Patrol fleet leasing equals efficient spending

Discusses patrol vehicle leasing as a good alternative to purchasing unit

A history of Geshur in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age periods

The principal aim of this study is to explore the Late Bronze and Iron Age horizons of Geshur, and seek to defme the nature of Geshur as an historical entity based on limited textual and archaeological evidence. The thesis is structured around siX; chapters which provide the framework for understanding Geshur: Chapter 1 introduces the reader to Geshur, and sets forth the methodological issues of how the thesis views the use of historical sources and the archaeological record. The author proceeds on the premise that an independent use of both data sources followed by their convergences will enhance the understanding of Geshur. Chapter 2 studies the landscape of Geshur, the quality of the land and its impact on the flow ofhistoI)' in the region. The topography and environmental factors of Geshur reveal that the area to the east of the Sea of Galilee was an ideal locale for the emerging of a socially complex entity, with the necessary rain and natural resources to sustain life. Chapter 3 is an overview of the grander political landscape of the ancient Near East in the LB-Iron Age. A proper understanding of Geshur begins with placing it contextually in its geopolitical environment. The analysis, though brief, of sociopolitical structures over a broad range of spatial and temporal contexts helps to frame a perspective on any localized event. Chapter 4 in many ways was the 'point of origin' for this investigation. The only reason why this research project is called a 'HistoI)' of Geshur' is the biblical references which exist for Geshur. This chapter offers an analysis of all the direct citations of Geshur in the Bible, which are found in the Deuteronomistic HistoI)'. However, also explored are areas from the Bible where one might expect a citation of Geshur, but there is none. Even after all direct references mentioning Geshur end, there is ongoing activity recorded in the Bible in this area. Chapter 5 is an analysis of textual data which derives from non-biblical sources. Since Egypt and Assyria used Palestine as a travel corridor and their kings were known for campaigning in the southern Levant, one assumes that there may be references to either Geshur or the area around Geshur found in these sources. Chapter 6 moves the research from'the texfual data to the archaeological record. The archaeological data with which an analysis of LB-Iron Age Geshur is constructed derives from the empirical assessment of the stratigraphy and of the archaeological record of sites and surveys in its region. After this, the second half of the chapter utilizes a 'ground plan approach' to explore if there are indicators in the archaeological record that may point towards or reflect upon the social, political, and perhaps religious spheres of Geshur. All six chapters when combined reveal that Geshur was ideally situated in an environmental and political landscape by which it benefitted. By combining the textual and archaeological record it seems possible that Geshur may have started emerging in the Late Bronze Age, followed by an observable socially complex Iron Age polity, with its end possibly coming during the campaigns ofTiglath-pileser III in 733/32 B.C

ForestTreeDB: a database dedicated to the mining of tree transcriptomes

ForestTreeDB is intended as a resource that centralizes large-scale expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing results from several tree species (). It currently encompasses 344 878 quality sequences from 68 libraries, from diverse organs of conifer and hybrid poplar trees. It utilizes the Nimbus data model to provide a hosting system for multiple projects, and uses object-relational mapping APIs in Java and Perl for data accesses within an Oracle database designed to be scalable, maintainable and extendable. Transcriptome builds or unigene sets occupy the focal point of the system. Several of the five current species-specific unigenes were used to design microarrays and SNP resources. The ForestTreeDB web application provides the means for multiple combination database queries. It presents the user with a list of discrete queries to retrieve and download large EST datasets or sequences from precompiled unigene assemblies. Functional annotation assignment is not trivial in conifers which are distantly related to angiosperm model plants. Optimal annotations are achieved through database queries that integrate results from several procedures based open-source tools. ForestTreeDB aims to facilitate sequence mining of coherent annotations in multiple species to support comparative genomic approaches. We plan to continuously enrich ForestTreeDB with other resources through collaborations with other genomic projects

Robust estimates of soil moisture and latent heat flux coupling strength obtained from triple collocation

Land surface models (LSMs) are often applied to predict the one-way coupling strength between surface soil moisture (SM) and latent heat (LH) flux. However, the ability of LSMs to accurately represent such coupling has not been adequately established. Likewise, the estimation of SM/LH coupling strength using ground-based observational data is potentially compromised by the impact of independent SM and LH measurements errors. Here we apply a new statistical technique to acquire estimates of one-way SM/LH coupling strength which are nonbiased in the presence of random error using a triple collocation approach based on leveraging the simultaneous availability of independent SM and LH estimates acquired from (1) LSMs, (2) satellite remote sensing, and (3) ground-based observations. Results suggest that LSMs do not generally overestimate the strength of one-way surface SM/LH coupling

Trait-stratified genome-wide association study identifies novel and diverse genetic associations with serologic and cytokine phenotypes in systemic lupus erythematosus

INTRODUCTION: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a highly heterogeneous disorder, characterized by differences in autoantibody profile, serum cytokines, and clinical manifestations. SLE-associated autoantibodies and high serum interferon alpha (IFN-α) are important heritable phenotypes in SLE which are correlated with each other, and play a role in disease pathogenesis. These two heritable risk factors are shared between ancestral backgrounds. The aim of the study was to detect genetic factors associated with autoantibody profiles and serum IFN-α in SLE. METHODS: We undertook a case-case genome-wide association study of SLE patients stratified by ancestry and extremes of phenotype in serology and serum IFN-α. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in seven loci were selected for follow-up in a large independent cohort of 538 SLE patients and 522 controls using a multi-step screening approach based on novel metrics and expert database review. The seven loci were: leucine-rich repeat containing 20 (LRRC20); protein phosphatase 1 H (PPM1H); lysophosphatidic acid receptor 1 (LPAR1); ankyrin repeat and sterile alpha motif domain 1A (ANKS1A); protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type M (PTPRM); ephrin A5 (EFNA5); and V-set and immunoglobulin domain containing 2 (VSIG2). RESULTS: SNPs in the LRRC20, PPM1H, LPAR1, ANKS1A, and VSIG2 loci each demonstrated strong association with a particular serologic profile (all odds ratios > 2.2 and P < 3.5 × 10(-4)). Each of these serologic profiles was associated with increased serum IFN-α. SNPs in both PTPRM and LRRC20 were associated with increased serum IFN-α independent of serologic profile (P = 2.2 × 10(-6 )and P = 2.6 × 10(-3 )respectively). None of the SNPs were strongly associated with SLE in case-control analysis, suggesting that the major impact of these variants will be upon subphenotypes in SLE. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the power of using serologic and cytokine subphenotypes to elucidate genetic factors involved in complex autoimmune disease. The distinct associations observed emphasize the heterogeneity of molecular pathogenesis in SLE, and the need for stratification by subphenotypes in genetic studies. We hypothesize that these genetic variants play a role in disease manifestations and severity in SLE

Placebo response in binge eating disorder

Objective: Placebo response in studies of binge eating disorder (BED) has raised concern about its diagnostic stability. The aims of this study were (1) to compare placebo responders (PRs) with nonresponders (NRs); (2) to investigate the course of BED following placebo response; and (3) to examine attributions regarding placebo response. Method: The baseline placebo run-in phase (BL) was part of a RCT investigating sibutramine hydrochloride for BED; it included 451 participants, ages 19–63, diagnosed with BED. Follow-up (FU) included 33 PRs. Results: In this study, 32.6% of participants responded to placebo (PRs = 147; NRs = 304). PRs exhibited significantly less symptom severity. At FU (n = 33), many PRs reported continued symptoms. Conclusion: PRs exhibited significantly less severe pathology than NRs. Placebo response in BED may transitory or incomplete. The results of this study suggest variable stability in the BED diagnosis

BioTIME: A database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene.

MotivationThe BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.Main types of variables includedThe database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record.Spatial location and grainBioTIME is a global database of 547,161 unique sampling locations spanning the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms. Grain size varies across datasets from 0.0000000158 km2 (158 cm2) to 100 km2 (1,000,000,000,000 cm2).Time period and grainBioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year.Major taxa and level of measurementBioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates.Software format.csv and .SQL