Resource Bound Guarantees via Programming Languages

We present a programming language in which every well-typed program halts in time polynomial with respect to its input and, more importantly, in which upper bounds on resource requirements can be inferred with certainty. Ensuring that software meets its resource constraints is important in a number of domains, most prominently in hard real-time systems and safety critical systems where failing to meet its time constraints can result in catastrophic failure. The use of test- ing in ensuring resource constraints is of limited use since the testing of every input or environment is impossible in general. Static analysis, whether via the compiler or com- plementary programming tool, can generate proofs of correctness with certainty at the cost that not all programs can be analysed. We describe a programming language, Pola, which provides upper bounds on resource usage for well-typed programs. Further, we describe novel features of Pola that make it more expressive than existing resource-constrained programming languages

Non-continuous and variable rate processes: Optimisation for energy use

The need to develop new and improved ways of reducing energy use and increasing energy intensity in industrial processes is currently a major issue in New Zealand. Little attention has been given to optimisation of non-continuous processes in the past, due to their complexity, yet they remain an essential and often energy intensive component of many industrial sites. Novel models based on pinch analysis that aid in minimising utility usage have been constructed here through the adaptation of proven continuous techniques. The knowledge has been integrated into a user friendly software package, and allows the optimisation of processes under variable operating rates and batch conditions. An example problem demonstrates the improvements in energy use that can be gained when using these techniques to analyse non-continuous data. A comparison with results achieved using a pseudo-continuous method show that the method described can provide simultaneous reductions in capital and operating costs

Rethinking Female Urinary Devices for the US Army

As women assume more combat roles in the US military and continue to operate in austere environments with varied mission sets, the Department of Defense must rethink its approach to equipment and uniform development to accommodate female anatomical differences. This article analyzes the results of a study conducted during the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition at the United States Military Academy to determine the effectiveness of commercial off-the-shelf products the Army has adopted to aid female urination—products used by competition participants that may not be the best or healthiest options for women

Aspects of the reign of Muzaffar al-Din Shah of Persia 1896-1907.

This thesis is concerned with certain aspects of the reign of Muzaffar al-Din Shah of Persia from 1896 to 1907; during the last year of which Persia ceased to be an absolute monarchy and adopted a constitution. The thesis first of all discusses the value of various British archives for the study of this period. It goes on to consider the character of Muzaffar al-Din and the nature of government during his reign. Two particular organs of government are-studied in detail: the army and the Customs administration, which was then undergoing reform at the hands of Belgian experts. The diffusion of cholera throughout Persia in 1904 is described, and the effects of that epidemic are discussed. The thesis then turns to a study of the political and economic circumstances which prevailed in the two important provinces of Fars and Isfahan. The thesis shows that there was much discontent in Persia, and it notes that few of the sources of that discontent were new., It is seen that members of the religious classes played an important part in events throughout the period. It is shown that the government of Muzaffar al- Din Shah was weak, that it failed to exercise effective central control, and that it was incapable of meeting the demands made upon it. It is argued that Anglo-Russian rivalry had a considerable impact on domestic events, and that that rivalry increased the problems facing the country, while at the same time it revealed to many Persians the extent of the government's weakness. It is concluded that although many demands were being made of the Shah and his government, they were not essentially incompatible with the continuation of absolute rule

Dissociation of structural and functional integrities of the motor system in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia

Background and Purpose: This study investigated the structural and functional changes in the motor system in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; n=25) and behavioral-variant fronto-temporal dementia (bvFTD; n=17) relative to healthy controls (n=37). Methods: Structural changes were examined using a region-of-interest approach, applying voxel-based morphometry for gray-matter changes and diffusion tensor imaging for white-matter changes. Functional changes in the motor system were elucidated using threshold-tracking transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) measurements of upper motor-neuron excitability. Results: The structural analyses showed that in ALS there were more white-matter changes in the corticospinal and motor-cortex regions and more gray-matter changes in the cerebellum in comparison to controls. bvFTD showed substantial gray- and white-matter changes across virtually all motor-system regions compared to controls, although the brainstem was affected less than the other regions. Direct comparisons across patient groups showed that the gray- and white-matter motor-system changes inclusive of the motor cortex were greater in bvFTD than in ALS. By contrast, the functional integrity of the motor system was more adversely affected in ALS than in bvFTD, with both patient groups showing increased excitability of upper motor neurons compared to controls. Conclusions: Cross-correlation of structural and functional data further revealed a neural dissociation of different motor-system regions and tracts covarying with the TMS excitability across both patient groups. The structural and functional motor-system integrities appear to be dissociated between ALS and bvFTD, which represents useful information for the diagnosis of motor-system changes in these two disorders

Is it time to reappraise blood pressure thresholds and targets? Statement from the international society of hypertension - a global perspective

No abstract available

PhosCalc: A tool for evaluating the sites of peptide phosphorylation from Mass Spectrometer data

© 2008 MacLean et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Bioluminescence imaging of chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infections reveals tissue-specific parasite dynamics and heart disease in the absence of locally persistent infection.

Chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infections lead to cardiomyopathy in 20-30% of cases. A causal link between cardiac infection and pathology has been difficult to establish because of a lack of robust methods to detect scarce, focally distributed parasites within tissues. We developed a highly sensitive bioluminescence imaging system based on T. cruzi expressing a novel luciferase that emits tissue-penetrating orange-red light. This enabled long-term serial evaluation of parasite burdens in individual mice with an in vivo limit of detection of significantly less than 1000 parasites. Parasite distributions during chronic infections were highly focal and spatiotemporally dynamic, but did not localize to the heart. End-point ex vivo bioluminescence imaging allowed tissue-specific quantification of parasite loads with minimal sampling bias. During chronic infections, the gastro-intestinal tract, specifically the colon and stomach, was the only site where T. cruzi infection was consistently observed. Quantitative PCR-inferred parasite loads correlated with ex vivo bioluminescence and confirmed the gut as the parasite reservoir. Chronically infected mice developed myocarditis and cardiac fibrosis, despite the absence of locally persistent parasites. These data identify the gut as a permissive niche for long-term T. cruzi infection and show that canonical features of Chagas disease can occur without continual myocardium-specific infection