High variability within pet foods prevents the identification of native species in pet cats' diets using isotopic evaluation

Domestic cats preying on wildlife is a frequent conservation concern but typical approaches for assessing impacts rely on owner reports of prey returned home, which can be biased by inaccurate reporting or by cats consuming prey instead of bringing it home. Isotopes offer an alternative way to quantify broad differences in animal diets. By obtaining samples of pet food from cat owners we predicted that we would have high power to identify cats feeding on wild birds or mammals, given that pet food is thought to have higher C isotope values, due to the pervasive use of corn and/or corn by-products as food ingredients, than native prey. We worked with citizen scientists to quantify the isotopes of 202 cat hair samples and 239 pet food samples from the US and UK. We also characterized the isotopes of 11 likely native prey species from the southeastern US and used mixing models to assess the diet of 47 cats from the same region. Variation in C and N isotope values for cat food was very high, even within the same brand/flavor, suggesting that pet food manufacturers use a wide range of ingredients, and that these may change over time. Cat food and cat hair from the UK had lower C values than the US, presumably reflecting differences in the amount of corn used in the food chains of the two countries. This high variation in pet food reduced our ability to classify cats as hunters of native prey, such that only 43% of the animals could be confidently assigned. If feral or free ranging cats were considered, this uncertainty would be even higher as pet food types would be unknown. Our results question the general assumption that anthropogenic foods always have high C isotope values, because of the high variability we documented within one product type (cat food) and between countries (US vs. UK), and emphasize the need to test a variety of standards before making conclusions from isotope ecology studies

Underpowered Aircraft - Performance and Operational Possibilities

A unique configuration, known as an Underpowered Aircraft, allows for the modification of gliding flight vehicles for increased range and lower cost when compared with fully powered flight vehicles. Intentionally under-sizing the powerplant for a flight vehicle allows the designer to choose a powerplant that will not only perform the mission requirements, but will also provide the customer with the most cost effective solution, as some missions may not require fully powered flight. Specifically, the underpowered aircraft concept studied in this paper is a gliding flight aircraft that does not have enough power for climbing or level flight, but does have enough power to overcome some of the drag forces associated with flight, in turn increasing the effective range of the vehicle. In this paper, the underpowered aircraft concept was analyzed and its feasibility was determined. Analysis done using equations of motion, followed by a more accurate numerical integration including a thrust lapse, determined that the underpowered aircraft concept provides a unique method for a cost effective range extension technology for gliding flight vehicles. Finally, the technology and methods of this paper were applied to the AGM-154 JSOW and JSOW-ER glide munitions and it was determined that JSOW-ER is representative of an underpowered aircraft with our analysis. This paper represents a back-of-the-envelope investigation into the underpowered aircraft concept

Anisotropic Hc2H_{c2} determined up to 92 T and the signature of multi-band superconductivity in Ca10_{10}(Pt4_{4}As8_{8})((Fe1−x_{1-x}Ptx_{x})2_{2}As2_{2})5_{5} superconductor

The upper critical fields, $H_{c2}$($T$), of single crystals of the superconductor Ca$_{10}$(Pt$_{4-\delta}$As$_{8}$)((Fe$_{0.97}$Pt$_{0.03}$)$_{2}$As$_{2}$)$_{5}$ ($\delta$ $\approx$ 0.246) are determined over a wide range of temperatures down to $T$ = 1.42 K and magnetic fields of up to $\mu_{0}H$ $\simeq$ 92 T. The measurements of anisotropic $H_{c2}$($T$) curves are performed in pulsed magnetic fields using radio-frequency contactless penetration depth measurements for magnetic field applied both parallel and perpendicular to the \textbf{ab}-plane. Whereas a clear upward curvature in $H_{c2}^{\parallel\textbf{c}}$($T$) along \textbf{H}$\parallel$\textbf{c} is observed with decreasing temperature, the $H_{c2}^{\parallel\textbf{ab}}$($T$) along \textbf{H}$\parallel$\textbf{ab} shows a flattening at low temperatures. The rapid increase of the $H_{c2}^{\parallel\textbf{c}}$($T$) at low temperatures suggests that the superconductivity can be described by two dominating bands. The anisotropy parameter, $\gamma_{H}$ $\equiv$ $H_{c2}^{\parallel\textbf{ab}}/H_{c2}^{\parallel\textbf{c}}$, is $\sim$7 close to $T_{c}$ and decreases considerably to $\sim$1 with decreasing temperature, showing rather weak anisotropy at low temperatures.Comment: 4pages, 3figures, accepted PRB Rapid Communicatio

Cost-effectiveness of community-based screening and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in Mali.

IntroductionModerate acute malnutrition (MAM) causes substantial child morbidity and mortality, accounting for 4.4% of deaths and 6.0% of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) lost among children under 5 each year. There is growing consensus on the need to provide appropriate treatment of MAM, both to reduce associated morbidity and mortality and to halt its progression to severe acute malnutrition. We estimated health outcomes, costs and cost-effectiveness of four dietary supplements for MAM treatment in children 6-35 months of age in Mali.MethodsWe conducted a cluster-randomised MAM treatment trial to describe nutritional outcomes of four dietary supplements for the management of MAM: ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSF; PlumpySup); a specially formulated corn-soy blend (CSB) containing dehulled soybean flour, maize flour, dried skimmed milk, soy oil and a micronutrient pre-mix (CSB++; Super Cereal Plus); Misola, a locally produced, micronutrient-fortified, cereal-legume blend (MI); and locally milled flour (LMF), a mixture of millet, beans, oil and sugar, with a separate micronutrient powder. We used a decision tree model to estimate long-term outcomes and calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) comparing the health and economic outcomes of each strategy.ResultsCompared to no MAM treatment, MAM treatment with RUSF, CSB++, MI and LMF reduced the risk of death by 15.4%, 12.7%, 11.9% and 10.3%, respectively. The ICER was US$9821 per death averted (2015 USD) and US$347 per DALY averted for RUSF compared with no MAM treatment.ConclusionMAM treatment with RUSF is cost-effective across a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds.Trial registrationNCT01015950

Dilaton as the Higgs boson

We propose a model where the role of the electroweak Higgs field is played by the dilaton. The model contains terms which explicitly violate gauge invariance, however it is shown that this violation is fictitious, so that the model is a consistent low energy effective theory. In the simplest version of the idea the resulting low energy effective theory is the same as the top mode standard model.Comment: 6 pages, v2 with expanded discussio

Developing Systems for Cyber Situational Awareness

In both military and commercial settings, the awareness of Cyber attacks and the effect of those attacks on the mission space of an organization has become a targeted information goal for leaders and commanders at all levels. We present in this paper a defining framework to understand situational awareness (SA)—especially as it pertains to the Cyber domain—and propose a methodology for populating the cognitive domain model for this realm based on adversarial knowledge involved with Cyber attacks. We conclude with considerations for developing Cyber SA systems of the future

The JSpecView Project: an Open Source Java viewer and converter for JCAMP-DX, and XML spectral data files

The JSpecView Open Source project began with the intention of providing both a teaching and research tool for the display of JCAMP-DX spectra. The development of the Java source code commenced under license in 2001 and was released as Open Source in March 2006. The scope was then broadened to take advantage of the XML initiative in Chemistry and routines to read and write AnIML and CMLspect documents were added

Ionospheric Assimilation Techniques for ARGOS Low-Resolution Airglow and Aurora Spectrograph (LORAAS) Tomographically Reconstructed Equatorial Electron Density Profiles

The LORAAS instrument aboard the ARGOS satellite observes line-of-sight ultraviolet limb intensities from ionosphere and thermosphere airglow. This study uses tomographically reconstructed electron density profiles (EDPs) from the nightside emissions. The ionospheric reconstruction is performed using a two-dimensional O+ 1356Å radiative recombination forward model and discrete inverse theory. The forward model assumes a Chapman layer for the vertical electron density distribution from which h m F 2, N m F 2, and topside scale height are derived for every 90 s limb scan, which is equivalent to 5° resolution in latitude. Since ARGOS is in a near Sun-synchronous orbit, these EDPs form a latitude slice through the equatorial anomaly structures at approximately 0230 LT. These data reflect ongoing ionospheric processes, and it is necessary to assimilate or compare with a model that contains appropriate ionospheric evolution such as the ionospheric forecast model (IFM). This study addresses the reasonableness of both the reconstructed EDPs and the IFM in describing the equatorial anomalies\u27 diurnal and weather variability. The comparison of the LORASS EDPs with those of IFM for October 2000 show that the EDP reconstruction results compare favorably to the IFM EDPs in peak height and topside scale height. Additionally, the sector-to-sector climatology of the observed and modeled equatorial anomalies is similar to within the resolution of the instrument and model. The variability observed in each pass of the satellite is much larger than the IFM variability. The LORASS observation variability indicates that careful assessment of the representation error of the observations should be addressed through supplemental observations

Strong and auxiliary forms of the semi-Lagrangian method for incompressible flows

We present a review of the semi-Lagrangian method for advection-diusion and incompressible Navier-Stokes equations discretized with high-order methods. In particular, we compare the strong form where the departure points are computed directly via backwards integration with the auxiliary form where an auxiliary advection equation is solved instead; the latter is also referred to as Operator Integration Factor Splitting (OIFS) scheme. For intermediate size of time steps the auxiliary form is preferrable but for large time steps only the strong form is stable

Reducing in-stent restenosis therapeutic manipulation of miRNA in vascular remodeling and inflammation

Background: Drug-eluting stents reduce the incidence of in-stent restenosis, but they result in delayed arterial healing and are associated with a chronic inflammatory response and hypersensitivity reactions. Identifying novel interventions to enhance wound healing and reduce the inflammatory response may improve long-term clinical outcomes. Micro–ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) are noncoding small ribonucleic acids that play a prominent role in the initiation and resolution of inflammation after vascular injury.<p></p> Objectives: This study sought to identify miRNA regulation and function after implantation of bare-metal and drug-eluting stents.<p></p> Methods: Pig, mouse, and in vitro models were used to investigate the role of miRNA in in-stent restenosis.<p></p> Results: We documented a subset of inflammatory miRNAs activated after stenting in pigs, including the miR-21 stem loop miRNAs. Genetic ablation of the miR-21 stem loop attenuated neointimal formation in mice post-stenting. This occurred via enhanced levels of anti-inflammatory M2 macrophages coupled with an impaired sensitivity of smooth muscle cells to respond to vascular activation.<p></p> Conclusions: MiR-21 plays a prominent role in promoting vascular inflammation and remodeling after stent injury. MiRNA-mediated modulation of the inflammatory response post-stenting may have therapeutic potential to accelerate wound healing and enhance the clinical efficacy of stenting