Percutaneous connector device

A device is reported for facilitating the passage of electrical signals from an external source through the skin of a patient to internal portions of the body such as muscles and nerves. The connector device includes a bio-compatible shell having an enlarged disk shaped portion for being implanted below the skin of the patient. The shell has a first and second electrically conductive post carried therein upon which a plug can be readily connected and disconnected. A modified form of the invention utilizes a unipolar connector that is adapted to be plugged into a shell implanted below the skin of a patient. Both of the connector devices are designed to be separated when a predetermined force is applied. This prevents excessive force from being applied to the implanted bio-compatible shell

Notes on the germination of the endangered species Sclerolaena napiformis (Chenopodiaceae)

Sclerolaena napiformis is found on fertile plains in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales and is endangered Australia-wide. Introductory work on its germination shows that seeds cannot germinate until the woody fruit has broken down. The seeds tolerate a wide range of temperatures for germination, suggesting that germination occurs regardless of season if sufficient rain falls. Seed ageing effects reduce seed viability, but some seed is still viable after two years storage. Flower buds first appear 21 weeks from germination and some fruits have matured by week 29. In the field, plants die back to their taproots in late autumn and resprout in spring. Ninety percent of tagged plants were still alive two years later. The physiological seed dormancy imposed by an intact fruit wall provides a mechanism for the development of persistent soil seed banks. Work on the ecological significance of such banks is needed. The literature on interactions between Sclerolaena fruit and seed biology and ants is briefly reviewed

Arkansas Small-Grain Cultivar Performance Tests 2004-2005

Small-grain cultivar performance tests are conducted each year in Arkansas by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences. The tests provide information to companies developing cultivars and/or marketing seed within the state and aid the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in formulating cultivar recommendations for smallgrain producers

A two-stage stochastic programming with recourse model for determining robust planting plans in horticulture

A two-stage stochastic programming with recourse model for the problem of determining optimal planting plans for a vegetable crop is presented in this paper. Uncertainty caused by factors such as weather on yields is a major influence on many systems arising in horticulture. Traditional linear programming models are generally unsatisfactory in dealing with the uncertainty and produce solutions that are considered to involve an unacceptable level of risk. The first stage of the model relates to finding a planting plan which is common to all scenarios and the second stage is concerned with deriving a harvesting schedule for each scenario. Solutions are obtained for a range of risk aversion factors that not only result in greater expected profit compared to the corresponding deterministic model, but also are more robust

Seasonal Occurrence of the White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in Waters off the Florida West Coast, with Notes on its Life History

The white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is considered rare in the Gulf of Mexico; however, recent longline captures coupled with historical landings information suggest that the species occurs seasonally (winter-spring) within this region. We examined a total of seven adult and juvenile white sharks (185-472 em total length) captured in waters off the west coast of Florida. Commercial longline fisheries were monitored for white sharks during all months (1981-94), but this species was captured only from January to April. All white sharks were captured in continental shelf waters from 37 to 222 km off the west coast of Florida when sea surface temperatures ranged from 18.7° to 21.6°C. Depths at capture locations ranged from 20 to 164 m. Fishing gear typically used in Gulf of Mexico offshore fisheries may not be effective at capturing this species, and the apparent rarity of white sharks in this area may be, in part, a function of gear bias

Aircraft digital control design methods

Variations in design methods for aircraft digital flight control are evaluated and compared. The methods fall into two categories; those where the design is done in the continuous domain (or s plane) and those where the design is done in the discrete domain (or z plane). Design method fidelity is evaluated by examining closed loop root movement and the frequency response of the discretely controlled continuous aircraft. It was found that all methods provided acceptable performance for sample rates greater than 10 cps except the uncompensated s plane design method which was acceptable above 20 cps. A design procedure based on optimal control methods was proposed that provided the best fidelity at very slow sample rates and required no design iterations for changing sample rates

Do agonistic behaviours bias baited remote underwater video surveys of fish?

Marine environments require monitoring to determine the effects of impacts such as climate change, coastal development and pollution and also to assess the effectiveness of conservation measures. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are being established globally and require periodic monitoring to determine whether their objectives are being met. Baited underwater video systems are becoming a popular method for monitoring change within protected fish populations, because they are less damaging to habitats than bottom trawling and allow for more statistical powerful comparisons to determine spatial and temporal patterns in the relative abundances, lengths and biomass of demersal and pelagic fishes. However, much remains uncertain about how interactions between the fish and bait and between the fish themselves affect the results obtained. Agonistic behaviours are frequently observed around the bait of the camera and potentially bias fish density estimates by altering the number and size classes seen at cameras. Here we counted the number of agonistic behaviours between pink snappers (Pagrus auratus), the size of fish involved and whether the fish left the field of view following such behaviours. The study consisted of 20 baited underwater video deployments inside a New Zealand marine reserve and 20 in adjacent open areas. We observed a significant relationship between the peak number of fish observed at the camera and the total number of agonistic behaviours, as well as the number of both aggressor and subordinate fish leaving the camera field of view following interactions. The slope of the latter relationship and thus the absolute numbers of fish leaving were higher for subordinate fish. As subordinates were significantly smaller than aggressors, the apparent size frequency distribution is likely skewed away from smaller size classes. The staying time of the fish and thus the maximum number of fish present at the camera will be reduced by agonistic behaviours and the absolute magnitude of this effect appears to be greater at high fish densities. Our results suggest that an overall effect of these phenomena is to underestimate the differences in abundance between MPAs and open areas, but also to overestimate differences in average size

Control system designs for the shuttle infrared telescope facility

The Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) image motion compensation system is described in detail and performance is analyzed with respect to system noise inputs, environmental disturbances, and error sources such as bending and feedforward scale factor. It is concluded that the SIRTF accuracy and stability requirements can be met with this design

The Space of Remembering : collective memory and the reconfiguration of contested space in Argentina's ESMA

Aquest article explora la història actual de l'evolució del museu de l'ESMA i exposa que el treball de memòria col·lectiva intrínsec i conflictiu que s'hi veu implicat es caracteritza pels desitjos en conflicte per recordar i oblidar arrelats a l'Esma, un espai públic, físic i visible.This paper explores the ongoing history of the ESMA museum's development and argues that the intrinsic and conflictual collective memory work involved is characterized by competing desires to remember and to forget, rooted in the physical, visible, and public space of ESMA.Este artículo explora la historia presente del desarrollo del museo de la ESMA, argumentando que la gestión intrínseca y polémica de una memoria colectiva está caracterizada por los deseos rivales de recordar y olvidar, arraigados en el espacio físico, visible y público de la ESMA