Because of the stratospheric ozone depletion that took place during the last decades of the past century, the effects of ultraviolet radiation on plants, animals, humans and micro-organisms became intensively studied. In this chapter we describe the role of the ozone layer as a radiation shield and various molecular and organismal effects of ultraviolet radiation, with an emphasis on the UV-B band

Scholars have argued that the end of the Cold War and the War on Terror have radically changed the context of war and defense, diminished the role of nation-states in favor of multi-lateral defense activities, and placed a new focus on human security. International peacekeeping has superseded the traditional act of war-making as the most important defense strategy among wealthy, liberal-democratic

Two 8-year-old Pinus radiata trees growing in a dry-land plantation forest were subjected to a partial shading treatment for 2 years in order to investigate the responses of photosynthesis and tree growth to a long-term reduction in illuminated leaf area. The lower 60% of the crown of shaded trees was surrounded by 50% neutral density shade cloth. This reduced radiation absorption by 13% for the t

This paper provides a survey of the role of feedback control in embedded realtimesystems, presented in the context of a new EU/IST Network of Excellence, ARTIST2.The survey highlights recent research efforts and future research directions in the areasof codesign of computer-based control systems, implementation-aware embedded controlsystems, and control of real-time computing systems.

Given a set U with n elements and a family of subsets S ⊆ 2U we show how to count the number of k-partitions S1 ∪ ... ∪ Sk = U into subsets Si ∈ S in time 2nnO(1). The only assumption on S is that it can be enumerated in time 2nnO(1). In effect we get exact algorithms in time 2nnO(1) for several well-studied partition problems including domatic number, chromatic number, bounded component spanning

The struggle for equality is fundamental to the reduction of poverty in Central America. Besides, one of the foremost goals of urban spatial planning, when implementing social policies, is to contribute to the reduction of poverty. This is done by producing a list of territorially-based actions and selecting those suitable for the implementation of social policies developed at national level. Howe

Background Oral contraceptives were introduced almost 50 years ago, and over 100 million women currently use them. Oral contraceptives can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, but the eventual public-health effects of this reduction will depend on how long the protection lasts after use ceases. We aimed to assess these effects. Methods Individual data for 23 257 women with ovarian cancer (cases) a

In this work we study polycations as efficient compacting agents of a medium size polyanion by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The systems are characterized in terms of a conformational analysis in which shape, overall dimensions, structure factors, radial distribution functions, and the degree of accumulation of the compaction agent near the polyanion are taken into consideration. Results show

We formulate multi-input multi-output (MIMO) proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller design as an optimization problem that involves nonconvex quadratic matrix inequalities. We propose a simple method that replaces the nonconvex matrix inequalities with a linear matrix inequality (LMI) restriction, and iterates to convergence. This method can be interpreted as a matrix extension of the c

The main thrust of CNN technology has been in analog implementations. Early attempts for digital implementations have a limited potential, confining the usage to for instance linear algorithms for B/W pictures. The paper looks into the prospects of successfully integrating the full CNN potential. This requires a carefully tuning of memory and network-on-chip bandwidth to the temporal/spatial aspec

We describe a new method to convert English constituent trees using the Penn Treebank annotation style into dependency trees. The new format was inspired by annotation practices used in other dependency treebanks with the intention to produce a better interface to further semantic processing than existing methods. In particular, we used a richer set of edge labels and introduced links to handle lo

There is considerable evidence that children and adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are at increased risk of anxiety and anxiety disorders. However, it is less clear which of the specific DSM-IV anxiety disorders occur most in this population. The present study used meta-analytic techniques to help clarify this issue. A systematic review of the literature identified 31 studies invo

A control system for pneumatic variable valve actuation has been designed, implemented and tested in a single cylinder test engine with valve actuators provided by Cargine Engineering AB. The design goal for the valve control system was to achieve valve lifts between 2 and 12 mm over an engine speed interval of 300 to 2500 rpm. The control system was developed using LabView and implemented on the

Combining high-resolution core-level spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy and density-functional theory calculations we reanalyze the Pd(100)-(root5 x root5)R27degrees-O surface oxide phase. We find that the prevalent structural model, a rumpled PdO(001) film suggested by previous low energy electron diffraction (LEED) work [Surf. Sci. 494 (2001) L799], is incompatible with all three employ

1. The invasive golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata), native to South America, is a serious pest on rice seedlings in south-east Asia and has also been shown to consume large amounts of macrophytes in natural wetlands, with large effects on ecosystem functioning. Earlier studies suggest that the snail undergoes an ontogenetic diet shift, feeding on algae and detritus as juveniles and shifting