DSN system performance test software

The software support group of the Deep Space Network support section is continuing the development of system performance test (SPT) software for the Deep Space Network. During the past two and one-half years, test software was developed for a new system, Radio Science, and many new features were added to existing software. Plans are underway for implementation of test software for the very long baseline interferometry system and the network data processing area. A description of the elements of the SPT software is provided

ABTRAJ on-site tracking prediction program

Computer program, ABTRAJ, provides Deep Space Network tracking stations with the capability of generating spacecraft predictions with on-site computers. The program is comprised of two major sections - the main prediction portion and a trajectory subroutine which spans the desired predict interval with spacecraft ephemeris data written on magnetic tapes

Larra bicolor Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae): its distribution throughout Florida

We document the presence of Larra bicolor Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) in 46 of Florida's 67 counties. The species is represented by two stocks. The first (released in 1981) originated in Pará, Brazil, but was obtained from Puerto Rico, and became established in Broward County in southern Florida. The second (released in 1988) originated in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, and became established in Alachua County in northern Florida. The Bolivian stock, aided by additional satellite releases from Alachua County, is now widely distributed. The species probably occupies all counties in central and northern Florida, but may yet be absent from some southern counties. Introduction was made for classical biological control of invasive mole crickets

A self-management support intervention for patients with atrial fibrillation: a randomized controlled pilot trial

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia worldwide. Despite effective treatment, it is characterized by frequent recurrences. Optimal therapeutic management of AF requires active participation and self-management from patients. Two major components of self-management are self-monitoring and sign-and-symptom management. Pulse self-palpation (PSP) is a method of self-monitoring; however, not all AF patients are capable of successfully performing PSP. Due to a lack of interventions on this topic, a nurse-led intervention for patients with AF (PSPAF intervention) was developed to foster self-monitoring and to enhance self-management through PSP. The purpose of this pilot study was to test the acceptability, feasibility, and potential effects of this intervention on the capability of patients' PSP and sign-and-symptom management. Moreover, we aimed at gathering data on the feasibility of applied research methods to aid in the design of future studies.; The pilot trial involved 20 adult patients with AF, randomized to an intervention or usual care group. At baseline and during a home visit 3-5 weeks later, we collected data using questionnaires, checklists, field notes, a mobile ECG device, and a diary. Acceptability and feasibility measures were validated through predefined cut-off points. Effect size estimates were expressed as relative risks (RR) and the number needed to treat (NNT).; The PSPAF intervention seemed feasible, but only partly acceptable. There were limitations in terms of potential effectiveness, suitability, addressing participants' willingness to implement its content in daily life, and adherence. Estimations of effect sizes suggest a large effect of the intervention on patients' PSP capability (RR = 6.0; 95% CI = [0.83, 43.3]; NNT = 2.4), but almost no effect on sign-and-symptom management (RR = 1.5; 95% CI = [0.7, 3.1]; NNT = 4.0). The feasibility of applied research methods showed minor limitations on recruitment and participant burden.; Despite some limitations, the intervention seemed to be applicable and promising. Taking into account the suggestions and amendments we have made, we recommend conducting a full-scale trial to examine the efficacy of the PSPAF intervention.; This pilot study was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register at September 4, 2017 (Main ID: DRKS00012808)

Fraud Pattern Detection for NFT Markets

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) enable ownership and transfer of digital assets using blockchain technology. As a relatively new financial asset class, NFTs lack robust oversight and regulations. These conditions create an environment that is susceptible to fraudulent activity and market manipulation schemes. This study examines the buyer-seller network transactional data from some of the most popular NFT marketplaces (e.g., AtomicHub, OpenSea) to identify and predict fraudulent activity. To accomplish this goal multiple features such as price, volume, and network metrics were extracted from NFT transactional data. These were fed into a Multiple-Scale Convolutional Neural Network that predicts suspected fraudulent activity based on pattern recognition. This approach provides a more generic form of time series classification at different frequencies and timescales to recognize fraudulent NFT patterns. Results showed that over 80% of confirmed fraudulent cases were identified by modeling (recall). For every predicted fraud case, the model was correct 50% of the time (precision). Investors, regulators, and other entities can use these techniques to reduce risk exposure to NFT fraudulent activity

Mapping Requirements To AUTOSAR Software Components

Modern automotive electrical and electronic systems are rapidly growing in complexity. An increase in the number of systems under electronic control has led to a corresponding increase in the complexity of the deployed software. AUTOSAR has been developed as a means of managing this complexity through a standardised architecture which separates an application from its infrastructure. Reusable software components constitute the application logic of an AUTOSAR-based system. However a major problem which faces AUTOSAR and component-based software engineering in general is the difficulty in selecting components which fulfil the system requirements. This thesis presents a framework which allows requirements to be mapped directly to software components. It includes the results from a study which was carried out in conjunction with automotive and software engineering experts to test the framework

History of the International Organization for Biological Control Global Working Group on Mass Rearing and Quality Assurance

The International Organization for Biological Control Global Working Group on Mass Rearing and Quality Assurance (MRQA) was established in 1980 as the Working Group on Quality Control (WGQC) to assure success of insect mass rearing for pest management that was being developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Due mostly to the efforts of WGQC, quality control became institutionalized in several insect mass rearing facilities during the 1980s. After addressing autocidal control programs, the WGQC concentrated on entomophagous insects, especially testing the quality of commercial biological control products. Universal Implementation of Quality Control for Mass-Reared Arthropods was finally achieved in the 1990s, having encompassed all aspects from insect production to field application and evaluation. This increased scope prompted a name change from WGQC to Arthropod Mass Rearing and Quality Control (AMRQC). Subsequently, the scope of the Working Group was expanded again and it was renamed MRQA to include a range of applications for mass-reared beneficial invertebrates. The geographic range of MRQA recently was extended beyond North and South America and Europe to include India. This expansion continued as insects for food and feed, networking and instruction, and legal and ethical issues were added to the most recent workshop held in Mexico. Thus, the MRQA continues to evolve as additional invertebrate organisms are mass produced for both established and novel applications

Anthrax Toxin Uptake by Primary Immune Cells as Determined with a Lethal Factor-β-Lactamase Fusion Protein

BACKGROUND:To initiate infection, Bacillus anthracis needs to overcome the host innate immune system. Anthrax toxin, a major virulence factor of B. anthracis, impairs both the innate and adaptive immune systems and is important in the establishment of anthrax infections. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:To measure the ability of anthrax toxin to target immune cells, studies were performed using a fusion of the anthrax toxin lethal factor (LF) N-terminal domain (LFn, aa 1-254) with beta-lactamase (LFnBLA). This protein reports on the ability of the anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA) to mediate LF delivery into cells. Primary immune cells prepared from mouse spleens were used in conjunction with flow cytometry to assess cleavage and resulting FRET disruption of a fluorescent beta-lactamase substrate, CCF2/AM. In spleen cell suspensions, the macrophages, dendritic cells, and B cells showed about 75% FRET disruption of CCF2/AM due to cleavage by the PA-delivered LFnBLA. LFnBLA delivery into CD4+ and CD8+ T cells was lower, with 40% FRET disruption. When the analyses were done on purified samples of individual cell types, similar results were obtained, with T cells again having lower LFnBLA delivery than macrophages, dendritic cells, and B cells. Relative expression levels of the toxin receptors CMG2 and TEM8 on these cells were determined by real-time PCR. Expression of CMG2 was about 1.5-fold higher in CD8+ cells than in CD4+ and B cells, and 2.5-fold higher than in macrophages. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Anthrax toxin entry and activity differs among immune cells. Macrophages, dendritic cells, and B cells displayed higher LFnBLA activity than CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in both spleen cell suspension and the purified samples of individual cell types. Expression of anthrax toxin receptor CMG2 is higher in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, which is not correlated to the intracellular LFnBLA activity

Radical Communication: Politics after 1968 in/and Polish Cinema

The anniversary of 1968 provides an opportunity to revisit its unique intersection of revolutionary politics and collective creativity, in which cinema was caught up as never before—in the production of a certain political affect, global in its scope. This dissertation pursues what followed in its wake, using the case of People’s Poland, which saw an unprecedented labour struggle in the region just as things had begun to dissipate elsewhere—from the mid-1970s on—culminating in one of the largest social movements in human history, in 1980, the independent and free trade union Solidarność (Solidarity). In recuperating these years, we locate a corresponding, alternative history for Polish political aesthetics and radical cinema practice after 1968, using a combination of historical documentation, close reading, and theoretical intervention. Like the politics of 1968, and the horizontal organizing of Solidarity, these films put pressure on existing categories of “the political,” locating it an aesthetics of participation and the spirit of research, in which viewers play a large part in constructing meaning, rather than it being a function of a self-contained “political text.” Much of this grows out of the strong documentary tradition in Polish cinema, which the film artists under discussion then subvert, pushing beyond its limits. We see how, in different ways, contemporaries Grzegorz Królikiewicz (Ch. 1) and Krzysztof Kieślowski (Ch. 2 and 3) call into question this tradition—the former using an avant-garde/film-theoretical approach, and the latter developing an immanent critique of the capacity of cinema to represent (i.e., speak for) political reality. Piotr Szulkin (Ch. 4) adds to these a haptic, affective element that explicitly theorizes labour as the subject of cinema. Finally, Andrzej Żuławski (Ch. 5) pushes these haptic, affective, elements into the red, using a visceral approach that marries genre cinema and historical embodiment, drawing on the traditions of Polish Romanticism and utopianism. In sum, these films use viewer participation to forge an embodied, affective, negativizing cinema aesthetic able to encompass a wider array of human experience than that circumscribed by Party politics or the (male) discourse of the intellectual opposition. This we call radical communication

Expression of Bacillus Anthracis Protective Antigen in Transgenic Chloroplasts of Tobacco, a Non-Food/Feed Crop

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lists Bacillus anthracis as a category A agent and estimates the cost of an anthrax attack to exceed US$ 26 billion per 100,000 exposed individuals. Concerns regarding anthrax vaccine purity, a requirement for multiple injections, and a limited supply of the protective antigen (PA), underscore the urgent need for an improved vaccine. Therefore, the 83 kDa immunogenic Bacillus anthracis protective antigen was expressed in transgenic tobacco chloroplasts. The PA gene (pag) was cloned into a chloroplast vector along with the psbA regulatory signals to enhance translation. Chloroplast integration of the transgenes was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot analyses. Crude plant extracts contained up to 2.5 mg full length PA/g of fresh leaf tissue and this showed exceptional stability for several months in stored leaves or crude extracts. Maximum levels of expression were observed in mature leaves under continuous illumination. Co-expression of the ORF2 chaperonin from Bacillus thuringiensis did not increase PA accumulation or induce folding into cuboidal crystals in transgenic chloroplasts. Trypsin, chymotrypsin and furin proteolytic cleavage sites present in PA were protected in transgenic chloroplasts because only full length PA 83 was observed without any degradation products. Both CHAPS and SDS detergents extracted PA with equal efficiency and PA was observed in the soluble fraction. Chloroplast-derived PA was functionally active in lysing mouse macrophages when combined with lethal factor (LF). Crude leaf extracts contained up to 25 μg functional PA/ml. With an average yield of 172 mg of PA per plant using an experimental transgenic cultivar grown in a greenhouse, 400 million doses of vaccine (free of contaminants) could be produced per acre, a yield that could be further enhanced 18-fold using a commercial cultivar in the field