Notes on the Ecology of Xyloryctes Jamaicensis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in Southern Ontario

Excerpt: The comprehensive survey of literature on the biology of the Scarabaeidae by Ritcher (1958) indicates that the ecology of many large groups is known from a study of very few species. Such is the case with the rhinoceros beetles in the subfamily Dynastinae. From 1960 to 1965 I had many opportunities to observe the rhinoceros beetle Xyloryctes jamaicensis (Drury) in a woodlot near Wheatley, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Erie. My notes, although fragmentary, suggest areas of further research

Extended Object Tracking: Introduction, Overview and Applications

This article provides an elaborate overview of current research in extended object tracking. We provide a clear definition of the extended object tracking problem and discuss its delimitation to other types of object tracking. Next, different aspects of extended object modelling are extensively discussed. Subsequently, we give a tutorial introduction to two basic and well used extended object tracking approaches - the random matrix approach and the Kalman filter-based approach for star-convex shapes. The next part treats the tracking of multiple extended objects and elaborates how the large number of feasible association hypotheses can be tackled using both Random Finite Set (RFS) and Non-RFS multi-object trackers. The article concludes with a summary of current applications, where four example applications involving camera, X-band radar, light detection and ranging (lidar), red-green-blue-depth (RGB-D) sensors are highlighted.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figure

Critical market shares for investors and access seekers and competitive models in fibre networks

In this paper we consider and evaluate NGA architectures which meet the foreseeable future bandwidth demand and allow for highest bandwidth and quality for end-users and which no longer rely on copper cable elements. These are FTTH architectures only. From all available FTTH architectures we concentrate on the two most relevant architectures in Europe, Ethernet Point-to-Point and GPON. We assume the incumbent to be the investor in the NGA network infrastructure. If the NGA architecture is based on a Point-to-Point fibre plant we have modelled the competitors as using unbundled fibre loops as the wholesale access service. If the architecture is based on a Point-to-Multipoint fibre plant, we consider an active wholesale access (bitstream access) at the MPoP or at the core network node locations. Our basic modelling relies upon an engineering bottom-up cost modelling approach. We model the total cost of the services considered under efficient conditions, taking into account the cost of all network elements needed to produce these services in the specific architecture deployed. This approach is coherent with a Long Run Incremental Cost approach as applied in regulatory economics. Our modelling approach generates a broad set of results including the relative performance of the various network architectures, investment requirements and the degree of profitable coverage. In this paper, however, we focus on the results on the potential for competition and potential market structures in an NGA environment. --NGA architecture,cost modelling,FTTH,coverage,access models,unbundling

Authority In Engineering Education

Authority as a philosophical concept is defined both in general and as it applies to engineering education. Authority is shown to be a good and necessary part of social structures, in contrast to some cultural trends that regard it as an unnecessary and outmoded evil. Technical, educational, and organizational authority in their normal functions in engineering education are described, and challenges to these types of authority in the form of laws, accreditation changes, and the rise of the discipline of engineering education research are detailed. The principle of subsidiarity (basically, devolution of authority to the lowest feasible level) is applied to the issue of authority in engineering education organizations

Impact of glucuronide interferences on therapeutic drug monitoring of posaconazole by tandem mass spectrometry

Background: Posaconazole is a novel antifungal drug for oral application intended especially for therapy of invasive mycoses. Due to variable gastrointestinal absorption, adverse side effects, and suspected drug-drug interactions, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of posaconazole is recommended. Method: A fast ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for quantification of posaconazole with a run-time <3 min was developed and compared to a LC-MS/MS method and HPLC method with fluorescence detection. Results: During evaluation of UPLC-MS/MS, two earlier eluting peaks were observed in the MRM trace of posaconazole. This was only seen in patient samples, but not in spiked calibrator samples. Comparison with LC-MS/MS disclosed a significant bias with higher concentrations measured by LC-MS/MS, while UPLC-MS/MS showed excellent agreement with the commercially available HPLC method. In the LC-MS/MS procedure, comparably wide and left side shifted peaks were noticed. This could be ascribed to in-source fragmentation of conjugate metabolites during electrospray ionisation. Precursor and product ion scans confirmed the assumption that the additional compounds are posaconazole glucuronides. Reducing the cone voltage led to disappearance of the glucuronide peaks. Slight modification of the LC-MS/MS method enabled separation of the main interference, leading to significantly reduced deviation. Conclusions: These results highlight the necessity to reliably eliminate interference from labile drug metabolites for correct TDM results, either by sufficient separation or selective MS conditions. The presented UPLC-MS/MS method provides a reliable and fast assay for TDM of posaconazole. Clin Chem Lab Med 2010; 48:1723-31

Habsburg Studies under Siege: Notes on Recent Early Modern Scholarship

publishedVersio

Fluorescent molecular hydrogen in the reflection nebula NGC 2023

Photodissociation regions (PDRs) are described in the context of the interstellar medium and star-forming regions. Observations of PDRs and molecular hydrogen are reviewed and the reflection nebula NGC 2023 is discussed in detail. NGC 2023 is a bright and well-studied reflection nebula at a distance of 450 parsecs in the Orion region. Illuminated primarily by a B-type star, it offers an ideal opportunity to study UV-excited molecular hydrogen.The theory of the hydrogen molecule is described: the energy states and their relationship with the quantum numbers which represent the vibrational and rotational states of the molecule, the radiative processes which determine the optical and infrared emission spectrum of H2, the effect collisions have on the excited states of the molecule and the processes which govern the formation and destruction of H2. Particular attention is given to the process of formation on the surface of dust grains and the resulting energy states of the ejected H2 molecule.nfrared and optical far-red observations of fluorescent H2 line emission from NGC 2023 are presented. The resulting datasets contain flux measurements of over ninety lines. These are combined with published data to produce column densities for 81 energy states of the H2 molecule, the most extensive dataset yet compiled for a PDR. The processes of observing in the infrared and optical wavelength regimes are outlined. The emission lines of H2 are intrinsically very faint and thus measurements require careful data reduction to minimise sources of noise wherever possible. The data reduction steps which were applied to the observations are described in detail. An optical extinction of Av = 5.7 ± 1.0 to the H2 emission region and ortho/para abundance ratio of 2.0 ± 0.2 are derived from flux ratios of emission lines and by minimising the scatter on a diagram which plots the logarithm of the column density against the energy level of each state.The theory of photodissociation regions is summarised and the effect of the incident ultraviolet radiation field and hydrogen nucleus number density on the H2 emission spectrum is discussed. Steady-state and time-dependent PDR models are reviewed and their predictions are compared to the observational data. Deviations from the pure fluorescent case are apparent; the v = 1 vibrational level displays a column density distribution indicative of collisional processes. There is also strong evidence for a trend within each vibrational level, for v > 1, whereby excess populations increase with rotational level, J, with a possible ‘turnover’ and peak excess at high J. The overall intensity of the H2 emission lines is an order of magnitude greater than that predicted by face- on, steady-state PDR models. The emission can be explained by intense ultraviolet radiation (Go _ 5 x 103) incident on dense gas (n ~ 105cm~3) at a high temperature (T ~ 1000K). The ortho/para abundance ratio is discussed and it is proposed that the observed PDR in NGC 2023 has not yet reached equilibrium and the photodissociation front, which is advancing into the molecular cloud, is more accurately described by time-dependent PDR models

Neutrino-driven winds in the aftermath of a neutron star merger: nucleosynthesis and electromagnetic transients

We present a comprehensive nucleosynthesis study of the neutrino-driven wind in the aftermath of a binary neutron star merger. Our focus is the initial remnant phase when a massive central neutron star is present. Using tracers from a recent hydrodynamical simulation, we determine total masses and integrated abundances to characterize the composition of unbound matter. We find that the nucleosynthetic yields depend sensitively on both the life time of the massive neutron star and the polar angle. Matter in excess of up to $9 \cdot 10^{-3} M_\odot$ becomes unbound until $\sim 200~{\rm ms}$. Due to electron fractions of $Y_{\rm e} \approx 0.2 - 0.4$ mainly nuclei with mass numbers $A < 130$ are synthesized, complementing the yields from the earlier dynamic ejecta. Mixing scenarios with these two types of ejecta can explain the abundance pattern in r-process enriched metal-poor stars. Additionally, we calculate heating rates for the decay of the freshly produced radioactive isotopes. The resulting light curve peaks in the blue band after about $4~{\rm h}$. Furthermore, high opacities due to heavy r-process nuclei in the dynamic ejecta lead to a second peak in the infrared after $3-4~{\rm d}$.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures, 2 tables, accepted by Ap

ABash: Finding Bugs in Bash Scripts

This paper describes the design and implementation of ABash, a tool for statically analyzing programs written in the bash scripting language. Although it makes no formal guarantees against missed errors or spurious warnings (largely due to the highly dynamic nature of bash scripts), ABash is useful for detecting certain common program errors that may lead to security vulnerabilities. In experiments with 49 bash scripts taken from popular Internet repositories, ABash was able to identify 20 of them as containing bugs of varying severity while yielding only a reasonable number of spurious warnings on both these scripts and the generally bug-free initialization scripts of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. ABash works by performing abstract interpretation of a bash script via an abstract semantics that accounts for shell variable expansion. The analysis is also parameterized by a collection of signatures that describe external program interfaces (for Unix commands, etc.), yielding an easily configurable and extensible framework for finding bugs in bash scripts