Insecticide-treated nets against malaria vectors and polystyrene beads against Culex larvae.

In Parasitology Today in 1985, Curtis and Lines, and Curtis and Minjas presented the ideas of insecticide-treated nets and polystyrene beads for mosquito control. The former idea has grown to be a major component of the strategy for malaria prevention, especially in Africa. However, although polystyrene beads have been demonstrated to work extremely well, they have yet to be taken up on a major scale

Shanty Life in the Kawarthas, 1850-1855

The papers of the Mossom Boyd Company, deposited in the Public A rchives of Canada, enable the researcher to investigate the intricacies of manufacture and trade in the square timber andsawlog economies throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. The ivide assortment of material available in this collection also gives some indication of the lifestyle and working conditions of those employed in these economies. For these men, ivorkingfor a newly established business isolated in the backivoods of the Kawartha Lakes area, life in the 1850s was extremely hard. Primitive living quarters, insufficient diet, hard physical work, constant dangers, and poor pay were the mainstay of their existence. While the vast majority of lumbermen employed by Mossom Boyd seemed to accept their lot, as the labour market probably gave them no alternative, afeiv indicated their resentment through absenteeism, drink, and simply leaving their employment. Résumé Les documents de la Mossom Boyd Company, conservés aux Archives publiques du Canada, permettent au chercheur d'étudier le domaine complexe de l'industrie et du commerce du bois équarri et du bois de sciage au cours de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle. La grande diversité de données de la collection laisse aussi entrevoir le mode de vie et les conditions de travail dans ce secteur de l'économie. Pour les employés d'une jeune entreprise au fond des bois de la région des lacs Kaivartha, la vie pendant les années 1850 était extrêmement difficile. Des baraquements rudimentaires, une alimentation inadéquate, un dur labeur, la présence constante du danger et un maigre salaire composaient leur lot. Même si la plupart des forestiers à l'emploi de Mossom Boyd semblaient s'accommoder de la situation, sans doute parce que l'état du marché du travail ne leur laissait pas le choix, quelques-uns manifestaient leur mécontentement en s'absentant du travail ou en buvant, ou abandonnaient tout simplement leur poste

BioScript: programming safe chemistry on laboratories-on-a-chip

This paper introduces BioScript, a domain-specific language (DSL) for programmable biochemistry which executes on emerging microfluidic platforms. The goal of this research is to provide a simple, intuitive, and type-safe DSL that is accessible to life science practitioners. The novel feature of the language is its syntax, which aims to optimize human readability; the technical contributions of the paper include the BioScript type system and relevant portions of its compiler. The type system ensures that certain types of errors, specific to biochemistry, do not occur, including the interaction of chemicals that may be unsafe. The compiler includes novel optimizations that place biochemical operations to execute concurrently on a spatial 2D array platform on the granularity of a control flow graph, as opposed to individual basic blocks. Results are obtained using both a cycle-accurate microfluidic simulator and a software interface to a real-world platform

Deny The Consent To Be Governed: Risk Leadership Theory

Denying the consent to be governed: Risk leadership theory takes a radical approach to leadership change, and organizational improvement. It departs from the traditional and contemporary views of leadership where the leader/power figures serve as the change agents for their organizations. Instead, most change agents are not the recognized leaders/power figures, but rather are the lower and middle level employees because power structures reassert stability and squash change when risk is felt. Organizational leaders, as well as lower and middle level employees, need to recognize the weaknesses of contemporary change models that are top-down and reinforce status quo quick fix thinking solutions. Risk leadership theory encourages lower and middle level employee to confront and challenge the status quo authority for the purpose of transforming the organizations. Furthermore, this model seeks to Establish a corporate culture that not only accepts, but also expects, confrontation and challenge to enhance problem solving decision making, and overall organizational performance. This theory is a call for lower and middle level employees to step up to the plate, and not wait for the power structure to transform their corporation

Utilizing stochastic model checking to analyze genetic circuits

pre-printWhen designing and analyzing genetic circuits, researchers are often interested in the probability of the system reaching a given state within a certain amount of time. Usually, this involves simulating the system to produce some time series data and analyzing this data to discern the state probabilities. However, as the complexity of models of genetic circuits grow, it becomes more difficult for researchers to reason about the different states by looking only at time series simulation results of the models. To address this problem, this paper employs the use of stochastic model checking, a method for determining the likelihood that certain events occur in a system, with continuous stochastic logic (CSL) properties to obtain similar results. This goal is accomplished by the introduction of a methodology for converting a genetic circuit model (GCM) into a continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC). This CTMC is analyzed using transient Markov chain analysis to determine the likelihood that the circuit satisfies a given CSL property in a finite amount of time. This paper illustrates a use of this methodology to determine the likelihood of failure in a genetic toggle switch and compares these results to stochastic simulation-based analysis of this same circuit. Our results show that this method results in a substantial speedup as compared with conventional simulation-based approaches

The Flying Diamond: A joined aircraft configuration design project, volume 1

The results of the analysis conducted on the Joined Wing Configuration study are presented. The joined wing configuration employs a conventional fuselage and incorporates two wings joined together near their tips to form a diamond shape in both plan view and front view. The arrangement of the lifting surfaces uses the rear wing as a horizontal tail and as a forward wing strut. The rear wing has its root at the tip of the vertical stabilizer and is structurally attached to the trailing edge of the forward wing. This arrangement of the two wings forms a truss structure which is inherently resistant to the aerodynamic bending loads generated during flight. This allows for a considerable reduction in the weight of the lifting surfaces. With smaller internal wing structures needed, the Joined Wing may employ thinner wings which are more suitable for supersonic and hypersonic flight, having less induced drag than conventional cantilever winged aircraft. Inherent in the Joined Wing is the capability of the generation of direct lift and side force which enhance the performance parameters

Relative Invariants, Ideal Classes and Quasi-Canonical Modules of Modular Rings of Invariants

We describe "quasi canonical modules" for modular invariant rings $R$ of finite group actions on factorial Gorenstein domains. From this we derive a general "quasi Gorenstein criterion" in terms of certain 1-cocycles. This generalizes a recent result of A. Braun for linear group actions on polynomial rings, which itself generalizes a classical result of Watanabe for non-modular invariant rings. We use an explicit classification of all reflexive rank one $R$-modules, which is given in terms of the class group of $R$, or in terms of $R$-semi-invariants. This result is implicitly contained in a paper of Nakajima (\cite{Nakajima:rel_inv}).Comment: 16 page

Efficient verification of hazard-freedom in gate-level timed asynchronous circuits

Journal ArticleAbstract-This paper presents an efficient method for verifying hazard-freedom in gate-level timed asynchronous circuits. Timed circuits are a class of asynchronous circuits that are optimized using explicit timing information. In asynchronous circuits, correct operation requires that there are no hazards in the circuit implementation. Therefore, when designing an asynchronous circuit, each internal node and output of the circuit must be verified for hazard-freedom to ensure correct operation. Current verification algorithms for timed circuits require an explicit state exploration that often results in state explosion for even modest-sized examples. The goal of this paper is to abstract the behavior of internal nodes and utilize this information to make a conservative determination of hazard-freedom for each node in the circuit. Experimental results indicate that this approach is substantially more efficient than existing timing verification tools. These results also indicate that this method scales well for large examples that could not be previously analyzed, in that it is capable of analyzing these circuits in less than a second. While this method is conservative in that some false hazards may be reported, our results indicate that their number is small

Beaver County Crop Production Costs and Returns, 2012

Sample costs and returns to establish and produce alfalfa hay, barley, oats, and corn (grain or silage) under pivot irrigation in Beaver County, Utah, are presented in this publication