Are whitewater parks movement barriers to Great Plains fishes?

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Application of fracture mechanics and half-cycle method to the prediction of fatigue life of B-52 aircraft pylon components

Stress intensity levels at various parts of the NASA B-52 carrier aircraft pylon were examined for the case when the pylon store was the space shuttle solid rocket booster drop test vehicle. Eight critical stress points were selected for the pylon fatigue analysis. Using fracture mechanics and the half-cycle theory (directly or indirectly) for the calculations of fatigue-crack growth ,the remaining fatigue life (number of flights left) was estimated for each critical part. It was found that the two rear hooks had relatively short fatigue life and that the front hook had the shortest fatigue life of all the parts analyzed. The rest of the pylon parts were found to be noncritical because of their extremely long fatigue life associated with the low operational stress levels

Privacy-Preserving Credit Scoring via Functional Encryption

The majority of financial organizations managing confidential data are aware of security threats and leverage widely accepted solutions (e.g., storage encryption, transport-level encryption, intrusion detection systems) to prevent or detect attacks. Yet these hardening measures do little to face even worse threats posed on data-in-use. Solutions such as Homomorphic Encryption (HE) and hardware-assisted Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) are nowadays among the preferred approaches for mitigating this type of threats. However, given the high-performance overhead of HE, financial institutions —whose processing rate requirements are stringent— are more oriented towards TEE-based solutions. The X-Margin Inc. company, for example, offers secure financial computations by combining the Intel SGX TEE technology and HE-based Zero-Knowledge Proofs, which shield customers’ data-in-use even against malicious insiders, i.e., users having privileged access to the system. Despite such a solution offers strong security guarantees, it is constrained by having to trust Intel and by the SGX hardware extension availability. In this paper, we evaluate a new frontier for X-Margin, i.e., performing privacy-preserving credit risk scoring via an emerging cryptographic scheme: Functional Encryption (FE), which allows a user to only learn a function of the encrypted data. We describe how the X-Margin application can benefit from this innovative approach and —most importantly— evaluate its performance impact

Genome-wide association mapping of resistance to septoria nodorum leaf blotch in a nordic spring wheat collection

Parastagonospora nodorum is the causal agent of Septoria nodorum leaf blotch (SNB) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). It is the most important leaf blotch pathogen in Norwegian spring wheat. Several quantitative trait loci (QTL) for SNB susceptibility have been identified. Some of these QTL are the result of underlying gene-for-gene interactions involving necrotrophic effectors (NEs) and corresponding sensitivity (Snn) genes. A collection of diverse spring wheat lines was evaluated for SNB resistance and susceptibility over seven growing seasons in the field. In addition, wheat seedlings were inoculated and infiltrated with culture filtrates (CFs) from four single spore isolates and infiltrated with semipurified NEs (SnToxA, SnTox1, and SnTox3) under greenhouse conditions. In adult plants, the most stable SNB resistance QTL were located on chromosomes 2B, 2D, 4A, 4B, 5A, 6B, 7A, and 7B. The QTL on chromosome 2D was effective most years in the field. At the seedling stage, the most significant QTL after inoculation were located on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 3A, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7A, and 7B. The QTL on chromosomes 3A and 6B were significant both after inoculation and CF infiltration, indicating the presence of novel NE–Snn interactions. The QTL on chromosomes 4B and 7A were significant in both seedlings and adult plants. Correlations between SnToxA sensitivity and disease severity in the field were significant. To our knowledge, this is the first genome-wide association mapping study (GWAS) to investigate SNB resistance at the adult plant stage under field conditions

Are Trauma Surgeons Prepared? A Survey of Trauma Surgeons’ Disaster Preparedness Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE: US trauma centers (TCs) must remain prepared for mass casualty incidents (MCIs). However, trauma surgeons may lack formal MCI training. The recent COVID-19 pandemic drove multiple patient surges, overloaded Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies, and stressed TCs. This survey assessed trauma surgeons\u27 MCI training, experience, and system and personal preparedness before the pandemic compared with the pandemic\u27s third year. METHODS: Survey invitations were emailed to all 1544 members of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma in 2019, and then resent in 2022 to 1575 members with additional questions regarding the pandemic. Questions assessed practice type, TC characteristics, training, experience, beliefs about personal and hospital preparedness, likelihood of MCI scenarios, interventions desired from membership organizations, and pandemic experiences. RESULTS: The response rate was 16.7% in 2019 and 12% in 2022. In 2022, surgeons felt better prepared than their hospitals for pandemic care, mass shootings, and active shooters, but remained feeling less well prepared for cyberattack and hazardous material events, compared with 2019. Only 35% of the respondents had unintentional MCI response experience in 2019 or 2022, and even fewer had experience with intentional MCI. 78% had completed a Stop the Bleed (STB) course and 63% own an STB kit. 57% had engaged in family preparedness activities; less than 40% had a family action plan if they could not come home during an MCI. 100% of the respondents witnessed pandemic-related adverse events, including colleague and coworker illness, patient surges, and resource limitations, and 17% faced colleague or coworker death. CONCLUSIONS: Trauma surgeons thought that they became better at pandemic care and rated themselves as better prepared than their hospitals for MCI care, which is an opportunity for them to take greater leadership roles. Opportunities remain to improve surgeons\u27 family and personal MCI preparedness. Surgeons\u27 most desired professional organization interventions include advocacy, national standards for TC preparedness, and online training. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: VII, survey of expert opinion

Improving the physician-patient cardiovascular risk dialogue to improve statin adherence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a patient education program developed to facilitate statin adherence.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A controlled trial was designed to test the effectiveness of a multifaceted patient education program to facilitate statin adherence. The program included a brief, in-office physician counseling kit followed by patient mailings. The primary end point was adherence to filling statin prescriptions during a 120-day period. Patients new to statins enrolled and completed a survey. Data from a national pharmacy claims database were used to track adherence.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients new to statin therapy exposed to a patient counseling and education program achieved a 12.4 higher average number of statin prescription fill days and were 10% more likely to fill prescriptions for at least 120 days (<it>p </it>= .01).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Brief in-office counseling on cardiovascular risk followed by patient education mailings can be effective in increasing adherence. Physicians found a one-minute counseling tool and pocket guidelines useful in counseling patients.</p

Development of a fish leaping framework for low-head barriers

Leaping is an indispensable part of the upstream spawning migration of a fish species. The natural barriers replaced with artificial dams and obstacles can obstruct the leaping process and destruct the life cycle of fish species, causing their extinction in extreme scenarios. To help design and improve the artificial barriers, many studies have been conducted to model the leaping success of fish species. However, generic results were scarcely obtained to be extended for a wide range of barriers. The main reasons can be identified as the lack of thorough understanding of the interaction between fish locomotion and water flow regime upstream of the investigated barriers. Hence, the aim of this study is to propose a leaping framework compatible with a diverse range of fish species and barriers. This framework includes a detailed hydraulic sub-model as well as locomotion model capable of tracing fish in both water and air environments. The functionality of the proposed framework is further discussed using a selected case study

Use of beneficial bacteria and their secondary metabolites to control grapevine pathogen diseases

Grapevine is one of the most important economic crops yielding berries, wine products as well as derivates. However, due to the large array of pathogens inducing diseases on this plant, considerable amounts of pesticides—with possible negative impact on the environment and health—have been used and are currently used in viticulture. To avoid negative impacts of such products and to ensure product quality, a substantial fraction of pesticides needs to be replaced in the near future. One solution can be related to the use of beneficial bacteria inhabiting the rhizo- and/or the endosphere of plants. These biocontrol bacteria and their secondary metabolites can reduce directly or indirectly pathogen diseases by affecting pathogen performance by antibiosis, competition for niches and nutrients, interference with pathogen signaling or by stimulation of host plant defenses. Due to the large demand for biocontrol of grapevine diseases, such biopesticides, their modes of actions and putative consequences of their uses need to be described. Moreover, the current knowledge on new strains from the rhizo- and endosphere and their metabolites that can be used on grapevine plants to counteract pathogen attack needs to be discussed. This is in particular with regard to the control of root rot, grey mould, trunk diseases, powdery and downy mildews, pierce’s disease, grapevine yellows as well as crown gall. Future prospects on specific beneficial microbes and their secondary metabolites that can be used as elicitors of plant defenses and/or as biocontrol agents with potential use in a more sustainable viticulture will be further discussed