m. This study was carried out as part of the Project on Stock Assessment and Biology of Deep Sea Fishes of Indian EEZ (MoES, Govt. of India).

Corticosteroides vs dosis bajas de adrenocorticotropina en el tratamiento de espasmos infantiles. Revisión sistemática de la literatura

Antecedentes: El tratamiento de los espasmos infantiles generalmente se realiza con ACTH a pesar de perfil de efectos secundarios y el alto costo financiero. Se ha propuesto el uso de los corticoides como primera línea de tratamiento para la enfermedad, no obstante no existe certeza sobre la eficacia de este esquema. Objetivos: Evaluar la eficacia del uso de los corticoides comparados con la ACTH como primera línea de tratamiento en el manejo de pacientes con espasmos infantiles. Metodología: Se realizó una revisión sistemática de la literatura. La búsqueda se efectuó en las bases de datos Pubmed, Embase, Ovid, LiLaCs y en el registro de ensayos clínicos de Estados Unidos. Se incluyeron estudios en portugués, ingles y español, no se fijo límite de tiempo para la publicación. Se realizó un análisis de riesgo de sesgo y de calidad de la evidencia utilizando el programa GRADEPRO. Se estimaron OR y sus respectivos intervalos de confianza al 95%. Resultados: Se incluyeron 4 estudios, un ensayo clínico y tres estudios de cohorte retrospectiva. Dos estudios aportaron evidencia de calidad moderada y alta. No se encontraron diferencias en la eficacia a corto plazo entre el uso de los corticoides y la ACTH sobre desenlaces clínicos o electroencefalográficos. No se encontraron estudios de seguridad a largo plazo. La seguridad a corto plazo no mostró diferencias. Conclusiones: Es muy probable que el uso de los corticoides como primera línea de tratamiento puedan reemplazar el uso de la ACTH, se requiere estudios de seguridad a largo plazo. La decisión de su uso rutinario debería estar basada en un análisis de costo efectividad y bajo la mirada del balance riesgo/beneficio.

The impact of blanching and high-pressure pretreatments on oil uptake of fried potato slices

The effect of high-pressure (HP) pretreatment on oil uptake of potato slices is examined in this paper. Potato slices were treated either by HP or thermal blanching, or a combination of thermal blanching followed by HP prior to frying. The effect of HP on starch gelatinization and potato microstructure was assessed by differential scanning calorimeter and environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM), respectively. After treatments, the slices were fried in sunflower oil at 185 °C for a predetermined time. Frying time was either kept constant (4 min) or varied according to the time needed to reach a desired moisture content of ≈2%. The high pressure applied in this study was found not to be sufficient to cause a significant degree of starch gelatinization. Analysis of the ESEM images showed that blanching had a limited effect on cell wall integrity. HP pretreatment was found to increase the oil uptake marginally. When frying for a fixed time, the highest total oil content was found in slices treated at 200 MPa for 5 min. The oil content was found to increase significantly (p<0.05) to 41.23±1.82 compared to 29.03±0.21 in the control slices. The same effect of pressure on oil content was found when the time of frying varied. On the other hand, HP pretreatment was found to decrease the frying time required to achieve a given moisture content. Thus, high-pressure pretreatment may be used to reduce the frying time, but not oil uptake.

On the Casimir energy for a massive quantum scalar field and the cosmological constant

We present a rigorous, regularization-independent local quantum field theoretic treatment of the Casimir effect for a quantum scalar field of mass mu not equal 0 which yields closed form expressions for the energy density and pressure. As an application we show that there exist special states of the quantum field in which the expectation value of the renormalized energy-momentum tensor is, for any fixed time, independent of the space coordinate and of the perfect fluid form g(mu,nu)rho with rho > 0, thus providing a concrete quantum field theoretic model of the cosmological constant. This rho represents the energy density associated to a state consisting of the vacuum and a certain number of excitations of zero momentum, i.e., the constituents correspond to lowest energy and pressure p <= 0. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Random sums of exchangeable variables and actuarial applications

In this paper we study the accumulated claim in some fixed time period, skipping the classical assumption of mutual independence between the variables involved. Two basic models are considered: Model I assumes that any pair of claims are equally correlated which means that the corresponding square-integrable sequence is exchangeable one. Model 2 states that the correlations between the adjacent claims are the same. Recurrence and explicit expressions for the joint probability generating function are derived and the impact of the dependence parameter (correlation coefficient) in both models is examined. The Markov binomial distribution is obtained as a particular case under assumptions of Model 2. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

QUASISTATIONARY DISTRIBUTIONS AND FLEMING-VIOT PROCESSES IN FINITE SPACES

Consider a continuous-time Markov process with transition rates matrix Q in the state space Lambda boolean OR {0}. In In the associated Fleming-Viot process N particles evolve independently in A with transition rates matrix Q until one of them attempts to jump to state 0. At this moment the particle jumps to one of the positions of the other particles, chosen uniformly at random. When Lambda is finite, we show that the empirical distribution of the particles at a fixed time converges as N -> infinity to the distribution of a single particle at the same time conditioned on not touching {0}. Furthermore, the empirical profile of the unique invariant measure for the Fleming-Viot process with N particles converges as N -> infinity to the unique quasistationary distribution of the one-particle motion. A key element of the approach is to show that the two-particle correlations are of order 1/N.

Extension And Testing Of A 2D Hydrodynamic Model For Direct Rainfall Runoff Simulation

While the simulation of flood risks originating from the overtopping of river banks is well covered within continuously evaluated programs to improve flood protection measures, flash flooding is not. Flash floods are triggered by short, local thunderstorm cells with high precipitation intensities. Small catchments have short response times and flow paths and convective thunder cells may result in potential flooding of endangered settlements. Assessing local flooding and pathways of flood requires a detailed hydraulic simulation of the surface runoff. Hydrological models usually do not incorporate surface runoff at this detailedness but rather empirical equations are applied for runoff detention. In return 2D hydrodynamic models usually do not allow distributed rainfall as input nor are any types of soil/surface interaction implemented as in hydrological models. Considering several cases of local flash flooding during the last years the issue emerged for practical reasons but as well as research topics to closing the model gap between distributed rainfall and distributed runoff formation. Therefore, a 2D hydrodynamic model, depth-averaged flow equations using the finite volume discretization, was extended to accept direct rainfall enabling to simulate the associated runoff formation. The model itself is used as numerical engine, rainfall is introduced via the modification of waterlevels at fixed time intervals. The paper not only deals with the general application of the software, but intends to test the numerical stability and reliability of simulation results. The performed tests are made using different artificial as well as measured rainfall series as input. Key parameters of the simulation such as losses, roughness or time intervals for water level manipulations are tested regarding their impact on the stability.

Ensaios em Finanças

Esta tese é composta de três artigos sobre finanças. O primeiro tem o título "Nonparametric Option Pricing with Generalized Entropic Estimators " e estuda um método de apreçamento de derivativos em mercados incompletos. Este método está relacionado com membros da família de funções de Cressie-Read em que cada membro fornece uma medida neutra ao risco. Vários testes são feitos. Os resultados destes testes sugerem um modo de definir um intervalo robusto para preços de opções. Os outros dois artigos são sobre anúncios agendados em diferentes situações. O segundo se chama "Watching the News: Optimal Stopping Time and Scheduled Announcements" e estuda problemas de tempo de parada ótimo na presença de saltos numa data fixa em modelos de difusão com salto. Fornece resultados sobre a otimalidade do tempo de parada um pouco antes do anúncio. O artigo aplica os resultados ao tempo de exercício de Opções Americanas e ao tempo ótimo de venda de um ativo. Finalmente o terceiro artigo estuda um problema de carteira ótima na presença de custo fixo quando os preços podem saltar numa data fixa. Seu título é "Dynamic Portfolio Selection with Transactions Costs and Scheduled Announcement" e o resultado mais interessante é que o comportamento do investidor é consistente com estudos empíricos sobre volume de transações em momentos próximos de anúncios.

Simulação e análise econômica da produção in vivo e in vitro de embriões em bovinos

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the variables number of recipients, synchronization protocol, reproductive efficiency indicators and pregnancy cost, in the economic effectiveness of in vivo and in vitro bovine embryo production. A simulation application was elaborated to allow the user to insert the input variable parameters. A basic scenario, from the efficiency traditional rates of in vivo (ET) and in vitro production (IVP) techniques of bovine embryos, was introduced in the software as a criterion to compare the results. This software was able to reproduce both ET and IVP scenarios. The embryo production was simulated through stochastic simulation. The optimal number of recipients using sensitivity analysis was determined. The net present value and cost per pregnancy were used as a decision parameter. The synchronization for fixed-time embryo transfer decreased the recipient idleness and, consequently, the final cost of pregnancy, in comparison to the traditional methodology. Foetal sexing must be associated to IVP of bovine embryos. In addition, the optimal recipient number per donor is variable and depends on data inserted in the system.