Silicon carbide (SiC) remains the most promising semiconductor for developing harsh environment microsystems, particularly in applications where temperatures exceed 300 °C. While significant progress has been made in the development of more conventional junction field effect transistors (JFET), many challenges remain, particularly in the realization of robust digital logic circuits. The authors...

Photosynthesis is the limiting factor in crop growth models, but metabolism may also limit growth. We hypothesize that, over a wide range of temperature, growth is the minimum of the supply of carbohydrate from photosynthesis, and the demand of carbohydrate to synthesize new tissue. Biosynthetic demand limits growth at cool temperatures and increases exponentially with temperature. Photosynthes...

Marathon runners spend considerable time in outdoor training for and participating in marathons. Outdoor runners may experience high solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure. South Africa, where running is popular, experiences high ambient solar UVR levels that may be associated with adverse health effects. This feasibility study explores the use of personal dosimeters to determine solar UVR ...

BACKGROUND Home Energy Efficiency guidelines recommend domestic indoor temperatures of 21 degrees C for at least 9 h per day in living areas. Is health status of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) associated with maintaining this level of warmth in their homes? METHODS In a cross-sectional observational study of patients, living in their own homes, living room (LR) and...

Environmental and occupational risk factors contribute to nearly 40% of the national burden of disease in India, with air pollution in the indoor and outdoor environment ranking amongst leading risk factors. It is now recognized that the health burden from air pollution exposures that primarily occur in the rural indoors, from pollutants released during the incomplete combustion of solid fuels ...

Surface temperature reconstructions of the past 1500 years suggest that recent warming is unprecedented in that time. Here we provide a broader perspective by reconstructing regional and global temperature anomalies for the past 11,300 years from 73 globally distributed records. Early Holocene (10,000 to 5000 years ago) warmth is followed by ~0.7°C cooling through the middle to late Holocene (<...

This paper presents an extension to SQL where end-users can specify their information quality constraints in the queries. Specifically, it shows how an SQL quality estimator module evaluates the quality profiles (i.e. accuracy and completeness) of queries based on the defined quality constraints. The quality estimations are numeric which would support the end-users in determining the value and ...

The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), Adelges tsugae Annand, primarily infests trees along the eastern seaboard in USDA plant hardiness zones where the minimum low temperature does not exceed –28.8°C. Laboratory studies were done to determine the low lethal temperature of HWA collected in January, February, and March from locations within different USDA plant hardiness zones. The Mt. Tom, Massachus...