Status and Trends of Phragmites australis invasion within constructed wetlands in Virginia

Part I. Field GPS Mapping of P. australis Populations. Kirk J. Havens, Harry Berquist, and Walter I. Priest, Ill Part II. Evaluating the Use of Multispectral Imagery for Identifying and Quantifying P. australis Populations in Created Wetlands. James E. Perry and John Anderson Part Ill. A Summary of Methods for Controlling Phragmites australis. Libby Norris, James E. Perry, and Kirk J. Haven

Extracellular fluid and total body water changes in neonates undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

After being placed on extracorporeal life support (ECLS), newborn patients typically weight 5% to 30% more than their birthweight. Recovery and eventual decannulation from ECLS is associated with a return to baseline weight or birthweight values after a pronounced diuresis. It has been assumed that the increases in weight in these patients are due to increases in extracellular fluid (ECF) and total body water (TBW). This study was undertaken to prove or disprove this hypothesis. ECF space was measured using the compound sodium bromide and TBW was determined with the use of deuterium oxide (nonradioactive heavy water). Fluid compartment measurements were made prior to the institution of ECLS, immediately after placement on bypass, approximately every other day while on bypass, and a final measurement was made once the patient was off bypass. Sodium bromide concentration was analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography, and deuterium oxide concentration was measured by the falling drop method. Eight newborns with respiratory failure were placed on either venoarterial (4 patients) or venovenous (4 patients) ECLS for an average of 106 hours (range, 71 to 219 hours). Pre-ECLS TBW was high in the neonates (87% of total body weight v the normal of 75% to 80%). Mean values for each fluid compartment were corrected for the additional volume of the bypass circuit when the patient was on bypass. ECF increased immediately after the institution of ECLS; however, both ECF and TBW decreased during the bypass run, and post-ECLS levels of ECF and TBW were similar to those found prior to ECLS. Body weight increased significantly at the onset of ECLS and returned to near pre-ECLS (birthweight) levels at the conclusion of bypass. We conclude that neonates with respiratory distress, once placed on ECLS, have increased body weight, ECF, and TBW, which decrease during the course of ECLS, and reach baseline levels. These decreases in weight, ECF, and TBW appear to be associated with lung recovery.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30366/1/0000768.pd

International Health Security: A Summative Assessment by ACAIM Consensus Group

International health security (IHS) encompasses any natural or anthropogenic occurrence that can threaten the safety of human health and well-being. The American College of Academic International Medicine IHS Consensus Group (ACAIM-CG) developed a summative assessment highlighting the main issues that can impact IHS including emerging infectious diseases; chronic health conditions; bioterrorism; planetary changes (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wildfires, and climate change); nuclear incidents; information and cyber health; industrialization; globalization; pharmaceutical production; and communication platforms (social media). These concerns can directly and indirectly impact IHS both in the long and short term. When considering IHS, we aim to emphasize the utility of applying a predefined framework to effectively approach health security threats. This framework comprises of prevention, detection, assessment, reporting, response, addressing needs, and the perpetual repetition of the above cycle (inclusive of appropriate mitigation measures). It is hoped that this collective work will provide a foundation for further research within the redefined, expanded scope of IHS

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass