Characterizations of safety in hybrid inclusions via barrier functions

This paper investigates characterizations of safety in terms of barrier functions for hybrid systems modeled by hybrid inclusions. After introducing an adequate definition of safety for hybrid inclusions, sufficient conditions using continuously differentiable as well as lower semicontinuous barrier functions are proposed. Furthermore, the lack of existence of autonomous and continuous barrier functions certifying safety, guides us to propose, inspired by converse Lyapunov theorems for only stability, nonautonomous barrier functions and conditions that are shown to be both necessary as well as sufficient, provided that mild regularity conditions on the system's dynamics holds

CHARACTERISTICS AND RESIDENTIAL PATTERNS OF ENERGY-RELATED WORK FORCES IN THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS

The socioeconomic characteristics of construction and operating work forces at energy related facilities in the Northern Great Plains were analyzed. A primary interest was to explain differences in local hire rates and settlement patterns on the basis of characteristics of the project and site area. In general, it was found that local hire rates for operating workers can be expected to be substantially greater than for construction workers when differences in project and site characteristics are taken into account. Nonlocal construction workers were found to live in larger communities and to commute substantially greater distances to the project site than nonlocal operating workers.Labor and Human Capital,

Profile of North Dakota's Coal Mine and Electric Power Plant Operating Work Force

This report is a continuation of research on the economic and social effects of coal development in western North Dakota. The purpose of the report is to provide a profile of the characteristics of the operating work force in North Dakota's coal mines and electric power generating plants.Labor and Human Capital, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Architecture of coatomer: Molecular characterization of delta-COP and protein interactions within the complex

Copyright © 2011 by The Rockefeller University Press.Coatomer is a cytosolic protein complex that forms the coat of COP I-coated transport vesicles. In our attempt to analyze the physical and functional interactions between its seven subunits (coat proteins, [COPs] alpha-zeta), we engaged in a program to clone and characterize the individual coatomer subunits. We have now cloned, sequenced, and overexpressed bovine alpha-COP, the 135-kD subunit of coatomer as well as delta-COP, the 57-kD subunit and have identified a yeast homolog of delta-COP by cDNA sequence comparison and by NH2-terminal peptide sequencing. delta-COP shows homologies to subunits of the clathrin adaptor complexes AP1 and AP2. We show that in Golgi-enriched membrane fractions, the protein is predominantly found in COP I-coated transport vesicles and in the budding regions of the Golgi membranes. A knock-out of the delta-COP gene in yeast is lethal. Immunoprecipitation, as well as analysis exploiting the two-hybrid system in a complete COP screen, showed physical interactions between alpha- and epsilon-COPs and between beta- and delta-COPs. Moreover, the two-hybrid system indicates interactions between gamma- and zeta-COPs as well as between alpha- and beta' COPs. We propose that these interactions reflect in vivo associations of those subunits and thus play a functional role in the assembly of coatomer and/or serve to maintain the molecular architecture of the complex.This work was supported by The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 352), the Human Frontier Science Program, and the Swiss National Science Foundation No. 31-43366.95

Spatial multi-criteria decision analysis to predict suitability for African swine fever endemicity in Africa

Background African swine fever (ASF) is endemic in several countries of Africa and may pose a risk to all pig producing areas on the continent. Official ASF reporting is often rare and there remains limited awareness of the continent-wide distribution of the disease. In the absence of accurate ASF outbreak data and few quantitative studies on the epidemiology of the disease in Africa, we used spatial multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to derive predictions of the continental distribution of suitability for ASF persistence in domestic pig populations as part of sylvatic or domestic transmission cycles. In order to incorporate the uncertainty in the relative importance of different criteria in defining suitability, we modelled decisions within the MCDA framework using a stochastic approach. The predictive performance of suitability estimates was assessed via a partial ROC analysis using ASF outbreak data reported to the OIE since 2005. Results Outputs from the spatial MCDA indicate that large areas of sub-Saharan Africa may be suitable for ASF persistence as part of either domestic or sylvatic transmission cycles. Areas with high suitability for pig to pig transmission (‘domestic cycles’) were estimated to occur throughout sub-Saharan Africa, whilst areas with high suitability for introduction from wildlife reservoirs (‘sylvatic cycles’) were found predominantly in East, Central and Southern Africa. Based on average AUC ratios from the partial ROC analysis, the predictive ability of suitability estimates for domestic cycles alone was considerably higher than suitability estimates for sylvatic cycles alone, or domestic and sylvatic cycles in combination. Conclusions This study provides the first standardised estimates of the distribution of suitability for ASF transmission associated with domestic and sylvatic cycles in Africa. We provide further evidence for the utility of knowledge-driven risk mapping in animal health, particularly in data-sparse environments.</p