Advanced secondary power system for transport aircraft

A concept for an advanced aircraft power system was identified that uses 20-kHz, 440-V, sin-wave power distribution. This system was integrated with an electrically powered flight control system and with other aircraft systems requiring secondary power. The resulting all-electric secondary power configuration reduced the empty weight of a modern 200-passenger, twin-engine transport by 10 percent and the mission fuel by 9 percent

Does the Constitution Provide More Ballot Access Protection for Presidential Elections Than for U.S. House Elections?

Both the U.S. Constitution and The Federalist Papers suggest that voters ought to have more freedom to vote for the candidate of their choice for the U.S. House of Representatives than they do for the President or the U.S. Senate. Yet, strangely, for the last thirty-three years, the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts have ruled that the Constitution gives voters more freedom to vote for the candidate of their choice in presidential elections than in congressional elections. Also, state legislatures, which have been writing ballot access laws since 1888, have passed laws that make it easier for minor-party and independent candidates to get on the ballot for President than for the U.S. House. As a result, voters in virtually every state invariably have far more choices on their general election ballots for the President than they do for the House. This Article argues that the right of a voter to vote for someone other than a Democrat or a Republican for the House is just as important as a voter’s right to do so for President, and that courts should grant more ballot access protection to minor-party and independent candidates for the House

Assessing plant diversity and composition in grasslands across spatial scales: the standardised EDGG sampling methodology

This paper presents the details of the EDGG sampling methodology and its underlying rationales. The methodology has been applied during EDGG Research Expeditions and EDGG Field Workshops since 2009, and has been subsequently adopted by various other researchers. The core of the sampling are the EDGG Biodiversity Plots, which are 100‐m2 squares comprising, in two opposite corners, nested‐plot series of 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 m2 square plots, in which all terricolous vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens are recorded using the shoot presence method. In the 10‐m2 plots, species cover is also estimated as a percentage and various environmental and structural parameters are recorded. Usually the EDGG Biodiversity Plots are complemented by the sampling of additional 10 m2 normal plots with the same parameters as the 10‐m2 corners of the first, allowing coverage of a greater environmental diversity and the achievement of higher statistical power in the subsequent analyses for this important grain size. The EDGG sampling methodology has been refined over the years, while its core has turned out to generate high‐quality, standardised data in an effective manner, which facilitates a multitude of analyses. In this paper we provide the current versions of our guidelines, field forms and data entry spreadsheets, as open‐access Online Resources to facilitate the easy implementation of this methodology by other researchers. We also discuss potential future additions and modifications to the approach, among which the most promising are the use of stratified‐random methods to a priori localise the plots and ideas to sample invertebrate taxa on the same plots and grain sizes, such as grasshoppers (Orthoptera) and vegetation‐dwelling spiders (Araneae). As with any other method, the EDGG sampling methodology is not ideal for every single purpose, but with its continuous improvements and its flexibility, it is a good multi‐ purpose approach. A particularly advantageous element, lacking in most other sampling schemes, including classical phytosociogical sampling, is the multi‐scale and multi‐taxon approach, which provides data that allow for deeper understanding of the generalities and idiosyncrasies of biodiversity patterns and their underlying drivers across scales and taxa

Database Species-Area Relationships in Palaearctic Grasslands.

The database collects the data resulting from the sampling of species-area relationships (SARs) in grassland communities in the Palaearctic. The core features of the database are the complete data from the EDGG Research Expeditions, but similar data from other studies are also included. Main features of the majority of relevés are: (i) they are part of nested-plot series (typically 0.0001-100 m²), (ii) bryophytes and lichens are treated comprehensively; (iii) detailed soil and other environmental data

The whole and its parts : why and how to disentangle plant communities and synusiae in vegetation classification

Most plant communities consist of different structural and ecological subsets, ranging from cryptogams to different tree layers. The completeness and approach with which these subsets are sampled have implications for vegetation classification. Non‐vascular plants are often omitted or sometimes treated separately, referring to their assemblages as “synusiae” (e.g. epiphytes on bark, saxicolous species on rocks). The distinction of complete plant communities (phytocoenoses or holocoenoses) from their parts (synusiae or merocoenoses) is crucial to avoid logical problems and inconsistencies of the resulting classification systems. We here describe theoretical differences between the phytocoenosis as a whole and its parts, and outline consequences of this distinction for practise and terminology in vegetation classification. To implement a clearer separation, we call for modifications of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature and the EuroVegChecklist. We believe that these steps will make vegetation classification systems better applicable and raise the recognition of the importance of non‐vascular plants in the vegetation as well as their interplay with vascular plants

Interferon β-1a in relapsing multiple sclerosis: four-year extension of the European IFNβ-1a Dose-C omparison Study

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease requiring long-term monitoring of treatment. Objective: To assess the four-year clinical efficacy of intramuscular (IM) IFNb-1a in patients with relapsing MS from the European IFNb-1a Dose-C omparison Study. Methods: Patients who completed 36 months of treatment (Part 1) of the European IFNb-1a Dose-C omparison Study were given the option to continue double-blind treatment with IFNb-1a 30 mcg or 60 mcg IM once weekly (Part 2). Analyses of 48-month data were performed on sustained disability progression, relapses, and neutralizing antibody (NA b) formation. Results: O f 608/802 subjects who completed 36 months of treatment, 493 subjects continued treatment and 446 completed 48 months of treatment and follow-up. IFNb-1a 30 mcg and 60 mcg IM once weekly were equally effective for up to 48 months. There were no significant differences between doses over 48 months on any of the clinical endpoints, including rate of disability progression, cumulative percentage of patients who progressed (48 and 43, respectively), and annual relapse rates; relapses tended to decrease over 48 months. The incidence of patients who were positive for NAbs at any time during the study was low in both treatment groups. Conclusion: C ompared with 60-mcg IM IFNb-1a once weekly, a dose of 30 mcg IM IFNb-1a once weekly maintains the same clinical efficacy over four years

Morphological characteristics of motor neurons do not determine their relative susceptibility to degeneration in a mouse model of severe spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a leading genetic cause of infant mortality, resulting primarily from the degeneration and loss of lower motor neurons. Studies using mouse models of SMA have revealed widespread heterogeneity in the susceptibility of individual motor neurons to neurodegeneration, but the underlying reasons remain unclear. Data from related motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suggest that morphological properties of motor neurons may regulate susceptibility: in ALS larger motor units innervating fast-twitch muscles degenerate first. We therefore set out to determine whether intrinsic morphological characteristics of motor neurons influenced their relative vulnerability to SMA. Motor neuron vulnerability was mapped across 10 muscle groups in SMA mice. Neither the position of the muscle in the body, nor the fibre type of the muscle innervated, influenced susceptibility. Morphological properties of vulnerable and disease-resistant motor neurons were then determined from single motor units reconstructed in Thy.1-YFP-H mice. None of the parameters we investigated in healthy young adult mice - including motor unit size, motor unit arbor length, branching patterns, motor endplate size, developmental pruning and numbers of terminal Schwann cells at neuromuscular junctions - correlated with vulnerability. We conclude that morphological characteristics of motor neurons are not a major determinant of disease-susceptibility in SMA, in stark contrast to related forms of motor neuron disease such as ALS. This suggests that subtle molecular differences between motor neurons, or extrinsic factors arising from other cell types, are more likely to determine relative susceptibility in SMA

Mixing and Circulation in the Tropical Atlantic Cruise No. M98

July 01 – July 28, 2013 Fortaleza (Brazil) – Walvis Bay (Namibia

GrassPlot v. 2.00 – first update on the database of multi-scale plant diversity in Palaearctic grasslands

Abstract: GrassPlot is a collaborative vegetation-plot database organised by the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) and listed in the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD ID EU-00-003). Following a previous Long Database Report (Dengler et al. 2018, Phyto- coenologia 48, 331–347), we provide here the first update on content and functionality of GrassPlot. The current version (GrassPlot v. 2.00) contains a total of 190,673 plots of different grain sizes across 28,171 independent plots, with 4,654 nested-plot series including at least four grain sizes. The database has improved its content as well as its functionality, including addition and harmonization of header data (land use, information on nestedness, structure and ecology) and preparation of species composition data. Currently, GrassPlot data are intensively used for broad-scale analyses of different aspects of alpha and beta diversity in grassland ecosystems