Studies on the Bryophytes of Southern Manitoba. II. Collections from the Winnipeg Area

Fifty-five taxa of bryophytes are reported for the area of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Frullania inflata, Brachythecium acuminatum, Encalypta ciliata, and Tortella inclinata are new records for the province.The field work in this study was supported in part by Grant No. 140-118 from the University of Winnipeg

Studies on the Bryophytes of Southern Manitoba. III. Collections from Grand Beach Provincial Park

"The field work was supported in part by Grant No. 140-118 from the University of Winnipeg.

Studies on the Bryophytes of Southern Manitoba. V. Collections from Whiteshell Provincial Park

One hundred and twenty-nine taxa of bryophytes were collected in the western part of Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba. The following eight taxa have not previously been recorded for the province: Frullania bolanderi, Lophozia excisa, L. hatcheri, Porella platyphylloidea, Anomodon rostratus, Grimmia donniana, G. unicolor, and Hygroamblystegium fluviatile var. orthocladum."The field work for this study was supported in part by Grant Number 140-118 from the University of Winnipeg.

BIT-RATE ALLOCATION BETWEEN TEXTURE AND DEPTH: INFLUENCE OF DATA SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS

International audienceThis paper questions the existence of factors influencing the quality of the synthesized views, in the context of multi-view video plus depth coding (MVC). The issue of bit-rate allocation between texture and depth data in MVC is still open, despite the many efforts already raised for the development of optimization techniques. The originality of this study lies in the investigation of direct relationships between the best bit-rate allocation, in terms of objective quality of synthesized views, and the sequence characteristics (entropy of depth maps, depth complexity and camera baseline distance, background/foreground contrast areas). The results confirm our assumptions regarding the impact of the sequence features on the bit-rate allocation. The results and the limitations of the study are also discussed

Studies on the Bryophytes of Southern Manitoba. IV. Collections from Bird's Hill Provincial Park

One hundred and seventeen taxa of bryophytes were collected in Bird's Hill Provincial Park, Manitoba. Habitats sampled included ditches, streams, marshes, moist clay banks, dry grassland, and areas forested by black spruce, tamarack, white cedar, white spruce, aspen, balsam poplar, and bur oak. Cephalozia catenulata, Platydictya confervoides, P. subtile, and Thuidium minutulum are new records for the province."The field work for this study was supported in part by Grant No. 140-118 from the University of Winnipeg.

Dedicated On-Board Computer for Active Debris Removal Mission

This paper describes the first steps toward the implementation of a dedicated rendezvous payload on-board computer for the Active Debris Removal mission ClearSpace-1. Challenges of ADR missions lay in their ability to first detect and track a target, then perform proximity operation and capture. It implies a variety of sensors which are needed for the Guidance, Navigation and Control of the spacecraft. Sensor outputs need to be processed to retrieve position and attitude estimation of the target, then results are transmitted to the GNC algorithms for precise navigation. To obtain accurate target information, the algorithms require a high input data rate and multiple sensor sources. The EPFL Space Center and the start-up ClearSpace are working on a dedicated payload computer for their ADR mission. The mission will use a standard satellite bus developed for Earth observation and combine it with another on-board computer for all the tasks specific to the mission. The current testbench setup has the satellite bus physical processor board connected through SpaceWire and Ethernet to a simulator and a payload computer prototype. By implementing a Hardware-In-the-Loop setup, the team is able to assess various configurations for the satellite

Accelerated ageing and renal dysfunction links lower socioeconomic status and dietary phosphate intake

Background: We have sought to explore the impact of dietary Pi intake on human age related health in the pSoBid cohort (n=666) to explain the disparity between health and deprivation status in this cohort. As hyperphosphataemia is a driver of accelerated ageing in rodent models of progeria we tested whether variation in Pi levels in man associate with measures of biological ageing and health. Results: We observed significant relationships between serum Pi levels and markers of biological age (telomere length (p=0.040) and DNA methylation content (p=0.028), gender and chronological age (p=0.032). When analyses were adjusted for socio-economic status and nutritional factors, associations were observed between accelerated biological ageing (telomere length, genomic methylation content) and dietary derived Pi levels among the most deprived males, directly related to the frequency of red meat consumption. Conclusions: Accelerated ageing is associated with high serum Pi levels and frequency of red meat consumption. Our data provide evidence for a mechanistic link between high intake of Pi and age-related morbidities tied to socio-economic status

Managing Self-Confidence: Theory and Experimental Evidence

Evidence from social psychology suggests that agents process information about their own ability in a biased manner. This evidence has motivated exciting research in behavioral economics, but has also garnered critics who point out that it is potentially consistent with standard Bayesian updating. We implement a direct experimental test. We study a large sample of 656 undergraduate students, tracking the evolution of their beliefs about their own relative performance on an IQ test as they receive noisy feedback from a known data-generating process. Our design lets us repeatedly measure the complete relevant belief distribution incentive-compatibly. We find that subjects (1) place approximately full weight on their priors, but (2) are asymmetric, over-weighting positive feedback relative to negative, and (3) conservative, updating too little in response to both positive and negative signals. These biases are substantially less pronounced in a placebo experiment where ego is not at stake. We also find that (4) a substantial portion of subjects are averse to receiving information about their ability, and that (5) less confident subjects are causally more likely to be averse. We unify these phenomena by showing that they all arise naturally in a simple model of optimally biased Bayesian information processing.