Ship safety in open ports

Ports and terminals open to prevailing winds can cause problems to moored ships with a high free-board. Such ships, i.e. ship and berth mooring systems, have to deal with significant aerodynamic loads. This paper addresses the theoretical approach of the influence of aerodynamic loads on a mooring system for ship and investigates whether windscreens can reduce aerodynamic loads on ships in ports

A Personal Affair: Diplomatic Negotiations and the Portrayal of Détente in Pravda, 1972-75

This thesis explores how diplomatic relations between the US and the USSR changed during détente, specifically concentrating on the period between the 1972 Moscow Summit and the enactment of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the 1974 Trade Bill. I employ transcripts of diplomatic negotiations to investigate the ways that Soviet and American leaders used new personal relationships with their adversaries to achieve their foreign policy goals. In order to gain further understanding of the Soviet leadership's attitudes toward détente, I also examine how the Soviet government, through Pravda, communicated this new, increasingly complex diplomatic relationship to the Soviet public in a nuanced fashion, with multilayered presentations of American foreign policy that included portrayals of individual actors and not simply impersonal groups

Sensitivity of non-target groups of invertebrates to cypermethrin

Agrogenic pollution with pyrethroid insecticides has been impacting the structure of populations of terrestrial invertebrates, causing decline in their taxonomic diversity and tolerance to critical values of environmental factors. In a laboratory experiment, we evaluated the sensitivity of 46 non-target invertebrate species to cypermethrin. In most examined species, we observed correlation between the body parameters (length and weight of body) and tolerance to this insecticide. We determined that the greater body size of the invertebrates, the better their tolerance to cypermethrin. Differences in LD50 were the highest for groups of invertebrates with the body weight of 1.0–3.9 mg (1.9 ± 0.5 g/ha) and 16.0–63.9 mg (16.4 ± 3.2 g/ha). We observed a relashionship between the trophic specialization and sensitivity to the insecticide in phytophages and zoophages. Average LD50 values for phytophages were 2.1 ± 0.5 g/ha, much lower than for zoophages – 15.6 ± 3.3 g/ha. Among zoophages, the greatest tolerance to cypermethrin was demonstrated by ground beetles Carabus coriaceus L., Pterostichus niger (Schall.), P. melanarius (Ill.), Pseudoophonus rufipes (De Geer), and earwigs Forficula auricularia L. Analysis of various taxonomic groups of insects revealed the parameter to be 24.00 ± 4.66 for Carabidae, 8.60 ± 2.72 for Formicidae, and 0.23 ± 0.08 for Staphylinidae. Among the taxonomic groups we studied, the most sensitive to cypermethrin (LD50 = 0.002–0.99 g/ha) were Philonthus decorus (0.0029), Ph. rectangulus (0.0035), Ophonus rufibarbis (0.121), Oxytelus sculptus (0.124), Myrmica ruginodis (0.39), Aleochara lanuginosa (0.49), Carabus granulatus (0.51), Oxythyrea funesta (0.52), Tachinus signatus (0.55), Cixiidae sp. (0.56), Lygus pratensis (0.56), Carabus convexus (0.71), and C. hortensis (0.83). Lower sensitivity to cypermethrin (LD50 = 1.00–9.99 g/ha) was seen in Lasius fuliginosus (1.05), Pyrrhocoris apterus (1.28), Chortippus sp. 2 (1.96), Rhyparochromus phoeniceus (2.24), Phosphuga atrata (2.25), Chironomus plumosus (2.58), Labia minor (2.86), Graphosoma italicum (2.86), Hister fenestus (3.39), Cylindroiulus truncorum (3.61), Opilio saxatilis (3.71), Chortippus sp. 1 (3.94), Epaphius secalis (4.54), Lasius niger (4.77), Silpha carinata (4.84), Aphodius foetens (4.94), Porcellio laevis (5.68), Coreus marginatus (6.50), Leistus ferrugineus (7.39), and Lasius alienus (9.73). The most tolerant to cypermethrin (LD50 = 10.00–108.00 g/ha) were Calathus fuscipes (12.14), Limodromus assimilis (12.22), Trochosa terricola (12.55), Lithobius forficatus (13.98), Calathus ambiguus (20.85), Nebria brevicollis (23.20), Ponera coarctata (27.04), Megaphyllum sp. (29.01), Pseudoophonus rufipes (41.75), Pterostichus melanarius (45.78), P. niger (58.29), Forficula auricularia (80.57), and Carabus coriaceus (107.71). The differences we found in tolerance to cypermethrin ranged 100,000 times. This evidences the necessity of further research of taxonomic differences in tolerance of invertebrates to cypermethrin

Genetic variability of raccoon dogs and their impacts on the environment in Lithuania

Pūraitė, I., Griciuvienė, L., Paulauskas, A., Sruoga, A., Gedminas, V., Butkauskas, D

An improvement of the Berry--Esseen inequality with applications to Poisson and mixed Poisson random sums

By a modification of the method that was applied in (Korolev and Shevtsova, 2009), here the inequalities $$\rho(F_n,\Phi)\le\frac{0.335789(\beta^3+0.425)}{\sqrt{n}}$$ and $$\rho(F_n,\Phi)\le \frac{0.3051(\beta^3+1)}{\sqrt{n}}$$ are proved for the uniform distance $\rho(F_n,\Phi)$ between the standard normal distribution function $\Phi$ and the distribution function $F_n$ of the normalized sum of an arbitrary number $n\ge1$ of independent identically distributed random variables with zero mean, unit variance and finite third absolute moment $\beta^3$. The first of these inequalities sharpens the best known version of the classical Berry--Esseen inequality since $0.335789(\beta^3+0.425)\le0.335789(1+0.425)\beta^3<0.4785\beta^3$ by virtue of the condition $\beta^3\ge1$, and 0.4785 is the best known upper estimate of the absolute constant in the classical Berry--Esseen inequality. The second inequality is applied to lowering the upper estimate of the absolute constant in the analog of the Berry--Esseen inequality for Poisson random sums to 0.3051 which is strictly less than the least possible value of the absolute constant in the classical Berry--Esseen inequality. As a corollary, the estimates of the rate of convergence in limit theorems for compound mixed Poisson distributions are refined.Comment: 33 page

Subjective visual vertical assessment with mobile virtual reality system

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The subjective visual vertical (SVV) is a measure of a subject's perceived verticality, and a sensitive test of vestibular dysfunction. Despite this, and consequent upon technical and logistical limitations, SVV has not entered mainstream clinical practice. The aim of the study was to develop a mobile virtual reality based system for SVV test, evaluate the suitability of different controllers and assess the system's usability in practical settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we describe a novel virtual reality based system that has been developed to test SVV using integrated software and hardware, and report normative values across healthy population. Participants wore a mobile virtual reality headset in order to observe a 3D stimulus presented across separate conditions – static, dynamic and an immersive real-world (“boat in the sea”) SVV tests. The virtual reality environment was controlled by the tester using a Bluetooth connected controllers. Participants controlled the movement of a vertical arrow using either a gesture control armband or a general-purpose gamepad, to indicate perceived verticality. We wanted to compare 2 different methods for object control in the system, determine normal values and compare them with literature data, to evaluate the developed system with the help of the system usability scale questionnaire and evaluate possible virtually induced dizziness with the help of subjective visual analog scale. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in SVV values during static, dynamic and virtual reality stimulus conditions, obtained using the two different controllers and the results are compared to those previously reported in the literature using alternative methodologies. The SUS scores for the system were high, with a median of 82.5 for the Myo controller and of 95.0 for the Gamepad controller, representing a statistically significant difference between the two controllers (P < 0.01). The median of virtual reality-induced dizziness for both devices was 0.7. CONCLUSIONS: The mobile virtual reality based system for implementation of subjective visual vertical test, is accurate and applicable in the clinical environment. The gamepad-based virtual object control method was preferred by the users. The tests were well tolerated with low dizziness scores in the majority of patients

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in Ixodes ricinus ticks collected from migratory birds in Southern Norway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Borrelia burgdorferi </it>sensu lato (s.l.) are the causative agent for Lyme borreliosis (LB), the most common tick-borne disease in the northern hemisphere. Birds are considered important in the global dispersal of ticks and tick-borne pathogens through their migration. The present study is the first description of <it>B. burgdorferi </it>prevalence and genotypes in <it>Ixodes ricinus </it>ticks feeding on birds during spring and autumn migration in Norway.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>6538 migratory birds were captured and examined for ticks at Lista Bird Observatory during the spring and the autumn migration in 2008. 822 immature <it>I. ricinus </it>ticks were collected from 215 infested birds. Ticks were investigated for infection with <it>B. burgdorferi </it>s.l. by real-time PCR amplification of the 16S rRNA gene, and <it>B. burgdorferi </it>s.l. were thereafter genotyped by melting curve analysis after real-time PCR amplification of the <it>hbb </it>gene, or by direct sequencing of the PCR amplicon generated from the <it>rrs </it>(16S)-<it>rrl </it>(23S) intergenetic spacer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>B. burgdorferi </it>s.l. were detected in 4.4% of the ticks. The most prevalent <it>B. burgdorferi </it>genospecies identified were <it>B. garinii </it>(77.8%), followed by <it>B.valaisiana </it>(11.1%), <it>B. afzelii </it>(8.3%) and <it>B. burgdorferi </it>sensu stricto (2.8%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Infection rate in ticks and genospecies composition were similar in spring and autumn migration, however, the prevalence of ticks on birds was higher during spring migration. The study supports the notion that birds are important in the dispersal of ticks, and that they may be partly responsible for the heterogeneous distribution of <it>B. burgdorferi </it>s.l. in Europe.</p

Intrusion detection systems for smart home IoT devices: experimental comparison study

Smart homes are one of the most promising applications of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technology. With the growing number of IoT related devices such as smart thermostats, smart fridges, smart speaker, smart light bulbs and smart locks, smart homes promise to make our lives easier and more comfortable. However, the increased deployment of such smart devices brings an increase in potential security risks and home privacy breaches. In order to overcome such risks, Intrusion Detection Systems are presented as pertinent tools that can provide network-level protection for smart devices deployed in home environments. These systems monitor the network activities of the smart home-connected de-vices and focus on alerting suspicious or malicious activity. They also can deal with detected abnormal activities by hindering the impostors in accessing the victim devices. However, the employment of such systems in the context of a smart home can be challenging due to the devices hardware limitations, which may restrict their ability to counter the existing and emerging attack vectors. Therefore, this paper proposes an experimental comparison between the widely used open-source NIDSs namely Snort, Suricata and Bro IDS to find the most appropriate one for smart homes in term of detection accuracy and resources consumption including CP and memory utilization. Experimental Results show that Suricata is the best performing NIDS for smart homesComment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Cascaded Multilevel Inverter-Based Asymmetric Static Synchronous Compensator of Reactive Power

The topology of the static synchronous compensator of reactive power for a low-voltage three-phase utility grid capable of asymmetric reactive power compensation in grid phases has been proposed and analysed. It is implemented using separate, independent cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters for each phase. Every inverter includes two H-bridge cascades. The first cascade operating at grid frequency is implemented using thyristors, and the second one—operating at high frequency is based on the high-speed MOSFET transistors. The investigation shows that the proposed compensator is able to compensate the reactive power in a low-voltage three-phase grid when phases are loaded by highly asymmetrical reactive loads and provides up to three times lower power losses in the compensator as compared with the situation when the compensator is based on the conventional three-level inverters implemented using IGBT transistors.publishedVersio

Development of the (d,n) proton-transfer reaction in inverse kinematics for structure studies

Transfer reactions have provided exciting opportunities to study the structure of exotic nuclei and are often used to inform studies relating to nucleosynthesis and applications. In order to benefit from these reactions and their application to rare ion beams (RIBs) it is necessary to develop the tools and techniques to perform and analyze the data from reactions performed in inverse kinematics, that is with targets of light nuclei and heavier beams. We are continuing to expand the transfer reaction toolbox in preparation for the next generation of facilities, such as the Facility for Rare Ion Beams (FRIB), which is scheduled for completion in 2022. An important step in this process is to perform the (d,n) reaction in inverse kinematics, with analyses that include Q-value spectra and differential cross sections. In this way, proton-transfer reactions can be placed on the same level as the more commonly used neutron-transfer reactions, such as (d,p), (9Be,8Be), and (13C,12C). Here we present an overview of the techniques used in (d,p) and (d,n), and some recent data from (d,n) reactions in inverse kinematics using stable beams of 12C and 16O.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, presented at the XXXV Mazurian Lakes Conference on Physics, Piaski, Polan