Fire Retardant Treated Lumber

THE STORY of fire retardant lumber is as old as man. Since the day that he learned to make a fire, man has endeavored to learn how to control it. Wood is one of man\u27s oldest building materials. History has recorded the uses that he has made of wood, as well as the conflagrations that have caused him to investigate the possibilities of reducing the combustibility of wood

Process of Ovulation

It is in response to the invitation of Ye Editor that this paper has been prepared. Its object is, in brief compass, to point out some hiatuses in our knowledge of the ovulation process in vertebrates

RE-EXAMINING & REPOSITIONING HIGHER EDUCATION: TWENTY ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS DRIVING ONLINE AND BLENDED PROGRAM ENROLLMENTS

Economic and demographic shifts in the United State are transforming higher education. With substantial reductions in state funding, increasing campus energy and operational costs, endowments generating reduced returns, and a national economic readjustment of unprecedented proportions, higher education must re-examine and reposition itself to meet new and emerging challenges. This paper identifies ten economic factors and ten demographic factors that are confronting colleges and universities and driving online and blended program enrollments. While traditional face-to-face programs will always play a critical role in higher education, online and blended programs provide new opportunities to expand current student markets by offering quality programming that supports the institutional mission, increases brand recognition, and expands an institution’s alumni base

Moving away from the throwaway society. Five policy instruments for extending the life of consumer durables

The majority of all environmental impacts can be linked to our consumption. As real wages increase, so does consumption levels – more holiday trips, more clothing purchases, faster replacement of products for newer versions,etc. This trend poses a threat to the state of our planet. While the Nordic countries are high in the overall rankings of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, they stand outwith unsustainable levels of resource consumption and waste generation, this is an issue when it comes to Goal 12 – Sustainable consumption and production patterns. The environmental impact from consumption in high-income countries, like Sweden, primarily arise in other countries wheret he manufacturing of products typically takes place. This presents challenges for the fulfilment of Sweden’s generational goal, which emphasises that environmental problems in Sweden must be solved without increasing environmental impact outsideS weden

Development of PUNDA (Parametric Universal Nonlinear Dynamics Approximator) Models for Self-Validating Knowledge-Guided Modelling of Nonlinear Processes in Particle Accelerators \& Industry

The difficult problems being tackled in the accelerator community are those that are nonlinear, substantially unmodeled, and vary over time. Such problems are ideal candidates for model-based optimization and control if representative models of the problem can be developed that capture the necessary mathematical relations and remain valid throughout the operation region of the system, and through variations in system dynamics. The goal of this proposal is to develop the methodology and the algorithms for building high-fidelity mathematical representations of complex nonlinear systems via constrained training of combined first-principles and neural network models

Identification of Diverse Mycoviruses Through Metatranscriptomics Characterization of the Viromes of Five Major Fungal Plant Pathogens

Mycoviruses can have a marked effect on natural fungal communities and influence plant health and productivity. However, a comprehensive picture of mycoviral diversity is still lacking. To characterize the viromes of five widely dispersed plant-pathogenic fungi, Colletotrichum truncatum, Macrophomina phaseolina, Diaporthe longicolla, Rhizoctonia solani, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, a high-throughput sequencing-based metatranscriptomic approach was used to detect viral sequences. Total RNA and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) from mycelia and RNA from samples enriched for virus particles were sequenced. Sequence data were assembled de novo, and contigs with predicted amino acid sequence similarities to viruses in the nonredundant protein database were selected. The analysis identified 72 partial or complete genome segments representing 66 previously undescribed mycoviruses. Using primers specific for each viral contig, at least one fungal isolate was identified that contained each virus. The novel mycoviruses showed affinity with 15 distinct lineages: Barnaviridae, Benyviridae, Chrysoviridae, Endornaviridae, Fusariviridae, Hypoviridae, Mononegavirales, Narnaviridae, Ophioviridae, Ourmiavirus, Partitiviridae, Tombusviridae, Totiviridae, Tymoviridae, and Virgaviridae. More than half of the viral sequences were predicted to be members of the Mitovirus genus in the family Narnaviridae, which replicate within mitochondria. Five viral sequences showed strong affinity with three families (Benyviridae, Ophioviridae, and Virgaviridae) that previously contained no mycovirus species. The genomic information provides insight into the diversity and taxonomy of mycoviruses and coevolution of mycoviruses and their fungal hosts

TFAW survey II: six newly validated planets and 13 planet candidates from K2

Searching for Earth-sized planets in data from Kepler's extended mission (K2) is a niche that still remains to be fully exploited. The TFAW survey is an ongoing project that aims to re-analyse all light curves in K2 C1-C8 and C12-C18 campaigns with a wavelet-based detrending and denoising method, and the period search algorithm TLS to search for new transit candidates not detected in previous works. We have analysed a first subset of 24 candidate planetary systems around relatively faint host stars (10.9 < Kp < 15.4) to allow for follow-up speckle imaging observations. Using vespa and TRICERATOPS, we statistically validate six candidates orbiting four unique host stars by obtaining false-positive probabilities smaller than 1 per cent with both methods. We also present 13 vetted planet candidates that might benefit from other, more precise follow-up observations. All of these planets are sub-Neptune-sized with two validated planets and three candidates with sub-Earth sizes, and have orbital periods between 0.81 and 23.98 d. Some interesting systems include two ultra-short-period planets, three multiplanetary systems, three sub-Neptunes that appear to be within the small planet Radius Gap, and two validated and one candidate sub-Earths (EPIC 210706310.01, K2-411 b, and K2-413 b) orbiting metal-poor stars

Non-small cell lung carcinoma in an adolescent manifested by acute paraplegia due to spinal metastases: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Bronchial carcinomas in childhood and adolescence are extremely rare; only individual cases have been reported previously.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report on a 16-year-old Caucasian German boy with non-small cell lung carcinoma (squamous cell non-small cell lung carcinoma) stage IV, T4N2M1, without epidermal growth factor receptor overexpression and/or mutation or k-ras mutation. He presented with paraplegia due to spinal metastases of the bronchial carcinoma. No familial predisposition or toxin exposure was identified. Treatment following adult protocols consisted of surgical intervention for spinal metastases, first-line cisplatinum and gemcitabine, irradiation and second-line docetaxel. After a transient response our patient experienced disease progression and died about 10 months later.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Response and survival in our 16-year-old patient were similar to adult patients with stage IV non-small cell lung carcinoma.</p