Determination of pesticides in the respirable fraction of airborne particulate matter by high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Potential harmful effects of pesticides include risks to human health of workers involved in the wet spray application in cultivated areas. Inhalation exposure depends on several factors including pesticide concentrations in the respirable fraction of airborne particulate matter (PM4). To ensure a high level of protection, the use of tractors with cabins provides protection against dust, aerosols, and vapors. Since tractors not providing maximum protection are still in use, PM4 was sampled during spreading operations in agricultural fields inside and outside tractor cabins. Sample preparation technique based on accelerated solvent extraction and solid-phase extraction cleanup was optimized before analysis of nine pesticides in PM4. Meptyldinocap, deltamethrin, myclobutanil, fluopyram, methoxyfenozide, dimethomorph, fluopicolide, cyflufenamid, and metrafenone were simultaneously determined by high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–ESI–MS–MS). The results demonstrated the efficacy of the tractor cabs used in the sampling sites. © 2017 Taylor & Francis

Searching by approximate personal-name matching

We discuss the design, building and evaluation of a method to access theinformation of a person, using his name as a search key, even if it has deformations. We present a similarity function, the DEA function, based on the probabilities of the edit operations accordingly to the involved letters and their position, and using a variable threshold. The efficacy of DEA is quantitatively evaluated, without human relevance judgments, very superior to the efficacy of known methods. A very efficient approximate search technique for the DEA function is also presented based on a compacted trie-tree structure.Postprint (published version

A new lower bound approach for single-machine multicriteria scheduling

The concept of maximum potential improvement has played an important role in computing lower bounds for single-machine scheduling problems with composite objective functions that are linear in the job completion times. We introduce a new method for lower bound computation; objective splitting. We show that it dominates the maximum potential improvement method in terms of speed and quality

“A useful accessory to the infantry, but nothing more”: Tanks at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, September 1916

The Battle of Flers-Courcelette is chiefly remembered as the combat introduction of tanks. The prevailing historiography maligns their performance as a lacklustre debut of a weapon which held so much promise for offensive warfare. However, unit war diaries and individual accounts of the battle suggest that the tank assaults of 15 September 1916 were far from total failures. This paper thus re-examines the role of tanks in the battle from the perspective of Canadian, British and New Zealand infantry. It finds that, rather than disappointing Allied combatants, the tanks largely lived up to their intended role of infantry support

Seismic Response to Injection Well Stimulation in a High-Temperature, High-Permeability Reservoir

Fluid injection into the Earth's crust can induce seismic events that cause damage to local infrastructure but also offer valuable insight into seismogenesis. The factors that influence the magnitude, location, and number of induced events remain poorly understood but include injection flow rate and pressure as well as reservoir temperature and permeability. The relationship between injection parameters and injection-induced seismicity in high-temperature, high-permeability reservoirs has not been extensively studied. Here we focus on the Ngatamariki geothermal field in the central Taupō Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, where three stimulation/injection tests have occurred since 2012. We present a catalog of seismicity from 2012 to 2015 created using a matched-filter detection technique. We analyze the stress state in the reservoir during the injection tests from first motion-derived focal mechanisms, yielding an average direction of maximum horizontal compressive stress (SHmax) consistent with the regional NE-SW trend. However, there is significant variation in the direction of maximum compressive stress (σ1), which may reflect geological differences between wells. We use the ratio of injection flow rate to overpressure, referred to as injectivity index, as a proxy for near-well permeability and compare changes in injectivity index to spatiotemporal characteristics of seismicity accompanying each test. Observed increases in injectivity index are generally poorly correlated with seismicity, suggesting that the locations of microearthquakes are not coincident with the zone of stimulation (i.e., increased permeability). Our findings augment a growing body of work suggesting that aseismic opening or slip, rather than seismic shear, is the active process driving well stimulation in many environments