Regional Climate Services for Agriculture Project Presentation, and Demonstration and Discussion of Agricultural Maprooms: Launch Events at 44th Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum

A joint collaborative initiative between ICPAC, CCAFS and IRI was launched publically through a series of presentations and side sessions at the 44th Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF44) in Kampala, Uganda, on 30 August 2016. This initiative is part of the Climate Services for Africa Project, a three-year project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is being implemented at ICPAC and is intended to roll out climate services in support of Agriculture and Food Security to ICPAC member states (all IGAD and EAC countries) with technical support from CCAFS and IRI. The overall goal of this initiative is to strengthen the capacity of ICPAC and that of ICPAC member countries to develop effective climate products and services for agriculture and food security, for the benefit of smallholder farmers

Optimal Investment in the Development of Oil and Gas Field

Let an oil and gas field consists of clusters in each of which an investor can launch at most one project. During the implementation of a particular project, all characteristics are known, including annual production volumes, necessary investment volumes, and profit. The total amount of investments that the investor spends on developing the field during the entire planning period we know. It is required to determine which projects to implement in each cluster so that, within the total amount of investments, the profit for the entire planning period is maximum. The problem under consideration is NP-hard. However, it is solved by dynamic programming with pseudopolynomial time complexity. Nevertheless, in practice, there are additional constraints that do not allow solving the problem with acceptable accuracy at a reasonable time. Such restrictions, in particular, are annual production volumes. In this paper, we considered only the upper constraints that are dictated by the pipeline capacity. For the investment optimization problem with such additional restrictions, we obtain qualitative results, propose an approximate algorithm, and investigate its properties. Based on the results of a numerical experiment, we conclude that the developed algorithm builds a solution close (in terms of the objective function) to the optimal one

Spin injection between epitaxial Co2.4Mn1.6Ga and an InGaAs quantum well

Electrical spin injection in a narrow [100] In0.2Ga0.8As quantum well in a GaAs p-i-n optical device is reported. The quantum well is located 300 nm from an AlGaAs Schottky barrier and this system is used to compare the efficiencies and temperature dependences of spin injection from Fe and the Heusler alloy Co2.4Mn1.6Ga grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. At 5 K, the injected electron spin polarizations for Fe and Co2.4Mn1.6Ga injectors are 31% and 13%, respectively. Optical detection is carried out in the oblique Hanle geometry. A dynamic nuclear polarization effect below 10 K enhances the magnetic field seen by the injected spins in both devices. The Co2.4Mn1.6Ga thin films are found to have a transport spin polarization of similar to 50% by point contact Andreev reflection conductivity measurements. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics

First High‐Resolution Benthic Habitat Map From the Greenland Shelf (Disko Bay Pilot Study)

A healthy ocean where marine habitats and ecosystems are mapped and protected is one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to sustainably use marine resources. Our study presents the first high-resolution benthic habitat map from Greenland integrating analyses of multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data, and ground-truth data including video sled, drop camera and day grab. The pilot area of 30 × 20 km is located on the continental shelf in central Disko Bay, West Greenland and all data were collected in a single, 10-day survey. Multibeam bathymetry data were gridded to a 10 × 10 m resolution, whereas backscatter mosaic was built from a 1 × 1 m grid cell to obtain higher resolution manifestation of seafloor properties. Ground-truth data consisted of 14 video transects, 17 drop camera deployments, and 17 sediment samples. Our results were verified with the published shallow seismic and vibrocore data from the Disko Bay region to link the geological background with the sedimentary environment. We distinguished five physical habitats in the area, based on the distribution of sediment types, water depth with general water masses and morphology. In addition, numerous gas seeps alongside pockmarks were observed in the area, as well as recent iceberg ploughmarks. The identified habitats were associated with two basic communities of benthic fauna, linked primarily to the distribution of sediments and representing hard bottom habitats (sessile fauna) and soft bottom habitats (shrimp/polychaetes). Our study is the first step toward mapping the entire seafloor of Disko Bay to provide a scientific context for the management of seafloor and marine resources

Impact of germline DNA repair gene variants on prognosis and treatment of men with advanced prostate cancer.

The clinical importance of germline variants in DNA repair genes (DRGs) is becoming increasingly recognized, but their impact on advanced prostate cancer prognosis remains unclear. A cohort of 221 newly diagnosed metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients were screened for pathogenic germline variants in 114 DRGs. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) on first-line androgen signaling inhibitor (ARSI) treatment for mCRPC. Secondary endpoints were time to mCRPC progression on initial androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and overall survival (OS). Twenty-seven patients (12.2%) carried a germline DRG variant. DRG carrier status was independently associated with shorter PFS on first-line ARSI [HR 1.72 (1.06-2.81), P = 0.029]. At initiation of ADT, DRG carrier status was independently associated with shorter progression time to mCRPC [HR 1.56, (1.02-2.39), P = 0.04] and shorter OS [HR 1.99, (1.12-3.52), P = 0.02]. Investigating the contributions of individual germline DRG variants on PFS and OS revealed CHEK2 variants to have little effect. Furthermore, prior taxane treatment was associated with worse PFS on first-line ARSI for DRG carriers excluding CHEK2 (P = 0.0001), but not for noncarriers. In conclusion, germline DRG carrier status holds independent prognostic value for predicting advanced prostate cancer patient outcomes and may potentially inform on optimal treatment sequencing already at the hormone-sensitive stage

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Supervisory Control Theory in System Safety Analysis

Development of safety critical systems requires a risk management strategy to identify and analyse hazards, and apply necessary actions to eliminate or control them as malfunctions could be catastrophic. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is one of the most widely used methods for safety analysis in industrial use. However, the standard FTA is manual, informal, and limited to static analysis of systems. In this paper, we present preliminary results from a model-based approach to address these limitations using Supervisory Control Theory. Taking an example from the Fault Tree Handbook, we present a systematic approach to incrementally obtain formal models from a fault tree and verify them in the tool Supremica. We present a method to calculate minimal cut sets using our approach. These compositional techniques could potentially be very beneficial in the safety analysis of highly complex safety critical systems, where several components interact to solve different tasks

The connexin 43 regulator rotigaptide reduces cytokine-induced cell death in human islets

Background: Intercellular communication mediated by cationic fluxes through the Connexin family of gap junctions regulates glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and beta cell defense against inflammatory stress. Rotigaptide (RG, ZP123) is a peptide analog that increases intercellular conductance in cardiac muscle cells by the prevention of dephosphorylation and thereby uncoupling of Connexin-43 (Cx43), possibly via action on unidentified protein phosphatases. For this reason, it is being studied in human arrhythmias. It is unknown if RG protects islet cell function and viability against inflammatory or metabolic stress, a question of considerable translational interest for the treatment of diabetes. Methods: Apoptosis was measured in human islets shown to express Cx43, treated with RG or the control peptide ZP119 and exposed to glucolipotoxicity or IL-1β + IFNɣ. INS-1 cells shown to lack Cx43 were used to examine if RG protected human islet cells via Cx43 coupling. To study the mechanisms of action of Cx43-independent effects of RG, NO, IkBα degradation, mitochondrial activity, ROS, and insulin mRNA levels were determined. Results: RG reduced cytokine-induced apoptosis ~40% in human islets. In Cx43-deficient INS-1 cells, this protective effect was markedly blunted as expected, but unexpectedly, RG still modestly reduced apoptosis, and improved mitochondrial function, insulin-2 gene levels, and accumulated insulin release. RG reduced NO production in Cx43-deficient INS-1 cells associated with reduced iNOS expression, suggesting that RG blunts cytokine-induced NF-κB signaling in insulin-producing cells in a Cx43-independent manner. Conclusion: RG reduces cytokine-induced cell death in human islets. The protective action in Cx43-deficient INS-1 cells suggests a novel inhibitory mechanism of action of RG on NF-κB signaling

UCP1 Induction during Recruitment of Brown Adipocytes in White Adipose Tissue Is Dependent on Cyclooxygenase Activity

Background The uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) is a hallmark of brown adipocytes and pivotal for cold- and diet-induced thermogenesis. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we report that cyclooxygenase (COX) activity and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) are crucially involved in induction of UCP1 expression in inguinal white adipocytes, but not in classic interscapular brown adipocytes. Cold-induced expression of UCP1 in inguinal white adipocytes was repressed in COX2 knockout (KO) mice and by administration of the COX inhibitor indomethacin in wild-type mice. Indomethacin repressed β-adrenergic induction of UCP1 expression in primary inguinal adipocytes. The use of PGE2 receptor antagonists implicated EP4 as a main PGE2 receptor, and injection of the stable PGE2 analog (EP3/4 agonist) 16,16 dm PGE2 induced UCP1 expression in inguinal white adipose tissue. Inhibition of COX activity attenuated diet-induced UCP1 expression and increased energy efficiency and adipose tissue mass in obesity-resistant mice kept at thermoneutrality. Conclusions/Significance Our findings provide evidence that induction of UCP1 expression in white adipose tissue, but not in classic interscapular brown adipose tissue is dependent on cyclooxygenase activity. Our results indicate that cyclooxygenase-dependent induction of UCP1 expression in white adipose tissues is important for diet-induced thermogenesis providing support for a surprising role of COX activity in the control of energy balance and obesity development

Cascaded two-photon nonlinearity in a one-dimensional waveguide with multiple two-level emitters

We propose and theoretically investigate a model to realize cascaded optical nonlinearity with few atoms and photons in one-dimension (1D). The optical nonlinearity in our system is mediated by resonant interactions of photons with two-level emitters, such as atoms or quantum dots in a 1D photonic waveguide. Multi-photon transmission in the waveguide is nonreciprocal when the emitters have different transition energies. Our theory provides a clear physical understanding of the origin of nonreciprocity in the presence of cascaded nonlinearity. We show how various two-photon nonlinear effects including spatial attraction and repulsion between photons, background fluorescence can be tuned by changing the number of emitters and the coupling between emitters (controlled by the separation).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure