The Military Rule in Ecuador: Policies and Politics of Authoritarian Rule

It should be borne in mind that this study is part of a collective undertaking that examines military institutions under conservative authoritarian rule. Its preoccupations have included the impact of the military on economic policy and regime performance; military linkages with civilian interest groups; and the functioning of the military power structure. For organizational convenience, most of this paper will be devoted to two major sections. The first will focus primarily on policy, with attention to decision making and regime performance. The second will examine more directly issues of politics, embracing the place of the military in society and the evolution of ties with major interest groups. Before moving into these discussions, however, further background is appropriate. Certainly the institutional evolution of the Ecuadorean military prior to the 1970s is mandatory. Moreover, at least a few words about the significance and implications of regimes may be in order

Observations of Extremely Cool Stars

As one part of a program of infrared astronomy carried on at the California Institute of Technology, a survey of the sky in two infrared spectral ranges, 0.68-0.92 μand 2.01- 2.41 μ, is being carried out. The motivation for such a survey is to obtain an unbiased census of objects that emit in the 2.0-2.5-μ atmospheric window; this will, of course, include many ordinary stars, but it might also reveal many potentially interesting objects that would not be included in an a priori selection of objects to be measured. In fact, a number of strikingly red stars have already been found. Since most of these "superred" stars occur in the Milky Way, interstellar reddening may be of some consequence; but in at least a few cases the stars seem to be intrinsically extremely red. These preliminary results seem of sufficient interest to merit brief description at this time

Epitopia: a web-server for predicting B-cell epitopes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Detecting candidate B-cell epitopes in a protein is a basic and fundamental step in many immunological applications. Due to the impracticality of experimental approaches to systematically scan the entire protein, a computational tool that predicts the most probable epitope regions is desirable.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Epitopia server is a web-based tool that aims to predict immunogenic regions in either a protein three-dimensional structure or a linear sequence. Epitopia implements a machine-learning algorithm that was trained to discern antigenic features within a given protein. The Epitopia algorithm has been compared to other available epitope prediction tools and was found to have higher predictive power. A special emphasis was put on the development of a user-friendly graphical interface for displaying the results.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Epitopia is a user-friendly web-server that predicts immunogenic regions for both a protein structure and a protein sequence. Its accuracy and functionality make it a highly useful tool. Epitopia is available at <url>http://epitopia.tau.ac.il</url> and includes extensive explanations and example predictions.</p

Precision engineering of micrometer and nanometer droplets for ultrasound imaging and therapy

The medical community has interest in improving techniques such as occlusion, therapeutics and imaging through the use of liquid perfluorocarbon droplets. The ability to create a monodispersed population of liquid perfluorocarbon droplets would have the added advantage of uniform acoustic activation parameters. A microfluidic device with a flow-focusing orifice allowed for uniform production of perfluoropentane droplets in the micron and submicron diameter range. These droplets are able to be stored for over two weeks while retaining distribution characteristics. The observed activation of the droplets shows the acoustic threshold as a function of droplet diameter with little variability. Results showed that microfluidic technology with a pressure controlled flow regulator will allow for greater manufacturing control of phase-change perfluorocarbons in the micron and sub-micron size range for acoustic droplet vaporization applications