No-till Forage Establishment in Alaska

We assessed the effectiveness of no-till forage establishment at six Alaska locations: Anchor Point, Sterling, Point MacKenzie, Palmer, Delta Junction, and Fairbanks. Directly seeding grass into established grass stands generally did not improve forage yields or quality. Seeding rate had little effect on establishment of newly seeded forages in no-till. Grass yields were depressed when companion crop yields were high, and they typically did not recover in subsequent years. Red clover established well, producing high yields of good quality forage under no-till at Point MacKenzie, but established poorly at Anchor Point and Delta Junction. These results indicated that no-till seeding of most forage crops into declining grass stands is not likely to be successful in Alaska with current available technology

Progression from ocular hypertension to visual field loss in the English hospital eye service

Background There are more than one million National Health Service visits in England and Wales each year for patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension (OHT). With the ageing population and an increase in optometric testing, the economic burden of glaucoma-related visits is predicted to increase. We examined the conversion rates of OHT to primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in England and assessed factors associated with risk of conversion. Methods Electronic medical records of 45 309 patients from five regionally different glaucoma clinics in England were retrospectively examined. Conversion to POAG from OHT was defined by deterioration in visual field (two consecutive tests classified as stage 1 or worse as per the glaucoma staging system 2). Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine factors (age, sex, treatment status and baseline intraocular pressure (IOP)) associated with conversion. Results The cumulative risk of conversion to POAG was 17.5% (95% CI 15.4% to 19.6%) at 5 years. Older age (HR 1.35 per decade, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.50, p<0.001) was associated with a higher risk of conversion. IOP-lowering therapy (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.57, p<0.001) was associated with a lower risk of conversion. Predicted 5-year conversion rates for treated and untreated groups were 14.0% and 26.9%, respectively. Conclusion Less than one-fifth of OHT patients managed in glaucoma clinics in the UK converted to POAG over a 5-year period, suggesting many patients may require less intensive follow-up. Our study provides real-world evidence for the efficacy of current management (including IOP-lowering treatment) at reducing risk of conversion

Social Health Insurance for the Poor: Targeting and Impact of Indonesia\u27s Askeskin Program

A first step towards meeting Indonesia\u27s ambition for universal health insurance was made in 2005 with the introduction of the health insurance for the poor (askeskin) program, a subsidized social health insurance targeted on the poor and the informal sector. this scheme covered basic healthcare in public health clinics and hospital inpatient care. in this paper we investigate targeting and impact of the askeskin program using household panel data. we find that the program is indeed targeted on the poor and those most vulnerable to catastrophic out-of-pocket health payments. the public health insurance improves access to healthcare in that it increases utilization of outpatient healthcare among the poor, while out-of-pocket spending seems to have increased for askeskin insured in urban areas. keywords: social health insurance, healthcare utilization, out-of-pocket health payments, targeting, impact evaluation, Indonesia jel classification: g22, h55, i1

LEOPARD lightweight encryption operation permutation addition rotation and diffusion

Tactical unmanned vehicles are commonly used to conduct tasks (e.g. monitor and surveillance) in various civilian applications from a remote location. The characteristics of the wireless communication link allows attackers to monitor and manipulate the operation of the unmanned vehicle through passive and active attacks. Cryptography is selected as a countermeasure to mitigate these threats; however, a drawback of using cryptography is the impact on the energy consumed by the unmanned vehicle as energy is often constrained and limits the duration of the mission time. This paper introduces the Lightweight Encryption Operation Permutation Addition Rotation and Diffusion (LEOPARD) cryptographic primitive with a benchmark performance analysis against the standardised Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Results indicate that LEOPARD is a feasible encryption approach in comparison to the AES encryption algorithm for unmanned vehicles with an average performance increase of 8%

Electron Emission From Foils Induced By Energetic Heavy-ion Impact

Doubly differential cross sections have been measured and calculated for the electron emission produced by collisions of 3.5 MeV u−1 U38+ on thin carbon foils. The electron emission is observed in both forward and backward directions. Calculations are in reasonable agreement with the experimental results in both shape and absolute magnitude. At intermediate foil thicknesses, a double binary peak structure is observed that is due to 0° binary electrons being elastically scattered to angle θ along with those that are produced at θ and suffer no large-angle scattering events in the foil. Absolute electron yields show that several hundred electrons are released per ion impact. The computed time evolution of the forwardly emitted electrons indicates that the electrons tend to follow the ion for thin foils, but precede the ion in thick foils. © 1992 IOP Publishing Ltd

Electron Emission from Foils Induced by Heavy-Ion Collisions

Absolute double differential yield per ion has been calculated for forward and backward electron emission produced by collisions of highly charged uranium ions with carbon foils of varying thicknesses. A Monte Carlo method has been developed which employs multiple ionization of the carbon and subsequent energy and angular straggling of freed electrons through the foil. A comparison with experimental double differential electron emission yields shows general agreement. Calculated total electron emission is in agreement with experiment at 44 fig cm-2 as well as the results of Rothard et el. In addition, the radial distribution of energy deposited by the electrons as they pass through the foil has been calculated. Comparison with the radial dose data of Toburen et at shows qualitative agreement. The radial dose calculations were also performed for two different cases having the same stopping power (1 MeV/u U23+ and 21 MeV/u U67+) in order to test the supposition that the radial dose distribution is inversely related to the square of the radial distance (Kellerer). © 1995 IOP Publishing Ltd

Plasma As A High-charge-state Projectile Stripping Medium

The classical trajectory Monte Carlo model has been used to computationally study the charge-state distributions that result from interactions between a high-energy, multielectron projectile and neutral and fully ionized targets. These studies are designed to determine the properties of a plasma for producing highly stripped ions as a possible alternative to gas and foil strippers that are commonly used to enhance the charge states of energetic ion beams. The results of these studies clearly show that a low-atomic-number, highly ionized plasma can yield higher charge states than a neutral target of the same density. The effect is principally attributable to the reduction in the number of available electron-capture channels. In this article, we compare the charge-state distributions that result during passage of a 20-MeV Pb projectile through neutral gas and fully ionized (singly charged) plasma strippers and estimate the effects of multiple scattering on the quality of the beam. © 1992 The American Physical Society

Comparison of X-ray and gamma-ray dose-response curves for pink somatic mutations in Tradescantia clone 02

Microdosimetric data indicate that the mean specific energy,zeta, produced by individual charged particles from X rays and gamma rays is different for the two radiation qualities by nearly a factor of two. In order to test whether this influences the initial, linear component in the dose-effect relations, a comparison was made between dose-response curves for pink somatic mutations inTradescantia clone 02 stamen hairs following X and gamma irradiations. Absorbed doses ranged from 2.66 to 300 rad. The results are in agreement with predictions made on the basis of microdosimetric data. At low doses gamma rays are substantially less effective than X rays. The RBE of gamma rays vs. X rays at low doses was approximately 0.6, a value lower than those usually reported in other experimental systems

The affect of two cryptographic constructs on QoS and QoE for unmanned control vehicles

Unmanned control vehicles are used for a variety of scenarios where the user can conduct a task from a remote location; scenarios include surveillance, disaster recovery and agricultural farming. The operation of unmanned vehicles is generally conducted over a wireless communication medium. The nature of the wireless broadcast allows attackers to exploit security vulnerabilities through passive and active attacks; consequently, cryptography is often selected as a countermeasure to the aforementioned attacks. This paper analyses simulation undertaken to identify the affect of cryptographic constructs on the Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) of controlling an unmanned vehicle. Results indicate that standardised AEAD cryptographic approaches can increase the additional distance travelled by a unmanned vehicle over multiple hops communications up to 110 meters per second