First Report of Transmission of Soybean Mosaic Virus and Alfalfa Mosaic Virus by Aphis glycines in the New World

Originating text in English.Citation: Hill, J. H., Alleman, R., Hogg, D. B., Grau, C. R. (2001). First Report of Transmission of Soybean Mosaic Virus and Alfalfa Mosaic Virus by Aphis glycines in the New World. Plant Disease, 85(5), 561-561

Impacts of Biodiesel Fuel Blends Oil Dilution on Light-Duty Diesel Engine Operation

Assesses oil dilution impacts on a diesel engine operating with a diesel particle filter, NOx storage, a selective catalytic reduction emission control system, and a soy-based 20% biodiesel fuel blend

Achievement of Low Emissions by Engine Modification to Utilize Gas-to-Liquid Fuel and Advanced Emission Controls on a Class 8 Truck

A 2002 Cummins ISM engine was modified to be optimized for operation on gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel and advanced emission control devices. The engine modifications included increased exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), decreased compression ratio, and reshaped piston and bowl configuration

Stability of Biodiesel and Biodiesel Blends: Interim Report

This is an interim report for a study of biodiesel oxidative stability. It describes characterization and accelerated stability test results for 19 B100 samples and six diesel fuels

Time-to-birth prediction models and the influence of expert opinions

Preterm birth is the leading cause of death among children under five years old. The pathophysiology and etiology of preterm labor are not yet fully understood. This causes a large number of unnecessary hospitalizations due to high--sensitivity clinical policies, which has a significant psychological and economic impact. In this study, we present a predictive model, based on a new dataset containing information of 1,243 admissions, that predicts whether a patient will give birth within a given time after admission. Such a model could provide support in the clinical decision-making process. Predictions for birth within 48 h or 7 days after admission yield an Area Under the Curve of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUC) of 0.72 for both tasks. Furthermore, we show that by incorporating predictions made by experts at admission, which introduces a potential bias, the prediction effectiveness increases to an AUC score of 0.83 and 0.81 for these respective tasks

A Comparison of Qualifications Based-Selection and Best Value Procurement for Construction Manager/General Contractor Highway Construction

Faster project delivery and the infusion of contractor knowledge into design are the primary drivers for choosing construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) project delivery. This paper focuses on the use of qualifications-based (QBS) and best-value (BV) procurement approaches, how and why agencies use each, and their associated opportunities and obstacles. Data for this study were obtained from a majority of federally funded CM/GC projects completed between 2005 to 2015. The findings are that BV and QBS projects characteristics and performance have no statistically significant difference. The choice of BV or QBS coincides with the agency’s CM/GC stage of organizational development and influences of non-agency stakeholders on the CM/GC process. When agencies and the local industry are new to CM/GC, they were found to use BV as it is closer to the traditional procurement culture and it is perceived to result in a fair market project price. Alternatively, agencies and local industry partners with an established history of using CM/GC were found to choose QBS. The low level of design at the time of procurement, means that assumptions relating to risk, production rates, materials sources, etc. may be too preliminary to secure a reliable price. The use of BV procurement was found to pose a risk to innovation and increase negotiation efforts. Qualitative trends from the project data, interviews and literature point to agencies using QBS for the majority of CM/GC project and BV on CM/GC projects with lesser complexity or more highly developed designs at the time of selection

Clues for a standardised thermal-optical protocol for the assessment of organic and elemental carbon within ambient air particulate matter

Along with some research networking programmes, the European Directive 2008/50/CE requires chemical speciation of fine aerosol (PM_2.5), including elemental (EC) and organic carbon (OC), at a few rural sites in European countries. Meanwhile, the thermal-optical technique is considered by the European and US networking agencies and normalisation bodies as a reference method to quantify EC–OC collected on filters. Although commonly used for many years, this technique still suffers from a lack of information on the comparability of the different analytical protocols (temperature protocols, type of optical correction) currently applied in the laboratories. To better evaluate the EC–OC data set quality and related uncertainties, the French National Reference Laboratory for Ambient Air Quality Monitoring (LCSQA) organised an EC–OC comparison exercise for French laboratories using different thermal-optical methods (five laboratories only). While there is good agreement on total carbon (TC) measurements among all participants, some differences can be observed on the EC / TC ratio, even among laboratories using the same thermal protocol. These results led to further tests on the influence of the optical correction: results obtained from different European laboratories confirmed that there were higher differences between OC_TOT and OC_TOR measured with NIOSH 5040 in comparison to EUSAAR-2. Also, striking differences between EC_TOT / EC_TOR ratios can be observed when comparing results obtained for rural and urban samples, with EC_TOT being 50% lower than EC_TOR at rural sites whereas it is only 20% lower at urban sites. The PM chemical composition could explain these differences but the way it influences the EC–OC measurement is not clear and needs further investigation. Meanwhile, some additional tests seem to indicate an influence of oven soiling on the EC–OC measurement data quality. This highlights the necessity to follow the laser signal decrease with time and its impact on measurements. Nevertheless, this should be confirmed by further experiments, involving more samples and various instruments, to enable statistical processing. All these results provide insights to determine the quality of EC–OC analytical methods and may contribute to the work toward establishing method standardisation

Dependence of the Characteristics of Mo Films on Sputter Conditions

The residual stress, resistance, orientation, and microstructure of sputtered Mo films were studied as a function of varied-deposition power and pressure

Optimization of Conductivity and Transparency in Amorphous In-Zn-O Transparent Conductors: Preprint

Amorphous mixed metal oxide TCOs are of increasing interest due to the excellent opto-electronic properties and smoothness (RRMS < 0.5 nm) obtained for sputtered films deposited at less than 100 ..deg..C. Here, we have investigated the combined materials phase space of oxygen stoichiometry and metals composition (In:Zn ratio) and made two key discoveries

Cost-analysis of treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia with asparaginase preparations: the impact of expensive chemotherapy

__Abstract__ \n \nAsparaginase is an expensive drug, but important in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In order to compare costs of PEGasparaginase, Erwinia asparaginase and native E. coli asparaginase, we performed a cost-analysis in the Dutch Childhood Oncology Group ALL-10 medium-risk group intensification protocol. Treatment costs were calculated based on patient level data of 84 subjects, and were related to the occurrence of allergy to PEGasparaginase. Simultaneously, decision tree and sensitivity analyses were conducted. The total costs of the intensification course of 30 weeks were $57,893 in patients without PEGasparaginase allergy (n=64). The costs were significantly higher ($113,558) in case of allergy (n=20) necessitating a switch to Erwinia asparaginase. Simulated scenarios (decision tree analysis) using native E. coli asparaginase in intensification showed that the costs of PEGasparaginase were equal to those of native E. coli asparaginase. Also after sensitivity analyses, the costs for PEGasparaginase were equal to those of native E. coli asparaginase. Intensification treatment with native E. coli asparaginase, followed by a switch to PEGasparaginase, and subsequently to Erwinia asparaginase in case of allergy had similar overall costs compared to the treatment with PEGasparaginase as the first-line drug (followed by Erwinia asparaginase in the case of allergy). PEGasparaginase is preferred over native E. coli asparaginase, because it is administered less frequently, with less day care visits. PEGasparaginase is less immunogenic than native E. coli asparaginase and is not more expensive. Asparaginase costs are mainly determined by the percentage of patients who are allergic and require a switch to Erwinia asparaginase