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Introduction: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate techniques on how to improve hip flexibility and mobility, especially for track and field athletes. It also seeks to explain the underlying importance of hip flexibility and mobility. When athlete’s hips are stiff and inflexible, muscle imbalance may occur and increase the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance in the hip often causes knee and hip pain, due to the hip flexors and quadriceps overworking in order to compensate for weaker muscles. The hip mobility and flexibility exercises illustrated here are designed to significantly improve the range of motion (ROM) of the hips. Enhanced ROM can improve motor performance, skill execution, and even prevent injury. Excellent hip extension improves the ability to assist the hip in developing power. Methods: 9 Hip Mobility and 6 Hip Flexibility exercises are described in this paper. The exercises are to be performed 3× per week with at least 24 hours break in-between to achieve optimum results. Conclusion: This paper sought to outline the importance of hip mobility and flexibility, in particular for non-contact-sport athletes (such as those in track and field), and their effects on athletic performance and injury prevention. After proximately 6 weeks, the ROM of the hip will be expected to improve significantly.

Species and habitats are the subjects of legislation that mandates reporting of information on ecosystem conditions. Improvements in sensors, sampling platforms, information systems, and collaborations among experts and information users now enables more effective and up-to-date information to meet regional and national needs. Specifically, advances in environmental DNA (eDNA)-based assessments of biodiversity, community science data, various underwater imaging devices, and environmental, behavioral, and physiology observations from animal telemetry provide new opportunities to address multiple requirements for reporting status and trends, including insights into life in the deep ocean. Passive and active acoustic sensors help monitor marine life, boat traffic, and noise pollution. Satellites provide repeated, frequent, and long-term records of many relevant variables from global to local scales and, when combined with numerical computer simulations, allow planning for future scenarios. Metadata standards facilitate the transfer of data from machine to machine, thus streamlining assessments and forecasting and providing knowledge directly to the public. The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) facilitates this exchange of information on life in the sea. The collaborative efforts of the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS) of the US Integrated Ocean Observing System and its partners provide an example of a regional MBON process for information delivery. This includes linking policy and management needs, prioritizing observing data from various platforms and methods, streamlining data handling practices, and delivery of information for management such as for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem, with iterative process adaptation.

From November 2015 to July 2017, two successive episodes of H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HP AIVs) infections occurred on poultry farms in France, mostly in domestic ducks raised for foie gras production in southwestern France. During the two epizootics, epidemiological investigations were carried out on infected farms and control and biosafety measures were implemented in association with surveillance in order to stop the spread of the viruses. Effluents are known to be an important factor in environmental dissemination of viruses, and suitable effluent management is needed to help prevent the spread of epizootics to other farms or pathogen persistence at the farm level. The present study was therefore designed to assess how long infectious A/H5 HP AIVs can persist in naturally or experimentally contaminated fecal slurry samples from ducks, with or without sanitization by lime treatment., Infections by A/H5 and A/H7 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) can cause acute disease and are therefore notifiable in poultry and wild birds. During winter 2015-2016, several cases of infection caused by highly pathogenic (HP) AIVs belonging to the A/H5N1, A/H5N2, and A/H5N9 subtypes were detected in southwestern France. Throughout winter 2016-2017, several cases of infections caused mainly by A/H5N8 HP AIV (A/goose/GD/1/1996, clade 2.3.4.4) were detected across Europe. On both occasions, the viruses were widely detected on palmiped farms in France. This study was designed to evaluate the persistence of A/H5 HP AIV in slurry from various duck productions. This was achieved (i) in the laboratory setting by artificially spiking four AIV-free slurry samples with known amounts of A/H5N9 HP AIV and monitoring virus infectivity, with or without lime treatment to achieve pH 10 or pH 12, and (ii) by sampling slurry tanks on five naturally A/H5N8 HP-contaminated farms. Experimental results in artificially spiked slurry suggested virus survival for 4 weeks in slurry from Muscovy or Pekin duck breeders and for 2 weeks in slurry from ducks for foie gras production during the assisted-feeding period, without lime treatment. Persistence of infectious A/H5N9 HP AIV in all slurry samples after lime treatment at pH 10 or pH 12 was less than 1 week. The A/H5N8 HP AIV persisted in naturally contaminated untreated slurry for 7 weeks. The results obtained provide experimental support for the 60-day storage period without treatment or the 7-day interval after lime treatment defined in French regulations for slurry sanitization. IMPORTANCE From November 2015 to July 2017, two successive episodes of H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HP AIVs) infections occurred on poultry farms in France, mostly in domestic ducks raised for foie gras production in southwestern France. During the two epizootics, epidemiological investigations were carried out on infected farms and control and biosafety measures were implemented in association with surveillance in order to stop the spread of the viruses. Effluents are known to be an important factor in environmental dissemination of viruses, and suitable effluent management is needed to help prevent the spread of epizootics to other farms or pathogen persistence at the farm level. The present study was therefore designed to assess how long infectious A/H5 HP AIVs can persist in naturally or experimentally contaminated fecal slurry samples from ducks, with or without sanitization by lime treatment.

International audience; In southwestern France, during the winter of 2016-2017, the rapid spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8 outbreaks despite the implementation of routine control measures, raised the question about the potential role of airborne transmission in viral spread. As a first step to investigate the plausibility of that transmission, air samples were collected inside, outside and downwind from infected duck and chicken facilities. H5 avian influenza virus RNA was detected in all samples collected inside poultry houses, at external exhaust fans and at 5 m distance from poultry houses. For three of the five flocks studied, in the sample collected at 50-110 m distance, viral genomic RNA was detected. The measured viral air concentrations ranged between 4.3 and 6.4 log10 RNA copies per m 3 , and their geometric mean decreased from external exhaust fans to the downwind measurement point. These findings are in accordance with the possibility of airborne transmission and question the procedures for outbreak depopulation.

Spectrum-based Fault Localization (SBFL) has been widely studied as a debugging technique to reduce time and effort in locating faulty code in software. In SBFL, execution profiles (spectra) of pass and fail test cases are analyzed with SBFL metric to rank software code according to their likeliness to be faulty. However, there are significantly more pass test cases than fail test cases in typical test suites for faulty programs. The domination of pass test cases creates imbalance test suites that have a negative impact on the performance of SBFL. This is attributed to the fact that the execution profiles of fail test cases provide the essential information on the location of faulty code. In this paper, we propose to clone the spectra of fail test cases beyond balanced test suite to improve the performance of SBFL. Our empirical study shows that the proposed cloning method significantly improves the performance of commonly used SBFL metrics. Furthermore, we attempt to identify the amount of cloning required to achieve the optimal performance for the proposed cloning method.

Spectrum-based Fault Localization (SBFL) is a well-known debugging technique that locates fault in program code by utilizing execution profiles (spectra) of pass and fail test cases. Hence, the performance of SBFL depends on the test cases executed and the test results. In the most extreme scenarios, the debugging process may have to be conducted with only one fail test case, one pass test case or no pass test case. These scenarios might occur due to extremely high or extremely low failure rates or when software testers decide to stop running more test cases due to time and resource constraints. However, limited test case execution profiles may reduce the accuracy of SBFL metrics. In view of this, we evaluate the performance of SBFL metrics in these extreme scenarios to identify the best performing SBFL metric for each of these scenarios. From the experiment results, we have further discovered the convergence in performance for SBFL metrics under these extreme scenarios.

A qPCR assay was developed for rapid and sensitive detection of Flavobacterium psychrophilum, the aetiological agent of bacterial cold-water disease and rainbow trout fry syndrome in salmonid fish worldwide. A set of F. psychrophilum-specific primers based on 16S rRNA gene sequences was designed and validated for specific detection and quantification of DNA isolated from representative strains of F. psychrophilum. The qPCR assay exhibited a high specificity for the 16S rRNA gene of F. psychrophilum (from 4 × 10(8) down to 11 copies per reaction) but not for other Flavobacterium species or other bacteria including fish pathogens. This qPCR-based method proved to be useful in the quantification of the F. psychrophilum titre present within organs dissected out from diseased fish. As the F. psychrophilum genome contains six copies of the 16S rRNA gene, we could infer a limit of detection corresponding to two bacteria per reaction, corresponding to 800 bacteria per fish tissue sample, and therefore 20 F. psychrophilum cells mg(-1) of tissue (for sample weighing 40 mg). The qPCR assay reported here could be a useful tool for veterinary diagnostic laboratories to monitor the F. psychrophilum infection level in fish farms.

Survey nonresponse can pose a major threat to the generalizability of organizational survey findings. This paper examines whether organizational members' evaluations of their organizational experiences affect survey response to organizationally sponsored surveys. In particular, we hypothesized that perceived organizational support, social exchange, procedural justice and an individual's inclination to feel exploited in social relationships predicted organizational members' compliance with organizations' requests for survey completion. A longitudinal field experiment conducted in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research at a large university (sample: n = 622 university students) supported the hypotheses. Organizational members who consciously decided to not participate in organizational surveys perceived their organization as less procedurally just and less supportive. They also reported negative perceptions of their social exchange relationship with their organization, and were more inclined to feel exploited in relationships. Hence, an exchange-oriented theoretical framework grounded in organizational citizenship behavior theory seems appropriate for the study of survey nonresponse. Implications for survey practice include that survey-based findings are unlikely to generalize to specific groups of nonrespondents, and that techniques commonly used to increase response rates may not be effective in reaching these groups of nonrespondents. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Spectrum-based Fault Localization (SBFL) is an emerging debugging technique that assists software developers to locate faulty code in software. By utilizing code execution information (spectra), SBFL metrics rank lines of codes in software according to their likeliness to be faulty. However, recent studies showed that contradicting, duplicated or noisy spectra may deteriorate the ranking accuracy of SBFL metrics. In this paper, we propose and develop a novel SBFL tool with test case preprocessor to filter out test cases with contradicting, duplicated or other noisy spectra. Case studies conducted on real life faulty programs show that the proposed SBFL tool with test case preprocessor has successfully improved the performance of SBFL metrics in majority of the cases studied.

A significant barrier to the commercialization of coal-to-hydrogen technologies is high capital cost. The purity requirements for H{sub 2} fuels are generally met by using a series of unit clean-up operations for residual CO removal, sulfur removal, CO{sub 2} removal and final gas polishing to achieve pure H{sub 2}. A substantial reduction in cost can be attained by reducing the number of process operations for H{sub 2} cleanup, and process efficiency can be increased by conducting syngas cleanup at higher temperatures. The objective of this program was to develop the scientific basis for a single high-temperature syngas-cleanup module to produce a pure stream of H{sub 2} from a coal-based system. The approach was to evaluate the feasibility of a 'one box' process that combines a shift reactor with a high-temperature CO{sub 2}-selective membrane to convert CO to CO{sub 2}, remove sulfur compounds, and remove CO{sub 2} in a simple, compact, fully integrated system. A system-level design was produced for a shift reactor that incorporates a high-temperature membrane. The membrane performance targets were determined. System level benefits were evaluated for a coal-to-hydrogen system that would incorporate membranes with properties that would meet the performance targets. The scientific basis for high temperaturemore » CO{sub 2}-selective membranes was evaluated by developing and validating a model for high temperature surface flow membranes. Synthesis approaches were pursued for producing membranes that integrated control of pore size with materials adsorption properties. Room temperature reverse-selectivity for CO{sub 2} was observed and performance at higher temperatures was evaluated. Implications for future membrane development are discussed.« less

Tricycles are considered one of the most popular modes of transportation in the Philippines, due to their accessibility and capability to drop off passengers at almost any point. However, passengers that ride in the tricycle sidecar are subject to awkward postures and motions that cause discomfort, according to different surveys. The aim of this research was to use different methods of ergonomic assessment to evaluate the factors that contribute to discomfort of passengers during 3 phases: while entering, riding, and exiting a tricycle. Multivariate analysis and logistic regression were used to determine the correlation between anthropometric measurements and the perception of discomfort, while RULA and REBA were used to provide postural analysis. 95 samples of anthropometric data were taken, along with surveys regarding the presence of discomfort during the 3 study phases. The results show that the two statistically significant factors in predicting discomfort were sitting height and popliteal height. The regression model also predicts a high probability of discomfort for passengers with average and above average anthropometric measurements, during all 3 study phases. However, passengers during ingress and egress motion had higher of experiencing discomfort than those riding inside the sidecar. The postural analysis further strengthens this result, as the ingress and egress motion scored 11 for REBA, concluding that the motions were high-risk and needed change immediately.