Statistical mapping of sheet aiquile SE-20-9 (national map) making use of ERTS images

New possibilities of remote sensing by means of satellites to do research on natural resources are reported. These images make it possible to carry out integrated studies of natural resources in the shortest time possible and with small investments. Various maps and a complete description of each are included. With the use of these satellites, scientists can hopefully plan development projects at the national level

Life in the Biology Laboratory

Shortly before our class in 10th grade biology was formed, I started preparing a balanced aquarium for the laboratory. In it we have about a dozen small gold fish, several snails, two tad-poles, and a good growth of moss. This aquarium has provided us a great deal of pleasure, as well as many illustrations of life itself

Dual HLA B*42 and B*81-reactive T cell receptors recognize more diverse HIV-1 Gag escape variants

Closely related HLA alleles presenting similar HIV-1 epitopes can be associated with variable clinical outcome. Here the authors report their findings on CD8+ T cell responses to the HIV-1 Gag-p24 TL9 immunodominant epitope in the context of closely related protective and less protective HLA alleles, and their differential effect on viral contro

Services diagnostic and needs assessment study

Liberalisation of trade in services and associated domestic reforms is fundamental to the realisation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). However, this requires real (‘on the ground’) liberalisation, not simply “on paper” liberalisation in the form of commitments under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS), a sideshow in services liberalisation. The decision by leaders to form an AEC covering also the free flow of services has put the emphasis very much on ensuring each ASEAN Member State (AMS) removes restrictions affecting trade in services (including related foreign investment) and implement related reforms. However, the diagnostic analysis presented in this Services Diagnostic and Needs Assessment Study (SDNAS), including in the in-country reports, suggests this is not happening, or at least is going very slowly, especially when set against the adopted start date for the AEC of 2015. Hence, key and effective technical assistance and capacity building is needed to advance ‘on the ground’ liberalisation of services and related reforms. The in-country fieldwork and other analysis undertaken in the SDNAS helped identify constraints and provided a list of potential technical assistance and capacity building projects to help address them, both from a primarily cross-cutting but also a sectoral perspective. The SDNAS has also adopted an economic framework based on the fundamental benefits of unilateral liberalisation and a strategic structured approach, to identify key areas (‘umbrellas’) needing technical assistance and capacity building activities, such as strengthening the evidence base, promoting transparency, developing strategies and planning, and raising understanding and awareness. Key activity clusters were also identified within these three ‘umbrellas’, such as policy analysis, services policy visions, and organisations for dialogues, respectively. Individual priority technical assistance and capacity building project proposals within these clusters were determined using a cost-benefit analytical approach. The SNDAS importantly recommends the need to re-balance much of the technical assistance and capacity building activities away from being directed at servicing the AFAS trade negotiations and focusing on ‘on-paper’ liberalisation towards efforts to build transparency and fundamental support for services trade liberalisation and related reforms in AMS. This is what is required to achieve the necessary ‘on-the-ground’ changes to achieve the AEC. This is consistent with international experience that significant ‘on-the-ground’ services liberalisation and related reforms requires unilateral efforts, and that trade negotiations have generally failed to deliver such changes. With this in mind, the SNDAS has developed and recommended a number of detailed proposed technical assistance and capacity building project templates

Abrupt longitudinal magnetic field changes in flaring active regions

We characterize the changes in the longitudinal photospheric magnetic field during 38 X-class and 39 M-class flares within $65^{\circ}$ of disk-center using 1-minute GONG magnetograms. In all 77 cases we identify at least one site in the flaring active region where clear, permanent, stepwise field changes occurred. The median duration of the field changes was about 15 minutes and was approximately equal for X-class and for M-class flares. The absolute values of the field changes ranged from the detection limit of $\sim\!\!10$~G to as high as $\sim\!\!450$~G in two exceptional cases. The median value was 69~G. Field changes were significantly stronger for X-class than for M-class flares and for limb flares than for disk-center flares. Longitudinal field changes less than 100~G tended to decrease longitudinal field strengths, both close to disk-center and close to the limb, while field changes greater than 100~G showed no such pattern. Likewise, longitudinal flux strengths tended to decrease during flares. Flux changes, particularly net flux changes near disk-center, correlated better than local field changes with GOES peak X-ray flux. The strongest longitudinal field and flux changes occurred in flares observed close to the limb. We estimate the change of Lorentz force associated with each flare and find that this is large enough in some cases to power seismic waves. We find that longitudinal field decreases would likely outnumber increases at all parts of the solar disk within $65^{\circ}$ of disk-center, as in our observations, if photospheric field tilts increase during flares as predicted by Hudson et al.Comment: Accepted to Ap

Boarding schools : A longitudinal examination of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous boarders’ and non-boarders’ wellbeing

Improving educational outcomes for Indigenous Australian students is a key strategy to helping Indigenous people reach their full potential. This has resulted in well-intentioned efforts by Australian educators and governments to ensure Indigenous children have positive school experiences. However, Indigenous students still lag behind their non-Indigenous counterparts in educational outcomes. This is particularly so for Indigenous students living in rural and remote parts of Australia where educational opportunities are limited, especially in high school. One solution to this problem has been to enrol these students in boarding schools in urban and metropolitan centres. While research on the success of boarding schools for Indigenous students is scarce, what little that does exist is not encouraging. The focus of this research was to examine the effects of boarding for Indigenous (n = 11) and non-Indigenous students’ (n = 158) wellbeing (N = 1423) in two large private boys’ schools. Participating students aged 12–18 years old completed a survey measuring wellbeing constructs on two occasions, 12 months apart. Non-Indigenous boys were generally higher in wellbeing compared with Indigenous boys. There was also evidence of improved social wellbeing beyond that of non-Indigenous boarders over time. Overall, while evidence of merit was weak, boarding schools may benefit their Indigenous students’ development in social wellbeing

Technological Devices in the Archives: A Policy Analysis

Doing research in the archive is the cornerstone of humanities scholarship. Various archives institute policies regarding the use of technological devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, and cameras in their reading rooms. Such policies directly affect the scholars as the devices mediate the nature of their interaction with the source materials in terms of capturing, organizing, note taking, and record keeping for future use of found materials. In this paper, we present our analysis of the policies of thirty archives regarding the use of technology in their reading rooms. This policy analysis, along with data from interviews of scholars and archivists, is intended to serve as a basis for developing mobile applications for assisting scholars in their research activities. In this paper we introduce an early prototype of such a mobile application— AMTracker.Informatio

Atrial defibrillation with a transvenous lead A randomized comparison of active can shocking pathways

AbstractOBJECTIVESThe purpose of this study was to compare transvenous atrial defibrillation thresholds with lead configurations consisting of an active left pectoral electrode and either single or dual transvenous coils.BACKGROUNDLow atrial defibrillation thresholds are achieved using complex lead systems including coils in the coronary sinus. However, the efficacy of more simple ventricular defibrillation leads with active pectoral pulse generators to defibrillate atrial fibrillation (AF) is unknown.METHODSThis study was a prospective, randomized assessment of shock configuration on atrial defibrillation thresholds in 32 patients. The lead system was a dual coil Endotak DSP lead with a left pectoral pulse generator emulator. Shocks were delivered either between the right ventricular coil and an active can in common with the proximal atrial coil (triad) or between the atrial coil and active can (transatrial).RESULTSDelivered energy at defibrillation threshold was 7.1 ± 6.0 J in the transatrial configuration and 4.0 ± 4.2 J in the triad configuration (p < 0.005). Moreover, a low threshold (≤3 J) was observed in 69% of subjects in the triad configuration but only 47% in the transatrial configuration. Peak voltage and shock impedance were also lowered significantly in the triad configuration. Left atrial size was the only clinical predictor of the defibrillation theshold (r = 0.57, p < 0.002).CONCLUSIONSThese results indicate that low atrial defibrillation thresholds can be achieved using a single-pass transvenous ventricular defibrillation lead with a conventional ventricular defibrillation pathway. These data support the development of the combined atrial and ventricular defibrillator system

Characterization of the Lateral Distribution of Fluorescent Lipid in Binary-Constituent Lipid Monolayers by Principal Component Analysis

Lipid lateral organization in binary-constituent monolayers consisting of fluorescent and nonfluorescent lipids has been investigated by acquiring multiple emission spectra during measurement of each force-area isotherm. The emission spectra reflect BODIPY-labeled lipid surface concentration and lateral mixing with different nonfluorescent lipid species. Using principal component analysis (PCA) each spectrum could be approximated as the linear combination of only two principal vectors. One point on a plane could be associated with each spectrum, where the coordinates of the point are the coefficients of the linear combination. Points belonging to the same lipid constituents and experimental conditions form a curve on the plane, where each point belongs to a different mole fraction. The location and shape of the curve reflects the lateral organization of the fluorescent lipid mixed with a specific nonfluorescent lipid. The method provides massive data compression that preserves and emphasizes key information pertaining to lipid distribution in different lipid monolayer phases. Collectively, the capacity of PCA for handling large spectral data sets, the nanoscale resolution afforded by the fluorescence signal, and the inherent versatility of monolayers for characterization of lipid lateral interactions enable significantly enhanced resolution of lipid lateral organizational changes induced by different lipid compositions

Collective neutrino flavor transitions in supernovae and the role of trajectory averaging

Non-linear effects on supernova neutrino oscillations, associated with neutrino self-interactions, are known to induce collective flavor transitions near the supernova core for theta_13 \neq 0. In scenarios with very shallow electron density profiles, these transformations have been shown to couple with ordinary matter effects, jointly producing spectral distortions both in normal and inverted hierarchy. In this work we consider a complementary scenario, characterized by higher electron density, as indicated by post-bounce shock-wave simulations. In this case, early collective flavor transitions are decoupled from later, ordinary matter effects. Moreover, such transitions become more amenable to both numerical computations and analytical interpretations in inverted hierarchy, while they basically vanish in normal hierarchy. We numerically evolve the neutrino density matrix in the region relevant for self-interaction effects. In the approximation of averaged intersection angle between neutrino trajectories, our simulations neatly show the collective phenomena of synchronization, bipolar oscillations, and spectral split, recently discussed in the literature. In the more realistic (but computationally demanding) case of non-averaged neutrino trajectories, our simulations do not show new significant features, apart from the smearing of ``fine structures'' such as bipolar nutations. Our results seem to suggest that, at least for non-shallow matter density profiles, averaging over neutrino trajectories plays a minor role in the final outcome. In this case, the swap of nu_e and nu_{\mu,\tau} spectra above a critical energy may represent an unmistakable signature of the inverted hierarchy, especially for theta_{13} small enough to render further matter effects irrelevant.Comment: v2 (27 pages, including 9 eps figures). Typos removed, references updated. Minor comments added. Corrected numerical errors in Eq.(6). Matches the published versio