Legibility of electroluminescent instrument panels investigated

Legibility studies of several EL /electroluminescent/ displays correlate reading time and accuracy with number size, stroke/width ratio, indicia size, pointer width, contrast, ambient illumination, and color background and and contrast. Human factor criteria established on non-EL displays may not apply to EL displays

Future X-ray timing missions

Thanks to the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), it is now widely recognized that fast X-ray timing can be used to probe strong gravity fields around collapsed objects and constrain the equation of state of dense matter in neutron stars. We first discuss some of the outstanding issues which could be solved with an X-ray timing mission building on the great successes of RXTE and providing an order of magnitude better sensitivity. Then we briefly describe the 'Experiment for X-ray timing and Relativistic Astrophysics' (EXTRA) recently proposed to the European Space Agency as a follow-up to RXTE and the related US mission 'Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer' (RAE).Comment: To be published in `Proceedings of the Third Microquasar Workshop: Granada Workshop on galactic relativistic jet sources', Eds A. J. Castro-Tirado, J. Greiner and J. M. Paredes, Astrophysics and Space Science, in press. More about EXTRA can be found at: http://www.cesr.fr/~barret/extra.htm

AtomsMasher: Personal Reactive Automation for the Web

The rise of "Web 2.0" has seen an explosion of web sites for the social sharing of personal information. To enable users to make valuable use of the rich yet fragmented sea of public, social, and personal information, data mashups emerged to provide a means for combining and filtering such information into coherent feeds and visualizations. In this paper we present AtomsMasher (AM), a new framework which extends data mashups into the realm of context-aware reactive behaviors. Reactive scripts in AM can be made to trigger automatically in response to changes in its world model derived from multiple web-based data feeds. By exposing a simple state-model abstraction and query language abstractions of data derived from heterogeneous web feeds through a simulation-based interactive script debugging environment, AM greatly simplifies the process of creating such automation in a way that is flexible, predictable, scalable and within the reach of everyday Web programmers

The scaling of X-ray variability with luminosity in Ultra-luminous X-ray sources

We investigated the relationship between the X-ray variability amplitude and X-ray luminosity for a sample of 14 bright Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with XMM-Newton/EPIC data, and compare it with the well established similar relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We computed the normalised excess variance in the 2-10 keV light curves of these objects and their 2-10 keV band intrinsic luminosity. We also determined model "variability-luminosity" relationships for AGN, under several assumptions regarding their power-spectral shape. We compared these model predictions at low luminosities with the ULX data. The variability amplitude of the ULXs is significantly smaller than that expected from a simple extrapolation of the AGN "variability-luminosity" relationship at low luminosities. We also find evidence for an anti-correlation between the variability amplitude and L(2-10 keV) for ULXs. The shape of this relationship is consistent with the AGN data but only if the ULXs data are shifted by four orders of magnitudes in luminosity. Most (but not all) of the ULXs could be "scaled-down" version of AGN if we assume that: i) their black hole mass and accretion rate are of the order of ~(2.5-30)x 10E+03 Msolar and ~ 1-80 % of the Eddington limit, and ii) their Power Spectral Density has a doubly broken power-law shape. This PDS shape and accretion rate is consistent with Galactic black hole systems operating in their so-called "low-hard" and "very-high" states.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&

Grey matter involvement by focal cervical spinal cord lesions is associated with progressive multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND: The in vivo relationship of spinal cord lesion features with clinical course and function in multiple sclerosis (MS) is poorly defined. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to investigate the associations of spinal cord lesion features on MRI with MS subgroup and disability. METHODS: We recruited 120 people: 25 clinically isolated syndrome, 35 relapsing-remitting (RR), 30 secondary progressive (SP), and 30 primary progressive (PP) MS. Disability was measured using the Expanded Disability Status Scale. We performed 3T axial cervical cord MRI, using 3D-fast-field-echo and phase-sensitive-inversion-recovery sequences. Both focal lesions and diffuse abnormalities were recorded. Focal lesions were classified according to the number of white matter (WM) columns involved and whether they extended to grey matter (GM). RESULTS: The proportion of patients with focal lesions involving at least two WM columns and extending to GM was higher in SPMS than in RRMS (p = 0.03) and PPMS (p = 0.015). Diffuse abnormalities were more common in both PPMS and SPMS, compared with RRMS (OR 6.1 (p = 0.002) and 5.7 (p = 0.003), respectively). The number of lesions per patient involving both the lateral column and extending to GM was independently associated with disability (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: More extensive focal cord lesions, extension of lesions to GM, and diffuse abnormalities are associated with progressive MS and disability

Systems biology and synthetic biology: A new epoch for toxicology research

Copyright © 2015 Mark T. Mc Auley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Systems biology and synthetic biology are emerging disciplines which are becoming increasingly utilised in several areas of bioscience. Toxicology is beginning to benefit from systems biology and we suggest in the future that is will also benefit from synthetic biology. Thus, a new era is on the horizon. This review illustrates how a suite of innovative techniques and tools can be applied to understanding complex health and toxicology issues. We review limitations confronted by the traditional computational approaches to toxicology and epidemiology research, using polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their effects on adverse birth outcomes as an illustrative example. We introduce how systems toxicology (and their subdisciplines, genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic toxicology) will help to overcome such limitations. In particular, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mathematical frameworks that computationally represent biological systems. Finally, we discuss the nascent discipline of synthetic biology and highlight relevant toxicological centred applications of this technique, including improvements in personalised medicine. We conclude this review by presenting a number of opportunities and challenges that could shape the future of these rapidly evolving disciplines.Veronica M. Miller would like to acknowledge funding from Alexander and Bo McInnis and the Autism Research Institute for her toxicological studies and support

The effects of exposure to a rotating environment /10 rpm/ on four aviators for a period of twelve days

Motion sickness studies of aviators exposed to rotating environment - Aerospace medicin

The unknown planktonic foraminiferal pioneer Henry A. Buckley and his collection at The Natural History Museum, London

© 2017 The Author(s) This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). The version attached is the published pdf

The magnetic nature of disk accretion onto black holes

Although disk accretion onto compact objects - white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes - is central to much of high energy astrophysics, the mechanisms which enable this process have remained observationally elusive. Accretion disks must transfer angular momentum for matter to travel radially inward onto the compact object. Internal viscosity from magnetic processes and disk winds can in principle both transfer angular momentum, but hitherto we lacked evidence that either occurs. Here we report that an X-ray-absorbing wind discovered in an observation of the stellar-mass black hole binary GRO J1655-40 must be powered by a magnetic process that can also drive accretion through the disk. Detailed spectral analysis and modeling of the wind shows that it can only be powered by pressure generated by magnetic viscosity internal to the disk or magnetocentrifugal forces. This result demonstrates that disk accretion onto black holes is a fundamentally magnetic process.Comment: 15 pages, 2 color figures, accepted for publication in Nature. Supplemental materials may be obtained by clicking http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~jonmm/nature1655.p

What is the evidence for the contribution of forests to poverty alleviation? A systematic map protocol

This is the final version of the article. Available from BioMed Central via the DOI in this record.Background: Forests provide an essential resource that support the livelihoods of an estimated 20% of the global population. Forests are thought to serve in three primary roles to support livelihoods: subsistence, safety nets, and pathways to prosperity. While we have a working understanding of how poor people depend on forests in individual sites and countries, much of this evidence is dispersed and not easily accessible. Thus, while the importance of forest ecosystems and resources to contribute to poverty alleviation has been increasingly emphasized in international policies, conservation and development initiatives and investments- the strength of evidence to support how forests can affect poverty outcomes is still unclear. This study takes a systematic mapping approach to scope, identify and describe studies that measure the effect of forest-based activities on poverty outcomes at local and regional scales. This effort builds upon an existing systematic map on linkages between conservation and human well-being in order to make this process more efficient. We will conduct a refined and updated search strategy pertinent to forests-poverty linkages to glean additional evidence from studies outside the scope of the original map. Results of this study can be used for informing conservation and development policy and practices in global forest ecosystems and highlight evidence gaps where future primary studies and systematic reviews can add value. Methods: We build upon the search strategy outlined in McKinnon et al. (Environ Evid 1-25, 2016) and expand our search to cover a total of 7 bibliographic databases, 15 organizational websites, 8 existing systematic reviews and maps, and evidence gap maps, and solicit key informants. All searches will be conducted in English and encompass all nations. Search results will be screened at title, abstract, and full text levels, recording both the number of excluded articles and reasons for exclusion. Full text assessment will be conducted on all included article and extracted data will be reported in a narrative review that will summarize trends in the evidence, report any knowledge gaps and gluts, and provide insight for policy, practice and future research. The data from this systematic map will be made available as well, through an open access, searchable data portal and visualization tool.We are grateful for funding support from the Program on Forests (PROFOR) (SA, SO, SC, RG) and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project #1009327 (DM)