International chicken trade and increased risk for introducing or reintroducing highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) to uninfected countries.

Every year billions of chickens are shipped thousands of miles around the globe in order to meet the ever increasing demands for this cheap and nutritious protein source. Unfortunately, transporting chickens internationally can also increase the chance for introducing zoonotic viruses, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) to new countries. Our study used a retrospective analysis of poultry trading data from 2003 through 2011 to assess the risk of H5N1 poultry infection in an importing country. We found that the risk of infection in an importing country increased by a factor of 1.3 (95% CI: 1.1-1.5) for every 10-fold increase in live chickens imported from countries experiencing at least one H5N1 poultry case during that year. These results suggest that the risk in a particular country can be significantly reduced if imports from countries experiencing an outbreak are decreased during the year of infection or if biosecurity measures such as screening, vaccination, and infection control practices are increased. These findings show that limiting trade of live chickens or increasing infection control practices during contagious periods may be an important step in reducing the spread of H5N1 and other emerging avian influenza viruses

The Importance of Pulsed Physical Events for Sustainability of Louisiana Coastal Forested Wetlands

A number of freshwater diversions from the Mississippi River into Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are currently in operation or in the planning stage. These diversions have multiple objectives including maintaining a desirable salinity gradient, restoring deteriorating wetlands, and enhancing fisheries. The extensive freshwater forested wetlands surrounding the western end of Lake Pontchartrain receive little or no sediment input and are currently deteriorating due to continuous flooding. Diverting nutrient-rich water through wetlands can lead to substantial nutrient removal and to enhanced accretion. The objective of this paper is to compare the impacts on freshwater wetland ecology, accretion, and water quality of several scenarios for diverting freshwater from the Mississippi River. Accretion will be increased so that the area will become progressively less flooded, enhancing productivity and seedling recruitment. With overland flow, about 73% of N and 48% of P will be retained in the wetland, while other alternatives are estimated to remove 0-33% of N and 0-40% of P. Productivity of the forested wetland will decrease by at least 20-50% over the next 50 years if nothing is done, but there would be a substantial increase in productivity if river water is diverted into the area. We recommend that a 45-55 m3/s diversion be placed in the southern portion of the swamps of Lake Maurepas and that the diversion be operated annually from winter to early spring. There are indications that a diversion in late summer and fall would be beneficial, as that is when salt pulses typically occur

Tapered-amplified AR-coated laser diodes for Potassium and Rubidium atomic-physics experiments

We present a system of room-temperature extended-cavity grating-diode lasers (ECDL) for production of light in the range 760-790nm. The extension of the tuning range towards the blue is permitted by the weak feedback in the cavity: the diodes are anti-reflection coated, and the grating has just 10% reflectance. The light is then amplified using semiconductor tapered amplifiers to give more than 400mW of power. The outputs are shown to be suitable for atomic physics experiments with potassium (767nm), rubidium (780nm) or both, of particular relevance to doubly-degenerate boson-fermion mixtures

Exploring the tensile response in small carbon fibre composite bundles

Small composite bundles, AS4 carbon fibre epoxy, with a restricted number of reinforcing fibres, ca. 20, showed a progressive failure when tested in tension. In-situ acoustic emission observations under tensile load reveal that numerous fibres fail before ultimate failure of the small composite bundle, suggesting that isolated and individual fibre failures occur without compromising the integrity of the neighboring fibres or the small composite bundle’s overall mechanical performance. The average strength of the carbon fibres in small composite bundles was 9.6% higher than in standard lab-scale composite specimens using the same fibre type

Irreversibility and Polymer Adsorption

Physisorption or chemisorption from dilute polymer solutions often entails irreversible polymer-surface bonding. We present a theory of the non-equilibrium layers which result. While the density profile and loop distribution are the same as for equilibrium layers, the final layer comprises a tightly bound inner part plus an outer part whose chains make only fN surface contacts where N is chain length. The contact fractions f follow a broad distribution, P(f) ~ f^{-4/5}, in rather close agreement with strong physisorption experiments [H. M. Schneider et al, Langmuir v.12, p.994 (1996)].Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Research Paper Recommender System with Serendipity Using Tweets vs. Diversification

21st International Conference on Asia-Pacific Digital Libraries, ICADL 2019, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 4–7, 2019. Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 11853), also part of the Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI book sub series (LNISA, volume 11853).So far, a lot of works have studied research paper recommender systems. However, most of them have focused only on the accuracy and ignored the serendipity, which is an important aspect for user satisfaction. The serendipity is concerned with the novelty of recommendations and to which extent recommendations positively surprise users. In this paper, we investigate a research paper recommender system focusing on serendipity. In particular, we examine (1) whether a user’s tweets lead to a generation of serendipitous recommendations and (2) whether the use of diversification on a recommendation list improves serendipity. We have conducted an online experiment with 22 subjects in the domain of computer science. The result of our experiment shows that tweets do not improve the serendipity, despite their heterogeneous nature. However, diversification delivers serendipitous research papers that cannot be generated by a traditional strategy

Energy efficient engine. High pressure compressor detail design report

A compressor optimization study defined a 10-stage configuration with a 22.6:1 pressure ratio, and adiabatic efficiency goal of 86.1%, and a polytropic efficiency of 90.6%; the corrected airflow is 53.5 kg/sec. Subsequent component testing included three full-scale tests: a six-stage rig test, and another 10-stage rig test completed in the second quarter of 1982. Information from these tests is being used to select the configuration for a core engine test scheduled for July 1982 and an integrated core/low spool test slated for early 1983. The test results will also provide data base for the flight propulsion system

Explaining Evidence Denial as Motivated Pragmatically Rational Epistemic Irrationality

This paper introduces a model for evidence denial that explains this behavior as a manifestation of rationality and it is based on the contention that social values (measurable as utilities) often underwrite these sorts of responses. Moreover, it is contended that the value associated with group membership in particular can override epistemic reason when the expected utility of a belief or belief system is great. However, it is also true that it appears to be the case that it is still possible for such unreasonable believers to reverse this sort of dogmatism and to change their beliefs in a way that is epistemically rational. The conjecture made here is that we should expect this to happen only when the expected utility of the beliefs in question dips below a threshold where the utility value of continued dogmatism and the associated group membership is no longer sufficient to motivate defusing the counter-evidence that tells against such epistemically irrational beliefs

Self-diffusion in binary blends of cyclic and linear polymers

A lattice model is used to estimate the self-diffusivity of entangled cyclic and linear polymers in blends of varying compositions. To interpret simulation results, we suggest a minimal model based on the physical idea that constraints imposed on a cyclic polymer by infiltrating linear chains have to be released, before it can diffuse beyond a radius of gyration. Both, the simulation, and recently reported experimental data on entangled DNA solutions support the simple model over a wide range of blend compositions, concentrations, and molecular weights.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure