Observations on North Dakota Sponges (Haplosclerina: Spongillidae) and Sisyrids (Neuroptera: Sisyridae)

Factors influencing occurrence, distribution, and ecology of sponges and sisyrids are discussed, with emphasis on northeastern North Dakota. New state records for North Dakota sponges, Eunapius Jraguis Leidy and Ephydatia fluviatilis L. and the sisyrids, Sisyra vicaria (Hagen) and Climacia areolaris (Hagen), and new county records for C. areolaris in northwestern Minnesota and Eunapius fragilis in northeastern North Dakota are reported. A rare association of the parasite, S. vicaria with the host, Ephydatia fluviatilis is also reported. Some physicochcmical relations of Eunapius fragilis found in the Forest River, North Dakota, are discussed

Resource Allocation Planning Helper (RALPH): Lessons learned

The current task of Resource Allocation Process includes the planning and apportionment of JPL's Ground Data System composed of the Deep Space Network and Mission Control and Computing Center facilities. The addition of the data driven, rule based planning system, RALPH, has expanded the planning horizon from 8 weeks to 10 years and has resulted in large labor savings. Use of the system has also resulted in important improvements in science return through enhanced resource utilization. In addition, RALPH has been instrumental in supporting rapid turn around for an increased volume of special what if studies. The status of RALPH is briefly reviewed and important lessons learned from the creation of an highly functional design team are focused on through an evolutionary design and implementation period in which an AI shell was selected, prototyped, and ultimately abandoned, and through the fundamental changes to the very process that spawned the tool kit. Principal topics include proper integration of software tools within the planning environment, transition from prototype to delivered to delivered software, changes in the planning methodology as a result of evolving software capabilities and creation of the ability to develop and process generic requirements to allow planning flexibility

The effect of insoluble sulphates on the volumetric determination of lead

It has been pointed out that Alexander\u27s Molybdate Method for lead gives inconsistently varying results when calcium is present in the ore...It was to clear up this apparent contradiction and to find the true effect of the presence of calcium on the titration in the molybdate method, that this investigation was started --Introduction, page 1

Feasibility Investigation for Performing Fireball Temperature Tests

NASA Johnson Space Center White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) was requested by the Launch Abort Subpanel and the Power Systems Subpanel of the Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel to investigate the feasibility of using spectroscopic techniques to measure propellant fireball gas temperatures. This report outlines the modeling and experimental approaches and results of this investigation. Descriptions of the theoretical particle temperature and mass effusion models are presented along with the results of the survivability of small plutonium dioxide (less than or equal to 1000 microns diameter) particles entrained in various propellant fireball scenarios. The experimental test systems used to measure the hydroxide radical, water, and particle graybody spectral emissions and absorptions are discussed. Spectral results along with temperatures extracted by analyzing the spectral features are presented for the flames investigated in the laboratory environment. Methods of implementing spectroscopic measurements for future testing using the WSTF Large-scale Hydrogen/Oxygen Explosion Facility are discussed, and the accuracy expected for these measurements is estimated from laboratory measurements

Sentimental Rose

With Ukulele arrangement. Contains advertisements and/or short musical examples of pieces being sold by publisher.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/7117/thumbnail.jp

Beglund-H\"ubsch transpose and Sasaki-Einstein rational homology 7-spheres

We show that links of invertible polynomials coming from the Johnson and Koll\'ar list of K\"ahler-Einstein 3-folds that are rational homology 7-spheres remain rational homology 7-spheres under the so-called Berglund-H\"ubsch transpose rule coming from classical mirror symmetry constructions. Actually, this rule produces twins, that is, links with same degree, Milnor number and homology H_3, with the exception of iterated Thom-Sebastiani sums of singularities of chain and cycle type, where the torsion and the Milnor number may vary. The Berglund-H\"ubsch transpose rule not only gives a framework to better understand the existence of SasakiEinstein twins but also gives a mechanism for producing new examples of Sasaki-Einstein twins in the rational homology 7 -sphere setting. We also give reasonable conditions for a Sasaki-Einstein rational homology 7-sphere to remain Sasaki-Einstein under the BH-transpose rule. In particular, we found 75 new examples of Sasaki-Einstein rational homology 7-spheres arising as links of not well-formed hypersurface singularities.Comment: We have changed the title, corrected minor typos and added Remark 4.

Sub-optimal cholesterol response to initiation of statins and future risk of cardiovascular disease

Objective:To assess low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) response in patients after initiation of statins, and future risk of CVD.Method:Prospective cohort study of 165,411 primary care patients, from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, who were free from CVD prior to statin initiation, and had at least one pre-treatment LDL-C within 12 months prior to, and one post-treatment LDL-C within 24 months after, statin initiation. Based on current national guidelines, a less than 40% reduction in baseline LDL-cholesterol level within 24 months was classified as sub-optimal statin response. Cox proportional regression and competing-risks survival regression models were used to determine adjusted hazard ratios and sub-hazard ratios for incident CVD outcomes for LDL-C response to statins.Results: 84,609 (51.2%) patients had sub-optimal LDL-cholesterol response to initiated statin therapy within 24 months. During 1,077,299 person-years of follow-up (median follow-up 6.2 years), there were 22,798 CVD events (12,142 in sub-optimal responders and 10,656 in optimal responders). In sub-optimal responders, compared to optimal responders, the hazard ratio (95% CI) for incident CVD was 1.17 (1.13–1.20) and 1.22 (1.19–1.25) after adjusting for age and baseline untreated LDL-cholesterol level. Considering competing risks resulted in lower but similar sub-hazards ratios for both unadjusted 1.13 (1.10–1.16) and adjusted cumulative incidence function, 1.19 (1.16–1.23) of CVD.Conclusions:Optimal lowering of LDL-cholesterol is not achieved within two years in over half of patients in the general population initiated on statin therapy, and these patients will experience significantly increased risk of future cardiovascular disease

Performance and clinical utility of supervised machine-learning approaches in detecting familial hypercholesterolaemia in primary care

Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is a common inherited disorder, causing lifelong elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Most individuals with FH remain undiagnosed, precluding opportunities to prevent premature heart disease and death. Some machine-learning approaches improve detection of FH in electronic health records, though clinical impact is under-explored. We assessed performance of an array of machine-learning approaches for enhancing detection of FH, and their clinical utility, within a large primary care population. A retrospective cohort study was done using routine primary care clinical records of 4,027,775 individuals from the United Kingdom with total cholesterol measured from 1 January 1999 to 25 June 2019. Predictive accuracy of five common machine-learning algorithms (logistic regression, random forest, gradient boosting machines, neural networks and ensemble learning) were assessed for detecting FH. Predictive accuracy was assessed by area under the receiver operating curves (AUC) and expected vs observed calibration slope; with clinical utility assessed by expected case-review workload and likelihood ratios. There were 7928 incident diagnoses of FH. In addition to known clinical features of FH (raised total cholesterol or LDL-C and family history of premature coronary heart disease), machine-learning (ML) algorithms identified features such as raised triglycerides which reduced the likelihood of FH. Apart from logistic regression (AUC, 0.81), all four other ML approaches had similarly high predictive accuracy (AUC > 0.89). Calibration slope ranged from 0.997 for gradient boosting machines to 1.857 for logistic regression. Among those screened, high probability cases requiring clinical review varied from 0.73% using ensemble learning to 10.16% using deep learning, but with positive predictive values of 15.5% and 2.8% respectively. Ensemble learning exhibited a dominant positive likelihood ratio (45.5) compared to all other ML models (7.0–14.4). Machine-learning models show similar high accuracy in detecting FH, offering opportunities to increase diagnosis. However, the clinical case-finding workload required for yield of cases will differ substantially between models

Estudio Técnico para la Obtención de Briquetas de Fácil Encendido a Partir de Carbón de la Cascarilla de Palma Africana y su Producción en la Empresa TYSAI S.A.

Se ha desarrollado el estudio técnico para mejorar el carbón vegetal en briquetas Pakemar y también se ha comprobado que es posible producir esta nueva composición, en la planta de la Empresa TYSAI S.A., se escogieron aditivos químicos y vegetales como factor de estudio, para elaborar briquetas de laboratorio, emulando el proceso de planta y se eligió el aditivo que aportaba la mejores características, se evaluó el desempeño para cada tratamiento con la norma UNE EN1860-2, los ensayos de fácil encendido y del cilindro estándar, que incluyen observaciones cualitativas y cuantitativas. De los resultados, se sabe que los tratamientos que alcanzaron un tiempo de recubrimiento de ceniza, ash-over, más corto fueron los del KNO3 al 18%, NaNO3 al 18%, aserrín al 8% y cisco al 50%, siendo los aditivos químicos los que alcanzaron un mayor tiempo de temperatura estándar (T180) en el cilindro estándar, mas altos porcentajes de carbono fijo y poca ceniza, pero los aditivos vegetales demostraron mejores características subjetivas como el olor del carbón, la cantidad de humo o un encendido sin violentas chispas o llamas, partiendo de estas características se determinó que el tratamiento del cisco al 50% era el más indicado, y su aplicación en el proceso productivo demostró que era reproducible en planta todo lo ensayado en el laboratorio. Con el tratamiento del cisco al 50% se alcanza un ash-over de menos de 30 minutos, un T180 de 225 minutos en el cilindro estándar, y porcentajes de carbono fijo y ceniza dentro lo permitido por la norma UNE EN1860-2. Se recomienda abastecerse de residuos forestales y producir el cisco, para mejorar la calidad de los insumos.To improve Pakemar charcoal briquettes it has developed a technical study and has also been proven that it is possible to produce a new composition of charcoal briquettes in the Tysai S.A.'s plant, were selected chemical and vegetable additives as study factor, to produce laboratory’s briquettes, simulating the plant process was selected the additives which provide the best features, performance was evaluated for each treatment with the UNE EN1860-2, fast lighting and standard cylinder, including qualitative and quantitative observations. On the results, it is known that the treatment that achieved the shortest ash-over time were the briquettes whit 18% KNO3 and 18% NaNO3, 8% sawdust and 50% coaldust, were chemicals additives which reached out a higher standard temperature (T180) in the standard cylinder, the higher fixed carbon and low ash percentage, but the vegetable additives demonstrated better subjective features like the smell of coal, the amount of smoke or at the ignition very violent sparks and flames wasn’t observed, based on these characteristics was determined that treatment of 50% coaldust was the most suitable, and its application in the production process proved to be reproducible in plant the laboratory tests. In the treatment with 50% coaldust it’s achieved an ash-over time of less than 30 minutes, a T180 of 225 minutes in the standard cylinder, and had a fixed carbon and ash contented into the extent permitted by UNE EN1860-2. To improve the quality of inputs, it is recommended supplies for forest residues and produces the coaldust