Bark consumption by voles in relation to mineral contents

Recent field experiments with impregnated wooden sticks have demonstrated a pronounced use by small rodents of mineral supplies, especially sodium, and such findings seemed related to vole damage to forestry seedlings. Consumption of the bark of experimentally introduced aspen twigs and of sodium-impregnated sticks by voles (mainly or onlyMicrotus agrestis) correlated significantly on clear-cuts but not on unmanipulated abandoned fields. Such a correlation appeared when abandoned fields were cut continuously in summer. At vole peak densities, bark of pine seedlings experimentally fertilized with sodium was consumed but not bark of seedlings fertilized with calcium or control seedlings. Field pine seedlings attacked by voles had significantly higher levels of calcium, sodium, and phosphorus than the nearest untouched seedling. However, sodium and phosphorus contents correlated strongly. Sodium and calcium supply to voles in laboratory feeding trials did not diminish the moderate interest in pine bark. Such conditions are, however, assumed to mimic a situation of bark sampling in low-density populations. Sodium, and possibly also calcium, requirements are concluded to be partial determinants of the destructive bark consumption by voles at the peaks of their multiannual population cycles.     

Morphology and mechanical properties of unidirectional sisal– epoxy composites

Plant fibers are of increasing interest for use in composite materials. They are renewable resources and waste management is easier than with glass fibers. In the present study, longitudinal stiffness and strength as well as morphology of unidirectional sisal–epoxy composites manufactured by resin transfer molding (RTM) were studied. Horseshoe‐shaped sisal fiber bundles (technical fibers) were nonuniformly distributed in the matrix. In contrast to many wood composites, lumen was not filled by polymer matrix. Technical sisal fibers showed higher effective modulus when included in the composite material than in the technical fiber test (40 GPa as compared with 24 GPa). In contrast, the effective technical fiber strength in the composites was estimated to be around 400 MPa in comparison with a measured technical fiber tensile strength of 550 MPa. Reasons for these phenomena are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 2358–2365, 2002     

Static consistency checking of web applications with WebDSL

Modern web application development frameworks provide web application developers with high-level abstractions to improve their productivity. However, their support for static verification of applications is limited. Inconsistencies in an application are often not detected statically, but appear as errors at run-time. The reports about these errors are often obscure and hard to trace back to the source of the inconsistency. A major part of this inadequate consistency checking can be traced back to the lack of linguistic integration of these frameworks. Parts of an application are defined with separate domain-specific languages, which are not checked for consistency with the rest of the application. Examples include regular expressions, query languages and XML-based languages for definition of user interfaces. We give an overview and analysis of typical problems arising in development with frameworks for web application development, with Ruby on Rails, Lift and Seam as representatives.To remedy these problems, in this paper, we argue that domain-specific languages should be designed from the ground up with static verification and cross-aspect consistency checking in mind, providing linguistic integration of domain-specific sub-languages. We show how this approach is applied in the design of WebDSL, a domain-specific language for web applications, by examining how its compiler detects inconsistencies not caught by web frameworks, providing accurate and clear error messages. Furthermore, we show how this consistency analysis can be expressed with a declarative rule-based approach using the Stratego transformation language.     

Allocation mechanisms in public provision of transport and communication infrastructure

This study explores the allocation mechanisms in the public provision of interregional transport and communication infrastructure in Sweden. The logistics of the flow of infrastructure investments from the government budget is examined. The purpose is to consider how the demand for infrastructure investment is estimated by public agencies, how judgments are made on governmental expenditure policy, and what determines the spatial distribution of infrastructure investment. The analysis is carried out along four main lines; demand for infrastructure services, political intentions and goals, the modal composition of investments for transport and communication, and the spatial distribution of infrastructure. The discussion considers functional, spatial, and temporal consistency aspects in the public provision of infrastructure.     

Coping with anger-provoking situations, psychosocial working conditions, and ECG-detected signs of coronary heart disease.

This study explored the association among coping, psychosocial work factors, and signs of coronary heart disease (CHD) among prison staff (777 men, 345 women). Electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings at rest, health examinations, and a questionnaire were used. A high level of covert coping in men and a low level of open coping in women showed the strongest association with signs of CHD. Among several traditional biological and lifestyle risk factors, only age and systolic blood pressure in men and none in the case of women were significantly associated with CHD signs in the final multivariate regression analyses. A coping style of repressed emotions and actions in anger-provoking situations, independent of traditional risk factors, seems to be associated with a prevalence of ECG signs in male and female prison staff. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-Frequency Noise Phenomena in Switched MOSFETs

In small-area MOSFETs widely used in analog and RF circuit design, low-frequency (LF) noise behavior is increasingly dominated by single-electron effects. In this paper, the authors review the limitations of current compact noise models which do not model such single-electron effects. The authors present measurement results that illustrate typical LF noise behavior in small-area MOSFETs, and a model based on Shockley-Read-Hall statistics to explain the behavior. Finally, the authors treat practical examples that illustrate the relevance of these effects to analog circuit design. To the analog circuit designer, awareness of these single-electron noise phenomena is crucial if optimal circuits are to be designed, especially since the effects can aid in low-noise circuit design if used properly, while they may be detrimental to performance if inadvertently applied     

Abstraction and subsumption in modular verification of C programs

Formal Methods in System Design - The type-theoretic notions of existential abstraction, subtyping, subsumption, and intersection have useful analogues in separation-logic proofs of imperative...