Solar X-ray spectrum reproduced in vacuum

Desired low energy X rays are produced by modifying commercial ion tubes and combining them with standard power supplies and control circuitry. These X rays have less deviation from the solar X ray spectrum in energy and intensity

Tests on Soilvita

Soil vita (soil life) is a preparation on the market for the inoculation of all crops. It is claimed that this culture grows better and larger crops of all grains, vegetables, beautiful lawns and luxuriant flowers. The culture is supposed to contain all desirable soil organisms except the legume bacteria and the introduction of these organisms into the soil is supposed to bring about a great stimulation in the production of available plant food and hence in the yields of all crops

The inoculation of non-legumes

The discovery of the importance of the inoculation of legume crops, such as clovers and alfalfa, some 40 years ago, in order to secure larger crops and increase the fertility of the soil, has led to many attempts to devise a culture which would bring about similar beneficial effects on non-legumes. The first commercial culture, known as Alinit, appeared in 1895. It was supposed to increase the nitrogen content of the soil thru the introduction of free-living nitrogen fixing organisms and thus supply nitrogen for the better growth of all crops. It failed. Other cultures, appearing from time to time, have been claimed to introduce, not only these nitrogen-fixing organisms into the soil but also to supply all kinds of desirable microorganisms to stimulate the production of all available plant food constituents. Occasionally preparations have been put on the market, for use with individual non-legumes, such as the grain crops, presumably with the idea that if special cultures were needed for the various legumes, as has seemed to be the case generally, there should also be special cultures for non-legumes. Most of the cultures, however, have been designed to benefit all crops

NONLINEAR REGRESSION FUNCTIONS FOR FORAGE NUTRIENT DISAPPEARANCE FROM BAGS INCUBATED IN THE RUMEN

Seven nonlinear regression functions are compared for fitting rumen in situ disappearance data. The standard function is based on a simple one-compartment model. In addition, we consider a time lag modification, a two-compartment model, and functions based on underlying probability models for degradation time. The empirical suitability of the seven regression functions are assessed using two in situ experiments involving forages fed to dairy cows. A function based on the loglogistic distribution is shown to have empirical and theoretical advantages

International Human Rights and the Mistreatment of Women During Childbirth

International human rights bodies have played a critical role in codifying, setting standards, and monitoring human rights violations in the context of sexual and reproductive health and rights. In recent years, these institutions have developed and applied human rights standards in the more particular context of maternal mortality and morbidity, and have increasingly recognized a critical human rights issue in the provision and experience of care during and after pregnancy, including during childbirth. However, the international human rights standards on mistreatment during facility-based childbirth remain, in an early stage of development, focused largely on a discrete subset of experiences, such as forced sterilization and lack of access to emergency obstetric care. As a consequence, the range of mistreatment that women may experience has not been adequately addressed or analyzed under international human rights law. Identifying human rights norms and standards related to the full range of documented mistreatment is thus a first step towards addressing violations of human rights during facility-based childbirth, ensuring respectful and humane treatment, and developing a program of work to improve the overall quality of maternal care. This article reviews international human rights standards related to the mistreatment of women during childbirth in facility settings under regional and international human rights law and lays out an agenda for further research and action

Aquilegia, Vol. 26 No. 1, January-February 2002: Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1091/thumbnail.jp

Are Dietary Bioactives Ready for Recommended Intakes?12

Research has shown that numerous dietary bioactive components that are not considered essential may still be beneficial to health. The dietary reference intake (DRI) process has been applied to nonessential nutrients, such as fiber, yet the majority of bioactive components await a recommended intake. Despite a plethora of new research over the past several years on the health effects of bioactives, it is possible that the field may never reach a point where the current DRI framework is suitable for these food components. If bioactives are to move toward dietary guidance, they will likely require an alternative path to get there

Biomarkers of Host Response Predict Primary End-Point Radiological Pneumonia in Tanzanian Children with Clinical Pneumonia: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing pediatric pneumonia is challenging in low-resource settings. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined primary end-point radiological pneumonia for use in epidemiological and vaccine studies. However, radiography requires expertise and is often inaccessible. We hypothesized that plasma biomarkers of inflammation and endothelial activation may be useful surrogates for end-point pneumonia, and may provide insight into its biological significance. METHODS: We studied children with WHO-defined clinical pneumonia (n = 155) within a prospective cohort of 1,005 consecutive febrile children presenting to Tanzanian outpatient clinics. Based on x-ray findings, participants were categorized as primary end-point pneumonia (n = 30), other infiltrates (n = 31), or normal chest x-ray (n = 94). Plasma levels of 7 host response biomarkers at presentation were measured by ELISA. Associations between biomarker levels and radiological findings were assessed by Kruskal-Wallis test and multivariable logistic regression. Biomarker ability to predict radiological findings was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and Classification and Regression Tree analysis. RESULTS: Compared to children with normal x-ray, children with end-point pneumonia had significantly higher C-reactive protein, procalcitonin and Chitinase 3-like-1, while those with other infiltrates had elevated procalcitonin and von Willebrand Factor and decreased soluble Tie-2 and endoglin. Clinical variables were not predictive of radiological findings. Classification and Regression Tree analysis generated multi-marker models with improved performance over single markers for discriminating between groups. A model based on C-reactive protein and Chitinase 3-like-1 discriminated between end-point pneumonia and non-end-point pneumonia with 93.3% sensitivity (95% confidence interval 76.5-98.8), 80.8% specificity (72.6-87.1), positive likelihood ratio 4.9 (3.4-7.1), negative likelihood ratio 0.083 (0.022-0.32), and misclassification rate 0.20 (standard error 0.038). CONCLUSIONS: In Tanzanian children with WHO-defined clinical pneumonia, combinations of host biomarkers distinguished between end-point pneumonia, other infiltrates, and normal chest x-ray, whereas clinical variables did not. These findings generate pathophysiological hypotheses and may have potential research and clinical utility

Topological Defects and Interactions in Nematic Emulsions

Inverse nematic emulsions in which surfactant-coated water droplets are dispersed in a nematic host fluid have distinctive properties that set them apart from dispersions of two isotropic fluids or of nematic droplets in an isotropic fluid. We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the distortions produced in the nematic host by the dispersed droplets and of solvent mediated dipolar interactions between droplets that lead to their experimentally observed chaining. A single droplet in a nematic host acts like a macroscopic hedgehog defect. Global boundary conditions force the nucleation of compensating topological defects in the nematic host. Using variational techniques, we show that in the lowest energy configuration, a single water droplet draws a single hedgehog out of the nematic host to form a tightly bound dipole. Configurations in which the water droplet is encircled by a disclination ring have higher energy. The droplet-dipole induces distortions in the nematic host that lead to an effective dipole-dipole interaction between droplets and hence to chaining.Comment: 17 double column pages prepared by RevTex, 15 eps figures included in text, 2 gif figures for Fig. 1