Colony collapse disorder (CCD) has puzzled beekeepers and entomologists alike since it first emerged in the US in the autumn of 2006. Its hallmark is that colonies are apparently abandoned without significant numbers of dead bees being found. Similar problems were then also found in the UK and other European countries (Curr. Biol. 18, R1073). The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) has now re...

Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection [1]. Sepsis syndrome represents the body’s host response to infection. Classically, sepsis has been defined and classified as systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), sepsis and septic shock based on diagnostic criteria derived from the systemic response to inflammation (Figure 1)....

This work deals with the analysis of chirp signals by means of time-frequency representation. We propose a chirp adapted time-frequency representation (CA) in which the interferences are significantly reduced. This method is applied to the analysis of acoustic echoes of a sphere target. Comparison of the results to other types of time-frequency distribution of the Cohen’s class shows that the i...

s from Papers NASA’s New Breakup Model of EVOLVE 4.0 33rd Scientific Assembly of COSPAR N. Johnson, P. Krisko, J.-C. Liou, P. AnzMeador Analyses of the fragmentation (due to explosions and collisions) of spacecraft and rocket bodies in low Earth orbit (LEO) have been performed this year at NASA/JSC. The overall goals of this study have been to achieve a better understanding of the results of fr...

There was euphoria amongst many delegates to last month's UN climate change conference in Montreal as countries struck a deal at the twelfth hour, but many researchers are concerned that a major study on the degree to which greenhouse gases need to be reduced to stabilise climate is still pressing. " Without an agreement on what level of climate change is 'dangerous' world leaders risk losing s...

Yeast apoptosis debate continues east, as a unicellular organism, would seem to benefit most from self-preservation. But yeast altruism, in the form of apoptosis, is a new-found, if controversial, field of study. Many doubt the validity of experiments supporting programmed cell death in yeast and call for better controls. In this issue, the debate continues with two new articles that suggest th...

We introduce a time-frequency representation of linear signal spaces which we call the Wigner distribution (WO) ofa linear signal space. Similar to the WD of a signal, the WD of a linear signal space describes the space’s energy distribution over the time-frequency plane. The WD of a signal space can be defined both in a deterministic and in a stochastic framework, and it can be expressed in a ...

A magnitude-frequency analysis of rockslide-debris avalanche deposits was performed. Hummocks are conical mounds formed in debris avalanche deposits from the catastrophic sector collapse of a mountain (often volcanic) that represent relatively cohesive fragments of the mountain edifice. Examination of 17 debris avalanche deposits in Japan and the Philippines showed that, in general, the larger ...