Sensitivity of Distress Rate to Observed Distress Levels

The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) uses a composite pavement condition index to identify and rank roads for budgeting and scheduling repairs. NMDOT uses an index number called the Pavement Serviceability Index or PSI. A key component of this index number is the Distress Rate (DR) which is comprised of pavement distress severities and extents with a weighting factor assigned for each distress. Until 2013, NMDOT conducted pavement evaluations manually and in 2012 revised how pavement distress data were collected and evaluated. The two pavement distress collection procedures that were altered the most were for transverse cracking and alligator cracking. This research evaluates how sensitive the DR is to the revised data collection procedures. The comparison used a single milepost test section and one evaluator as ground truth data and then varied input values for a single item while holding all of the others constant to see what sort of influence the data had on the DR. The results confirmed that the DR has limited sensitivity due to the data ranges used for input to the composite DR index

The Irish Republican Army: An Examination of Imperialism, Terror, and Just War Theory

Analysis of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and their actions in the 1970s and 1980s offer insight into their use of just war theory in their conflict with the British government and ultra-loyalist Protestant forces in Northern Ireland. The historiography of Irish history is defined by its phases of nationalism, revisionism, and anti-revisionism that cloud the historical narrative of imperialism and insurgency in the North. Applying just war theory to this history offers a more nuanced understanding of the conflict of the Troubles and the I.R.A.’s usage of this framework in their ideology that guided their terrorism in the latter half of the twentieth century. The murders of influential members of British society and the I.R.A.’s statements on these events further posit just war theory as a guiding force of this group. In 1980-1981 the I.R.A. staged hunger strikes in the H Block of Long Kesh Prison and the writings of their leader Bobby Sands continued their use of just war theory in their efforts to be granted Special Category Status. This work concludes that the I.R.A. utilized just war theory throughout this period and that it was a guiding force of their ideology. It contributes a more nuanced analysis of just war theory and its applications to the I.R.A.’s struggles against the British. Ultimately, it demonstrates how this theory was used by this insurgent movement to claim legitimacy, defend their actions, and frame their anti-imperialist movement as a necessary means to combatting British forces

Pathways to link biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: from monitoring to complex ecological interactions studies

Abstract Environmental changes have been rapidly increasing in the last decades, causing unprecedented shifts in biodiversity. The impacts of biodiversity changes on ecosystem processes depend on the traits of affected species and their functional redundancy at the community level. The generated data on biodiversity-functioning in marine environments are still fragmentary and predictions on how species, communities and ecosystems will respond to the ongoing global changes are still uncertain. This selection of manuscripts presents the efforts of researchers around the world towards a better understanding on the mechanisms driving biodiversity and functioning patterns in marine ecosystems. The issue is composed of studies about first records of diversity and single species patterns in overlooked marine communities, effects of pollution in shaping species composition, foundation species and the impact of their loss on local communities, and the relevance of ecological interactions and species’ traits in structuring marine food webs. We conclude that more field and experimental studies combined to modelling are needed for understanding mechanisms that currently determine the structure and functioning of ecosystems and for improving predictions under global change scenarios

Biofouling in the Southern Caspian Sea: recruitment and successional patterns in a low diversity region

Abstract Biofouling is predicted to increase in the course of global warming, making the study and monitoring of its ecological and economic consequences of great importance. The present study describes, for the first time, recruitment and successional patterns of fouling communities in the Caspian Sea. During one year, short-term panels (STP; replaced every 2 months) and long-term panels (LTP; retrieved after 4, 8 and 12 months) were deployed in the Western Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea. Temporal trends in both sets of panels were evaluated through Generalized Additive Models and discussed in light of the environmental variables registered in each sampling event. Recruitment and successional patterns observed at the community level were mainly driven by barnacles and bryozoans, the dominant taxa over the entire sampling period. Panel coverage, biomass and inorganic to organic matter ratio exhibited clear seasonal patterns in STP, following temperature and chlorophyll a trends. In LTP, coverage and biomass increased over the study period, while the inorganic to organic matter ratio peaked in summer and decreased during autumn and winter months. These results represent a baseline for future studies on biofouling communities in the Caspian Sea, where this topic has been completely neglected

Polarization Coupling between Ferroelectric Liquids and Ferroelectric Solids: Effects of the Fringing Field Profile

Recent experiments devoted to characterizing the behavior of sessile ferroelectric liquid droplets on ferroelectric solid substrates have shown the existence of a droplet electromechanical Rayleigh-like instability. The instability is induced by the bulk polarization of the ferroelectric fluid, which couples to the polarization of the underlying substrate through its fringing field and solid-fluid interface coupling. With the aim of characterizing this phenomenon, namely the coupling between the polarizations of a fluid and a solid material, we studied the behavior of ferroelectric liquid droplets confined between two solid substrates, arranged in different configurations, realized to generate fringing fields with different profiles. The results show that the features of the droplets instability are indeed affected by the specific fringing field shape in a way dominated by the minimization of the electrostatic energy associated with the bulk polarization of the ferroelectric fluid

EFEITOS DO TRATAMENTO COM KEFIR SOBRE A NEFROPATIA INDUZIDA POR ISQUEMIA REPERFUSÃO EM RATOS

A lesão renal aguda (LRA) é uma doença multifatorial, que acomete milhares de pessoas no mundo. Entretanto, ainda não existe nenhuma terapia usada especificamente para o tratamento de doenças renais isquêmicas, necessitando assim de novas abordagens. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os efeitos do kefir de leite de vaca, um leite probiótico fermentado, sobre a função renal, o estresse oxidativo e a apoptose celular em animais com lesão renal aguda. A indução da LRA foi realizada em ratos Wistar machos por meio do modelo de isquemia reperfusão, que consiste na isquemia renal bilateral por 45 minutos, seguida por 24 horas de reperfusão. Os animais foram distribuídos em cinco grupos: Sham; Sham kefir; isquemia/reperfusão (I/R) e I/R kefir com administração por 14 e 60 dias em grupos distintos, antes da indução da LRA. O kefir foi administrado por gavagem, a uma dose de 0,3 mL/100g de peso corporal. Para os grupos que não receberam o kefir, foi administrado 0,3 mL/100g de peso corporal de leite de vaca tipo C por dia, com pH ajustado para 4,3. Após este período, foi realizada a avaliação da função renal através do clearance de inulina e para-aminohipurato (PAH), para obtenção da taxa de filtração glomerular, fluxo plasmático renal e sanguíneo renal e resistência vascular renal. Ao final dos experimentos, o córtex e medula renal foram removidos para a quantificação do estresse oxidativo e apoptose por citometria de fluxo. Nossos resultados demonstram que, conforme esperado, o grupo I/R apresentou uma diminuição do clearance de inulina, PAH e do fluxo sanguíneo renal quando comparados aos animais Sham, bem como aumento da resistência vascular renal. A LRA também resultou em aumento na produção das espécies reativas de oxigênio e apoptose. Os dados da citometria de fluxo demonstram aumento significativo na produção de ânions superóxido e diminuição da produção de óxido nítrico nos animais com LRA, quando comparados ao grupo Sham, estas alterações foram melhoradas pelo tratamento com kefir. A apoptose também mostrou-se aumentada no grupo I/R, e o tratamento com kefir reduziu significativamente o nível de apoptose. Estes resultados sugerem que o kefir pode prevenir a LR induzida por isquemia reperfusão, provavelmente por meio da redução do stress oxidativo e apoptose, indicando que a utilização do kefir como um adjuvante não farmacológico possui potencial terapêutico para retardar a progressão das complicações renais. Palavras-chave: isquemia reperfusão; lesão renal aguda; kefir

Analysis of body differences for the design of children's clothing

This paper discusses anthropometric data obtained through 3D body scanner technology, aiming the dimensioning of Portuguese children's measurements for the design of clothing. The study comprises boys and girls from the Northern Region of Portugal aged between two and ten years old. The main objective of this part of the study was to evaluate the possibility of grouping children with six and seven years old in a same garment size, proposing the same body measurements in the final standard measurements table. In addition to the children's anthropometric measurements, it was checked the body conformation of the children and the possibility of identifying the main biotypes. As a preliminary result, through cluster analysis it was found that it is possible to combine these children in the same group in the proposed standard measurements table.POFC - Programa Operacional Temático Factores de Competitividade(UID/CTM/000264

Thermodynamics and dark energy

A significant observational effort has been directed to unveil the nature of the so-called dark energy. However, given the large number of theoretical possibilities, it is possible that such a task cannot be performed on the basis only of the observational data. In this article we discuss some thermodynamic properties of this energy component by assuming that its constituents are massless quanta with a general time-dependent equation-of-state parameter $\omega(z)=\omega_0 + \omega_a f(z)$, where $\omega_0$ and $\omega_a$ are constants and $f(z)$ may assume different forms. We show that very restrictive bounds can be placed on the $w_0$ - $w_a$ space when current observational data are combined with the thermodynamic constraints derived.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, LaTe