Sampling intensity and timing for estimating acremonium coenophaialum incidence in fescue pastures

Acremonium coenophialum Morgan-Jones and Gams has been associated with several animal disorders known collectively as fescue toxicosis. Reestablishment of infected (E+) pastures with seed not containing the fungus (E-) is beneficial for eliminating the symptoms of fescue toxicosis. However, since management decisions must be based on knowledge of A. coenophialum incidence, appropriate sampling methods should provide information about fungal incidence with accuracy. Two sampling studies were conducted to determine an effective sampling method. In the first, eight 4-ha research pastures that had been established for a grazing trial having E+ incidence ranging from near 0 to more than 70% were sampled in June 1986 using a transect method (TM) and a stratified random sampling design (SR) at an intensity of 23 tillers ha-1. In the second, four 2-ha pastures were sampled at monthly intervals from November 1985 through October 1987, using SR at 41 samples ha-1. Samples were assessed for E+ status using Protein A enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PAS-ELISA). In the first study, observed variability in E+ incidence of two pastures increased from 15 or 30% to about 60% during the 27-month period: six other pastures, with original 0, 45. 60, and 75% E+ incidence, had only small increases in E+ incidence. In the second study, only small fluctuations in fungal incidence were observed in four pastures with 60% E+ incidence. Significant E+ incidence could be detected at any time during the year using PAS-ELISA. The distribution of the E+ and E- plants was random in the first study because they had been seeded uniformly, but was highly aggregated in the older (\u3e11 y) pastures of the second study. Therefore, dispersal of sampling sites across the entire field is important when sampling older pastures that may have an aggregated fungal distribution. It appears that relatively few samples are required for assessment of E+ status in pastures. Eight or more stratified random samples ha-1 might be an adequate sampling intensity for producers: for research purposes, sampling intensity should approach one sample 250 m-2 in a stratified random sampling. The TM and SR gave similar estimates, but SR could better detect spatial relationships

An investigation of networking techniques for the ASRM facility

This report is based on the early design concepts for a communications network for the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) facility being built at Yellow Creek near Iuka, MS. The investigators have participated in the early design concepts and in the evaluation of the initial concepts. The continuing system design effort and any modification of the plan will require a careful evaluation of the required bandwidth of the network, the capabilities of the protocol, and the requirements of the controllers and computers on the network. The overall network, which is heterogeneous in protocol and bandwidth, is being modeled, analyzed, simulated, and tested to obtain some degree of confidence in its performance capabilities and in its performance under nominal and heavy loads. The results of the proposed work should have an impact on the design and operation of the ASRM facility

DISCONNECTED FROM THE FRONT LINES: LACK OF WARFIGHTER EXPERIENCE IN ACQUISITIONS YIELDS UNACCEPTABLE END STATES

Over the past few decades, the Defense Acquisition System (DAS) has been under constant fire by Congress, taxpayers, and warfighters for unacceptable cost, schedule, and performance outcomes. This plague has been well documented, discussed, and many potential corrective measures implemented over the years with futile results. This leaves the warfighter with delivered capabilities not meeting actual operational needs, routinely late to field, yielding them irrelevant, and coming with unrecoverable cost overruns. One significant area of the acquisition process, the focus of this research, has the most impact on a program’s outcome yet had the least amount of change: who represents the warfighter during requirements generation and management throughout the life cycle. A program’s requirements establish the end cost, schedule, and performance thresholds that, once a program matures, are extremely difficult to change without a sizable penalty. This research documents a correlation between troubled programs and poor requirements support due to an operational knowledge gap caused by a lack of proficient end-user warfighter representatives involved and empowered in the process. Related, due to the inherent differences in views, experience, and expectations between a career acquisition professional and a warfighter, data shows a need for a blended professional within the DAS. The research shows failure to bridge this personnel gap will predictably yield the same unacceptable results.Lieutenant Commander, United States NavyCommander, United States NavyChief Warrant Officer Three, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Is U.S. CEO Compensation Inefficient Pay Without Performance?

In Pay Without Performance, Professors Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried develop and summarize the leading critiques of current executive compensation practices in the United States. This book, and their highly influential earlier article, Managerial Power and Rent Extraction in the Design of Executive Compensation, with David Walker offer a negative, if mainstream, assessment of the state of U.S. executive compensation: U.S. executive compensation practices are failing in a widespread manner, and much systemic reform is needed. The purpose of our Review is to summarize the book and to offer some counterarguments to try to balance what is becoming an increasingly one-sided debate. The book\u27s thesis is that executive compensation practices in the U.S. benefit corporate executives at the expense of shareholders through implicit and explicit corruption of the pay-setting process. It argues that CEO employment contracts are bad for shareholders (not optimal ) because they are the product of managerial power. Managerial power arises, the authors claim, because boards of directors at public companies are beholden to the firm\u27s top executives, largely due to management\u27s control over the director nomination process. Weak compensation committees thus do little to protect the firm in its pay negotiations with the CEO, leading to levels of executive pay that are both inappropriately high and have inappropriately low levels of incentives. The only constraint on this process is outrage, either among the firm\u27s shareholders or the general public. This outrage constraint, however, only polices extreme cases of executive overcompensation

An Unbiased Survey of 500 Nearby Stars for Debris Disks: A JCMT Legacy Program

We present the scientific motivation and observing plan for an upcoming detection survey for debris disks using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The SCUBA-2 Unbiased Nearby Stars (SUNS) Survey will observe 500 nearby main sequence and sub-giant stars (100 of each of the A, F, G, K and M spectral classes) to the 850 micron extragalactic confusion limit to search for evidence of submillimeter excess, an indication of circumstellar material. The survey distance boundaries are 8.6, 16.5, 22, 25 and 45 pc for M, K, G, F and A stars, respectively, and all targets lie between the declinations of -40 deg to 80 deg. In this survey, no star will be rejected based on its inherent properties: binarity, presence of planetary companions, spectral type or age. This will be the first unbiased survey for debris disks since IRAS. We expect to detect ~125 debris disks, including ~50 cold disks not detectable in current shorter wavelength surveys. A substantial amount of complementary data will be required to constrain the temperatures and masses of discovered disks. High resolution studies will likely be required to resolve many of the disks. Therefore, these systems will be the focus of future observational studies using a variety of observatories to characterize their physical properties. For non-detected systems, this survey will set constraints (upper limits) on the amount of circumstellar dust, of typically 200 times the Kuiper Belt mass, but as low as 10 times the Kuiper Belt mass for the nearest stars in the sample (approximately 2 pc).Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures (3 color), accepted by the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacifi

27th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute

Materials from the 27th Annual Midwest/Midsouth Estate Planning Institute held by UK/CLE in July 2000

Natriuretic peptides and integrated risk assessment for cardiovascular disease. an individual-participant-data meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Guidelines for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases focus on prediction of coronary heart disease and stroke. We assessed whether or not measurement of N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentration could enable a more integrated approach than at present by predicting heart failure and enhancing coronary heart disease and stroke risk assessment. METHODS: In this individual-participant-data meta-analysis, we generated and harmonised individual-participant data from relevant prospective studies via both de-novo NT-proBNP concentration measurement of stored samples and collection of data from studies identified through a systematic search of the literature (PubMed, Scientific Citation Index Expanded, and Embase) for articles published up to Sept 4, 2014, using search terms related to natriuretic peptide family members and the primary outcomes, with no language restrictions. We calculated risk ratios and measures of risk discrimination and reclassification across predicted 10 year risk categories (ie, <5%, 5% to <7·5%, and ≥7·5%), adding assessment of NT-proBNP concentration to that of conventional risk factors (ie, age, sex, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, history of diabetes, and total and HDL cholesterol concentrations). Primary outcomes were the combination of coronary heart disease and stroke, and the combination of coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. FINDINGS: We recorded 5500 coronary heart disease, 4002 stroke, and 2212 heart failure outcomes among 95 617 participants without a history of cardiovascular disease in 40 prospective studies. Risk ratios (for a comparison of the top third vs bottom third of NT-proBNP concentrations, adjusted for conventional risk factors) were 1·76 (95% CI 1·56-1·98) for the combination of coronary heart disease and stroke and 2·00 (1·77-2·26) for the combination of coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. Addition of information about NT-proBNP concentration to a model containing conventional risk factors was associated with a C-index increase of 0·012 (0·010-0·014) and a net reclassification improvement of 0·027 (0·019-0·036) for the combination of coronary heart disease and stroke and a C-index increase of 0·019 (0·016-0·022) and a net reclassification improvement of 0·028 (0·019-0·038) for the combination of coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. INTERPRETATION: In people without baseline cardiovascular disease, NT-proBNP concentration assessment strongly predicted first-onset heart failure and augmented coronary heart disease and stroke prediction, suggesting that NT-proBNP concentration assessment could be used to integrate heart failure into cardiovascular disease primary prevention