Avian Habitat Use in a Chronosequence of Bottomland Hardwood Forest Restoration Sites

Since the 1950s, anthropogenic activity has caused the loss of millions of hectares of bottomland hardwood forest in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, causing population declines in bird populations. Restoration of these forest stands has been ongoing for the past 2 decades. We assessed bird species presence on sites in the Upper Mississippi River Valley to quantify diversity and relate presence to habitat conditions and sites’ age since restoration. We observed higher mean diversities at mature bottomland-forest sites during the spring and autumn, but nested ANOVAs indicated no significant differences among restoration-age categories during spring. During the autumn, the 15–23-y and the mature bottomland-forest categories were significantly different from th

Regional and Global Left Ventricular Function Following a Simulated 5 km Race in Sports-Trained Adolescents

The effects of a short, high-intensity bout of exercise on cardiac systolic and diastolic function are not well understood in adolescent athletes. Consequently, the aims of the study were to evaluate global left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function, as well as segmental wall motion responses (cardiac strain), prior to as well as 45 and 225 min following a simulated 5 km cross-country race. Twenty trained, adolescent males (age: 15.2 ± 0.7 years) volunteered for exercise testing. LV fractional shortening and the ratio of early (E) and late (A) peak flow velocities reflected global systolic and diastolic function, respectively. Peak longitudinal mitral annular septal tissue velocities were also determined during systole and diastole. Longitudinal strain (ε) and strain rates were determined across the LV. LV fractional shortening was significantly (P < 0.05) higher at 225 min post-race (37.6 ± 5.8%) compared to pre-race (34.5 ± 4.7%) and 45 min post-race (34.9 ± 5.4 %). This difference was abolished after adjusting for post-race heart rates. There was a significant (P < 0.05) decrease in the E:A ratio at both 45 min (2.04 ± 0.57) and 225 min post-race (2.20 ± 0.66) compared to the pre-race value (2.80 ± 0.68). When these data were adjusted for post-race heart rates, these pre-post-race differences in E:A ratio were abolished. There were no significant alterations in either tissue Doppler velocities or longitudinal ε. The evidence suggests that a 5 km race does not lead to any significant post-exercise attenuation in global or regional LV systolic and diastolic function in trained adolescents

OT 060420: A Seemingly Optical Transient Recorded by All-Sky Cameras

We report on a ~5th magnitude flash detected for approximately 10 minutes by two CONCAM all-sky cameras located in Cerro Pachon - Chile and La Palma - Spain. A third all-sky camera, located in Cerro Paranal - Chile did not detect the flash, and therefore the authors of this paper suggest that the flash was a series of cosmic-ray hits, meteors, or satellite glints. Another proposed hypothesis is that the flash was an astronomical transient with variable luminosity. In this paper we discuss bright optical transient detection using fish-eye all-sky monitors, analyze the apparently false-positive optical transient, and propose possible causes to false optical transient detection in all-sky cameras.Comment: 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted PAS

Temporal Stream Logic: Synthesis beyond the Bools

Reactive systems that operate in environments with complex data, such as mobile apps or embedded controllers with many sensors, are difficult to synthesize. Synthesis tools usually fail for such systems because the state space resulting from the discretization of the data is too large. We introduce TSL, a new temporal logic that separates control and data. We provide a CEGAR-based synthesis approach for the construction of implementations that are guaranteed to satisfy a TSL specification for all possible instantiations of the data processing functions. TSL provides an attractive trade-off for synthesis. On the one hand, synthesis from TSL, unlike synthesis from standard temporal logics, is undecidable in general. On the other hand, however, synthesis from TSL is scalable, because it is independent of the complexity of the handled data. Among other benchmarks, we have successfully synthesized a music player Android app and a controller for an autonomous vehicle in the Open Race Car Simulator (TORCS.

A probabilistic approach for acoustic emission based monitoring techniques: with application to structural health monitoring

It has been demonstrated that acoustic-emission (AE), inspection of structures can offer advantages over other types of monitoring techniques in the detection of damage; namely, an increased sensitivity to damage, as well as an ability to localise its source. There are, however, numerous challenges associated with the analysis of AE data. One issue is the high sampling frequencies required to capture AE activity. In just a few seconds, a recording can generate very high volumes of data, of which a significant portion may be of little interest for analysis. Identifying the individual AE events in a recorded time-series is therefore a necessary procedure to reduce the size of the dataset. Another challenge that is also generally encountered in practice, is determining the sources of AE, which is an important exercise if one wishes to enhance the quality of the diagnostic scheme. In this paper, a state-of-the-art technique is presented that can automatically identify AE events, and simultaneously help in their characterisation from a probabilistic perspective. A nonparametric Bayesian approach, based on the Dirichlet process (DP), is employed to overcome some of the challenges associated with these tasks. Two main sets of AE data are considered in this work: (1) from a journal bearing in operation, and (2) from an Airbus A320 main landing gear subjected to fatigue testing

Automatic classification of field-collected dinoflagellates by artificial neural network

Automatic taxonomic categorisation of 23 species of dinoflagellates was demonstrated using field-collected specimens. These dinoflagellates have been responsible for the majority of toxic and noxious phytoplankton blooms which have occurred in the coastal waters of the European Union in recent years and make severe impact on the aquaculture industry. The performance by human 'expert' ecologists/taxonomists in identifying these species was compared to that achieved by 2 artificial neural network classifiers (multilayer perceptron and radial basis function networks) and 2 other statistical techniques, k-Nearest Neighbour and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis. The neural network classifiers outperform the classical statistical techniques. Over extended trials, the human experts averaged 85% while the radial basis network achieved a best performance of 83%, the multilayer perceptron 66%, k-Nearest Neighbour 60%, and the Quadratic Discriminant Analysis 56%

Plausibility functions and exact frequentist inference

In the frequentist program, inferential methods with exact control on error rates are a primary focus. The standard approach, however, is to rely on asymptotic approximations, which may not be suitable. This paper presents a general framework for the construction of exact frequentist procedures based on plausibility functions. It is shown that the plausibility function-based tests and confidence regions have the desired frequentist properties in finite samples---no large-sample justification needed. An extension of the proposed method is also given for problems involving nuisance parameters. Examples demonstrate that the plausibility function-based method is both exact and efficient in a wide variety of problems.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Electromagnetic Cascades and Cascade Nucleosynthesis in the Early Universe

We describe a calculation of electromagnetic cascading in radiation and matter in the early universe initiated by the decay of massive particles or by some other process. We have used a combination of Monte Carlo and numerical techniques which enables us to use exact cross sections, where known, for all the relevant processes. In cascades initiated after the epoch of big bang nucleosynthesis $\gamma$-rays in the cascades will photodisintegrate $^4$He, producing $^3$He and deuterium. Using the observed $^3$He and deuterium abundances we are able to place constraints on the cascade energy deposition as a function of cosmic time. In the case of the decay of massive primordial particles, we place limits on the density of massive primordial particles as a function of their mean decay time, and on the expected intensity of decay neutrinos.Comment: compressed and uuencoded postscript. We now include a comparison with previous work of the photon spectrum in the cascade and the limits we calculate for the density of massive particles. The method of calculation of photon spectra at low energies has been improved. Most figures are revised. Our conclusions are substantially unchange

6-PACK programme to decrease fall injuries in acute hospitals: Cluster randomised controlled trial

Objective: To evaluate the effect of the 6-PACK programme on falls and fall injuries in acute wards. Design: Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting: Six Australian hospitals. Participants: All patients admitted to 24 acute wards during the trial period. Interventions: Participating wards were randomly assigned to receive either the nurse led 6-PACK programme or usual care over 12 months. The 6-PACK programme included a fall risk tool and individualised use of one or more of six interventions: “falls alert” sign, supervision of patients in the bathroom, ensuring patients’ walking aids are within reach, a toileting regimen, use of a low-low bed, and use of a bed/chair alarm. Main outcome measures: The co-primary outcomes were falls and fall injuries per 1000 occupied bed days. Results: During the trial, 46 245 admissions to 16 medical and eight surgical wards occurred. As many people were admitted more than once, this represented 31 411 individual patients. Patients’ characteristics and length of stay were similar for intervention and control wards. Use of 6-PACK programme components was higher on intervention wards than on control wards (incidence rate ratio 3.05, 95% confidence interval 2.14 to 4.34; P<0.001). In all, 1831 falls and 613 fall injuries occurred, and the rates of falls (incidence rate ratio 1.04, 0.78 to 1.37; P=0.796) and fall injuries (0.96, 0.72 to 1.27; P=0.766) were similar in intervention and control wards. Conclusions: Positive changes in falls prevention practice occurred following the introduction of the 6-PACK programme. However, no difference was seen in falls or fall injuries between groups. High quality evidence showing the effectiveness of falls prevention interventions in acute wards remains absent. Novel solutions to the problem of in-hospital falls are urgently needed