Computerized Schedule Effectiveness Technique /SET/ determines present and future schedule position

Computerized scheduling system calculates an index of overall schedule-effectiveness. The schedule-effectiveness index is a measurement of actual overall performance against the existing schedule, and a series of schedule-effectiveness values indicates the trend of actual performance. This computer program is written in Fortran 4

Scientific Bounty Among Meteorites Recovered from the Dominion Range, Transantarctic Mountains

The US Antarctic Meteorite Pro-gram has visited the Dominion Range in the Transantarctic Mountains during several different sea-sons, including 1985, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2018. Total recovered meteorites from this region is close to 3000. The 1985 (11 samples), 2003 (141 samples), 2008 (521 samples), 2010 (901 samples), 2014 (562 samples) seasons have been fully classified, and 2018 (865 samples) are in the process of being classified and characterized. Given that close to 2200 samples have been classified so far, with more expected in 2020, now is a good time to summarize the state of the collection. Here we describe the significant samples documented from this area, as well as a large meteorite shower that dominates the statistics of the region

Access to Social Protection by Immigrants, Emigrants and Resident Nationals in the Russian Federation

This chapter discusses the general legal framework regulating Russia’s welfare system and access for national citizens, foreigners residing in the country, and national citizens residing abroad to social benefits in five policy areas: unemployment, health care, family benefits, pensions, and guaranteed minimum resources. Our analysis shows that the eligibility of Russian nationals for social benefits depends either on their employment status and contribution record (for pensions and other social insurance benefits), or their residence status (for social assistance and healthcare). The overall level of social protection of citizens residing in different parts of the country may differ substantially due to the decentralized structure of the social protection system in Russia. The rights of foreign residents to social security benefits are essentially the same as those of the nationals, as long as they are legally employed and make social security contributions. However, there are two major exceptions: pensions and unemployment benefits. Social assistance benefits provided at the regional level are typically available to all legal residents, foreigners included, with few exceptions. When deciding to permanently move abroad, Russian citizens lose their entitlement to claim social benefits from Russia, apart from acquired contributory public pensions

Seguridad IoT: Principales amenazas en una taxonomía de activos

El Internet de las Cosas (IoT) es una extensión de internet al integrar redes móviles, internet, redes sociales y cosas inteligentes para proporcionar mejores servicios o aplicaciones a los usuarios, uno de los mayores retos que tiene IoT son los problemas de seguridad relacionados con las amenazas, ataques, vulnerabilidades, etc. En este artículo, se proporciona una taxonomía de sus activos mediante la agrupación de los diferentes elementos que conforman un ecosistema IoT, para determinar qué elementos podrían estar afectados en la adquisición, el intercambio y el procesamiento de información ante las posibles amenazas existentes. La metodología utilizada consta de cuatro pasos, comenzando con la definición del alcance y juicios de expertos en el área de IoT, la investigación de escritorio, el análisis y desarrollo, redacción y validación del informe, llegando a obtener una clasificación y análisis de las principales amenazas según la categorización de los diferentes tipos de amenazas existentes y el nivel de impacto de riesgo que estas generan identificando qué amenazas pueden mitigarse y el riesgo que puedan tener en cada entorno IoT. Como resultado se aporta con una taxonomía de seguridad que podrá ser usada para evaluar el nivel de impacto de riesgo de toda una arquitectura IoT

Functional Inequality in Latin America: News from the Twentieth Century

We report on a novel approach for the measurement of gas adsorption in microporous solids using X-ray computed tomography (CT) that we refer to as digital adsorption. Similar to conventional macroscopic methods, the proposed protocol combines observations with an inert and an adsorbing gas to produce equilibrium isotherms in terms of the truly measurable quantity in an adsorption experiment, namely the surface excess. Most significantly, X-ray CT allows probing the adsorption process in three dimensions, so as to build spatially-resolved adsorption isotherms with a resolution of approximately 10 mm3 within a fixed-bed column. Experiments have been carried out at 25 C and in the pressure range 1-30bar using CO2 on activated carbon, zeolite 13X and glass beads (as control material), and results are validated against literature data. A scaling approach was applied to analyze the whole population of measured adsorption isotherms (~7600), leading to single universal adsorption isotherm curves that are descriptive of all voxels for a given adsorbate-adsorbent system. By analyzing the adsorption heterogeneity at multiple length scales (1 mm3 to 1 cm3), packing heterogeneity was identified as the main contributor for the larger spatial variability in the adsorbed amount observed for the activated carbon rods as compared to zeolite pellets. We also show that this technique is readily applicable to a large spectrum of commercial porous solids, and that it can be further extended to weakly adsorbing materials with appropriate protocols that reduce measurement uncertainties. As such, the obtained results prove the feasibility of digital adsorption and highlight substantial opportunities for its wider use in the field of adsorptive characterization of porous solids

Target Gene Analysis by Microarrays and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Identifies HEY Proteins as Highly Redundant bHLH Repressors

HEY bHLH transcription factors have been shown to regulate multiple key steps in cardiovascular development. They can be induced by activated NOTCH receptors, but other upstream stimuli mediated by TGFß and BMP receptors may elicit a similar response. While the basic and helix-loop-helix domains exhibit strong similarity, large parts of the proteins are still unique and may serve divergent functions. The striking overlap of cardiac defects in HEY2 and combined HEY1/HEYL knockout mice suggested that all three HEY genes fulfill overlapping function in target cells. We therefore sought to identify target genes for HEY proteins by microarray expression and ChIPseq analyses in HEK293 cells, cardiomyocytes, and murine hearts. HEY proteins were found to modulate expression of their target gene to a rather limited extent, but with striking functional interchangeability between HEY factors. Chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed a much greater number of potential binding sites that again largely overlap between HEY factors. Binding sites are clustered in the proximal promoter region especially of transcriptional regulators or developmental control genes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that HEY proteins primarily act as direct transcriptional repressors, while gene activation seems to be due to secondary or indirect effects. Mutagenesis of putative DNA binding residues supports the notion of direct DNA binding. While class B E-box sequences (CACGYG) clearly represent preferred target sequences, there must be additional and more loosely defined modes of DNA binding since many of the target promoters that are efficiently bound by HEY proteins do not contain an E-box motif. These data clearly establish the three HEY bHLH factors as highly redundant transcriptional repressors in vitro and in vivo, which explains the combinatorial action observed in different tissues with overlapping expression

Limitations of Tc99m-MIBI-SPECT Imaging Scans in Persistent Primary Hyperparathyroidism

In primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) the predictive value of technetium 99m sestamibi single emission computed tomography (Tc99m-MIBI-SPECT) for localizing pathological parathyroid glands before a first parathyroidectomy (PTx) is 83-100%. Data are scarce in patients undergoing reoperative parathyroidectomy for persistent hyperparathyroidism. The aim of the present study was to determine the value of Tc99m-MIBI-SPECT in localizing residual hyperactive parathyroid tissue in patients with persistent primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) after initial excision of one or more pathological glands. We retrospectively evaluated the localizing accuracy of Tc99m-MIBI-SPECT scans in 19 consecutive patients with persistent PHPT who had a scan before reoperative parathyroidectomy. We used as controls 23 patients with sporadic PHPT who had a scan before initial surgery. In patients with persistent PHPT, Tc99m-MIBI-SPECT accurately localized a pathological parathyroid gland in 33% of cases before reoperative parathyroidectomy, compared to 61% before first PTx for sporadic PHPT. The Tc99m-MIBI-SPECT scan accurately localized intra-thyroidal glands in 2 of 7 cases and a mediastinal gland in 1 of 3 cases either before initial or reoperative parathyroidectomy. Our data suggest that the accuracy of Tc99m-MIBI-SPECT in localizing residual hyperactive glands is significantly lower before reoperative parathyroidectomy for persistent PHPT than before initial surgery for sporadic PHPT. These findings should be taken in consideration in the preoperative workup of patients with persistent primary hyperparathyroidis