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F--16 Fighting Falcon: American All-Purpose Com bat Machine. By Bertie Simmonds. Horncastle UK: Tem pest Books, 2022. Tables. Diagrams. Illustrations. Photographs. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 200. $36.99. ISBN: 978-1-911658-56-6 The F--16 [...]

Pacific Profiles Volume 11 Allied Fighters: USAAF P-40 Warhawk Series South and Southwest Pacific 1942-1945. By Michael John Claringbould. Kent Town, Australia: Avonmore Books, 2023. Maps. Tables. Diagrams. Illustrations. Photographs. [...]

Suppliers and large buyers of electricity often sign load-following forward contracts (LFFCs). A LFFC obligates an electricity supplier to deliver at a pre-specified unit price a fraction of the buyer's ultimate demand for electricity. We show that relative to more standard ('swap') forward contracts, LFFCs can reduce the variation in the wholesale price of electricity. However, LFFCs also can increase the expected wholesale price and thereby reduce expected consumer surplus and total surplus. Keywords: Load-following forward contracts, Swap contracts, Electricity sector, 1. INTRODUCTION Electricity is commonly purchased and sold in wholesale (spot) markets. The price of electricity can vary widely in such markets, depending on prevailing demand and supply conditions. Forward [...]

Readers must become interrogators of the varied racial implications of any early modern text and must also inquire into how audiences (then and now) might have construed and recognized the [...]

This essay offers a program of action for reflecting on how sound is racialized, how race is simultaneously visual and aural, and how 'race' as an ideology and a material [...]

Emerging alongside a string of local and international films dramatising the effects of dementia on those with the condition as well as their loved ones, JJ Winlove's debut feature deftly [...]

Eastern Towhees (Pipilo erythropthalmus) are partial migrants that inhabit dense thickets of shrubs in both breeding and nonbreeding seasons and have declined range-wide by approximately 50% since the mid-1960s. Few studies have addressed the nonbreeding season natural history of Eastern Towhees. The objectives of our study were to (1) describe and quantify nonbreeding habitat use and social interactions, and (2) relate these metrics to winter weather conditions. We captured and radio-tagged 9 Eastern Towhees and tracked them using homing and triangulation for a total of 528 locations from late November 2015 to March 2016, plus 3 Eastern Towhees tracked in 2014-2015. The mean ([+ or -] SE) home range size (80% kernel isopleth) was 7.31 [+ or -] 0.22 ha, and the mean ([+ or -] SE) core area (30% kernel isopleth) was 1.52 [+ or -] 0.94 ha. The mean overlap of home ranges between neighbors was 36%, and 24% between neighboring core areas. The study area was classified into 4 habitats: mowed, blackberry scrub, woody shrub, and wooded. Habitat use did not directly correspond with availability: Eastern Towhees occupied woody shrub habitat most (48% of locations vs. 35% of available habitat), suggesting that of our 4 habitat types, woody shrub was preferred. For weather, wind speed did not significantly affect habitat use, foraging method, vocalizations, or flock size. Although temperature did not significantly affect any of the behaviors, there were trends for less ground foraging and more use of wooded habitat in freezing temperatures. Snow cover influenced habitat use (odds ratio = 0.60). vocalizations (odds ratio = 1.77), and flock size (odds ratio = 1.97), but not foraging. These results contribute to understanding the nonbreeding natural history of Eastern Towhees and demonstrate that inclement weather in the nonbreeding season may influence habitat use and behaviors in ways that could affect nonbreeding season survival. Key words: habitat, home range, Kentucky, kernel density estimation, radio telemetry, scrub-shrub, shrubland. Los rascadores Pipilo erythropthalmus son migratorias parciales que habitan arbustales densos durante las temporadas reproductiva y no-reproductiva, y que han declinado aproximadamente 50% desde mediados de la década de 1960. Pocos estudios se han dedicado a la historia natural de la temporada no-reproductiva de estos rascones. Los objetivos de nuestro estudio fueron (1) describir y cuantificar el uso de hábitat no-reproductivo e interacciones sociales y (2) relacionar estas métricas a las condiciones del estado del tiempo en el invierno. Capturamos y colocamos radiotransmisores a 9 rascadores y los seguimos usando triangulaciones respecto a puntos fijos para un total de 528 posiciones de finales de noviembre de 2015 a marzo de 2016. además de 3 rascadores que seguimos en 2014-2015. La media ([+ ó -] EE) del ámbito hogareño (isopleta kernel del 80%) fue 7.31 [+ ó -] 0.22 ha y la media ([+ ó -] EE) del área núcleo (isopleta kernel del 30%) fue 1.52 [+ ó -] 0.94 ha. La media del traslape de ámbitos hogareños entre vecinos fue de 36%, y 24% entre áreas núcleo adyacentes. El área de estudio se clasificó en 4 hábitats: podado, arbustal de zarzamoras, arbustal leñoso y arbolado. El uso de hábitat no correspondió directamente con la disponibilidad: los rascadores ocuparon en su mayoría hábitats de arbustal leñoso (48% de las posiciones vs. 35% del habitat disponible), lo que sugiere que de los 4 tipos de hábitat, el arbustal leñoso fue el preferido. Del estado del tiempo, la velocidad del viento no afectó significativamente el uso de hábitat, método de forrajeo, vocalizaciones o tamaño de parvada. Aunque la temperatura no afectó significativamente ninguno de los comportamientos, encontramos tendencias para un menor forrajeo en el suelo y un mayor uso de hábitat arbolado en temperaturas de congelación. La cobertura de nieve influenció el uso de hábitat (oportunidad relativa = 0.60), vocalizaciones (oportunidad relativa = 1.77) y tamaño de parvada (oportunidad relativa = 1.97). mas no para el forrajeo. Estos resultados contribuyen al entendimiento de la historia natural no-reproductiva de los rascadores y demuestra que el estado del tiempo inclemente en la temporada noreproductiva podría influenciar el uso de hábitat y comportamientos en formas que podrían afectar la sobrevivencia en la temporada noreproductiva. Palabras clave: ámbito hogareño, arbustal. arbuslal-matorral, estimación de densidad kernel, hábitat, Kentucky, radiotelemetría., Shrub-dependent bird species are collectively in decline due to habitat loss, as shrubland has been converted to agriculture or matured to forest (Askins 1993). Scrub-dependent birds are now more reliant [...]

In a screen industry that largely shuns big-budget genre films, Luke Sparke's science fiction sequel is a rarity: an Australian production that attempts to follow the path of fhe Hollywood [...]

Naval Air: Celebrating a Century of Naval Flying. By Philip Kaplan. South Yorkshire UK: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2022 (2013 reprint). Photographs. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 208. $29.95. ISBN 9-781-39907-505-3 I [...]

French Naval Aviation. By Henri-Pierre Grolleau. Stamford UK: Key Publishing Ltd, 2022. Photographs. Pp 96. US $24.95. ISBN 978-1-80282-195-6. Grolleau claims in this fact-filled book that 'France has the second [...]

The recent introductions of chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Americas led to widespread epidemics with substantial health and economic effects. Small island developing states in the [...]

We analyze the effects of commonly employed renewable compensation policies on firm behavior in an imperfectly competitive market. We consider a model where firms compete for renewable capacity in an auction prior to choosing their forward positions and competing in wholesale markets. We focus on fixed and premium-priced feed-in tariff (FIT) compensation policies. We demonstrate that compensation policies impact both the types of resources that win the auction and subsequent competition. While firms have stronger incentives to exercise market power under a premium-priced FIT, they also have increased incentives to sign pro-competitive forward contracts. In net firms have stronger incentives to exercise market power under the premium-priced policy. We find conditions under which renewable resources that are more correlated with market demand are procured under a premium-priced design, while the opposite occurs under a fixed-priced policy. If the cost efficiencies associated with the 'more valuable' renewable resources are sufficiently large, then welfare is higher under the premium-priced policy despite the stronger market power incentives in the wholesale market. Keywords: Electricity, Renewables, Market Power, Regulation, Procurement, 1. INTRODUCTION Reducing greenhouse gas emissions has become an increasingly important economic issue worldwide. Governments often employ policies to motivate the deployment of renewable generation to reduce the reliance on [...]

Accurate identification of tumor-derived somatic variants in plasma circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) requires understanding of the various biological compartments contributing to the cfDNA pool. We sought to define the technical feasibility of a high-intensity sequencing assay of cfDNA and matched white blood cell DNA covering a large genomic region (508 genes; 2 megabases; >60,000× raw depth) in a prospective study of 124 patients with metastatic cancer, with contemporaneous matched tumor tissue biopsies, and 47 controls without cancer. The assay displayed high sensitivity and specificity, allowing for de novo detection of tumor-derived mutations and inference of tumor mutational burden, microsatellite instability, mutational signatures and sources of somatic mutations identified in cfDNA. The vast majority of cfDNA mutations (81.6% in controls and 53.2% in patients with cancer) had features consistent with clonal hematopoiesis. This cfDNA sequencing approach revealed that clonal hematopoiesis constitutes a pervasive biological phenomenon, emphasizing the importance of matched cfDNA-white blood cell sequencing for accurate variant interpretation. Ultra-sensitive cell-free DNA (cfDNA) sequencing uncovers clonal hematopoiesis as a major source of somatic cfDNA variants in healthy individuals and patients with cancer, and underscores the importance of matched white blood cell DNA sequencing in liquid biopsy procedures., Author(s): Pedram Razavi [sup.1] [sup.2] , Bob T. Li [sup.1] , David N. Brown [sup.3] , Byoungsok Jung [sup.4] , Earl Hubbell [sup.4] , Ronglai Shen [sup.5] , Wassim Abida [...]

Author(s): David Brown [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.11914.3c, 0000 0001 0721 1626, St Mary's College, University of St Andrews, , St Andrews, UK Unsurprisingly, most of the reviews which have [...]

Me 262-Northwest Europe 1944-45. By Robert Forsyth. Oxford UK: Osprey Publishing, 2023. Maps. Diagrams. Illustrations. Photographs. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 80. $23.00. paperback. ISBN: 978-1-472-85051-5 For those unfamiliar with Germany's [...]

Biological organisms achieve robust high-level behaviours by combining and coordinating stochastic low-level components.sup.1-3. By contrast, most current robotic systems comprise either monolithic mechanisms.sup.4,5 or modular units with coordinated motions.sup.6,7. Such robots require explicit control of individual components to perform specific functions, and the failure of one component typically renders the entire robot inoperable. Here we demonstrate a robotic system whose overall behaviour can be successfully controlled by exploiting statistical mechanics phenomena. We achieve this by incorporating many loosely coupled 'particles', which are incapable of independent locomotion and do not possess individual identity or addressable position. In the proposed system, each particle is permitted to perform only uniform volumetric oscillations that are phase-modulated by a global signal. Despite the stochastic motion of the robot and lack of direct control of its individual components, we demonstrate physical robots composed of up to two dozen particles and simulated robots with up to 100,000 particles capable of robust locomotion, object transport and phototaxis (movement towards a light stimulus). Locomotion is maintained even when 20 per cent of the particles malfunction. These findings indicate that stochastic systems may offer an alternative approach to more complex and exacting robots via large-scale robust amorphous robotic systems that exhibit deterministic behaviour. A stochastic robotic system shows deterministic behaviour--such as locomotion, object transport and phototaxis--from the collective motion of many loosely coupled disk-shaped 'particles' that perform only volumetric oscillations., Author(s): Shuguang Li [sup.1] [sup.2] , Richa Batra [sup.2] , David Brown [sup.3] , Hyun-Dong Chang [sup.3] , Nikhil Ranganathan [sup.3] , Chuck Hoberman [sup.4] [sup.5] , Daniela Rus [sup.1] [...]