Extended Star Formation and Molecular Gas in the Tidal Arms near NGC3077

We report the detection of ongoing star formation in the prominent tidal arms near NGC 3077 (member of the M 81 triplet). In total, 36 faint compact HII regions were identified, covering an area of ~4x6 kpc^2. Most of the HII regions are found at HI column densities above 1x10^21 cm^-2 (on scales of 200 pc), well within the range of threshold columns measured in normal galaxies. The HII luminosity function resembles the ones derived for other low-mass dwarf galaxies in the same group; we derive a total star formation rate of 2.6x10^-3 M_sun/yr in the tidal feature. We also present new high-resolution imaging of the molecular gas distribution in the tidal arm using CO observations obtained with the OVRO interferometer. We recover about one sixth of the CO flux (or M_H2~2x10^6 M_sun, assuming a Galactic conversion factor) originally detected in the IRAM 30m single dish observations, indicating the presence of a diffuse molecular gas component in the tidal arm. The brightest CO peak in the interferometer map (comprising half of the detected CO flux) is coincident with one of the brightest HII regions in the feature. Assuming a constant star formation rate since the creation of the tidal feature (presumably ~3x10^8 years ago), a total mass of ~7x10^5 M_sun has been transformed from gas into stars. Over this period, the star formation in the tidal arm has resulted in an additional enrichment of Delta(Z)>0.002. The reservoir of atomic and molecular gas in the tidal arm is ~3x10^8 M_sun, allowing star formation to continue at its present rate for a Hubble time. Such wide-spread, low-level star formation would be difficult to image around more distant galaxies but may be detectable through intervening absorption in quasar spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Brandteknisk riskvärdering av Västralid äldreboende i Olofström

This report is a fire safety evaluation of Västralid nursing home in Olofström. The object consist of three connected housing bodies, first built in the 1970’s. At first, the buildings were used as regular apartments, but they were converted into nursing apartments for elderly people in the 1990’s. In the report, an analysis of fire scenarios are compared to egress scenarios to evaluate the personal safety in case of a fire. The results are that today, egress takes substantially more time than the time it takes for the conditions to become critical. The conclusion is that the fire protection is poor in the perspective of personal safety. A specific risk observed in the buildings is substandard fire compartmentation, since the ventilation system and elevator shaft break through the fire compartments. The means of egress are limited because the escape routes in many cases are blocked and not adapted for the facility. To achieve a satisfying personal fire safety a number of measures are proposed. It is important that all of the measures are undertaken as a whole, and not individually. If all of the measures are undertaken the fire safety is deemed satisfactory

Sporopollenin exine capsules (SpECs) derived from Lycopodium clavatum provide practical antioxidant properties by retarding rancidification of an ω-3 oil

In recent years the use of natural antioxidants in foodstuffs and personal care products has become increasingly important for consumers and therefore manufacturers. In this work, sporopollenin exine capsules (SpECs), extracted from spores of the common club moss Lycopodium clavatum L, have been shown to protect an ω-3 oil from oxidation caused by natural light or accelerated oxidation with UV irradiation. The mechanism of action has been shown to be principally by free radical quenching as opposed to light shielding, supported by evidence of similarity in levels of protection when the ratio of SpECs to oil was 0.2 % w/v compared with 50 % w/w. The antioxidant effect is not materially altered by the extraction process from the raw material and is clearly an inherent property of the sporopollenin contained in the spores of L. clavatum due to the accessible phenolic groups on the surface on the SpECs. These results provide promising evidence that SpECs could be useful as a bio-sourced antioxidant for protecting ω-3 oils and related oxidation-prone molecules

Detecting Volunteer Cotton Plants in a Corn Field with Deep Learning on UAV Remote-Sensing Imagery

The cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis Boheman is a serious pest to the U.S. cotton industry that has cost more than 16 billion USD in damages since it entered the United States from Mexico in the late 1800s. This pest has been nearly eradicated; however, southern part of Texas still faces this issue and is always prone to the pest reinfestation each year due to its sub-tropical climate where cotton plants can grow year-round. Volunteer cotton (VC) plants growing in the fields of inter-seasonal crops, like corn, can serve as hosts to these pests once they reach pin-head square stage (5-6 leaf stage) and therefore need to be detected, located, and destroyed or sprayed . In this paper, we present a study to detect VC plants in a corn field using YOLOv3 on three band aerial images collected by unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The two-fold objectives of this paper were : (i) to determine whether YOLOv3 can be used for VC detection in a corn field using RGB (red, green, and blue) aerial images collected by UAS and (ii) to investigate the behavior of YOLOv3 on images at three different scales (320 x 320, S1; 416 x 416, S2; and 512 x 512, S3 pixels) based on average precision (AP), mean average precision (mAP) and F1-score at 95% confidence level. No significant differences existed for mAP among the three scales, while a significant difference was found for AP between S1 and S3 (p = 0.04) and S2 and S3 (p = 0.02). A significant difference was also found for F1-score between S2 and S3 (p = 0.02). The lack of significant differences of mAP at all the three scales indicated that the trained YOLOv3 model can be used on a computer vision-based remotely piloted aerial application system (RPAAS) for VC detection and spray application in near real-time.Comment: 38 Page

Computer Vision for Volunteer Cotton Detection in a Corn Field with UAS Remote Sensing Imagery and Spot Spray Applications

To control boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis L.) pest re-infestation in cotton fields, the current practices of volunteer cotton (VC) (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plant detection in fields of rotation crops like corn (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) involve manual field scouting at the edges of fields. This leads to many VC plants growing in the middle of fields remain undetected that continue to grow side by side along with corn and sorghum. When they reach pinhead squaring stage (5-6 leaves), they can serve as hosts for the boll weevil pests. Therefore, it is required to detect, locate and then precisely spot-spray them with chemicals. In this paper, we present the application of YOLOv5m on radiometrically and gamma-corrected low resolution (1.2 Megapixel) multispectral imagery for detecting and locating VC plants growing in the middle of tasseling (VT) growth stage of cornfield. Our results show that VC plants can be detected with a mean average precision (mAP) of 79% and classification accuracy of 78% on images of size 1207 x 923 pixels at an average inference speed of nearly 47 frames per second (FPS) on NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPU-16GB and 0.4 FPS on NVIDIA Jetson TX2 GPU. We also demonstrate the application of a customized unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for spot-spray applications based on the developed computer vision (CV) algorithm and how it can be used for near real-time detection and mitigation of VC plants growing in corn fields for efficient management of the boll weevil pests.Comment: 39 page

The Interacting Dwarf Galaxy NGC 3077: The Interplay of Atomic and Molecular Gas with Violent Star Formation

We present a comprehensive multi-wavelength study of the nearby interacting dwarf galaxy NGC3077 (member of the M81 triplet). High resolution VLA HI observations show that most of the atomic gas (~90%) around NGC3077 is situated in a prominent tidal arm with a complex velocity structure. Little HI (~5 x 10^7 M_sun) is associated with NGC3077 itself. High resolution OVRO observations of the molecular component (CO) reveal the presence of 16 molecular complexes near the center of NGC3077 (total mass: ~1.6 x 10^6 M_sun). A virial mass analysis of the individual complexes yields a lower CO-to-H_2 conversion factor in NGC3077 than the Galactic value - a surprising result for a dwarf galaxy. The total (atomic and molecular) gas content in the centre of NGC3077 is displaced from the stellar component of NGC3077 -- this implies that not only the gas at large galactocentric radii is affected by the interaction within the triplet but also the center. We speculate that the starburst activity of NGC3077 was triggered by this redistribution of gas in the center. Some of these supershells are surrounded by neutral hydrogen. In a few cases, the rims of the ionized supershells are associated with dust absorption. The most prominent star forming region in NGC3077 as probed by Pa-alpha observations is hidden behind a dust cloud which is traced by the molecular complexes. Correcting for extinction we derive a star forming rate of 0.05 M_sun year^-1, i.e. given the reservoir in atomic and molecular gas in NGC3077, star formation may proceed at a similar rate for a few 10^8 years. The efficiency to form stars out of molecular gas in NGC3077 is similar to that in M82.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. Full paper with figures available at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~fw/ngc3077.ps.g

Selected sociodemographic factors and related differences in patterns of alcohol use among university students in Slovakia

Background: Alcohol use and misuse and their relation to sociodemograhic factors are well studied among university students in Western European countries and the USA, but less is known about students in Eastern Europe. The historical past as communistic countries might have affected the social life among these populations, which is again one of the main factors determining the alcohol consumption among university students. The aim of our study was to assess the association of selected sociodemographic factors with different patterns of alcohol use among university students in Slovakia. Methods: A sample of 813 young adults (mean age 21.1 years, 63.8% females; response rate of 71%) from four universities in Kosice answered questions about their sociodemographic background and about alcohol use. To obtain a detailed picture of different aspects, alcohol use was measured by four variables: frequency of alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, frequency of drunkenness and problem drinking. Four separate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between sociodemographic and alcohol-related variables. To assess the potentially different effects in both genders, all two-way interactions with gender were tested. Results: While 41% of the students drank alcohol once a week or more often, 77% reported heavy episodic drinking and 49% had been drunk more than once in the last month. Problem drinking existed in 23.3% of the sample. Gender was consistently associated with all four alcohol-related variables, with males being at higher risk. A higher study year was associated only with lower levels of heavy episodic drinking, but displayed no association with the other studied variables. Living with parents during the semester was consistently associated with less frequent heavy episodic drinking, drunkenness episodes, and problem drinking while having an intimate relationship was associated with less problem drinking only. Conclusions: Our findings for the university students from Slovakia are in line with previous studies in Western Europe. Additionally, it appears that frequent alcohol use, excessive alcohol use (heavy episodic drinking and drunkenness) and problem drinking among university students represent a continuum and are influenced by the same sociodemographic factors