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The paper presents an interlocking system designed to fix and hold together the panels of a modular house. The house modules are flat square panels, almost identical, which need to be hold using a locking system. The locking system is a simple, but solid construction, capable to resist to repeated assembling and disassembling operations. It consists of some linkage mechanisms and a ratchet; it is handpowered in order to ensure a fast mounting of the panels. In this paper are presented all the steps necessary to be followed and the restraints of the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boron (B) has an important role in the proper growth and development of plants. In nature, B is found mostly in the form of boric acid (BA) or borate and can interact with organic molecules from the plants' composition (carbohydrates, polyols, polyphenols, glycoproteins). Depending on their concentration in plant tissue, many organic compounds can form complexes with BA. Natural B-containing compounds have been identified by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLCh after derivatization with azomethine H, in the following medicinal plant species: Artemisia annua, Coffea arabica, Equisetum arvense, Linum usitatissimum, Persea americana, Stevia rebaudiana, Taraxacum officinale, and Urtica dioica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retention of a new sequential motor skill relies on repeated practice and subsequent consolidation in the absence of active skill practice. While the early phase of skill acquisition remains relatively unaffected in older adults, posttraining consolidation appears to be selectively impaired by advancing age. Motor learning is associated with posttraining changes of oscillatory alpha and beta neuronal activities in the motor cortex. However, whether or not these oscillatory dynamics relate to posttraining consolidation and how they relate to the age-specific impairment of motor consolidation in older adults remains elusive. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique capable of modulating such neuronal oscillations. Here, we examined whether tACS targeting M1 immediately following explicit motor sequence training is capable of modulating motor skill consolidation in older adults. In two sets of double-blind, sham-controlled experiments, tACS targeting left M1 was applied at either 10 Hz (alpha-tACS) or 20 Hz (beta-tACS) immediately after termination of a motor sequence training with the right (dominant) hand. Task performance was retested after an interval of 6 hours to assess consolidation of the training-acquired skill. EEG was recorded over left M1 to be able to detect local after-effects on oscillatory activity induced by tACS. Relative to the sham intervention, consolidation was selectively disrupted by posttraining alpha-tACS of M1, while posttraining beta-tACS of M1 had no effect on delayed retest performance compared to the sham intervention. No significant postinterventional changes of oscillatory activity in M1 were detected following alpha-tACS or beta-tACS. Our findings point to a frequency-specific interaction of tACS with posttraining motor memory processing and may suggest an inhibitory role of immediate posttraining alpha oscillations in M1 with respect to motor consolidation in healthy older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space systems are critical enablers of a wide range of applications utilized by a global range of consumers. The provision of critical space services is vulnerable to, among other things, deliberate interruptions through anti-satellite weaponry and means. The intrinsic characteristics of space systems make them both very efficient and very hard to replace, such as limited weight, the high cost of replacement and the low number of assets. Deliberate human threats to space critical infrastructures are many, varied and highly efficient, stemming also from legitimate technologies for protection that can be modified to become efficient anti-satellite weapons. In addition to the technical details, a few issues stand out. The first is that deliberately targeting satellites lends itself to a form of MAD logic (mutually assured destruction), which limits the willingness of states to do it for fear of reprisal or being themselves affected, due to interdependencies. The second is that certain forms of anti-satellite weaponry have become accessible to non-state actors, who do not respond to traditional deterrence and for whom jamming, cyber-attacks and other forms of weaponry are cost effective and efficient means of incurring huge damage with no immediate loss of life (which is an important political consideration). The third is that vulnerability also extends to military users, whose systems should, theoretically, be better shielded, more resilient and afforded more redundancy. In practice, those systems are not enough and, in the case of the US, more than 90% of military communications are routed through civilian systems. This has given rise to interesting new approaches and insights towards US vulnerability, highlighted by a number of high profile military exercises. Now, the US military speaks of "fog of electrons", space as an Achilles' heel, critical dependence of drones and smart weaponry on space infrastructures, the equalizing effect of space system targeting on American military superiority etc. These trends are also important for other countries to note. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A situation often met in the Romanian Armed Forces in recent years is the need for interconnecting two networks (domains) with different levels of classification. Considering that the Romanian armed troops are involved in numerous missions with NATO partners, solutions, already implemented across the organization, are considered to be applied in domestic systems, also. This paper presents the solutions adopted by NATO in order to solve the problem of cross-domains interconnections. We present the maturity level reached by these solutions and the possibility of implementing these solutions in the Romanian Armed Forces, with or without specific adaptation to our own rules and regulations. The goal is to use a NATO already proved solution to our national classified networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Without having to permanently dismount the institution of jury courts in Romania, giving the fact that this system would not perform as well as the judge-made system, we will try, along with precise and coherent arguments, with this small paper, to retrace the evolution and reconsider the history and tradition of jury-made law, and set straight the debates in what concern the opportunity of implementing this system in Romania. Without having to permanently dismount the institution of jury courts in Romania, giving the fact that this system would not perform as well as the judge-made system, we will try, along with precise and coherent arguments, with this small paper, to retrace the evolution and reconsider the history and tradition of jury-made law, and set straight the debates in what concern the opportunity of implementing this system in Romania. Without having to permanently dismount the institution of jury courts in Romania, giving the fact that this system would not perform as well as the judge-made system, we will try, along with precise and coherent arguments, with this small paper, to retrace the evolution and reconsider the history and tradition of jury-made law, and set straight the debates in what concern the opportunity of implementing this system in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]