Arbitration: Making Court-Annexed Arbitration an Attractive Alternative in Texas.

Abstract Forthcoming

Methodology of Pilot Performance Measurements

The article is devoted to the development of the methodology of measuring pilot performance under real flight conditions. It provides the basic information on a research project realized to obtain new information regarding training and education of pilots. The introduction is focused on the analytical part of the project and the outputs in terms of the current state of the art. Detailed view is cast on the issue of measuring pilot performance under specific conditions of the cockpit or the flight simulator. The article is zooming in on the two selected and developed methods of pilot performance in terms of the defined indicators evaluated, conditions of compliance for conducting research and procedures of the methodology of pilot performance measurements

Nuclear ab initio calculations of He-6 beta-decay for beyond the Standard Model studies

Precision measurements of beta-decay observables offer the possibility to search for deviations from the Standard Model. A possible discovery of such deviations requires accompanying first-principles calculations. Here we compute the nuclear structure corrections for the beta-decay of He-6 which is of central interest in several experimental efforts. We employ the impulse approximation together with wave functions calculated using the ab initio no-core shell model with potentials based on chiral effective field theory. We use these state-of-the-art calculations to give a novel and comprehensive analysis of theoretical uncertainties. We find that nuclear corrections, which we compute within the sensitivity of future experiments, create significant deviation from the naive Gamow-Teller predictions, making their accurate assessment essential in searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V

Translation of automotive module RF immunity test limits into equivalent IC test limits using S-parameter IC models

A method to translate immunity specifications of automotive modules into equivalent requirements at integrated circuit (IC) level, using linear scattering parameter models of the ICs, is presented. A technique is described to determine S-parameters of ICs by simulations based on back-annotated analog schematics. The simulation results are compared with measurement data obtained using a specially designed test board. As an example, simulation and measurement results are given for the input stage of an automotive sensor interface. A good agreement is obtained from the lowest test frequency up to 1 GHz. Above this value, the measured results seem to be dominated by package effects

Seven recommendations to make your invasive alien species data more useful

Science-based strategies to tackle biological invasions depend on recent, accurate, well-documented, standardized and openly accessible information on alien species. Currently and historically, biodiversity data are scattered in numerous disconnected data silos that lack interoperability. The situation is no different for alien species data, and this obstructs efficient retrieval, combination, and use of these kinds of information for research and policy-making. Standardization and interoperability are particularly important as many alien species related research and policy activities require pooling data. We describe seven ways that data on alien species can be made more accessible and useful, based on the results of a European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) workshop: (1) Create data management plans; (2) Increase interoperability of information sources; (3) Document data through metadata; (4) Format data using existing standards; (5) Adopt controlled vocabularies; (6) Increase data availability; and (7) Ensure long-term data preservation. We identify four properties specific and integral to alien species data (species status, introduction pathway, degree of establishment, and impact mechanism) that are either missing from existing data standards or lack a recommended controlled vocabulary. Improved access to accurate, real-time and historical data will repay the long-term investment in data management infrastructure, by providing more accurate, timely and realistic assessments and analyses. If we improve core biodiversity data standards by developing their relevance to alien species, it will allow the automation of common activities regarding data processing in support of environmental policy. Furthermore, we call for considerable effort to maintain, update, standardize, archive, and aggregate datasets, to ensure proper valorization of alien species data and information before they become obsolete or lost

UCS protein function is partially restored in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae she4 mutant with expression of the human UNC45-GC, but not UNC45-SM

A dedicated UNC45, Cro1, She4 (UCS) domain-containing protein assists in the Hsp90-mediated folding of the myosin head. Only weak sequence conservation exists between the single UCS protein of simple eukaryotes (She4 in budding yeast) and the two UCS proteins of higher organisms (the general cell and striated muscle UNC45s; UNC45-GC and UNC45-SM, respectively). In vertebrates, UNC45-GC facilitates cytoskeletal functions, whereas the 55% identical UNC45-SM assists assembly of the contractile apparatus of cardiac and skeletal muscles. A Saccharomyces cerevisiae she4Δ mutant, totally lacking any UCS protein, was engineered to express as its sole Hsp90 either the Hsp90α or the Hsp90β isoforms of human cytosolic Hsp90. A transient induction of the human UNC45-GC, but not UNC45-SM, could rescue the defective endocytosis in these she4Δ cells at 39 °C, irrespective of whether they possessed Hsp90α or Hsp90β. UNC45-GC-mediated rescue of the localisation of a Myo5-green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion to cortical patches at 39 °C was more efficient in the yeast containing Hsp90α, though this may relate to more efficient functioning of Hsp90α as compared to Hsp90β in these strains. Furthermore, inducible expression of UNC45-GC, but not UNC45-SM, could partially rescue survival at a more extreme temperature (45 °C) that normally causes she4Δ mutant yeast cells to lyse. The results indicate that UCS protein function has been most conserved-yeast to man-in the UNC45-GC, not UNC45-SM. This may reflect UNC45-GC being the vertebrate UCS protein that assists formation of the actomyosin complexes needed for cytokinesis, cell morphological change, and organelle trafficking-events also facilitated by the myosins in yeast

Altered Intracellular Localization and Mobility of SBDS Protein upon Mutation in Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome

Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SDS) is a rare inherited disease caused by mutations in the SBDS gene. Hematopoietic defects, exocrine pancreas dysfunction and short stature are the most prominent clinical features. To gain understanding of the molecular properties of the ubiquitously expressed SBDS protein, we examined its intracellular localization and mobility by live cell imaging techniques. We observed that SBDS full-length protein was localized in both the nucleus and cytoplasm, whereas patient-related truncated SBDS protein isoforms localize predominantly to the nucleus. Also the nucleo-cytoplasmic trafficking of these patient-related SBDS proteins was disturbed. Further studies with a series of SBDS mutant proteins revealed that three distinct motifs determine the intracellular mobility of SBDS protein. A sumoylation motif in the C-terminal domain, that is lacking in patient SBDS proteins, was found to play a pivotal role in intracellular motility. Our structure-function analyses provide new insight into localization and motility of the SBDS protein, and show that patient-related mutant proteins are altered in their molecular properties, which may contribute to the clinical features observed in SDS patients

EUSO-SPB1 mission and science

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 1 (EUSO-SPB1) was launched in 2017 April from Wanaka, New Zealand. The plan of this mission of opportunity on a NASA super pressure balloon test flight was to circle the southern hemisphere. The primary scientific goal was to make the first observations of ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray extensive air showers (EASs) by looking down on the atmosphere with an ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence telescope from suborbital altitude (33 km). After 12 days and 4 h aloft, the flight was terminated prematurely in the Pacific Ocean. Before the flight, the instrument was tested extensively in the West Desert of Utah, USA, with UV point sources and lasers. The test results indicated that the instrument had sensitivity to EASs of ⪆ 3 EeV. Simulations of the telescope system, telescope on time, and realized flight trajectory predicted an observation of about 1 event assuming clear sky conditions. The effects of high clouds were estimated to reduce this value by approximately a factor of 2. A manual search and a machine-learning-based search did not find any EAS signals in these data. Here we review the EUSO-SPB1 instrument and flight and the EAS search

EUSO@TurLab project in view of Mini-EUSO and EUSO-SPB2 missions

The TurLab facility is a laboratory, equipped with a 5 m diameter and 1 m depth rotating tank, located in the fourth basement level of the Physics Department of the University of Turin. In the past years, we have used the facility to perform experiments related to the observations of Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays (EECRs) from space using the fluorescence technique for JEM-EUSO missions with the main objective to test the response of the trigger logic. In the missions, the diffuse night brightness and artificial and natural light sources can vary significantly in time and space in the Field of View (FoV) of the telescope. Therefore, it is essential to verify the detector performance and test the trigger logic under such an environment. By means of the tank rotation, a various terrestrial surface with the different optical characteristics such as ocean, land, forest, desert and clouds, as well as artificial and natural light sources such as city lights, lightnings and meteors passing by the detector FoV one after the other is reproduced. The fact that the tank is located in a very dark place enables the tests under an optically controlled environment. Using the Mini-EUSO data taken since 2019 onboard the ISS, we will report on the comparison between TurLab and ISS measurements in view of future experiments at TurLab. Moreover, in the forthcoming months we will start testing the trigger logic of the EUSO-SPB2 mission. We report also on the plans and status for this purpose