Enhancing the Residual Efficacy of Wood Phytosanitation using a Silane

This study investigates use of the organosilane 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyldimethyl octadecyl ammonium chloride (Si-Quat) as a wood treatment to impart residual moisture and organism control on wood substrates. Study 1, which utilized experimental testing procedures to evaluate mold growth after standardized heat treatment, indicated less surface mold on treated samples. Study 2, which utilized standardized testing procedures to evaluate Si-Quat treated wood’s resistance to subterranean termite attack, indicated greater termite mortality and less feeding on treated wood, as well as increased termite feeding preference for untreated wood. Study 3, which utilized standardized testing procedures to evaluate water repellency, indicated significantly reduced moisture gain at higher silane-based treatment levels in comparison to untreated wood. It is concluded that a silane based treatment utilized in this study can be effective for organism control and the possible supplementation to current phytosanitation of wood packaging materials

Constitutional Law - Freedom of Speech, Expression: Protecting Main Street? The North Dakota Supreme Court Analyzes Whether an Ordinance Regulating Exotic Dancing and Adult Entertainment Violates Free Speech and Constitutes a Regulatory Taking

McCrothers Corp. v. City of Mandan, 2007 ND 2

Utilization and Application of Business Computing Systems in Corporate Real Estate

This study reports on the utilization of business computing systems by corporate real estate executives. A survey was undertaken to examine four issues: types of property data collected, MIS report generation, hardware/software usage, and decision models and experts employed. NACORE members were surveyed and reported extensive usage of well-known business computing systems (e.g., transaction processing and management information systems), while newer systems (e.g., decision support and expert systems) are just beginning to be introduced into corporate real estate. Empirical analysis revealed differences among industries in the types of reports and property financial data that are maintained.

Supporting Adult Transfer Students

Increased demand for postsecondary students to earn a bachelor’s degree has resulted in more community college students and an increase in the transfer function of postsecondary education. However, students who transfer from two- to four-year institutions often experience challenges along the way. Furthermore, adult vertical transfer students experience additional barriers, often due to the unique characteristics that they possess. Overall, there are a lack of resources to support these students specifically, and a lack of research examining their experiences. Given that adult learners make up a large subgroup within higher education, it is crucial to provide tools that assist in the transfer of these students. Supported by evidence gathered through a review of literature, this project explores the barriers experienced by the transfer student population, with particular attention to the adult vertical transfer student population and explores a potential intervention program to help alleviate these barriers

Copper and Cobalt contents of twenty-six soil types.

"The material of this bulletin was taken from the thesis presented by F.R. Johnson for the degree of M.A., University of Missouri, February, 1950. It is a report on Department of Soils Project Number 51 entitled 'Fertility level of soils'"--P. [3].Includes bibliographical references (pages 15-16)

Social and interactional practices for disseminating current awareness information in an organisational setting.

Current awareness services are designed to keep users informed about recent developments based around user need profiles. In organisational settings, they may operate through both electronic and social interactions aimed at delivering information that is relevant, pertinent and current. Understanding these interactions can reveal the tensions in current awareness dissemination and help inform ways of making services more effective and efficient. We report an in-depth, observational study of electronic current awareness use within a large London law firm. The study found that selection, re-aggregation and forwarding of information by multiple actors gives rise to a complex sociotechnical distribution network. Knowledge management staff act as a layer of “intelligent filters” sensitive to complex, local information needs; their distribution decisions address multiple situational relevance factors in a situation fraught with information overload and restrictive time-pressures. Their decisions aim to optimise conflicting constraints of recall, precision and information quantity. Critical to this is the use of dynamic profile updates which propagate back through the network through formal and informal social interactions. This supports changes to situational relevance judgements and so allows the network to ‘self-tune’. These findings lead to design requirements, including that systems should support rapid assessment of information items against an individual’s interests; that it should be possible to organise information for different subsequent uses; and that there should be back-propagation from information consumers to providers, to tune the understanding of their information needs

Surface Fire to Crown Fire: Fire History in the Taos Valley Watersheds, New Mexico, USA

Tree-ring fire scars, tree ages, historical photographs, and historical surveys indicate that, for centuries, fire played different ecological roles across gradients of elevation, forest, and fire regimes in the Taos Valley Watersheds. Historical fire regimes collapsed across the three watersheds by 1899, leaving all sites without fire for at least 119 years. Historical photographs and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) ages indicate that a high-severity fire historically burned at multiple high-elevation subalpine plots in today’s Village of Taos Ski Valley, with large high-severity patches (\u3e640 ha). Low-severity, frequent (9–29-year median interval) surface fires burned on the south aspects in nearby lower elevation dry conifer forests in all watersheds. Fires were associated with drought during the fire year. Widespread fires commonly burned synchronously in multiple watersheds during more severe drought years, preceded by wet years, including fire in all three watersheds in 1664, 1715, and 1842. In contrast, recent local “large” wildfires have only burned within single watersheds and may not be considered large in a historical context. Management to promote repeated low-severity fires and the associated open stand structures is within the historical range of variability in the dry conifer forests of these watersheds. In the high-elevation, subalpine forests, different management approaches are needed, which balance ecological and socioeconomic values while providing public safety

The cost-effectiveness of nivolumab monotherapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma patients in England

Background: Nivolumab was the first programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor to demonstrate long-term survival benefit in a clinical trial setting for advanced melanoma patients. Objective: To evaluate the cost effectiveness of nivolumab monotherapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma patients in England. Methods: A Markov state-transition model was developed to estimate the lifetime costs and benefits of nivolumab versus ipilimumab and dacarbazine for BRAF mutation-negative patients and versus ipilimumab, dabrafenib, and vemurafenib for BRAF mutation-positive patients. Covariate-adjusted parametric curves for time to progression, pre-progression survival, and post-progression survival were fitted based on patient-level data from two trials and long-term ipilimumab survival data. Indirect treatment comparisons between nivolumab, ipilimumab, and dacarbazine were informed by these covariate-adjusted parametric curves, controlling for differences in patient characteristics. Kaplan–Meier data from the literature were digitised and used to fit progression-free and overall survival curves for dabrafenib and vemurafenib. Patient utilities and resource use data were based on trial data or the literature. Patients are assumed to receive nivolumab until there is no further clinical benefit, assumed to be the first of progressive disease, unacceptable toxicity, or 2 years of treatment. Results: Nivolumab is the most cost-effective treatment option in BRAF mutation-negative and mutation-positive patients, with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of £24,483 and £17,362 per quality-adjusted life year, respectively. The model results are most sensitive to assumptions regarding treatment duration for nivolumab and the parameters of the fitted parametric survival curves. Conclusions: Nivolumab is a cost-effective treatment for advanced melanoma patients in England