Comparison of energy consumption and costs of different HEVs and PHEVs in European and American context

This paper will analyse on the one hand the potential of Plug in Hybrid electric Vehicles to significantly reduce fuel consumption and displace it torward various primary energies thanks to the electricity sector. On the other hand the total cost of ownership of two different PHEV architectures will be compared to a conventional cehicle and a HEV without external charging

Experimental simulation of long term weathering in alkaline bauxite residue tailings

Bauxite residue is an alkaline, saline tailings material generated as a byproduct of the Bayer process used for alumina refining. Developing effective plans for the long term management of potential environmental impacts associated with storage of these tailings is dependent on understanding how the chemical and mineralogical properties of the tailings will change during weathering and transformation into a soil-like material. Hydrothermal treatment of bauxite residue was used to compress geological weathering timescales and examine potential mineral transformations during weathering. Gibbsite was rapidly converted to boehmite; this transformation was examined with in situ synchrotron XRD. Goethite, hematite, and calcite all precipitated over longer weathering timeframes, while tricalcium aluminate dissolved. pH, total alkalinity, and salinity (electrical conductivity) all decreased during weathering despite these experiments being performed under “closed” conditions (i.e., no leaching). This indicates the potential for auto-attenuation of the high alkalinity and salinity that presents challenges for long term environmental management, and suggests that management requirements will decrease during weathering as a result of these mineral transformations

Large scale multiplex PCR improves pathogen detection by DNA microarrays

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medium density DNA microchips that carry a collection of probes for a broad spectrum of pathogens, have the potential to be powerful tools for simultaneous species identification, detection of virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance determinants. However, their widespread use in microbiological diagnostics is limited by the problem of low pathogen numbers in clinical specimens revealing relatively low amounts of pathogen DNA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To increase the detection power of a fluorescence-based prototype-microarray designed to identify pathogenic microorganisms involved in sepsis, we propose a large scale multiplex PCR (LSplex PCR) for amplification of several dozens of gene-segments of 9 pathogenic species. This protocol employs a large set of primer pairs, potentially able to amplify 800 different gene segments that correspond to the capture probes spotted on the microarray. The LSplex protocol is shown to selectively amplify only the gene segments corresponding to the specific pathogen present in the analyte. Application of LSplex increases the microarray detection of target templates by a factor of 100 to 1000.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data provide a proof of principle for the improvement of detection of pathogen DNA by microarray hybridization by using LSplex PCR.</p

Fly ash as a permeable cap for tailings management : pedogenesis in bauxite residue tailings

PURPOSE : Closure of tailings facilities typically involves either a ‘cap and store’ or ‘direct revegetation’ approach. Both have been used in the management of bauxite residue (alumina refining tailings), with mixed results. This study evaluated the merit of an intermediate approach, using a permeable cap, and examined the pedogenic trajectory of the Technosol. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Chemical, mineralogical and physical properties of samples from a Brazilian bauxite residue deposit, which had been capped with fly ash 14 years prior and supported a vegetation cover, were compared to evaluate soil formation and pedogenic trajectory of the developing Technosol according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources. Samples were collected at three points along an elevation gradient, and from 0 to 150 cm below the surface. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION : Rainfall leaching was identified as the most important pedogenic process occurring in the tailings, lowering salinity and pH. The Technosol classification was poorly suited to describe the soil materials within the study site because two wastes (fly ash and bauxite residue) were co-disposed in discrete layers. CONCLUSIONS : The permeability of the fly ash cap is key to soil development in these tailings : it provides a suitable medium for plant growth whilst still allowing contact between the tailings and the surrounding environment. The introduction of a novel prefix qualifier,ordic, would enable more accurate description of layered Technosols. The Technosol at this site is likely to develop towards an Andosol or Ferralsol.Minerals and Energy Research Institute of Western Australia, Alcoa of Australia Ltd, and BHP Billiton Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd.http://link.springer.com/journal/11368hb2016Plant Production and Soil Scienc

Complexities underlying the breeding and deployment of Dutch elm disease resistant elms

Dutch elm disease (DED) is a vascular wilt disease caused by the pathogens Ophiostoma ulmi and Ophiostoma novo-ulmi with multiple ecological phases including pathogenic (xylem), saprotrophic (bark) and vector (beetle flight and beetle feeding wound) phases. Due to the two DED pandemics during the twentieth century the use of elms in landscape and forest restoration has declined significantly. However new initiatives for elm breeding and restoration are now underway in Europe and North America. Here we discuss complexities in the DED 'system' that can lead to unintended consequences during elm breeding and some of the wider options for obtaining durability or 'field resistance' in released material, including (1) the phenotypic plasticity of disease levels in resistant cultivars infected by O. novo-ulmi; (2) shortcomings in test methods when selecting for resistance; (3) the implications of rapid evolutionary changes in current O. novo-ulmi populations for the choice of pathogen inoculum when screening; (4) the possibility of using active resistance to the pathogen in the beetle feeding wound, and low attractiveness of elm cultivars to feeding beetles, in addition to resistance in the xylem; (5) the risk that genes from susceptible and exotic elms be introgressed into resistant cultivars; (6) risks posed by unintentional changes in the host microbiome; and (7) the biosecurity risks posed by resistant elm deployment. In addition, attention needs to be paid to the disease pressures within which resistant elms will be released. In the future, biotechnology may further enhance our understanding of the various resistance processes in elms and our potential to deploy trees with highly durable resistance in elm restoration. Hopefully the different elm resistance processes will prove to be largely under durable, additive, multigenic control. Elm breeding programmes cannot afford to get into the host-pathogen arms races that characterise some agricultural host-pathogen systems

Social network typologies and mortality risk among older people in China, India, and Latin America: A 10/66 Dementia Research Group population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND: Restricted social networks have been associated with higher mortality in several developed countries but there are no studies on this topic from developing countries. This gap exists despite potentially greater dependence on social networks for support and survival due to various barriers to health care and social protection schemes in this setting. Thus, this study aims to examine how social network type at baseline predicts all-cause mortality among older adults in six Latin American countries, China, and India. METHODS: Population-based surveys were conducted of all individuals aged 65+ years in eight countries (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, China, and India). Data on mortality were obtained at follow-up (mean 3.8 years after cohort inception). Follow-up data for 13,891 individuals were analysed. Social network types were assessed using Wenger's Practitioner Assessment of Network Type (PANT). Cox proportional hazard models were constructed to estimate the impact of social network type on mortality risk in each country, adjusting for socio-demographics, receipt of pension, disability, medical conditions, and depression. Meta-analysis was performed to obtain pooled estimates. RESULTS: The prevalence of private network type was 64.4% in urban China and 1.6% in rural China, while the prevalence of locally integrated type was 6.6% in urban China and 86.8% in rural China. The adjusted pooled estimates across (a) all countries and (b) Latin America showed that, compared to the locally integrated social network type, the locally self-contained [(b) HR = 1.24, 95%CI 1.01-1.51], family dependent [(a) HR = 1.13, 95%CI 1.01-1.26; (b) HR = 1.13, 95%CI 1.001-1.28], and private [(a) HR = 1.36, 95%CI 1.06-1.73; (b) HR = 1.45, 95%CI 1.20-1.75] social network types were significantly associated with higher mortality risk. CONCLUSION: Survival time is significantly reduced in individuals embedded in restricted social networks (i.e. locally self-contained, family dependent, and private network types). Social care interventions may be enhanced by addressing the needs of those most at risk of neglect and deteriorating health. Health policy makers in developing countries may use this information to plan efficient use of limited resources by targeting those embedded in restricted social networks. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved. KEYWORDS: Ageing; Developing countries; Interpersonal relations; Mortality; Social networks; Social support; Survival rat

Handling Missing Data For Sleep Monitoring Systems

Sensor-based sleep monitoring systems can be used to track sleep behavior on a daily basis and provide feedback to their users to promote health and well-being. Such systems can provide data visualizations to enable self-reflection on sleep habits or a sleep coaching service to improve sleep quality. To provide useful feedback, sleep monitoring systems must be able to recognize whether an individual is sleeping or awake. Existing approaches to infer sleep-wake phases, however, typically assume continuous streams of data to be available at inference time. In real-world settings, though, data streams or data samples may be missing, causing severe performance degradation of models trained on complete data streams. In this paper, we investigate the impact of missing data to recognize sleep and wake, and use regression-and interpolation-based imputation strategies to mitigate the errors that might be caused by incomplete data. To evaluate our approach, we use a data set that includes physiological traces-collected using wristbands-, behavioral data-gathered using smartphones-and self-reports from 16 participants over 30 days. Our results show that the presence of missing sensor data degrades the balanced accuracy of the classifier on average by 10-35 percentage points for detecting sleep and wake depending on the missing data rate. The impu-tation strategies explored in this work increase the performance of the classifier by 4-30 percentage points. These results open up new opportunities to improve the robustness of sleep monitoring systems against missing data

The interface between Macroecology and Conservation : existing links and untapped opportunities

Peer reviewe

Star formation in the CDFS: observations confront simulations

We investigate the star formation history of the universe using FIREWORKS, a multiwavelength survey of the CDFS. We study the evolution of the specific star formation rate (sSFR) with redshift in different mass bins from z = 0 to z ~ 3. We find that the sSFR increases with redshift for all masses. The logarithmic increase of the sSFR with redshift is nearly independent of mass, but this cannot yet be verified at the lowest-mass bins at z > 0.8, due to incompleteness. We convert the sSFRs to a dimensionless growth rate to facilitate a comparison with a semi-analytic galaxy formation model that was implemented on the Millennium Simulation. The model predicts that the growth rates and sSFRs increase similarly with redshift for all masses, consistent with the observations. However, we find that for all masses, the inferred observed growth rates increase more rapidly with redshift than the model predictions. We discuss several possible causes for this discrepancy, ranging from field-to-field variance, conversions to SFR, and shape of the IMF. We find that none of these can solve the discrepancy completely. We conclude that the models need to be adapted to produce the steep increase in growth rate between redshift z=0 and z=1.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Daily Caffeine Intake Induces Concentration-Dependent Medial Temporal Plasticity in Humans: A Multimodal Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Caffeine is commonly used to combat high sleep pressure on a daily basis. However, interference with sleep-wake regulation could disturb neural homeostasis and insufficient sleep could lead to alterations in human gray matter. Hence, in this double-blind, randomized, cross-over study, we examined the impact of 10-day caffeine (3 × 150 mg/day) on human gray matter volumes (GMVs) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) by fMRI MP-RAGE and arterial spin-labeling sequences in 20 habitual caffeine consumers, compared with 10-day placebo (3 × 150 mg/day). Sleep pressure was quantified by electroencephalographic slow-wave activity (SWA) in the previous nighttime sleep. Nonparametric voxel-based analyses revealed a significant reduction in GMV in the medial temporal lobe (mTL) after 10 days of caffeine intake compared with 10 days of placebo, voxel-wisely adjusted for CBF considering the decreased perfusion after caffeine intake compared with placebo. Larger GMV reductions were associated with higher individual concentrations of caffeine and paraxanthine. Sleep SWA was, however, neither different between conditions nor associated with caffeine-induced GMV reductions. Therefore, the data do not suggest a link between sleep depth during daily caffeine intake and changes in brain morphology. In conclusion, daily caffeine intake might induce neural plasticity in the mTL depending on individual metabolic processes