Changing climate and outbreaks of forest pest insects in a cold northern country, Finland

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On the exhaust of electromagnetic drive

Recent reports about propulsion without reaction mass have been met on one hand with enthusiasm and on the other hand with some doubts. Namely, closed metal cavities, when fueled with microwaves, have delivered thrust that could eventually maintain satellites on orbits using solar power. However, the measured thrust appears to be without any apparent exhaust. Thus the Law of Action-Reaction seems to have been violated. We consider the possibility that the exhaust is in a form that has so far escaped both experimental detection and theoretical attention. In the thruster's cavity microwaves interfere with each other and invariably some photons will also end up co-propagating with opposite phases. At the destructive interference electromagnetic fields cancel. However, the photons themselves do not vanish for nothing but continue in propagation. These photon pairs without net electromagnetic field do not reflect back from the metal walls but escape from the resonator. By this action momentum is lost from the cavity which, according to the conservation of momentum, gives rise to an equal and opposite reaction. We examine theoretical corollaries and practical concerns that follow from the paired-photon conclusion. (C) 2016 Author(s).Peer reviewe

Revisiting the Gaia Hypothesis: Maximum Entropy, Kauffman’s ‘Fourth Law’ and Physiosemeiosis

Recently, Kleidon suggested to analyze Gaia as a non-equilibrium thermodynamic system that continuously moves away from equilibrium, driven by maximum entropy production which materializes in hierarchically coupled mechanisms of energetic flows via dissipation and physical work. I relate this view with Kauffman's 'Fourth Law of Thermodynamics', which I interprete as a proposition about the accumulation of information in evolutionary processes. The concept of physical work is expanded to including work directed at the capacity to work: I offer a twofold specification of Kauffman's concept of an 'autonomous agent', one as a 'self-referential heat engine', and the other in terms of physiosemeiosis, which is a naturalized application of Peirce's theory of signs. The conjunction of these three theoretical sources, Maximum Entropy, Kauffman's Fourth Law, and physiosemeiosis, shows that the Kleidon restatement of the Gaia hypothesis is equivalent to the proposition that the biosphere is generating, processing and storing information, thus directly treating information as a physical phenomenon. There is a fundamental ontological continuity between the biological processes and the human economy, as both are seen as information processing and entropy producing systems. Knowledge and energy are not substitutes, with energy and information being two aspects of the same underlying physical process

The efficacy of a new salbutamol metered-dose powder inhaler in comparison with two other inhaler devices

AbstractAn open cross-over and randomized study was carried out in order to compare the efficacy and safety of inhaled salbutamol delivered from a new 50 μ g dose−1metered-dose dry powder inhaler Taifun®, and a commercially available 50 μ g dose−1dry powder inhaler Turbuhaler®, and a conventional 100 μ g dose−1pressurized metered-dose inhaler with a spacer (pMDI+S). Twenty-one patients, aged 21–70 years, with stable asthma and with demonstrated reversibility upon inhalation of salbutamol were included in the study. On three separate study days, the patients received a total dose of 400μ g of salbutamol from the dry powder inhalers and a dose of 800 μ g from the pMDI+S in a cumulative fashion: 1, 1, 2 and 4 doses at 30 min intervals. The per cent change in forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1), was used as the primary efficacy variable. Salbutamol inhaled via the Taifun®produced greater bronchodilation than the other devices. The difference in percent change in FEV1between the Taifun®and the other devices was statistically significant at the two first dose levels, but diminished towards the higher doses when the plateau of the dose–response curve was reached. The estimated relative dose potency of the Taifun®was approximately 1·9- and 2·8-fold compared to the Turbuhaler®and the pMDI+S, respectively. The Taifun®caused a slight, but clinically insignificant, decrease in serum potassium concentration. There were no significant changes in the other safety parameters (blood pressure, heart rate and electrocardiogram recordings) with any of the used devices. In conclusion, this study indicates that salbutamol inhaled via the Taifun®is more potent than salbutamol inhaled from the other devices tested. In practise, a smaller total dose of salbutamol from the Taifun®is needed to produce a similar bronchodilatory response. All treatments were equally well tolerated