Stay-green wheat for Australia's changing; dry environment

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências e Tecnologias da Informação, apresentada ao Departamento de Engenharia Informática da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de CoimbraThis doctoral thesis investigates user provided networks. Such networks have become important research subjects in the field of informatics engineering due to the recent popularity of smart phones. User provided networks are independent from traditional Internet service providers. Communication and information exchange between users occurs opportunistically, i.e., when the smart phones are close enough to exchange information. Most user provided networks are based on the radio standard IEEE 802.11, popularly known as 'wi-fi'. However, some networks are based on other low range radio standards, such as Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4. User provided networks are important to the society in general when the traditional Internet service providers become unavailable. For example, this may occur in terrorist attacks, earthquakes, or even cyber attacks. In these emergency situations, when users have a greater interest in common, an efficient system for non-presencial information exchange is necessary. Such networks are also interesting in a social context, when users must be incentivized to share their resources (storage capacity, wireless connectivity and battery) to enable the exchange of information. This doctoral thesis addresses both situations: i) networks whose users have a common interest and ii) networks whose users need to be encouraged to share resources. Among the various contributions of this doctoral thesis are the Delay Tolerant Reinforcement-Based routing solution and the Messages on oFfer incentive mechanism. The first is a routing solution for users-provided networks when the users have a prior interest in common. The second is an incentive mechanism to encourage users to exchange information. Both solutions showed excellent results in the simulation environment.Esta tese de doutoramento investiga as redes providas pelos usuários. Com a popularização do telemóvel esperto (smart phone) tais redes se tornaram objeto de pesquisa na área de engenharia informática. Uma característica básica das redes providas pelo usuário é a sua independência em relação aos provedores de serviço tradicionais. A comunicação e troca de informação entre usuários ocorre de forma oportuna, isto é, quando os telemóveis estão próximos o suficiente para se comunicarem. A maioria das redes providas por usuários é baseada no padrão de rádio IEEE 802.11, popularmente conhecido como 'wi-fi'. No entanto, algumas redes se baseiam em outros padrões de baixo alcance, por exemplo Bluetooth e IEEE 802.15.4. As redes providas por usuários são importantes para a sociedade no advento dos provedores de serviço tradicionais ficarem indisponíveis. Por exemplo, isso pode ocorrer em ataques terroristas, terremotos, ou mesmo em ataques virtuais. Nessas situações de emergência, quando os usuários têm um interesse maior em comum, é necessário um sistema de troca de mensagens não presencial eficiente. Tais redes também são importantes em um contexto social, quando os usuários precisam ser incentivados a compartilhar os seus recursos (capacidade de armazenamento, conectividade sem-fio e bateria) para que ocorra troca de informação. Essa tese de doutoramento aborda ambas as situações: i) redes cujos usuários têm um interesse em comum e ii) redes cujos usuários precisam ser incentivados a compartilhar recursos. Dentro das diversas contribuições que esta tese de doutoramento apresenta estão a solução de roteamento Delay Tolerant Reinforcement-Based e o mecanismo de incentivo Messages on oFfer. A primeira é uma solução de encaminhamento para redes providas por usuários que tenham um interesse em comum prévio. A segunda é um mecanismo de incentivo para estimular que os usuários troquem informação quando não houver o interesse em comum. Ambas as soluções apresentaram excelentes resultados no ambiente de simulação desenvolvido nesta tese.FCT - PTDC/EEA-TEL/103637/200

Hmong Adults Self-Rated Oral Health: A Pilot Study

Since 1975, the Hmong refugee population in the U.S. has increased over 200%. However, little is known about their dental needs or self-rated oral health (SROH). The study aims were to: (1) describe the SROH, self-rated general health (SRGH), and use of dental/physician services; and (2) identify the factors associated with SROH among Hmong adults. A cross-sectional study design with locating sampling methodology was used. Oral health questionnaire was administered to assess SROH and SRGH, past dental and physician visits, and language preference. One hundred twenty adults aged 18–50+ were recruited and 118 had useable information. Of these, 49% rated their oral health as poor/fair and 30% rated their general health as poor/fair. Thirty-nine percent reported that they did not have a regular source of dental care, 46% rated their access to dental care as poor/fair, 43% visited a dentist and 66% visited a physician within the past 12 months. Bivariate analyses demonstrated that access to dental care, past dental visits, age and SRGH were significantly associated with SROH (P \u3c 0.05). Multivariate analyses demonstrated a strong association between access to dental care and good/excellent SROH. About half of Hmong adults rated their oral health and access to dental care as poor. Dental insurance, access to dental care, past preventive dental/physician visits and SRGH were associated with SROH

Combined sterno-clavicular approach as an alternative technique in hybrid exclusion of aortic arch aneurysm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We describe a modified access technique for the proximal (open) part of single stage hybrid exclusion of aneurysm of the aortic arch.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>3 patients had a bifurcated Dacron graft for the innominate and left subclavian arteries and an additional end-to-side anastomosis of the left common carotid artery on the limb to the left subclavian artery. With our modification, access to the left subclavian artery is by left subclavicular incision and creation of an anterior tunnel via the left thoracic outlet from the origin of the left subclavian artery along its anatomical course to the subclavicular plane.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Advantages and disadvantages of this technique in relation to anatomy and pathology.</p

African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior.

The critically endangered African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) plays a vital role in maintaining the structure and composition of Afrotropical forests, but basic information is lacking regarding the drivers of elephant movement and behavior at landscape scales. We use GPS location data from 96 individuals throughout Gabon to determine how five movement behaviors vary at different scales, how they are influenced by anthropogenic and environmental covariates, and to assess evidence for behavioral syndromes-elephants which share suites of similar movement traits. Elephants show some evidence of behavioral syndromes along an 'idler' to 'explorer' axis-individuals that move more have larger home ranges and engage in more 'exploratory' movements. However, within these groups, forest elephants express remarkable inter-individual variation in movement behaviours. This variation highlights that no two elephants are the same and creates challenges for practitioners aiming to design conservation initiatives

Steps in the bacterial flagellar motor

The bacterial flagellar motor is a highly efficient rotary machine used by many bacteria to propel themselves. It has recently been shown that at low speeds its rotation proceeds in steps [Sowa et al. (2005) Nature 437, 916--919]. Here we propose a simple physical model that accounts for this stepping behavior as a random walk in a tilted corrugated potential that combines torque and contact forces. We argue that the absolute angular position of the rotor is crucial for understanding step properties, and show this hypothesis to be consistent with the available data, in particular the observation that backward steps are smaller on average than forward steps. Our model also predicts a sublinear torque-speed relationship at low torque, and a peak in rotor diffusion as a function of torque

Intra-articular angiolipoma of the knee: a case report

We report a case of intra-articular angiolipoma of the knee. This case report describes our experience in excising an intra-articular angiolipoma of the knee joint. Complete resection under arthroscopy was performed in a 30-year-old man. Two years after the surgery, no evidence of recurrence was seen. Intra-articular angiolipomas should be considered in the differential diagnosis of intra-articular masses in adolescents with recurrent hemarthrosis without trauma