Spatio-temporal analysis of trap catches of Tribolium confusum du Val in a semolina-mill, with a comparison of female and male distributions

By using food-bait traps, we evaluated the presence and the spatio-temporal distribution of insect pests in an industrial semolina-mill, with particular attention to Tribolium confusum du Val in which the spatio-temporal dynamics of females and males were also studied separately. A total of 1401 insect specimens was captured in the traps, belonging to 14 taxa, mainly Coleoptera. The most abundant species were T. confusum (with 1002 adults), followed by Typhaea stercorea (L.) (with 158 adults) and T. castaneum (Herbst) (with 110 adults). Of particular interest was the presence in the food-bait traps of T. confusum and T. castaneum adults in a mixed population with equal numbers of males and females. Furthermore, analysis of the spatio-temporal dynamics suggested that the distribution of the two sexes in T. confusum was almost the same during the entire sampling period. The findings of our study can usefully be applied to the management of Tribolium infestations, but further and more detailed studies are needed to better understand the ecology and behaviour of the species in association with searching for food and production of aggregation pheromones.     

Reasoning about spreadsheets with labels and dimensions

Labels in spreadsheets can be exploited for finding formula errors in two principally different ways. First, the spatial relationships between labels and other cells express simple constraints on the cells usage in formulas. Second, labels can be interpreted as units of measurements to provide semantic information about the data being combined in formulas, which results in different kinds of constraints.In this paper we demonstrate how both approaches can be combined into an integrated analysis, which is able to find significantly more errors in spreadsheets than each of the individual approaches. In particular, the integrated system is able to detect errors that cannot be found by either of the individual approaches alone, which shows that the integrated system provides an added value beyond the mere combination of its parts. We also compare the effectiveness of this combined approach with several other conceivable combinations of the involved components and identify a system that seems most effective to find spreadsheet formula errors based on label and unit-of-measurement information.     

Determination of oxide in fluoride salts using an yttria-stabilized-zirconia oxygen pump

An improved method over a previous technique has been developed to determine the ppm oxide concentration of fluoride salts. The oxide is released as oxygen gas by the reaction of the test salt with potassium bromotetrafluoride at 450 °C. The molecular oxygen released is then passed through a zirconia oxygen pump which selectively removes the oxygen. The current response is recorded as a chronoamperogram, from which the ppm oxide content of the salt can be obtained. Oxygen recovery from an yttrium oxide standard was better than 99%. The precision of analysis of FLINAK was better than 13% for samples containing 110-170 ppm oxide. The LOD was 12 μg of oxygen, and the analytical range was 120 ppm to >20% for a 0.1-g sample.     

Dexamethasone concentration in vitreous and serum after oral administration

OBJECTIVE: To assess the outcomes of changes in mental health policy introduced in Italy in 1978. METHODS: Data on psychiatric services, before and after the policy change, are presented. Effects of change are evaluated through indicators related to four issues: transfer of care, criminalisation of the mentally ill, suicides, and homelessness. RESULTS: Admissions of new patients to mental hospitals have been stopped and the size of the mental hospital population is now very low (26 per 100,000 population). Psychiatric care has been shifted to community services including general hospital psychiatric units. There has been an overall reduction of psychiatric hospitalisation. However, the provision of residential facilities is inadequate and community services are unevenly distributed across the country. Few negative effects of changing patterns of care have been reported, although the low quality of data limits the validity of such a conclusion. Outcome of care in areas where the full range of community services is available has been rated as satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: Although care of the mentally ill has been shifted to community services, we lack hard data on the social and clinical outcome of community care at the nation-wide level. Long-term monitoring and evaluation of community services is a high priority in Italy.