Risk management for traffic safety control

This paper offers a range of modelling ideas and techniques from mathematical statistics appropriate for analysing traffic accident data for the East region operation of CLP Power Hong Kong Limited and for the Hong Kong population in general. We further make proposals for alternative ways to record and collect data, and discuss ways to identify the major contributing factors behind accidents. We hope that our findings will enable the design of effective accident prevention strategies for CLP

Visual Mining of Epidemic Networks

We show how an interactive graph visualization method based on maximal modularity clustering can be used to explore a large epidemic network. The visual representation is used to display statistical tests results that expose the relations between the propagation of HIV in a sexual contact network and the sexual orientation of the patients.Comment: 8 page

Immunological effects of altering the concentrate inclusion level in a grass silage-based diet for early lactation Holstein Friesian cows

Concentrate inclusion levels in dairy cow diets are often adjusted so that the milk yield responses remain economic. While changes in concentrate level on performance is well known, their impact on other biological parameters, including immune function, is less well understood. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of concentrate inclusion level in a grass silage-based mixed ration on immune function. Following calving 63 (45 multiparous and 18 primiparous) Holstein Friesian dairy cows were allocated to one of three isonitrogenous diets for the first 70 days of lactation. Diets comprised of a mixture of concentrates and grass silage, with concentrates comprising either a low (30%, LC), medium (50%, MC) or high (70%, HC) proportion of the diet on a dry matter (DM) basis. Daily DM intakes, milk yields and BW were recorded, along with weekly body condition score, milk composition and vaginal mucus scores. Blood biochemistry was measured using a chemistry analyzer, neutrophil phagocytic and oxidative burst assessed using commercial kits and flow cytometry, and interferon-γ production evaluated by ELISA after whole blood stimulation. Over the study period cows on HC had a higher total DM intake, milk yield, fat yield, protein yield, fat+protein yield, protein content, mean BW and mean daily energy balance, and a lower BW loss than cows on MC, whose respective values were higher than cows on LC. Cows on HC and MC had a lower serum non-esterified fatty acid concentration than cows on LC (0.37, 0.37 and 0.50 mmol/l, respectively, P=0.005, SED=0.032), while cows on HC had a lower serum β-hydroxybutyrate concentration than cows on MC and LC (0.42, 0.55 and 0.55 mmol/l, respectively, P=0.002, SED=0.03). Concentrate inclusion level had no effect on vaginal mucus scores. At week 3 postpartum, cows on HC tended to have a higher percentage of oxidative burst positive neutrophils than cows on LC (43.2% and 35.3%, respectively, P=0.078, SED=3.11), although at all other times concentrate inclusion level in the total mixed ration had no effect on neutrophil phagocytic or oxidative burst characteristics, or on interferon-γ production by pokeweed mitogen stimulated whole blood culture. This study demonstrates that for high yielding Holstein Friesian cows managed on a grass silage-based diet, concentrate inclusion levels in early lactation affects performance but has no effect on neutrophil or lymphocyte immune parameters

Review Essay : Industrial Organization and Socialist Development in China

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68697/2/10.1177_009770047900500204.pd

Cerium neodymium oxide solid solution synthesis as a potential analogue for substoichiometric AmO 2 for radioisotope power systems

The European Space Agency (ESA) is sponsoring a research programme on the development of americium oxides for radioisotope generators and heater units. Cubic AmO2-(x/2) with an O/Am ratio between 1.65 and 1.75 is a potentially suitable compound for pellet sintering. C-type (Ia-3) Ce1-xNdxO2-(x/2) oxides with 0.5 &lt; x &lt; 0.7 could be used as a surrogate for some Ia-3 AmO2-(x/2). A new Ce1-xNdxO2-(x/2) production process has been investigated where a nominally selected x value of 0.6 was targeted: Ce and Nd nitrates and oxalic acid were added drop-wise into a vessel, where they continuously reacted to create oxalate precipitates. The effect of temperature (25 °C, 60 °C) of the reactants (mixed at 250 revolutions per minute) on oxalate particle shape and size were investigated. Oxalates were calcined at 900 °C to produce oxide particles. Oxalate particle properties were characterised as these are expected to influence oxides particle properties and fuel pellet sintering.</p

Coupled fluid and energy flow in fabrication of microstructured optical fibres

We consider the role of heating and cooling in the steady drawing of a long and thin viscous thread with an arbitrary number of internal holes of arbitrary shape. The internal holes and the external boundary evolve as a result of the axial drawing and surface-tension effects. The heating and cooling affects the evolution of the thread because both the viscosity and surface tension of the thread are assumed to be functions of the temperature. We use asymptotic techniques to show that, under a suitable transformation, this complicated three-dimensional free boundary problem can be formulated in such a way that the transverse aspect of the flow can be reduced to the solution of a standard Stokes flow problem in the absence of axial stretching. The solution of this standard problem can then be substituted into a system of three ordinary differential equations that completely determine the flow. We use this approach to develop a very simple numerical method that can determine the way that thermal effects impact on the drawing of threads by devices that either specify the fibre tension or the draw ratio. We also develop a numerical method to solve the inverse problem of determining the initial cross-sectional geometry, draw tension and, importantly, heater temperature to obtain a desired cross-sectional shape and change in cross-sectional area at the device exit. This precisely allows one to determine the pattern of air holes in the preform that will achieve the desired hole pattern in the stretched fibre.Yvonne M. Stokes, Jonathan J. Wylie and M.J. Che

Differential responses to virus challenge of laboratory and wild accessions of Australian species of Nicotiana, and comparative analysis of RDR1 gene sequences

Nicotiana benthamiana is a model plant utilised internationally in plant virology because of its apparent hyper-susceptibility to virus infection. Previously, others showed that all laboratory accessions of N. benthamiana have a very narrow genetic basis, probably originating from a single source. It is unknown if responses to virus infection exhibited by the laboratory accession are typical of the species as a whole. To test this, 23 accessions of N. benthamiana were collected from wild populations and challenged with one to four viruses. Additionally, accessions of 21 other Nicotiana species and subspecies from Australia, one from Peru and one from Namibia were tested for susceptibility to the viruses, and for the presence of a mutated RNA-dependent RNA polymerase I allele (Nb-RDR1m) described previously from a laboratory accession of N. benthamiana. All Australian Nicotiana accessions tested were susceptible to virus infections, although there was symptom variability within and between species. The most striking difference was that plants of a laboratory accession of N. benthamiana (RA-4) exhibited hypersensitivity to Yellow tailflower mild mottle tobamovirus infection and died, whereas plants of wild N. benthamiana accessions responded with non-necrotic symptoms. Plants of certain N. occidentalis accessions also exhibited initial hypersensitivity to Yellow tailflower mild mottle virus resembling that of N. benthamiana RA-4 plants, but later recovered. The mutant Nb-RDR1m allele was identified from N. benthamiana RA-4 but not from any of 51 other Nicotiana accessions, including wild accessions of N. benthamiana, demonstrating that the accession of N. benthamiana used widely in laboratories is unusual

Cytological responses in the hypersensitive reaction in cotyledon and stem tissues of Brassica napus after infection by Leptosphaeria maculans

A hypersensitive response (HR) occurs after infection of cotyledon, leaf and stem of Brassica napus cv. Surpass 400 by an avirulent strain of Leptosphaeria maculans. The cotyledon or the sixth true-leaf stages of plants were inoculated with pycnidiospores of L. maculans (strain UWA P11). For the first time in this specific pathosystem and its HR, we report condensation of cytoplasm, shrinkage in cell size and nuclear DNA fragmentation in cotyledon tissues, and in stem tissues, shrinkage and condensation of the cytoplasm, chromatin fragmentation and lobing of the nucleus