Investigation and improvement of zinc electrodes for electrochemical cells quarterly report no. 2, oct. - dec. 1964

Influence of separator and surfactant on growth rate of zinc deposits in electrochemical cell

NOA1: A Fortran Package of Nondifferentiable Optimization Algorithms Methodological and User's Guide

This paper is one of the series of 11 Working Papers presenting the software for interactive decision support and software tools for developing decision support systems. These products constitute the outcome of the contracted study agreement between the System and Decision Sciences Program at IIASA and several Polish scientific institutions. The theoretical part of these results is presented in the IIASA Working Paper WP-88-071 entitled "Theory, Software and Testing Examples in Decision Support Systems". This volume contains the theoretical and methodological backgrounds of the software systems developed within the project. This paper constitutes a methodological guide and user's manual for NOA1, a package of Fortran subroutines designed to locate the minimum of a locally Lipschitz continuous function subject to locally Lipschitzian inequality and equality constraints, general linear constraints and simple upper and lower bounds. The user must provide a Fortran subroutine for evaluating the (possibly nondifferentiable and nonconvex) functions being minimized and their subgradients. The package implements several descent methods, and is intended for solving small-scale nondifferentiable minimization problems on a professional microcomputer

Restricted Application of Insecticides: A Promising Tsetse Control Technique, but What Do the Farmers Think of It?

Restricted application of insecticides to cattle is a cheap and safe farmer-based method to control tsetse and the diseases they transmit, i.e. human and animal African trypanosomoses. The efficiency of this new control method has been demonstrated earlier but no data is available on its perception and adoption intensity by farmers. We studied these two features in Burkina Faso, where the method has diffused thanks to two development projects. The study allowed identifying three groups of farmers with various adoption intensities, of which one was modern and two traditional. The economic benefit and the farmers' knowledge of the epidemiological system appeared to have a low impact on the early adoption process whereas some modern practices, as well as social factors appeared critical. The quality of technical support provided to the farmers had also a great influence on the adoption rate. The study highlighted individual variations in risk perceptions and benefits, as well as the prominent role of the socio-technical network of cattle farmers. The results of the study are discussed to highlight the factors that should be taken into consideration, to move discoveries from bench to field for an improved control of trypanosomoses vectors

Short and long term orange dye effects over AOB and anammox activities

"This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Val del Río, A., Stachurski, A., Méndez, R., Campos, J. L., Surmacz-Górska, J., & Mosquera-Corral, A. (2017). Short- and long-term orange dye effects on ammonium oxidizing and anammox bacteria activities. Water Science and Technology, 76(1), 79-86, which has been published in final form at [http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2017.186. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with IWA Publishing."In this research work the effects of orange azo dye over ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and anammox bacteria activities were tested. Adsorption onto the biomass was detected with both types of biomass however no biological decolourization occurred. Performed batch tests indicated that concentrations lower than 650 mgorange/L stimulated AOB activity while anammox bacteria activity was inhibited at concentrations higher than 25 mgorange/L. Long-term performance of both processes was tested in the presence of 50 mgorange/L. In the case of the partial nitritation process both the biomass concentration and the specific AOB activity increased after 50 days of orange azo dye addition. Regarding the anammox process, specific activity decreased down to 58% after 12 days of operation; however, initial values were restored 54 days after stopping the dye additionThis work was funded by the European Union through the Cost Action (ES-10755) and by the Spanish Government through FISHPOL (CTQ2014-55021-R) and GRANDSEA (CTM2014-55397-JIN) projects co-funded by FEDER. The authors from the USC belong to CRETUS (AGRUP2015/02) and the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC 2013-032), programs co-funded by FEDERNO

Pyrethroid treatment of cattle for tsetse control: Reducing its impact on dung fauna

Background: African trypansomiases of humans and animals can be controlled by attacking the vectors,various species of tsetse fly. Treatment of cattle with pyrethroids to kill tsetse as they feed is the most cost-effective method. However, such treatments can contaminate cattle dung, thereby killing the fauna which disperse the dung and so play an important role in soil fertility. Hence there is a need to identify cost-effective methods of treating cattle with minimal impact on dung fauna. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used dung beetles to field bioassay the levels of dung contamination following the use of spray and pour-on formulations of deltamethrin, applied to various parts of the body of cattle in Zimbabwe. Results suggested that dung was contaminated by contact with insecticide on the body surface as the cattle defecated, and by ingestion of insecticide as the cattle licked themselves. Death of dung beetles was reduced to negligible levels by using only the spray and applying it to the legs and belly or legs alone, i.e., places where most tsetse feed. Conclusion/Significance: The restricted applications suitable for minimising the impact on dung fauna have the collateral benefits of improving the economy and convenience of cattle treatments for tsetse control. The demonstration of collateral benefits is one of the surest ways of promoting environmentally friendly procedures

Search for Eccentric Black Hole Coalescences during the Third Observing Run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass $M>70$ $M_\odot$) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities $0 < e \leq 0.3$ at $0.33$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$ at 90\% confidence level.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Pediatric T- and NK-cell lymphomas: new biologic insights and treatment strategies

T- and natural killer (NK)-cell lymphomas are challenging childhood neoplasms. These cancers have varying presentations, vast molecular heterogeneity, and several are quite unusual in the West, creating diagnostic challenges. Over 20 distinct T- and NK-cell neoplasms are recognized by the 2008 World Health Organization classification, demonstrating the diversity and potential complexity of these cases. In pediatric populations, selection of optimal therapy poses an additional quandary, as most of these malignancies have not been studied in large randomized clinical trials. Despite their rarity, exciting molecular discoveries are yielding insights into these clinicopathologic entities, improving the accuracy of our diagnoses of these cancers, and expanding our ability to effectively treat them, including the use of new targeted therapies. Here, we summarize this fascinating group of lymphomas, with particular attention to the three most common subtypes: T-lymphoblastic lymphoma, anaplastic large cell lymphoma, and peripheral T-cell lymphoma-not otherwise specified. We highlight recent findings regarding their molecular etiologies, new biologic markers, and cutting-edge therapeutic strategies applied to this intriguing class of neoplasms