A New Record of Scaphytopius Magdalensis: Another Plant Disease Vector in Michigan (Homoptera: Cicadellidae)

Excerpt: Several specimens of Scaphytopius magdalensis (Provancher) were collected by Burger (1966), and brought to the attention of the senior author for verification. This leafhopper, a vector of Blueberry Stunt, is widely distributed in the eastern United States, and southern Ontario and Quebec. This, the first record of a leafhopper virus vector for blueberries in Michigan, increases the list of leafhopper vectors of plant diseases in the state , given in Taboada and Hoffman (1965). to 14

Method for Aspect-Based Sentiment Annotation Using Rhetorical Analysis

This paper fills a gap in aspect-based sentiment analysis and aims to present a new method for preparing and analysing texts concerning opinion and generating user-friendly descriptive reports in natural language. We present a comprehensive set of techniques derived from Rhetorical Structure Theory and sentiment analysis to extract aspects from textual opinions and then build an abstractive summary of a set of opinions. Moreover, we propose aspect-aspect graphs to evaluate the importance of aspects and to filter out unimportant ones from the summary. Additionally, the paper presents a prototype solution of data flow with interesting and valuable results. The proposed method's results proved the high accuracy of aspect detection when applied to the gold standard dataset

Chemical weathering of the volcanic soils of Isla Santa Cruz (Galápagos Islands, Ecuador)

We present a study on weathering of volcanic soils using 43 profiles (131 horizons) sampled in Santa Cruz Island (Galapagos Islands). Several weathering indices, based on chemical composition, are used. Since the geological material is highly homogeneous the intensity of weathering is mostly related to climatic conditions controlled by topography. There is a gradient of increasing weathering from the arid conditions predominant in the coast to elevations of 400-500 m a.s.l. where much more humid conditions prevail

Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis of Urban Rail Transit

[Abstract] This paper deals with the efficiency and sustainability of urban rail transit (URT) using exploratory data analytics (EDA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). The first stage of the proposed methodology is EDA with already available indicators (e.g., the number of stations and passengers), and suggested indicators (e.g., weekly frequencies, link occupancy rates, and CO2 footprint per journey) to directly characterize the efficiency and sustainability of this transport mode. The second stage is to assess the efficiency of URT with two original models, based on a thorough selection of input and output variables, which is one of the key contributions of EDA to this methodology. The first model compares URT against other urban transport modes, applicable to route personalization, and the second scores the efficiency of URT lines. The main outcome of this paper is the proposed methodology, which has been experimentally validated using open data from the Transport for London (TfL) URT network and additional sources.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad; TIN2016-75845-PAgencia Estatal de Investigación; SNEO-20161147Xunta de Galicia; ED431G2019/01Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2017/04Xunta de Galicia; ED431G2019/0

Sporopollenin, the least known yet toughest natural biopolymer

© 2015 Mackenzie, Boa, Diego-Taboada, Atkin and Sathyapalan. Sporopollenin is highly cross-linked polymer composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that is extraordinarily stable and has been found chemically intact in sedimentary rocks some 500 million years old. It makes up the outer shell (exine) of plant spores and pollen and when extracted it is in the form of an empty exine or microcapsule. The exines resemble the spores and pollen from which they are extracted, in size and morphology. Also, from any one plant such characteristics are incredible uniform. The exines can be used as microcapsules or simply as micron-sized particles due to the variety of functional groups on their surfaces. The loading of a material into the chamber of the exine microcapsule is via multi-directional nano-diameter sized channels. The exines can be filled with a variety of polar and non-polar materials. Enzymes can be encapsulated within the shells and still remain active. In vivo studies in humans have shown that an encapsulated active substance can have a substantially increased bioavailability than if it is taken alone. The sporopollenin exine surface possesses phenolic, alkane, alkene, ketone, lactone, and carboxylic acid groups. Therefore, it can be derivatized in a number of ways, which has given rise to applications in areas, such as solid supported for peptide synthesis, catalysis, and ion-exchange chromatography. Also, the presence of the phenolic groups on sporopollenin endows it with antioxidant activity

Innovación docente en el EEES de cara a la práctica profesional a través del aprendizaje basado en proyectos

En este artículo se describe nuestra experiencia en la docencia de Arquitectura e Ingeniería de Computadores en el Máster en Informática de la Universidade da Coruña, en la cual concurrían las circunstancias de titulación EEES de nueva implantación y un número reducido de alumnos. La orientación profesionalizante del máster nos motivó a explorar en innovación docente de cara a la práctica profesional, fundamentalmente a través de metologías de aprendizaje basado en proyectos (project-based learning) combinado con las acciones de: (1) sustitución de docencia teórica por trabajos académicamente dirigidos; (2) impartición de seminarios profesionales; (3) uso de técnicas de role playing; y (4) desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas. La valoración global es que esta metodología y sus acciones asociadas han resultado tremendamente positivas en la docencia de la materia.Peer Reviewe

SNAP-8 corrosion program Quarterly progress report, period ending 31 May 1965

Differences in corrosion and mass transfer rates in corrosion loops for SNAP-8 system and effectiveness of cold trapping in reducing hydrogen concentratio

Snap-8 corrosion program quarterly progress report, period ending 28 feb. 1965

SNAP-8 corrosion program - hydrogen solubility in sodium-potassium, permeability of hydrogen and deuterum through stainless steel, and phase equilibri

Tuberculose pulmonar: prevalência e resistência a tuberculostáticos

A tuberculose tem estado presente durante todo o desenvolvimento da humanidade. Em Portugal a situação da doença é preocupante, porque, apesar da sua diminuição ao longo dos últimos anos, esta redução tem sido lenta quando comparada com outros países da Europa e do resto do mundo. No distrito de Bragança, a incidência da doença é relativamente baixa, por comparação ao resto do país. Devido a inexistência de estudos relacionados com a epidemiologia da Tuberculose Pulmonar no concelho de Bragança, partiu-se para a realização deste estudo, cujo principal objectivo é investigar acerca da prevalência desta doença e também acerca da resistência aos anti-tuberculosos utilizados no tratamento. Após a recolha dos dados, nas Unidades de Saúde, através do sistema SVIG-TB, procedeu-se à análise e comentário dos mesmos. Verificou-se que no período de 2000 a 2009, foram notificados 69 casos de tuberculose pulmonar, sendo que 63 destes correspondem a novos casos. Observou-se um maior número de casos (46) em indivíduos do género masculino, relativamente a indivíduos do género feminino (23). O mesmo se verifica em relação às faixas etárias mais afectadas, registando-se uma maior percentagem de casos entre os 15 e os 34 anos de idade (população jovem/adulta). Foi possível constatar a inexistência que quaisquer tipos de resistência a fármacos tuberculostáticos. Relativamente ao sucesso terapêutico, observam-se 64 casos de tratamento completado, 2 casos de falecimento, uma interrupção e 2 casos ainda em tratamento