Idioms for µ-charts

This paper presents an idiomatic construct for µ-charts which reflects the high-level specification construct of synchronization between activities. This, amongst others, has emerged as a common and useful idea during our use of µ-charts to design and specify commonly-occurring reactive systems. The purpose of this example, apart from any inherent interest in being able to use synchronization in a specification, is to show how the very simple language of µ-charts can used as a basis for a more expressive language built by definitional extension

Global health funding and economic development

The impact of increased national wealth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), on public health is widely understood, however an equally important but less well-acclaimed relationship exists between improvements in health and the growth of an economy. Communicable diseases such as HIV, TB, Malaria and the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are impacting many of the world's poorest and most vulnerable populations, and depressing economic development. Sickness and disease has decreased the size and capabilities of the workforce through impeding access to education and suppressing foreign direct investment (FDI). There is clear evidence that by investing in health improvements a significant increase in GDP per capita can be attained in four ways: Firstly, healthier populations are more economically productive; secondly, proactive healthcare leads to decrease in many of the additive healthcare costs associated with lack of care (treating opportunistic infections in the case of HIV for example); thirdly, improved health represents a real economic and developmental outcome in-and-of itself and finally, healthcare spending capitalises on the Keynesian 'economic multiplier' effect. Continued under-investment in health and health systems represent an important threat to our future global prosperity. This editorial calls for a recognition of health as a major engine of economic growth and for commensurate investment in public health, particularly in poor countries

\u27Texas Maroon’ Bluebonnet

The Texas state flower, the bluebonnet, encompasses all six of the Lupinus species native to Texas. The most widespread and popular bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis Hook., is a winter annual that produces violet-blue [violet-blue group 96A, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), 1982] racemes in early to midspring and is predominately self-pollinating. The Texas Dept. of Transportation uses this species widely for floral displays along roadsides throughout much of the state (Andrews, 1986). Rare white and even rarer pink variants exist in native populations, and a breeding project was initiated in 1985 to develop bluebonnets with novel flower colors for use as bedding plants. ‘Abbott Pink’ was the first seed-propagated cultivar to be developed from this program (Parsons and Davis, 1993). The second cultivar, ‘Barbara Bush’ with novel lavender shade flowers, was developed more recently (Parsons et al., 1994). As with the cultivars previously developed, we used recurrent phenotypic selection to develop ‘Texas Maroon’. This cultivar is intended for use as a bedding plant for maroon flower color

Fractionating the stare-in-the-crowd effect: Two distinct, obligatory biases in search for gaze.

Direct gaze-someone gazing at you-is an important social cue that might be expected to capture visual attention, even in the presence of other faces. Consistent with this, direct gazing eyes are often detected more rapidly in arrays of averted gazing eyes, than vice versa; a search asymmetry termed the stare-in-the-crowd effect (SITCE). Here, we examine top-down influences on the SITCE by manipulating observers' knowledge of the target's gaze prior to the search display. Our findings revealed two dissociable components of the SITCE. The first, which scaled with set size but was unaffected by prior knowledge, was attributed to noisy, parallel gaze processing that guides attention toward direct gaze (Process 1). The second, an overall response time advantage for direct versus averted gaze targets, irrespective of set size, was attributed to criteria for determining target presence versus absence (Process 2). Prior knowledge of the target's gaze direction increased the direct gaze advantage, rather than speeding up responses for both target types (typically expected for 100% valid cues). This unusual pattern suggests that top-down gaze-related influences may comprise an obligatory bias toward direct gaze. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

4th Lone Star Regional Native Plant Conference

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/sfa_gardens_lonestar/1005/thumbnail.jp

The Effect of Hip Taping on Hip and Knee Muscle Activity

Background and Purpose: It has been hypothesized that patellofemoral pain may be precipitated by weak hip abductor musculature that does not pull the pelvis and femurs into correct alignment during gait activities. The misalignment at the pelvis leads to misalignment down the kinetic chain, eventually affecting the knees. It is theorized that hip taping may aid in supporting the pelvis, thus reducing the EMG activity of the hip abductors and normalizing the alignment of the knees. The purpose of this study is to describe muscle activity and joint motion during a step-down test in subjects with and without the hip tape in place. Methods: Twenty healthy subjects (9 men, 11 women) with no history of hip or knee pathology performed a step-down test with and without hip tape in place. The EMG activity of the gluteus medius and the tensor fascia lata was recorded via surface electrodes while tibio-femoral joint valgus angles were measured using video-analysis. Data was analyzed using a paired samples t-test. Results: There was no significant difference in EMG activity of the gluteus medius for males (p=.603), females (p=.2S6), or males and females together (p=.840). There was also no significant difference in the EMG activity of the tensor fascia lata for males (p=.221), females (p=.876), or males and females together (p=.239). There was no significant difference in hip adduction values between taped and non-taped males (p=.060). There were, however, significant differences in hip adduction values between taped and non-taped females (p=.OOO) and taped and non-taped males and females together (p=.OOO). Conclusion: Hip taping may reduce the amount of hip adduction in patients and allow for a more efficient action at the patella, thus reducing anterior knee pain in patients. More studies, employing larger sample sizes, are needed to support the efficacy of hip taping in decreasing anterior knee pain

Assessing the value of trees in sustainable grazing systems

The retention of trees in strips provides an option for managing non-remnant woody vegetation in native and sown pastures in northern Australia. However, the impact of tree strips on pasture production has not been previously researched in detail in southern Queensland. The influence of existing tree strips on pasture production in southern Queensland was measured at three grazing properties during 2004 and 2005. Soil and pasture attributes were sampled along transects 80 to 300 metres in length positioned perpendicular to tree strips. The tree strips ranged from 15 to 75 metres wide and were 120 to 500 metres apart. The effects of tree strips along the pasture transect were quantified in terms of pasture microclimate (e.g. temperature, humidity and, at one location, wind), pasture growth in grazed and exclosed situations, soil water, soil nutrients and condition, and nutrient availability. An experimental approach using exclosed pasture transects provided a useful ‘bioassay’ potentially integrating beneficial and competitive effects of tree strips on pasture growth as well as other factors (e.g. soil variability). Averaged across two locations and two years, the competitive effects of the tree strip were compensated to some extent by enhanced pasture growth at distances of 1-6 x tree height from the tree strip edge. However, the observed effects on pasture growth along the transect were likely to be due to different causes: pasture microclimate at one site, soil texture and microtopography at a second site and pasture establishment history at a third site. Thus, the trial highlighted the difficulty of attributing effects in real-world situations, given the number of possible causes including the tree strip effects on pasture microclimate and nutrient availability, soil surface disturbance, and systematic variation on soil and water redistribution due to soil micro-topography and felled timber. Despite these many sources of variation, general effects were derived from the field data consistent with other studies on tree strips and wind breaks across Australia. To extrapolate the project results to other locations, tree strip configurations and climates, a new version of the soil waterpasture growth simulation model GRASP was developed allowing simulation of tree and pasture effects and processes for various distances along a pasture transect perpendicular from the tree strip

Phenolics from the Fruits of Maclura pomifera

Two new compounds, maclurin A (1) and maclurin B (2), and six known ones, ononin (3), pterofuran (4), osajin (5), pomiferin (6), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (7), and 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzoic acid (8) were isolated from the fruit of Maclura pomifera. Compounds 3 and 4 were isolated from the genus for the first time. Structure elucidation was achieved by spectroscopic measurements and by comparison with literature data. Compounds 2-4 exhibited activities against the cancer cell lines A549 and Panc-28 with GI50 values from 18.1 to 32.2, and 20.6 to 43.5 μM, respectively. Compounds 2 and 4 also showed cytotoxicity against HCT 116 with GI50 values of 47.2 and 24.4 μM, respectively

The Effect of a Low-Fat, Plant-Based Lifestyle Intervention (CHIP) on Serum HDL Subfraction Levels - A Cohort Study

This conference abstract discusses a low-fat plant-based diet and the effect it has on HDL level