Orientation behavior of second-instar larvae of eastern spruce budwormChoristoneura fumiferana (Clem.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in a y-type olfactometer

A two-choice, wind-tunnel olfactometer was designed and contructed to determine whether second-instar eastern spruce budworm larvae,Christoneura fumiferana (Clem.), could detect and discriminate among host-plant volatiles. Volatiles of current year's growth ofPicea glauca were preferred over those ofP. rubens, P. mariana, or air.Abies balsamea was preferred overP. mariana or air.P. rubens andP. mariana were both preferred over air. Two-year-old growth ofP. glauca, A. balsamea, P. rubens, andP. mariana were all preferred over air. Current year's growth of these host evergreen species was usually preferred over former year's growth of the same species in each case.     

XML with data values: typechecking revisited

We investigate the typechecking problem for XML queries: statically verifying that every answer to a query conforms to a given output DTD, for inputs satisfying a given input DTD. This problem had been studied by a subset of the authors in a simplified framework that captured the structure of XML documents but ignored data values. We revisit here the typechecking problem in the more realistic case when data values are present in documents and tested by queries. In this extended framework, typechecking quickly becomes undecidable. However, it remains decidable for large classes of queries and DTDs of practical interest. The main contribution of the present paper is to trace a fairly tight boundary of decidability for typechecking with data values. The complexity of typechecking in the decidable cases is also considered.     

Combustion of activated aluminum

Combustion of activated aluminum was studied by four different methods: microscopic imaging of the preignition process, digital imaging of the combustion process at pressures up to 64 bar in air, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, TGA, and DSC. Activation by three fundamentally different methods was found effective in enhancing both the ignitability and the burn rate. The complex fluoride coating prevented agglomeration completely in all stages of combustion, while the nickel and cobalt coatings promoted agglomeration of aluminum oxide at combustion, but prevented the agglomeration of the aluminum metal before combustion. Nickel coating catalyzed aluminum nitride formation, accelerating burn rate more than other coatings in air and in nitrogen, while complex fluoride coating was most effective in carbon dioxide. Carbon coagulation in carbon dioxide quenched burning in many cases at higher pressures than 8 bar. The complex fluoride activation accelerated combustion in CO₂ extremely effectively, but did not prevent carbon shell formation and subsequent quenching at high pressures. Ni coating negated the effects of carbon coagulation in CO₂, but enhanced the burn rate only slightly. Co coating reduced the carbon shell formation, but did not accelerate combustion in CO₂. Only the Ni coating applied in large amounts promoted combustion in nitrogen.     

Opioids in treatment of chronic noncancer pain

Opioids have been accepted as appropriate analgesic treatment for pain associated with cancer. However, controversy exists about their use for chronic noncancer pain. Reasons for reluctance are concerned about efficacy and potential adverse effects such as respiratory depression, addiction, physical dependence or intolerance. Many physicians worry about liability and legal restrictions. Nevertheless, pain management of chronic severe pain with opioids can be the only help when alternative methods are too risky of fail to be effective. This article briefly reviews the published literature on this topic and discusses some practical guidelines for the use of opioids in the treatment of non-cancer pain.     

On-Line and Off-Line Approximation Algorithms for Vector Covering Problems

This paper deals with vector covering problems in d -dimensional space. The input to a vector covering problem consists of a set X of d -dimensional vectors in [0,1] ^d . The goal is to partition X into a maximum number of parts, subject to the constraint that in every part the sum of all vectors is at least one in every coordinate. This problem is known to be NP-complete, and we are mainly interested in its on-line and off-line approximability. For the on-line version, we construct approximation algorithms with worst case guarantee arbitrarily close to 1/(2d) in d≥ 2 dimensions. This result contradicts a statement of Csirik and Frenk in [5] where it is claimed that, for d≥ 2 , no on-line algorithm can have a worst case ratio better than zero. Moreover, we prove that, for d≥ 2 , no on-line algorithm can have a worst case ratio better than 2/(2d+1) . For the off-line version, we derive polynomial time approximation algorithms with worst case guarantee Θ(1/ log d) . For d=2 , we present a very fast and very simple off-line approximation algorithm that has worst case ratio 1/2 . Moreover, we show that a method from the area of compact vector summation can be used to construct off-line approximation algorithms with worst case ratio 1/d for every d≥ 2 . Received November 1996; revised March 1997.     

Developing a Combustion Model of a Solid Propellant Containing Capsules of Liquid Oxidizer

A combustion model of a solid propellant containing liquid oxidizer capsules was developed. The model is based on the combustion cycle of a unit cell, an oxidizer droplet surrounded by the adjusting amount of binder. Three combustion stages are considered: (1) binder decomposition parallel to oxidizer heating up to boiling temperature, (2) simultaneous binder and oxidizer gasification, and (3) gasification of the remaining condensed phase species. Simple global kinetics are assumed for the gas phase reactions and binder decomposition abiding Arrhenius law, and boiling process for the oxidizer abiding Clausius‐Clapeyron curves. The obtained results show similar trends as do other relevant models and experimental results, especially for the effect of droplet size and propellant composition on the burn rate. The predicted effect of initial temperature on the burn rate is less significant than for common solid propellants. The results indicate that for small droplets the oxidizer will heat up to boiling temperature even before it is revealed on the burning surface, due to heat conduction through the surrounding binder.     

Single‐source multibattery solar charger: case study and implementation issues

In this paper, design process and functionality of a portable single‐panel dual‐battery solar charger prototype are presented, achieving energy density of 571 W h kg⁻¹ during a typical 3‐day infantry mission. The device may instantaneously charge up to two Li‐ion MR‐2791 batteries, supporting plug‐and‐play operation. The system consists of a lightweight custom solar panel, based on 20% efficient monocrystalline photovoltaics, and an intelligent power processing module. The panel contains eight transparent polymer‐encapsulated and camouflaged series‐connected six solar cell packs with antiparallel diodes, allowing partial shading operation. The power processing module consists of two synchronous current‐mode‐controlled buck converters, digital signal processor, and a microcontroller, supporting both maximum power point tracking of the solar panel with partial shading detection and multimode charging of Li‐ion packs while instantaneously communicating with the batteries. Power management algorithmic design is presented, based on ensuring system stability while supporting the required operation modes. System implementation stages and underlying issues are thoroughly discussed, and utilized hardware components are presented in detail. Experimental results of system testing under real outdoor conditions are presented to demonstrate the device functionality and energy yield capabilities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public-Coin Parallel Zero-Knowledge for NP

We show that, assuming the existence of collision-resistant hash functions, every language in NP has a constant-round public-coin zero-knowledge argument that remains secure under unbounded parallel composition (a.k.a. parallel zero knowledge.) Our protocol is a variant of Barak’s zero-knowledge argument (FOCS 2001), and has a non-black-box simulator. This result stands in sharp contrast with the recent result by Pass, Tseng and Wikstrom (Crypto 2010) showing that only languages in BPP have public-coin parallel zero-knowledge arguments with black-box simulators.     

Input Locality and Hardness Amplification

We establish new hardness amplification results for one-way functions in which each input bit influences only a small number of output bits (a.k.a. input-local functions). Our transformations differ from previous ones in that they approximately preserve input locality and at the same time retain the input size of the original function. Let f:{0,1} ⁿ →{0,1} ^m be a one-way function with input locality d, and suppose that f cannot be inverted in time $\exp(\tilde{O}(\sqrt{n}\cdot d))$ on an ε-fraction of inputs. Our main results can be summarized as follows:

• If f is injective then it is equally hard to invert f on a (1?ε)-fraction of inputs.
• If f is regular then there is a function g:{0,1} ⁿ →{0,1} ^m+O(n) that is d+O(log³ n) input local and is equally hard to invert on a (1?ε)-fraction of inputs.

A natural candidate for a function with small input locality and for which no sub-exponential time attacks are known is Goldreich’s one-way function. To make our results applicable to this function, we prove that when its input locality is set to be d=O(logn) certain variants of the function are (almost) regular with high probability. In some cases, our techniques are applicable even when the input locality is not small. We demonstrate this by extending our first main result to one-way functions of the “parity with noise” type.